We learned to
play a card game from our eldern neighbors.
It was called “Touring.” I don’t
remember the particulars of the game, except that lurking somewhere in the deck
were cards like “Flat Tire” or “Out of Gas” which halted your progress.
Last weekend, we
drew one of those penalty cards, unbeknown to us, until Monday, when we returned
to Kansas with multiple purposes in mind.
The first purpose was to leave our Chrysler Concorde with the body
man. He scheduled us to repair damage
from a collision with a coyote.
(Note: A diatribe against coyotes
and a suggestion we have open season on them will not follow. After all, coyotes do take out a deer now and
then.)
Meanwhile,
getting back to the ranch, we drove into the yard. We saw the usual signs of high winds, a trash
barrel gone missing, something left outside, like a six-foot length of one inch
galvanized iron pipe rolled across the cement driveway in front of the garage.
Then we saw it:
A tree branch lolling around in the asparagus patch. A few steps further revealed more tree limbs.
The tree used to
have symmetry, the same amount of branches on the right as it had on the left.
So,
instead of advancing in the card game of our life, we drew the “Clean up the
Wind Damage” card.
All better, except
for the poor old tree.
The local paper documented the damage from the Saturday night storm: neighbors helping neighbors cut up and remove downed tree branches; unprecedented opening of the landfill on a Sunday afternoon; power outage (the entire town) for 24 hours, Saturday to Sunday night from several downed poles; many backyard barbecues; and anemometer readings into the upper 80's.
Well, the lawn
needs mowing, too. Trouble is, I sold
the old Marty J mower last April, thinking the house would be in the possession
of new owners come June.
Silly me. Thank goodness for good friends. (He lent me the chainsaw, too.)
So, we have done
our time in the penalty box. Now back to
shipping, packing, and storing. The
storage locker is full. The farm garage must
take up the slack.
Now to draw
another card from the deck of life.
Surely there can’t be two penalty cards in a row?
I have no personal bias against coyotes. One crosses my path occasionally early in the morning about a 1/4 mile from our place. Think he's going for breakfast of bunny over by the city's garages, which are infested with bunnies running this way and that as bunnies are wont to do.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Touring game, it was revived back in the 80's (I think) with the French name "Mille Bournes." You were given seven cards, most of which had mileage numbers (25, 50, 75, 100, 200). Scattered amongst the mileage cards were the Flat Tire, Out of Gas, Collision, Speed Limit with their corresponding "remedy" cards, as well as quite a few "Go" cards. If you were stopped (or hadn't yet started) you had to draw a "Go" card and play it before you could play any of your mileage cards. Also, there were some "super" cards such as "Careful Driver" (which made you "Collison" proof), "No Speed Limit," and a couple of others, which rendered the other guys' trouble cards null. At each turn you drew a card and either played something bad on another player or you could play a mileage card. First one to get 1000 miles total was the winner. We spent many a winter's evening playing Mille Bournes with the kids. Now it's the grandkids turn. Some of them cry if you put a bad card on them, and at least one gets mad and quits if he goes two or three turns without getting a "remedy" card for his particular ill. Of course they LOVE giving each other (and Papa) the nasty cards!
Forgot to say that the coyote mentioned in my previous post makes me laugh because he looks exactly like the caricature of The Big Bad Wolf in one of our childhood story books - sly, squinted eyes; head turned toward me - looking as though he were smiling; tongue lolling out the side of his mouth as he lopes leisurely across the street into the open space where the bunnies play.
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