One of Those Days
February 26, 2009
Have you ever had one of those days that makes you wish you’d stayed in bed? Well, this is one of them for me. In the last 24 hours:
- My cat came in heat and is now climbing the curtains, biting my ankles and calling for a mate every 10 seconds.
- My five year old discovered that girls have boobs and thinks it’s his mission in life to inform everyone, including complete strangers in the grocery store.
- I dropped my hairdryer, and it landed in the toilet.
- The basement flooded.
- The desktop computer froze and crashed while I was installing a new back-up drive, taking with it the last four databases I spent all night creating.
- We had a kitchen fire. (A small one, and no one was hurt.)
- Hubby cut his finger partly off and refuses to go the the hospital for stitches. “Can’t you just clean it and tape it back together? You’re a nurse!” he says.
- My laptop (the one with the backup copies of those databases) now says “Operating System Not Found.”
- The man who never gets sick came home from work with the flu, and thinks he’s dying.
- I tripped on the steps, broke a toe, and bled on my white coat.
But, you know what? It could be worse.
My father in law stopped today, and I told him one of the neighbor’s cattle looks like it has mange. Mange in cattle is a lot like mange in dogs. It’s highly contagious and can be deadly. (This poor cow looked like she was on death’s doorstep.) We were talking about a plan to keep our cattle away from that side of the pasture and he asked if I remembered a little calf of the neighbor’s we found this time last year.
This little calf belonged to the nearest neighbor. His mama had jumped the fence and given birth in our field. The calf was adorable. He was running and jumping and liked to chase his tail with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. He was all black, with a perfect little Angus face. I was instantly in love.
We called the neighbor and told him about the little guy. He asked if we could keep him overnight. “Sure thing,” I said, without thinking about it. You see, it was about 20 degrees outside, and raining ice. The little guy had to get in where it was warm to survive. So, I donned my boots, bundled up, and headed out with my father in law to gather up the little newborn.
Well, the calf had other plans. He wanted to stay with his mama. He bawled, and we ran around on the icy hills, trying to coax him into the truck. Several bruises and a couple of hours later, my father in law snagged a hoof. He picked up the little bawling moo-er and headed for the truck. But it was too cold to put him in the back, so he shoved the wet calf in the front seat with him. It would be a short half mile ride to the barn, where he would be warm and safe. I followed behind them in the car.
We pulled out onto the main road and not 10 seconds later, my father in law hit the breaks and swerved off the road. I pulled to a stop, and they eased back out before I got out of the car. A few more feet, and the truck swerved again. Concerned, I turned on my four-ways and kept an eye open for oncoming traffic. They kept crawling along, and eventually we reached the barn. My father in law jumped out of the truck and slammed the door shut. He was dripping wet from the chest down.
Evidently, the little guy had to pee while in the truck. You see, cows don’t really “tinkle”, they let loose a stream of urine that can fill a five gallon bucket.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I opened the truck door and there was the little guy, looking as innocent as can be, with both front feet through the steering wheel. “He also decided he wanted to drive,” my father in law said with a smirk. “About ran us off the road. Now he won’t get outta the truck.”
Sure enough, we pushed, we pulled, we coaxed, but the calf wouldn’t budge. And to make matters worse, he peed again, soaking the other half of the truck seat.
Eventually we got him to the barn, got a bottle of milk replacer in him, and he was warm, dry and very happy with his new home.
But there was still the truck seat to deal with. I brought out carpet cleaner, stacks of towels, Febreeze, and baking soda. We soaked up what we could, and put stacks of towels followed by stacks of cement blocks on the seat to soak up the remaining cow urine.
We headed to the house for some dry socks and hot coffee and you know what, it really was a good day in spite of the bruises, the cold, and cow pee. The calf was alive, we helped out a neighbor, and had a great story to tell the other old farmers who gather at the top of the hill to gab. The truck still smells like cow urine, but it’s not so bad anymore.
If you don’t loose sight of the big picture in the midst of all those little annoying things in life, most days turn out to be good, productive days in the end.
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