Cattle Business

There is never a dull moment when I head home to see my parents. I had a doctor's appointment in Houston on Friday, so I spent the weekend with my parents. On Friday night, we received a phone call from a neighbor to some land where my parents have cattle. Apparently a tree was split/broke when we had all the storms at the end of the week. Well half the tree fell on the barb wire fence creating a potential escape for cows. So what do we do at 10:30pm after we heard the message? We load up the truck and race after my dad. My dad never speeds, but boy when it's his precious cattle at stake he could work for NASCAR. Well he also gets so frazzled in stressful situations. We inspect the fence in the shadows of the trucks' headlights, and my dad grabs his chainsaw to cut the tree off of the fencec.

Dad: "Stand back. I don't have much gas."

He cranks it. Sputter, sputter, roarrrrrr, sputter, spit, spit, and dies."

Dad: "(Insert swear word here,) Out of gas."

Me: "You mean to tell me you knew you were almost out of gas, and you didn't bring the extra?" See what I mean by "frazzled?"

(This is when my mom gives me a "watch your smart mouth look.")

So being helpful, I said, "I'll run to Exxon."

Did you know you need to have chainsaw oil to mix in your gas? I didn't even know they made chainsaw oil.

So off we ride back to the house on the other side of town to pick up the extra gas and oil; now it's 11pm.

We fix this fence (well actually I watch and start the truck up every 10 minutes or so to not have the battery die out.) And my mom and I head back. Well of course my mom is speeding because it's close to midnight, and she wants to go to bed. What happens next? We get pulled over. I immediately started laughing because this is such a Weimar story. I knew she wouldn't get a ticket because she's Miss Congeniality and knows all of the cops in town.

Mom: "Hi Mr. (insert cop name here). I'm sorry I was speeding. I'm so tired, and we were fixing fence." Who has this excuse at midnight on Friday nights?

Cop: "No worries Mary."
Mom: "Do you need to see my license?"
Cop: "Nah." (at this point he's blinding me with his flashlight)
Mom: "That's my daughter."
Cop: "Where's MOPAC?!!!"

Ummm see it's not just my imagination. EVERYONE (even cops in my hometown who I have never met) loves my little girl.

Cop: "I see she's not a cow dog."

We all chuckle and off we go.

Mom (when we get home): "I'm going to give Mr. (insert cop name here) a jar of pickles I canned since he let me go."

Of course.....