Wednesday Ramble
I am so tired of this cold...I can't even express it. We have reached phase8: sore nose from blowing, unending supply of snot mixed with occasional repetitive explosive sneezes. Marvelous. I have killed two bottles of Nyquil, two boxes of tissue, and coughed up enough phlegm and green mucous to fill a milk jug. I'm tired of it! Do you hear me? Enough is enough.
Well, not that that bit of ugliness is behind us we can move on to happier topics. I want to talk about home.
Home is the farm in Southwestern Kansas that has been the only constant residence of my life. It is a bit weird for many people. Literally, the farm is 5 minutes from Colorado and 30 minutes from Oklahoma. And, you can be in Texas in about an hour! When the sky is clear, and it usually is, you can see the lights of towns far away. Identifying constellations in the night sky is never difficult. We live about 15 miles from the nearest town where actual people live. That is to say, Manter, KS, is a regular town with a gas station and two grain elevators, and a post office. But, I'm not sure if you tallied the number of widows, satellite dishes, and stray dogs, that they wouldn't out-number the total population of people in the town. This is my hometown, by way of it is where my post office is. (Well, not really. I live in Wisconsin now, but you know what I mean.)
There is another town that is closer to home, but it doesn't really qualify as a town. Saunders is a grain elevator and gas station. They have candy bars and pop. Nobody lives there. We always say that as soon as someone sees Saunders, its hard to keep them on the farm. That's a joke. Dry Kansas humor. It is the last place to get gas on Hwy 160 before Colorado...but fret not, Walsh, CO also has gas. However, this brings up an important point!
The area does not have a lot of 24-hour gas pumps. Generally we advise that you fill up before leaving Big Towns, particularly if you are leaving after 5 pm and are not local. In the Summer, do not travel through Western Kansas without a ready supply of something to drink. This is because we don't have regular traffic. I can drive all the way to town, 15 miles, and not see another vehicle on the road. If you get off the beaten path it can be far longer. So, if you break down it could be a while before some local discovers you. Travel prepared.
We have an all-volunteer fire force. This means that it can be a while before you get any help calling 911. They usually arrive by the time you've already put out the fire yourself, or the building is a total loss. It is usually a better bet to call your neighbors if you've got a fire. (They have fewer miles to travel.) We have a jail in Johnson, about 20 miles away, but most of the prisoners are imports from the overcrowded jails of Big Cities. We have a sheriff and a couple of deputies. It is pretty tough for them to police the entire county...but then we don't get a lot of crime. It is not unusual for locals to drive 70 mph in a 55 zone. I don't recommend this to visitors however. Visitors get tickets while most locals just get the old finger wag from the deputy. Unless of course you are an ass, in which case you can also get a ticket. In Stanton County, all drivers wave to all other drivers they pass on the road. You don't have to know them, everybody waves. It's friendly. I like to think of it as a little victory dance after having seen somebody else on the road. Ya-hoo!
Back to the farm...it is the best place in the entire world. Meadowlarks play in the trees. There are lots of bunnies, skunks, and other assorted wildlife. Occassionally you can hear the howl of a coyote pack. You can see visitors coming from miles away. Except for the jets.
You see, we live under a training flight pattern that comes out of Texas. Could be Lackland, AFB, I'm not sure. Of course, we aren't too far from Colorado Springs either, but the jets always seem to come out of the south. We get fighter jets and bombers. They fly super-low and like to scare cattle and buzz barns, grain bins, tractors, and combines. When the fighters go over, you usually know it after the fact. You only hear them after they are already to Saunders. The bombers are slower but bigger. We love them. They are part of the family. Really cool.
Everybody knows everybody else's business, but that is not so uncommon for small town America. I never actually went to school in the county...but everytime I go back, somebody recognizes me and says, "I haven't seen you since you were so high." Which is weird, 'cause I don't recognize them at all.
I guess I'm homesick.
