Pop, beer, chips and shoes……always spend more to get the good stuff.  There is a reason that the name brands cost more….they are worth it.  No need to half-ass when dealing with these items.  Sprinklers and garden hoses are other items that you should spend more money to buy the good ones.  I don’t know if I have ever told you all the one about the most racist item is actually a sprinker.  Okay.  I’ll just leave this one alone, even though it is clean.  

     Back to the sprinklers.  There has never been a better made sprinkler than the original tractor sprinkler.  Covers ground, thoroughly wets it, decent coverage area and the wind doesn’t mess with it.  

      One of my all time favorite TV deals was the Saturday Night Live skit involving Will Ferrell and a cow bell.  That skit is a cultural classic.  Personally, I think Will Ferrell is a genius and he knows how to use the media to his benefit.  If you didn’t see the video of the Drum Off on Jimmy Fallon from Thursday night, well, you need to.  It involves Will Ferrell and his doppleganger–Chad Smith–drummer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  It’s funny.  

       I also watched a killer funny video of why to drive a Chevy SilverAdo instead of a Ford.  I won’t post the link as it isn’t appropriate for anybody’s ears.  But it’s dang sure funny.  

      Random change of pace.  I have been a subscriber to the Purple Circle magazine for several years.  Gary Cramblett and his family put this magazine together when they aren’t chasing goats.  One of the things that I like to read is Dr. Bo Brock’s monthly vet advice/stories column.  I have never met Dr. Brock, but I like his articles and I know of a lot of people that drive to Lamesa, TX to get his help. Tammy showed me this article and I thought it was a good read and would post it here.  

“Leonard

I had worked on Leonard’s horses since they were eight years old. Now, as I approached the two geldings from across a field of West Texas clover, they were twenty-eight. Leonard was a crusty old codger who’d been a cowboy in Borden County for seventy-five years—it was all he’d ever known. His wife had died the previous September after they’d spent fifty-five years together, raising cattle and living off the land. Their ranch house they spent their lives in got water from a windmill and electricity from the sun and wind. Their lives were as fulfilling as any I’d ever seen.
This trip across the clover to catch the two old horses was bringing tears to my eyes. These geldings had spent their lives serving Leonard and his wife, and they both had worn out at the same time. It was time for them to be put to sleep.
Leonard had stayed back at the barn. He had his arms draped over the top rail of a pipe fence and his hat pulled down over his eyes so we couldn’t see the tears streaming down his cheeks.
Dr. Emily Berryhill had come with me to the ranch. She was the intern at our clinic and hadn’t been around long enough to know the history of Leonard, so I filled her in as we ambled across the field to catch the horses. I looked over and saw tears in her eyes. Emily hadn’t seen this side of the gruff cowboys who come to our clinic—the side that cries when his favorite horse is at the end of its life. She was now experiencing it firsthand.
Leonard had arranged for a neighbor to dig a hole under the only tree visible for miles. The plot was the perfect place for these two old geldings to be buried—it was their favorite spot to spend the day. From it, they could see their barn and get back to it in a hurry, if need be. They could watch the cars pass on the county road in the distance. They could see the cliffs of the canyon to the west and watch the hawks ride the updrafts. These two critters loved to be in the shade of that tree, and that’s where Leonard wanted them buried.
It’s an awful job, killing a man’s best friend. All of the memories of rounding up cattle and the stories of how those horses had gotten Leonard out of tough spots filled my mind as we laid the second one to rest in that hole. My trip back across the clover field to say good-bye to Leonard was a long one. I dreaded seeing his wrinkled eyes filled with the memories of how much he loved his horses.
We came through the last gate and hung the halters on their hook in the barn. I patted Leonard on the back and told him it broke my heart for him to have to say good-bye to them but assured him that it had been the right thing to do.
He looked up from under his hat, and the emotion of twenty-eight years of friendship ending on that day poured down his weathered cheeks.
“I’ll be to town in a couple of days, and I’ll get you paid, Doc,” he told me. “Thanks for coming out here and doing that.”
“You owe me nothing, Leonard. I couldn’t live with myself if I charged a man to kill his best friend.”
“But you drove seventy-five miles to get here, Doc,” he said. “I gotta pay you som’in’.”
I paused and thought a bit. Experiences like this one are why I dreamed of being a veterinarian when I was a kid. I get to work with the salt of the earth, people who understand the bond between people and animals. It’s the essence of what veterinarians do, and it has nothing to do with state-of-the-art equipment or making money. I kept those horses happy and going for most of their lives, and I was a part of laying them to rest when their days were done.
Leonard appreciated that. He knew that taking care of critters from start to finish was simply what the local veterinarian did.
“You’ve been paying me for twenty years, my friend,” I said. “This one is on me.”

This is the last story in the book and is one of my favorite. I think every veterinarian should read it and feel encouraged for what you do for animals and people everyday. I think we forget. I hope that when people read it they will hug their vet and thank them, it is a tough job dealing with the emotions of the job sometimes. thank you all for encouraging me to write the book “crowded in the middle of nowhere” . It is really just a story of the last 24 years living in Lamesa and getting to practice veterinary medicine with the folks that live there. bo”

     If you read through that deal without tears then you are tougher than me.  That or your’e just a heartless son-of-a-gun!  Vets are another deal worth paying extra for.  

P.S.  It’s Memorial Day Weekend.  Thank you to all Veterans as well as those that are currently serving.   We must remember those that serve which enables us to do what we do.  Heads bowed, hats off and GOD speed to all that have served the United States of America.  May GOD be with you.