Deere Darlyn

A couple of winters ago, I took Darlyn home to visit my people. Nebraska - land of big shoulders, and bigger tractors. My brother-in-law is a farmer in Western Nebraska - Willa Cather country. At some point, as we were all walking slow, burning off a big meal, he took us to the massive barn where he keeps his tractor collection. We're not talking Tonka trucks here folks. We're talking about the real deal -- John Deere green from door to door. Being a guy, it didn't take much for me to fall under the spell of the smell of motor oil and deisel fuel. I felt the rush of potential as Tom spun the big weighted flywheel and the old pre-ignition tractor sputtered to life with its syncopated hiccopy cadence.

The big surprise, for me, was Darlyn. I looked over to make sure she wasn't bored and saw a gleam in her eye. Her eyes danced across the ponderous farm machinery and she clapped her cashmere-gloved hands with the delight of  a child on Christmas morning. She had her eye on one of the more recent additions, a big modern enclosed cab job And I knew that, given the chance, she'd be up in that cab, bouncing on that suspended seat, making vroom-vroom noises and singing the theme from Green Acres in a heartbeat.

I wasn't wrong. Vroom-vroom!

The good stuff:
Living in Florida in January.
Rowing reunions
Building a business
Building a s'more
Fresh produce
Vegetarian pizza
Turning "to do" to "ta da!"
The circus coming to town
Cash Cab