Last week, the date 3-23-23 became indelibly etched into our family history. That historic day was when a new Crew joined our extended family. Yep, we welcomed our fourth great-grandchild into the world. “Crew” is our third great-grandson.
Crew joined slightly bigger and older brother, Hudson. Everyone in the family is doing great — which is a big blessing.
With any luck at all, Nevah and I will be moving to our new home in Riley, KS, about the time Crew gets big enough to be really cute enuf to play with. It’s something to look forward to.
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Now I’ve got a mystifying true story to tell. I fully realize that it sounds like I’ve been toking on the wacky weed, or nibbling on hallucinatory mushrooms, but I swear it’s true. As the old saying goes, “It’s my mystery story and I’m sticking to it.
Last week on a cool drizzly mid-morning I wuz driving my UTV down to the henhouse to let the chicken flock free-range for the day. But, on my drive down, my eye caught sight of something “horizontally white” down by my south border and some live critters were around it.
Upon closer look, I couldn’t believe my eyes. First, I recognized the “white” as a 10-foot length of rigid 4-inch PVC pipe with a collar. Second, two young (but not quite mature) identical Blue Heeler pups were excitedly barking into each end of the pipe and in their excitement rolling the pipe slowly downhill.
Now what makes this story mystifying is, first, I don’t have any lengths of 10-foot white PVC pipe. It wuz like the pipe had been dropped on my place from a helicopter. Second, I had never seen the Blue Heeler pups before, but they were well-fed and clearly hadn’t been abandoned. I had difficulty running them away from the pipe and down the road.
When I went back to the PVC pipe, I figgered the pups had a critter of some type trapped inside. However, I couldn’t see through the pipe, nor get any critter to fall out when I banged the pipe vertically on the ground.
So, I tossed the pipe into a shed close to the chicken house. But, that evening, I again checked on the pipe and it was open from end to end. My only conclusion is that some critter had squeezed itself so tightly into the pipe that my effort to dislodge it was futile.
Those Blue Heeler pups looked like chicken-killers on the loose, so, as a precaution, I didn’t let the chickens free-range that day — or the next day.
But, that’s not the end of the story. The next morning, the pups returned about the same time and I could see them hanging around in front of the chicken house — probably salivating because they could hear and smell the chickens inside. However, by the time, I went outside, the pups had moved on to wherever.
A phone call to a neighbor-in-the-know solved the pups part of the mystery. They belong to a neighbor I don’t know who lives a full mile east of me. Their owner said he’d take care of the pups neighborhood escapades. And, I think he has, because I haven’t seen them since.
But, the mystery as to where the PVC pipe came from is still a mystery — and I guess it will remain that way.
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After disappointing tournament defeats by my men and women’s basketball teams from Bea Wilder U, my primary sporting attention turned to the Kansas City Royals baseball team. The Royals are rebuilding this year with new coaches and a lot of new faces on the team. They could be exciting. At least I hope so.
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Here’s a true, but cautionary, story. A few days ago I received in the mail an unsolicited letter addressed to M. Yield. Inside was an authentic-looking letter from the Canadian law-firm of Woodland, Brent & Partners LLP in Toronto, compete with letterhead stationery, phone number, email addresses, and a website.
The letter’s contents were these: A wealthy Canadian real estate tycoon named Bruce Yield had died in a car wreck about six years ago and he left behind an unclaimed life insurance policy (ULIP) worth $10,550,300. A search for his relatives proved unsuccessful and the good-hearted folks at the law firm had found my name and wanted me to allow them to put my name into a legal effort to cash-in on the ULIP. Furthermore, the lawyers would only keep 10% of the settlement and use their funds for charitable distribution. It was 100% risk-free on my part.
The letter reeked of scam. So, at our Old Boar’s Breakfast I brought the subject up. And, lo and behold, we discovered a remarkable coincidence. Last week two others of the geezers got similar letters — only their relatives who died in the same car crash were named Bruce Jones and Bruce Smith (I changed the last names). What are the odds?
On a final note, when I called the law firm, the Mr. Woodland who answered, had a distinctive foreign accept — definitely not Canadian, eh? Sadly, the scam will probably rope in a few gullible folks.
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Wise words for the week: “Pay attention. Don’t get scammed!”
Enjoy spring. Have a good ‘un.
