The Bridges I've Destroyed...

I'm still fuming. Today was a textbook example of a day that would have been more productive if had I stayed in bed.

Thunderstorms woke me up shortly before dawn. There was lots of lightning and a ton of rain. I rolled over and knew that all the cut hay was now completely ruined. The nutritional value deteriorates when dried hay gets rained on and the cows don't like the way it tastes. The way I see it is that if it's minus 30 and the cows are hungry, they're going to have to eat the hay whether their delicate tastebuds care for it or not.

These cows are the bane of my existence. They have made my life miserable since I was a little boy. Right now, nothing would please me more than getting even by eating 30 cows. I would eat every part of them (brain, liver, tongue, etc, etc.) just so that I could take every calorie, mineral, and vitamin from them and then turn them into energy that I would use to jump around and dance for joy. There's no better revenge than eating the cause of your suffering.

All this work is a neverending list of more work. Like a Russian doll of tasks, any job requires 5 jobs to be done in order to finish the intial chore.

I decided that I would go home today because there was no point in trying to salvaged the soaked hay. I thought that I would be productive and bring the bales that I had made yesterday up from the bottom half of the farm. I wouldn't stack them because they should dry a little, but I could save my Dad a few hours of work.

The bales were heavy. Usually the tractor bucket can pick up two at a time, but these could only be moved one by one. This is a good indication that they were baled too wet and would not be much good. That ticked me off.

I filled the wagon with 14 bales and then started back up to the house. As I crossed one of the bridges on our farm, the back axle of the wagon fell through and as I dragged the wagon across it wiped the rails of the bridge until it was completely destroyed.

I didn't really know what to do, but I knew that I had to solve this problem before leaving. I unhooked the tractor and started to take the 14 bales off the wagon. I made a real mess of them because I couldn't get at them properly because the wagon was on top of (and in) a bridge and I couldn't drive the tractor through a 4 foot deep river.

I was able to empty the wagon of all but two bales and then I used the tractor bucket to lift the back end of the wagon up and out of the bridge. I was out of danger and out of trouble, but the bridge now needed to be repaired. I removed the broken boards and salvaged the ones that I could. I got more boards from the house and a load of gravel. I fixed the bridge, but I was not going to do any more. The back tire was buggered and was so flat that it almost came off the rim. I debated about going into town and getting it repaired, but I was furious at the situation and since nothing had gone right all weekend, I thought that it was better to quit than to keep working. The way things were going, I'm surprised I didn't get killed.

I drove back to Toronto. I was in such a sour mood that I decided that that was the best time to go shopping. I went to The Bay to get socks and underwear. Today became the day of my annual sock purge. I bought the usual 12 whites, and 12 blacks. I also picked up 7 pairs of underwear, and 6 undershirts. I'm in the process of doing laundry so that they are all nice and soft for the coming week.

I'm still very angry at everything. I need a good night's sleep in my own bed.