"A man's got to know his limitations."
The Colonel has rarely been one to follow that advice. And, with regard to the Colonel's physical limitations, the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda knows no... well, let's just say she's never been a Dirty Harry fan.
Take the Colonel's latest forays afield in agriculture, landscaping, and animal husbandry, for example.
The Colonel, as the thousands of you who hang on his every written word in posts hereon have by no difficulty ascertained (except for the LSU grads who think the Colonel just used a naughty word), has been on an involuntary writing hiatus of late.
Part of it has been his fault.
Part of it has been the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda's fault.
Let's start with her.
Now, far be it from the Colonel, whose occasional lack of judgement, frequent loss of situational awareness, and catastrophe-defying clumsiness is the stuff of local legend, family lore, and several not-so-flattering semi-annual Marine Corps officer fitness reports, to cast aspersions on the judgement of his blushing bride of nearly 36 years (although the last part of this sentence prior to the parenthetical pause you are now perusing does call her matrimonial decision-making into question). However, even she has a hard time refuting her reputation for underestimation of project scope and resource requirements.
Case in point: Renovation of the flower beds and lawn in front of our church.
Six weeks ago, the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda approached the Colonel during one of his frequent reverse prone strategic planning sessions and, in her ever-so-loving and gentle way, gained the Colonel's attention.
"Hey! Knucklehead! Wake up! You're burning daylight and I've got a small project I need your help with."
The Colonel opened one eye and regarded his soul-mate with apprehension bordering on stark terror. He attempted to divert the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda by engaging her in loving small talk.
"Dear, one should never interrupt a steely-eyed Marine in the midst of deep thought, and one should never end a sentence in a preposition.
"What?!?"
"Dear, you said you have a project, and the Colonel quotes, 'I need your help with.' You used the preposition 'with' at the end of the your sentence. Not good grammar. Let's try the sentence, again -- this time placing the preposition in the sentence correctly."
"Buddy, if you don't get a move on, you're gonna be black-eyed instead of steely-eyed. I've just got a little project up at the church I need your help with..."
"Ah, ah, ah..."
"...Jerk!"
"That's better! Now, what is this little project on which you need the Colonel's help?"
"Grrrr!! Get up and get in the truck. We're just going to move a few bushes and some clumps of monkey grass. Shouldn't take the two of us more than 30 minutes with a shovel."
Four weeks of 10-hour physical labor-intensive days (involving the removal of two acres of monkey grass, moving forty-seven holly bushes, installation of an irrigation system and the laying of ten pallets of sod) later, Miss Brenda stood astride her prostrate man (collapsed in a mud puddle created by his own sweat) and proudly pronounced, "Phase I is complete!"
"Phase I ?!?," the prostrate Colonel croaked through dehydrated vocal chords. "Just how many phases does this 30-minute project have?"
Lest anyone get the impression that the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda's projects have been the sole reason for the Colonel's absence from his appointed place of duty enlightening and entertaining the masses via the written word, the Colonel must admit that he shares some responsibility.
A few days prior to the initiation of the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda's landscaping project / reenactment of the physical labor involved in the construction of the Panama Canal, the Colonel and Grandson #2, aka: H21CC-2 (Hope of 21st Century Civilization, Dash 2), loaded up the truck and headed into the center of the southern cultural universe, and home of the Harvard of the South -- Oxford -- to stimulate the economy at the local garden shop.
Said local garden shop was supposed to be receiving a shipment of Barred Rock chicks that morning and the Colonel was desirous of increasing and diversifying his monochromatic Rhode Island Red hen herd by the acquisition of one half dozen of said Barred Rock chicks.
Alas, upon their arrival at said local garden shop, H21CC-2 and the Colonel were disappointed to learn that the shipment of said Barred Rock chicks had yet to arrive.
"Not a problem, little buddy," the Colonel reassured his third favorite person on the entire planet, "we'll go over to the Tractor Supply Store and pick up a few things and then come back and get the chicks later."
Upon arrival at the second stop in the Colonel's economic stimulus trip, the keen ears of H21CC-2 picked up the peeping of chicks.
"Pop! They have some chicks! We can get our chicks here!"
The Colonel bets you didn't know that four-year olds do not have a very keen appreciation for the differences between fuzzy yellow chicks that will become non-descript plain ol' white chickens and fuzzy black chicks that will become beautiful Barred Rock hens with which the Colonel was desirous of increasing and diversifying his heretofore monochromatic hen herd.
To a four-year old, a chick is a chick. And this particular four-year old wasn't budging from his position adjacent the wash tub full of chicks until he had some of his own.
Bottom line? Instead of six, the Colonel now has twelve new mouths to feed.
And water.
And feed, again.
And water, again.
And check on every 30 minutes.
Between landscaping and chick raising, who's got time to write?
Oh, and there's the garden.
Well..., gardens.
The small garden up here on the hill next to the Big House aboard Eegeebeegee -- the Colonel's vast holdings here at the shallow northern end of deep southern nowhere and the capital of the Tallahatchie Free State -- has been wildly successful at the production of tomatoes and squash. So much so that the Colonel felt emboldened last year to open up, down in the bottom behind the Big House, another quarter of an acre to cultivation wherein he raised a bumper crop of corn, okra, and cantaloupes.
And cantaloupes.
And more cantaloupes.
Countless cantaloupes.
Cantaloupe for every meal, cantaloupes.
Cantaloupe for every neighbor within a three mile radius, cantaloupes.
The Colonel invites you, at this juncture, to revisit the opening lines of this missive and recall the point he made regarding his frequent failure to heed Dirty Harry's advice on personal knowledge of limitations.
The garden in the bottom behind the Big House has trebled -- nay, quadrupled -- in size this year, replete with rows and rows and rows of beans, peas, spinach, onions, potatoes, okra, corn, squash, cucumbers, watermelons...,
And cantaloupes.
So, pardon the Colonel for his blogging truancy. He's been a little busy...
Oh, and did the Colonel mention he got to go on vacation last week with his in-laws? Wait until you read about that.
Of course, it might be a week or two before the Colonel gets back to his keyboard...
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