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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Ray, Not Ray....

A couple of days ago, a friend asked me to go to an auction in Kansas with him. Since I LOVE auctions, and this one had a couple of old IH tractors, I couldn't refuse....

So, this morning, I woke up the cows early, and got my chores done in time to get to his house for the drive south. I hurried through breakfast, changed clothes into something that didn't smell like a cow, then headed on over.

It was a nice, bright sunny day, and the trip was mostly un-eventful - the "trouble" started as soon as we got near the auction site....

We took along a printed copy of the sale bill, complete with directions. Following them was our first mistake. They said "turn WEST on Road "X", go 3 miles, then 1/2 mile north....".

Well we turned west, popped over a hill, and ran into a DIRT road with ZERO rock on it. Not to be deterred by the ruts, we pushed on. Over the next rise, the road took a detour - through a farmer's field....

The road got progressively worse - and we passed 3 or four vehicles headed the other direction, but on we went. At the third mile, we turned north for 1/2 mile, and found ourselves in front of a small shed with about 2 dozen calves looking at us, wanting fed.

OBVIOUSLY not the auction site...

We went on to the next corner, then east, and back to the highway. When we got back to Road "X", we turned EAST for three miles, then north the 1/2 mile to where we wanted to go.

Our little detour ate up our time, and we arrived just after things started. We hurriedly parked, then trotted to the trailer to get our bidding number. That's when I reached for my wallet - and realized I had left it in my other jeans when I changed before I left home.

Now, Thursday is "wash day" at our house - and I for SURE didn't need my wallet washed. Trouble was, I forgot that fact until about an hour later. Luckily, when I called home, my lovely wife said those jeans were NEXT in line - a few minutes later, and my wallet would have taken a bath.

Since not having a wallet hampered my bidding - or more accurately - my ability to PAY for what I bid on - I only spent $1 dollar (and $5 more for lunch). My friend was nice enough to loan me $10 so I wouldn't starve.

During the course of the bidding, there were lots of things that I had no interest in, so I took a stroll around to see what I could see. I came around the back of one of the grain trucks they had, and approached a man looking the cab over. He saw me, did a double take, then thrust out his hand and gave me a hearty....

"HEY! How have you been?"

"Not bad, how are you?", I returned.

"Haven't seen you in quite awhile, you're getting along pretty good since your surgery."

At this point, I had NO IDEA who this guy was, but I figured he knew me, especially since he mentioned "surgery".

He started in on how good it was seeing me up and about, his dad's farm, and even asked me about my F-20 restoration, and how it was coming along. We talked tractors, the weather, and even a little football.

It was just a mundane conversation between two old friends that lasted about ten minutes - and I STILL had no clue who he was!

After a couple more minutes, he looked up, cocked his head to one side in that old hound dog look, and asked -

"You're not Ray, are you?"

"Nope", said I.

"Well, you LOOK like Ray."

"Yeah, I get that a LOT", I told him

"REALLY?", he asked.

"No, not really."

He gave me a confused look, then with a "Well, it was nice talking to you", we both parted ways - neither one actually knowing who in the heck the other one was....

The bad thing was - since I left my wallet home, there was no way to actually PROVE to him that I WASN'T Ray....

3 comments:

  1. That story sounds even better the second time you told it ! :-) Are you sure you did not embellish it just a LITTLE?!

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  2. I just gave you the "Reader's Digest" version the first time!

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  3. Haha, I can see you doing that lol. Oh mY! Miss you guys

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