On that note, I’m sitting in the living room, trying to adjust to the schedule I’ll be on back at work. So trying to sleep during the day, 9am to 5pm would be ideal for me.
Anyway, I heard one of the jacked up trucks out playing on the road. When I think it over, they cost us all by doing so. So many think playing on muddy roads doesn’t harm anyone else. But; 1) the folks who have to travel on those roads every day now have increased fuel and repair costs. The folks that are providing your fuel, your medical services, staff the store you shop at, any one of them could live out on the dirt road that “just playing” just tore up. 2) the farmers who provide your food now have to raise their costs to cover the increased fuel cost from getting stuck, and making repairs. 3) road repair costs go up across the whole county to cover the cost of the crews that have to bring out rock and lay it down and maintain them. Lord knows, out here the river does enough damage, having folks come out to play and tear it up more just irks me. I’ve had several flat tires, replaced my shocks, had to repair oil leaks, and even helped others with flat tires, all due to road conditions. So far, I’ve only missed work due to extreme flooding, but I’ve almost wrecked several times while trying to navigate slick roads around ruts my car would get stuck in, ruts left not by farmers, but by town kids out playing. The other part of the rant is the town kids that like to play in fields, or try picking the corn with out paying the farmer. I came home over a month ago to find dad and the neighbor watching his field for the ones tearing it up to sneak out. That’s someone’s livelihood. Crushing his crop so you can sling mud, or stealing corn from a roadside field, both steal money from that farmer. Farming is expensive, and it’s getting worse, where knowing what to plant and praying for a good harvest makes the difference between that man being able to feed his kids, or having to sell the land either to one of the big gmo conglomerates, or for development. Land isn’t cheap, and more and more gets developed for housing and stores and covered in asphalt and concrete every day. We need the farms to succeed, the farmers need to turn enough profit to want to stay at their job and not go get a desk job. I’ll stop my rant before I get going too much, but it’s bugging me. I think of it as comparable to someone taking a jack hammer to another’s driveway and robbing their fridge.
