Maybe tomorrow I can say what made me remember this

I once spent a summer on a farm, and got to do all kinds of fun things. A couple of times I drove a tractor, and many times struggled with the wheel of a clunky old skeleton of a truck (no power steering!). I planted a bunch of trees and cuttings. I climbed up the tire of a backhoe to give the driver his lunch.

I learned to not run away from bugs and to not scream at snakes, and I even slept on the ground under a bush one hot afternoon.

That summer, I got the darkest tan of my entire life, and my hair has never been that blonde again.

I also never saw so many pickup trucks in my life.

Every man (and a few of the women) who worked on the farm had a pickup. When they'd give you a ride, you'd have to climb in the back, with the dog and the sacks of... uh, farm-related materials.

When that's your main way of getting around, you learn two things fast: the first is that it's easy and fun to get in by stepping up on the tire, and the second is that not all drivers are created equal.

Braking is the main thing. If someone's got a heavy foot, ka-bam! you get thrown around like a rag doll. A rag doll with a sensitive butt. You have to hang on, put some padding underneath you, because the driver is not taking into account how those pot-holes feel to the poor souls sitting in the back.

More sensitive drivers — probably drivers who suffered from other people's driving — feather the brakes; they slow down gradually. Some of those guys knew how to drive without shaking your bones to powder.

My oldest sister would find some kind of moral in that; she thinks anecdotes and stories should always be instructive. But I'm not her. I just like to talk and remember things.

The picture is my alt, Celestial Doghouse. She found a box of freebie skins, one of which was usable. Then she made a shape and tweaked it a little. I'm going to go on tweaking, working on the shape.

I've got some things to say about Celestial. I think I have an interesting road to go with her, and I'll be talking more about that.

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