Don't do the Joyride

     This  morning I woke up to one of my favorite ewes, Crystal, doing what she does best...yelling at me to get out there and feed her.  You'd think with thick brick walls surrounding me I wouldn't hear it, but her hollering would probably penetrate Ft. Knox.  That, however, is just the beginning of the story...and actually has nothing to do with what I now call "the joyride."
     So there I was, walking out to the pond pasture to get the geese out while listening to Crystal yammering at me, and I heard a weird noise.  At first I thought it was just the wind in the trees.  It made me stop and listen, though, because it was sort of like an engine idling.  Huh, weird.
     After I let the geese out for their morning flight around the farm and back I noticed the sound was still there.  Hmmmmm, that's weird.  It wasn't coming from the trees, but from just down the street.  I figured it must be hunters parking on our side yard again without asking if it was okay.  They ask, we're okay with it.  They don't ask and it's just plain rude.  Anyway, I took a walk over to the road and when I glanced down there I saw a big 18 wheeler grain hauler truck that had been parked in the neighbor's field for the past few weeks.  The engine was running and the lights were on.  I didn't appreciate the big dents in the soft ground from it or the ones it was making from resting there for who knows how long.  What to do...what to do...  I know, go get Hon.  He can talk to the person this time after we find him.
     Hon took a walk down the road and found the truck was empty.  Then we got to thinking the driver must be hunting.  It's not the first time someone has seen a deer and decided to plunk themselves in our side yard and see if they can get it.  Honestly, we were kind of irritated.  
     Since I was smart and had my smartphone with me, I Googled the truck company and gave them a call.  Okay, so I thought it was the right company.  Come to find out the trucking company on the side of the truck has the exact same name as the one I called, only the latter having no clue what I was talking about.  Poor man.  He must have thought I was a genuine strawberry blonde for calling, which I am, but he said he'd check into it and see what he could find out for us.
     In the meantime, Hon decided to turn off the truck engine and lights because it had been at least a couple of hours and the thing was still sitting there running.  After prowling around the woods for the driver and coming up with nothing my stomach was really growling so we decided to call it a morning with the mess and go eat.  Okay, so Hon made me eggs...I Googled the company again and came up with the correct truck company.
    As it's Sunday I left a message, the company calling back within a very short time though.  Being the woman I am, I let Hon get the call.  Sometimes it's better to have him handle the weird situations and give me a break.  Come to find out the truck owner was a bit surprised to put it mildly that his truck was in our side yard because he's had it sitting down the road in the farmer's field for the past two weeks.  He also wasn't happy when Hon told him that a big part of the truck cab's front driver side bumper-type thing was missing.  There are some big swerve marks in the road where the truck about took a telephone pole out, too, but clearly that damage must have been done somewhere else on the road because we didn't see the missing truck part.
     Here's what I don't get...why in the world would you leave the keys to your rig in it?  I know we live out in the county, but crime and plain 'ole idiocracy happens everywhere.  We've had our share of less than stellar folks coming to call over the past almost seven years.  Shoot, whether I've lived in a city, the suburbs, or the country I've never left my keys in a vehicle.  Someone might come across it and decide to...oh, I don't know...take it.
     So there you have it folks.  I'm glad we were able to track down the truck's owner.  I'm also happy we'll have it out of the side yard soon.  I'm hoping whoever decided to take his truck for a joyride feels horribly bad this morning...for both their wrong doing and for the major hangover they're probably suffering from.  I can't imagine from the swerves in the road and skirting the muddy ditch, not to mention the big hunk of truck missing, that they did this sober.  Oh, and as for the man I spoke to at the other trucking company, I did call him back to let him know I located the correct trucking company so he wasn't continuing to help us solve the mystery.  Smiling & Waving, Sharon 

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