Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Sue Fink’s Imagine That Column, 4/27/98



It’s planting time again.

Tom was busy getting his oats in last week. Now he and
his brother, Dan, are getting ready to plant corn.

The weather has been beautiful this past week for planting.
There have been a few wet spots to drive around, but not enough to stop
the hurry to get the seed into the ground.

I have been lucky that I haven’t been pressed into service
as a tractor driver so far this spring. Actually, the guys and the tractors
are probably the lucky ones.

I think I may have mentioned before that my contributions
as a tractor driver have been somewhat unappreciated at times. I am usually
just working along, trying to do my best when some strange thing will happen.

Something happened again recently when I was helping my
husband out by picking up some rolls of insulation at Home Depot. He didn’t
get quite enough insulation when he made the trip with the pick-up earlier
in the week. I only needed to pick up five rolls of insulation. I was going
to be in the area after celebrating a friends birthday over lunch.

“You can just fit them in your car,” Tom said.
“It will save me a trip next week.”

How could I resist such logic? Everything went fine in
the store. I by-passed all the things I did not need and managed to find
the right rolls of insulation. I got them loaded on a cart and headed for
the check out counters in the front of the store.

I cruised to an open check-out lane and paid for the insulation
without having to wait in line. I was surprised at how easily everything
was going. I should have stopped right there. That is usually the thought
I have before things go terribly wrong for me.

Foolishly, I continued on. I had parked my car near the
entrance. Now I had to walk quite a way back to get it, then drive up to
load the insulation.

My 1986 Audi is not a real big car, and I was getting a
little nervous about fitting the five big rolls into it. We had bought this
car about three weeks before and I really liked it. It was in great shape.

I shoved one of the rolls of insulation into the trunk.
I piled the next three into the back seat. Now I had to decide how to get
the last roll into the front seat.

To get the bulky roll of insulation into the passenger
seat I would have to lug it around the car, open the door and plunk it down
on the seat. Or I could turn the car around so I could load the insulation
without having to carry it around the car.

That’s what I should have done. I decided it would be easier
to put the insulation on the drivers seat and then shove it over onto the
passenger seat. Something should have told me that it would not be all that
easy. Something like common sense.

I pushed the roll into the drivers seat and tried to shove
it across the car. The pink plastic covering got caught on the rear-view
mirror. Grumbling to myself and hoping I didn’t look like too much of a
fool to the other customers in the area, I leaned into the car and tugged
on the plastic to pull it off the mirror.

At that moment I didn’t think I was being too forceful.
Guess again. I looked over my shoulder, only to see a crack running down
the windshield. Another one snaked its way up the toward the roof of the
car. I guess they don’t make them like they used to. At least, not when
I’m in the area!

Next week, my adventures with glass in the tractor cab
doors.

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