The other day, I was happily engaged at keeping the vehicle I was driving where it should be on the road. I was on a two-lane road in Nevada, and I was driving a Freightliner tractor with the good old 550-horse Cat engine. I was pulling triple hay trailers and the usual high, gusty winds west of Tonopah were making it an interesting drive.

Some time back as our next meal was in the planning stages, my wife said she had in mind to make sad pie. I had not heard that terminology for some time, and it brought back memories.

I don’t think there is a city block in Tonopah, Nevada, that is level. Tonopah is rich in silver mining history – complete with historic old hotels and at least a couple of parks full of antique mining equipment. The town sits a-straddle a high ridge with large flat areas of land on both the east and west sides.

Life was not made for questions that can be answered “yes” or “no.” My almost-13-year-old grandson, who generally eats with his boots under my table, has discovered cooking. I think it started with fried eggs and then progressed to pancakes.

We were at a ranch at Tuscarora, Nevada, years back. It was wintertime and the ranch hands were getting ready to feed cattle. The first order of business was to get the teams up and harnessed so they could pull the wagons that would haul the day’s feed to the cattle.

A is for attitude, also for attention. They go well together. Pay attention to your attitude and life will function smoother. B is for boisterous. Boys are boisterous. It means they are healthy.

“We were careful to step in the footprints of those walking ahead of us,” explained Visal, “so any soldiers finding our trail would think it was only one person walking through the jungle instead of 38 of us. One person was not worth their time.”

Tip, named for the white end of his tail, had to be a master of PR. Dad told me that Tip was on my lap being petted on his ride to our house as a weanling pup. I don’t remember the trip, so I must have been younger than 3 at the time.