Prices, Ponies and Macaroni

Prices, Ponies and Macaroni

It's been a week to remember.

For, one… anyone else noticed prices going up, up, up, besides me?

They couldn't go up higher or faster even if they were on a rocket ship bound for Jupiter!

At one place I shop, I was shelling out so much dough that I thought maybe I had personally offended the owner and he was taking it out on me, so I was in the process of drafting an apology note when another frequent shopper told me, “No, that store is gouging ALL their customers, so don't feel so special.”

I think that is known as a backhanded compliment… one where you don't know whether to feel hurt or flattered. So I took the easy route and just forgot about it.

These days, it's getting easier to do… forgetting things, that is.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah.

Yet, there is a bright spot. I've learned how to play the ol' bartering system with my neighbors. I do a favor, or offer some boot-money and get a neighbor to fix the tractor, get a lawn mower spindle replaced, or a tree cut down.

Then, as an ab-so-lute-ly last resort, I go to my 'Fallback' plan, and do the work myself. And I had started out the summer with such great expectations! I was going to fix all the brokendown equipment, mend the fences, clean out the barn and the garage.

But with the cost of everything going ballistic, most of the projects on my fix-it list will involve either super-glue, duct-tape or bailing wire. There will be almost nothing shiny or new bought for my place.

Can't even afford a new attitude, so I guess I'll have to make do with the one I got.

Yeah. Like that.

Yet, I have realized this year that it is finally 'Hammer Time’ — time to bring down the hammer on the whole full-retail deal and call it quits… I am trying to take advantage of anything that does not smack of big-dollar ticket items. In my wheelhouse there is room for discounts, deals, two-for-ones, coupons… and like I said, bartering for goods or services.

And above all, getting estimates in advance. No estimate, no deal. Too many inflated prices out there for no apparent reason.

Yet, outrageous prices are just part of life. And we are tested every day.

I think I may have heard that once on an old episode of the television show, 'Scrubs?' So much for high prices.

Now, as to ponies.

Or a particular roan horse, in this case. And this particular roan horse is the one we just bought. So anyway, we took him to his first horse show, backed him out of the trailer and tied him to it.

So far, so good… right?

That's what I thought.

When, suddenly, his eyes popped open, his mouth gaped wide and he started braying like a donkey whose tail had caught fire. And he wouldn't stop!

Instead, he lunged back and forth on the end of his lead line and stomped and pawed the air. I stood there with a brush in my hand, which I HAD meant to use on him, and backed slowly away.

Amazed at his manner, I looked at him closer.

Is THIS the same horse we just bought?

Impossible, I thought. Our horse NEVER did such things at home! Our horse, you could never tell whether he was awake or not-even when you were in the saddle, riding him… that’s how laid back he was at home.

Only, not now.

Now, he was wide awake… and HE WAS NOTA HAPPY CAMPER! I considered maybe we had made a mistake and picked up the neighbor's jackass by mistake and loaded him into the trailer for the show. But, that didn't figure. Then, I supposed that maybe someone had switched our horse out for a wild one that looked like him-you know-like for a practical joke or something. But, no.

It was really him.

So, what the devil was eating at him?

I knew he had been at horse shows before with his previous owner-so why all the weirdness?

I called for my wife, who stepped forward, put a rope and him and made the roan circle at the end of it until he was sweating from stem to stern, head dropped down from exhaustion and barely able to drag himself back to the trailer-exactly like I feel, when I've finished my wife's HONEYDO list every day.

But, at least he had stopped braying.

That was so unexpected… as were the looks of the other folks at the show who were all staring at the badly-behaved roan and us as well.

I felt guilty-like a permissive parent or something.

And this was just the first show of the season!

Then, there's macaroni.

I know, I know that cheese and macaroni are considered by many to be the ultimate comfort food. And I will not bad-mouth that.

Yet, I never learned to appreciate it.

Unless… unless there was chicken, beef or tuna involved in the dish.

Then, I'm all in.

Don't know why I don't like cheese and macaroni without meat being in the dish… something about the consistency of it, the feel of it in my mouth. I've learned to live with it.

But, I mention the cheese and macaroni example here, for this reason: Sometimes you have to add something to make it all good-like throw in some meat to deal with the cheese and macaroni. As in the proverbial adage: “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Like, when you have to deal with financial strain or unexpected situations, such as the prices and ponies things. And the meat you throw in to make it all palatable is experiencewhich gives you the patience to maintain.

THEN, the medicine will go down.

Who knew?

By Robert L. Hall