I’m Not Ready

About a week ago we seemed to have plunged into a deep freeze. We had a pretty decent fall it just seems like it’s never long enough. I actually had a real estate auction around Indiahoma when the black jack trees were really showing off. I didn’t get to go to Colorado and look at aspens, didn’t even get to go down to Eastern Oklahoma not that I would’ve. I think those kind of trips are reserved for retirement years but we did have a little fall color in Western Comanche county and I got to enjoy it as I ran back and forth preparing for the auction. Just like you can’t hang on to those colors neither can you hang on to those really nice temperatures. It seems like if I’m not careful I totally miss the best part of the year I’ve always got great plans to stop and smell the roses but its sure tough for me to do especially when I get busy. I was certainly ready for summer and the historic drought to get its tail on out of here but I don’t think I’m ready for old man winter to come blasting through the door either. I spend a great deal of time outside and I know I’ll get used to it but the older I get the tougher it is to get acclimated. I’m sure at my advanced age its probably poor circulation. It sure seemed like the last few days that the cold has really had a bite of course with no grass and limited hay it always causes stress for a cattleman even though at my place we are almost all hat and no cattle we still have a few and they can plow through a round bail a lot faster than I’d like. I just picked up a couple loads of hay from one of my neighbors and paid more than I’ve ever paid in my life for any type of forage and I was honestly glad to have it. Does it sound like I’m whining, yeah maybe it does and I shouldn’t because really all in all things look pretty good. We’ve had a little rain; still need some more but have had some I think I may have enough hay located to maybe get a few old cows through the winter. Had a pretty good fall auction run and so far everyone is healthy I’m just not ready for the bitter cold and I hope mother nature will ease up on us a little bit and not throw us in to those sub zero temperatures that we saw last year.

The weather cooperated very well Saturday night for the huge Cache Christmas parade. Lots of folks turned out to celebrate Christmas small town style and it was great to see the city park packed with families, kids, and floats, everyone enjoying a small town Christmas festival. I have to say hats off to Laura Folland, Jennifer Holland, David Dorrell and the Masons for putting together quite a successful event. They all stepped out on faith knowing that it might not turn out so well but it was a great event and brought lots of people out. It will be a flurry of activity from here on through the holidays. I hope all of you can spend some time with your families and keep in mind the reason for the season. In the meantime I’ll be outside as much as I can trying to get acclimated to this cold. As an old buddy of mine said the other day, “don’t lighten up, tighten up.” Good advice.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

Never worry about the size of the Christmas tree. In the eyes of children they are all