Photo by Phyllis Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, can attest to the fact that if the keeper were a dog he might have difficulty following the rules of “fetch.” It is the warning signs for “Road Closed” that have caused him the most trouble down through the years, but after many lessons and miles of needless backtracking, he thought he might have finally overcome this failing: Not so, as Phyllis can attest to after a Sunday “adventure.”
In a reasoning process that embraces never going back over the same ground, the keeper ignored the “Road Closed” sign as he was sure the road he wanted to travel would eventually get him back to the interstate if he was determined and stuck to it.
So the road has not been plowed of recent snow, it suddenly has rather steep hills and is rutted from the passage of farm machines, and there is NO room to even think of turning around. Also, if he even slowed up the keeper would lose the momentum that kept his vehicle from becoming immediately stuck in the hard, rutted snowy road that deteriorated with each foot.
Finally, the road terminated in a field next to irrigation equipment. There was naught to do but turn around very carefully and retrace the treacherous route back to the “Road Closed” sign, skidding sideways at times, and wondering at the fortitude of Phyllis in not either whimpering or lecturing.
Obviously they made it back to safe roads, and the keeper tried to pass it all off as nothing unusual, which, unfortunately for him, it isn’t.
