Lemonade

We got up at 5am on Saturday to do some tractor work in order to beat the heat and wind. The tractor didn't start. Dead battery. The battery guy said they only last about 2 years in this desert climate. The sunrise was nice but now what? Flexibility seems to be the grape farmers mantra. I can't recall how many times Joan and I have organized some sort of schedule of tasks only to be derailed by rain, lightning, heat, wind, bugs, malfunctioning equipment, new disasters, blown up irrigation, simple repairs gone horribly wrong, injuries, bad moods, you name it. This may be Arizona wine country, but it's pretty isolated out here. I can't exactly call the Winery Cooperative Tractor Repair Guy or Gal to come give me a fix. So a dead tractor battery meant postponing that piece of work. Cursing my skinned knuckles as I wrestle the old battery out of the tractor. Dropping a chunk of change on a new battery. Anticipating more skinned knuckles getting the new one where it belongs. Waking up at 5 am again, etc, etc. You get the idea. But in truth I feel pretty fortunate to be fighting this battle and not some life/death struggle in the Middle East, Africa, or some other part of this earth. Peace and Happy Independence Day.