Coffee Percs

                    –Grady Bryant  (Preacher and the Bounty Hunter)

 

Come on in Pard, yuh do realize that this is the last Saturday in April.  My mercy, one third of the year has already gone past.  Whoopee, and what is there to show for it?  That’s why I like readin’ Ecclesiastes for it tells the truth ’bout life.  Pard, I was thinkin’ some, not much, the ol’ graymatter don’t work in deep thoughts much any more, but here’s what I had on my mind.  Yuh know how I always teasin’ly remind you to check yur cinch.  Well, it’s in fun, but there is some truth there.  We just don’t know what might be come our way or what might be on the trail a-waitin’ for us.  Pard, yuh come be drivin’ along one of these asphalt roads and from four lanes away some fool takes off and runs right into yuh.  Why it almost happened to me the other night.  The missus and I were drivin’ home from the daughter’s and this truck came from nowhere, in the midst of traffic, goin’ close to a hundred and almost clipped me.  I had to haul up on the ol’ steel mount or he most likely would have got me.

     I tell yuh straight out, Pard, the wife and I sure were thankin’ the Lord.  Whooeee, it was a close one.  Gave me somethin’ to chew on for the rest of the way home.  What if the Lord hadn’t sent an angel to help me gather in the ol’ steel strawberry roan?  What if’n He decided it was time to go on up to that heavenly ranch in the sky?  Pard, we just don’t be a-knowin’, we do our best, and that’s all we can be doin’.  Why, I’ve come to realize that not all days are sunshine and waterin’ holes; Pard, let me tell yuh, there are those days that are mud, sweat, and blood.  The broncs yuh ride, well, Pard, some of them have a mind of their own, an’ yuh can get left high in the saddle and plunk down on the earth.  Why I heard one ol’ boy a tellin’ someone that he’d never been throw’d, but had himself some fanciful dismounts in his time.

     Now let me tell yuh one more thing whilst yur sippin’ on that coffee.  Good, some of that Black Gold.  Yuh do know that Folgers was the first major coffee company out in California to take care of those Forty-Niners?  But that’s another story for another Saturday.  Pard, the truth of the matter is like that ol’ bronc-buster who had the delightful dismounts; it’s all in the way yuh look at things.  Why that ol’ boy who wrote that the coffee was so bad he had to spit it out had an issue.  Was it bad coffee ’cause it was too weak, or too strong?  Maybe it was a cino, or full of cow juice, or bee’s fixin’s.  See Pard, I’ve learnt up to a point, still workin’ on it, that God is in control and He has everythin’ under control, even when yuh don’t check yur cinch.  So much of what we do, how we feel, and how we go about the day depends on how we deal with the obstacles or the wrecks or the hostiles that may come our way durin’ the day.  One thing we must never forget Pard, God don’t make no weak coffee; He’s there to make all things possible if’n we keep trustin’ in Him.

     Yuh needs to be on yur way, I know.  I notice yuh didn’t spit out none of my coffee.  Ahhhh, smile, drink it with the right attitude, and just because the good Lord is lookin’ out for yuh is not reason not to be a-checkin’ yur cinch.

      Vaya con Dios.