VIRUS

Roy and prince

VIRUS

Diary Revelations

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The earthquake epicenter that rattled west Texas and southeastern New Mexico this week was near Mentone.

            Most thought it a rare occurrence being in Texas, but Luke sent a link showing Mentone is a regular moving and shaking sort of place. In fact, it has to be considered the Parkfield (California) of Texas. Looking at the statistics, it shared a temblor with its counterpart the same day the only differences being the magnitude (5.0 versus 2.7) and time (midmorning versus late afternoon).

            Parkfield, tucked in the Cholame Valley just north of where James Dean was killed in a car wreck on a fateful day in 1955, is square dab in the middle of some of the greatest cow country in the world at least this time of year when the grass is as green as Ireland and the wind seldom blows. Mentone, lying off the escarpment of the Guadalupes northwest of Pecos where the wind seldom stops blowing shares a cow country kinship, and, this year, with the blessing of moisture, offers hope for its own, modified version of some place green.

            Yessiree, Texas and California are thrust into the limelight of a green mass of moving and shaking.

Of course, this offers the opportunity to rub Luke and his posse of old time Texians with a dose of growing reality, and, that is, not too far from their cow country a most virulent form of liberalism seems to be taking root. It varies from the California variety only by the miles between the two land masses. It threatens the soul of Texas like nothing has since the consequences of why the Alamo was defended and the war for Texas independence was fought.

Indeed, there is more than a single virus scourge being fought this morning. On one hand there is the one most notable in the press, and, on the other, there is the one that has contributed to the spread of the biological form through open borders, illegal immigration, political correctness, and a progressive world stage.

The question is which is the more virulent form?

Roy and prince

On such an occasion, it is no surprise the thought of Roy came up.

I can remember the morning he told me he had deducted there wasn’t much of a difference between him and the president. The only substantive difference was the fact the president was a bigger cattle trader than he was. In other words, we all put our pants on the same way.

This led to the next thought and that was the fact the first notable royal has been tested positive for COVID 19. Prince Charles has tested positive, and, as a result, has dropped back into the woodwork in Scotland to ride it out. There is no doubt he will have the best of the best making him hot chicken soup, taking his pulse and temperature, and keeping the commoners at the gate at bay and in their place.

The question, though, is what he did to contain the virus when he became contagious and how prudent he was in avoiding its spread to the loyal subjects of mother earth. Since Roy is no longer with us (and wouldn’t approve of being compared to the prince anyway), a comparison of the aged prince’s diary and mine is in order.

Who was more prudent in safeguarding the world from the virus’ potential ravages?

The royal hotline made it abundantly clear the prince saw his mother, the Queen, the day before he became contagious. How that is confirmed is a mystery to most of us, but my day the prince was declared contagious was recorded as wet so I decided not to track the ranch roads. Instead, I wrote checks for the 15^th including signing the front side of payroll checks. The rain gauge was also checked numerous times. Concluding those tasks, the thought did not immediately occur to me that the prince may never have performed either of those tasks before.

Diary Revelations

On March 10, Chuck hosted a high brow water aid summit where the impact of climate change on drinking water was discussed. On the same day, I stood on my head in a 24” hole and repaired a leak in an old ¾’ black iron pipe feeding a worn-out fiber glass trough where 15 head of fresh branded calves were being weaned. I would surmise his learned points made in the King’s language had nothing on my colorful comments when the I couldn’t break the elbow loose in the bottom of the hole.

On March 11, Charles held court at his own trust event. He greeted the likes of Ant and Dec, Pierce Brosnan, and the Stones’ Ronnie Wood with hand’s safe etiquette. That was the same day we retrofitted a tool box in the covered chute area to store our branding irons, calf pullers, emasculators, dehorners, OB chains, and various other paraphernalia that used to take 20 minutes to round up when a single old cow was run in the chute to lance an abscess on her jaw.

On the 12^th, the Duchess of Cornwall’s hubby first attended an investiture ceremony before he hosted a reception to raise money for the Australian brush fires. That was the same day 30 bulls were run through the chute to have their penile sheaths scraped in a no mock investiture for the purpose of trichomonas testing.

On the 13^th the Queen’s eldest son was declared contagious. On the same day, we watched as the cattle markets did their level best to mimic the gyrations of the stock market. We knew dang well what the spread of both disease or emotion from one person or organism to the other by direct or indirect contact meant.

It was bearing down on us from all directions!

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “The operative word for the agent spreading disease and or chaos is vector.”