Geezers collection

My work (tapering off during retirement) gets me in contact with a wide variety of people. This week I was at a cancer institute working on a system to catalog cancer tissue and make it available to researchers. Along the way I met the pathologist, a bit of an unusual character. He is the only guy I ever met with both a DVM and a MD. Part of the discussion was about an instrument data station. I have no respect for instrument manufacturers, at least for their data station development. So I was off on a rant, telling the group that they should find the designer of the data station and emasculate him. Dr. DVM pipes up and mentions that he has done plenty of emasculations, an unusual admission, in my experience.

Later on I asked him outright if he got the DVM so he could do emasculations. "No," he said, "by the time I was 10 I had done thousands of them. The surrounding farmers used to come by and ask me to come back with them to their farms and do the castrations. I was very good at it by the time I was 10."

When we got done I drove down to my Dad's house, on the way home. We drove down the local roads to dinner around 6 or so. He was recounting his winter adventures, hitting black ice and sliding off the road backwards. He told me a story of his truck ending up on its side one time. A passer-by stopped and asked Dad if he could help. Dad said "Sure, maybe you could hold that door open so it doesn't keep falling shut while I climb out." Then Dad walked home (about 5 or 6 miles).

On another occasion Dad tipped his tractor over on himself, pretty much destroying his knee. When he had extricated himself from the wreck, he slid backwards on his ass, dragging his bad leg a quarter mile down the hill into the yard. Then he politely asked Mom to get some help.

I get a lot of pleasure meeting people with unusual experiences. I envy them and appreciate their attitude that their experiences are just a normal activities for them. I'm not sure whether this attitude is a feature of individuals or understatement by people who live in the countryside. It sure makes a nice contrast to my normal day-to-day.