It's Dead, Jim

See, the thing about satellite radio is, if you don't turn it off all weekend you'll drain the battery in your truck. How do I know this, you might ask? Let's just say I dare to experiment in stupidity.

I've done this kind of thing before, of course, draining a battery or running out of gas on the highway. I've never drained all the oil out of an engine and ruined it -- twice -- like some relatives I could mention but still, I've had my share of stupidosity.

It feels different out in the country, though. Help's a lot further away, for one thing. If you need help in a suburb or city, usually someone can get there in just a few minutes and it's no big deal. But when you're far from others, you have to be more self-reliant. I think that's why farmers and ranchers and such are so deliberate about how they do things. If you always act in the same way, then you are sure of what the outcome will be.

So on the one hand, I felt like I'd backslid a little into city mode, draining the battery by not following the usual routine and putting myself in a bind. But on the other hand, I was glad that just a week before I'd put jumper cables in the truck and checked them over to make sure they worked. So it was just a few moments' work to jump the truck and I was off to work.

My own version of the Texas Two-Step I suppose -- one step backwards and one step forwards.