My life took a wild detour off the beaten path last week when my friend “Ryan” was tasked with removing all of the weeds on a series of properties in Carlin, Nevada a good 34 miles from my house.

You really cannot live in Nevada or Texas or anywhere outside a city without a pick up truck, preferably one with a full size open truck bed because you need it to transport wood for a wood burning stove, pellets for a pellet stove, yard equipment, and you really need to take debris now and then to the dump. AH, the dump. I’ll write about garbage dumps someday and how the late Martin Alexander Clifton, V (1963-2018) almost killed me imitating a TV car dealership ad voice inviting folks to “COME ON DOWN” to the dump for lunch. At the base of the entrance to the dump in El Paso, Texas there was a roadside stall with tourist items and a food cart. I kid you not, they were selling burritos and tamales and the GODDESS knows what food at the DUMP!

The dump in Elko has some of the best fall foliage in the county. Yup. It does. But I digress YET again.

NOBODY wants to work. Ryan called everyone he knew to try to get someone to help with this job.

This video MIGHT give you an idea of why no one wanted to help PLUS everyone is collecting unemployment so why bother.

So, what is Scottish Thistle you ask?

But what you all might want to REALLY hear about is the ghost that Ryan heard taunting him the first day on the job. And how he met a local resident who told him in reply to “So has anything unusual ever happened around here” – Not really except for that weird kid laughing that no one ever sees!

I got to hear the ENTIRE account of how the day went when I brought Little Man and a change of clothes and toiletries to meet Ryan as he got out of the shower at the motel he had me book him into so he could get up early and be on the job site. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t usually meet guys – hell I have NEVER met a guy in a motel at an on-ramp to an interstate or any motel or hotel for that matter but it’s my job to help get this job done and that means getting food and ice to the site. And his dog. Ryan is never parted from his dog so I told him I’d bring him for a brief visit and then take him back with me. Best thing I ever did. Those two have a bond that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

You really should hear a ghost story sometime while sitting in a $75 a night hotel room with a dog and someone who can re-enact (photographic and videographic memory) blow by blow what happened. I’m the same way and it drives people crazy but Ryan has a real knack for it.

I’ll leave off here. I have to do more laundry for tomorrow.