chainsawI had breakfast this morning with some friends at the Wimberley Café. It’s one of those local hangouts where you are sure to see someone you know. On this occasion,  my neighbor, who lives about a quarter mile up the hill from me, was at the next table.

Over breakfast, my friend told me about a local, eighty year old woman who was recovering from a rather nasty cut on her leg. It seems she was out cutting wood with her chainsaw when it somehow slipped and took a bite out of her leg.

While this story did remind me that those silly, orange chaps things the chainsaw people want one to wear might actually be a good idea, I was more encourage that octogenarians are out there wielding chainsaws with abandon. And so, I’m giving this determined and stalwart lady, the first ever Texas Pioneer Award.

Anyone else out there have stories of the enduring elderly holding up our frontier traditions?

Tidbits:

  1. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, recently wrote about the notion of a true American single payer system for health care. Krugman, P. Political ideology clogs path the better health care. Austin American Statesman, October 29, 2013. http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/krugman-the-big-kludge/nbZ8Q/
  2. There is a rather good overview of socialized medicine in Wikipedia. Socialized Medicine. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialized_medicine.
  3. My Mother-in-law turned 100 today (November 1, 2013).

Join us for a real-time discussion about questions raised by this essay on Tuesday from 12:00 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. See Discussion and SL tabs above for details. Link to the virtual meeting room: http://tinyurl.com/cjfx9ag.