Three Wise Men

It's thunder storming in December....am I the only one who thinks this is odd?
Hello?

Well, I have my rain pants ready to go so it's all good.
There are very few things worse than wet pants...letmetellYOU.

After the cluster that was last week, it has become quite evident that I am not doing this alone.
By "this" I mean, this farming thing.

Sure, I have 4 Hondurans who give me anxiety, Teddie who make me think I'm a genius, The Heat who signs my paycheck, and Chuck who has to be there no matter what who loves me.
I'm not talking about them though.
I'm talking about the 3 guys whom I rely on for help in different ways.
I really don't feel like I can do my job without these guys.
...they consistently keep me from taking it out on YOU!
YouCanThankMeLater.

The first of the Wise Men is Mr. FixerOfAllThingsDairy, Eddie!
(NOT Eddie, of the duo "Teddie", mind you.)

Eddie has been there from the beginning.
He is the FIRST person I ever called when I had a problem with any of my dairy equipment.

Note: I DO NOT fix things. I break them. I have accepted it, and so should you.

Water heaters, vacuum pumps, milk tanks, parlor doors and broken hearts.
Eddie's your man.

I call, he shows up and lets me talk his ear off while he is fixing whatever is broken...and my personal problems as well.
It works out.
Though I'm not entirely sure what he gets out of this relationship.

Eddie always says that when he retires he will come work for me...I think he is halfway serious.
...maybe he will work for baked goods and witty comments.
(Those are really all I'm good for anyway.)

The second Wise Man is Dr. TheSmartestManIKnow, Kirksy!

I just call him Kirksy..I'm not sure why.
He has a first name, Glen, but for some reason I feel like he is my teammate so I must call him by his last name...or something like that.

Kirksy knows a whole lot about EVERYthing.
Tru dat.
...he also has like 8 kids.
A good man, that Dr. Kirksy.

I can remember the FIRST time I ever had to IV a cow...I had no clue what I was doing.
I called him at 11:30 PM..yeah, I know...and told him about my situation.
He said she needs calcium via IV.
I said, "when can you be here?"....heheheheh.

I believe I called him every ten minutes for the nextTHREEhours.
I worry a lot.

Now I call, describe what's going on, and he tells me how to handle it.
He has trained me well.
Thanks to him, I feel like I can handle almost any situation thrown my way.

Earlier in the year he found out he had a brain tumor, and would have to have radiation.
...he told me all of this while preg-checking my cows.

The week after his radiation he was back at it...never missed a lick.
He's pretty awesome, if you ask me.

The third Wise Man is HaulerOfTheJuice, Tom!
(He drives the milk truck....my milkshake brings him to the yard. Heh.)

I know that if anything is wrong with my milk tank...temperature, washing etc...Tom will tell me.
That is very very important in this business.

He loves his job, and is always joking around.
He is the man behind the chocolate roses, and fresh picked flowers left in my office.
In return I leave him alllll kinds of baked goods.
It's a fair trade.

The past month a man named Ricky has been picking up my milk, in order to help Tom out.
Tom has quite a few loads to haul.

Therefore, Tom and I have not been talking as often, and I just assumed he was pretty busy.
Occasionally we will text each other just to check in, but nothing more than that.

Milk haulers are a dime and dozen, really.  GOOD milk haulers are priceless.
Tom is a good man and a great hauler.

I saw Ricky here on Saturday, and he informed me that Tom probably won't ever haul milk again.
What?!

Tom has acute colon cancer that is also affecting his liver.
He is to have surgery this month, on the 14th.

His doctor is not very optimistic.
This is a tough pill to swallow.
I had no idea.

After Ricky told me all of this, I immediately thanked him and sent Tom a text,
"What are you doing getting sick on me??!!"
He responded, "It's not looking good".
I shot back, "Well this might get you down, but it won't take you out".
He replied, "I'm not so sure".
I fired back with, "I need you!".
And he said, "You're my best bud".

He meant it.
I remember the text I sent him on Thanksgiving telling him I am thankful him and his friendship.
At the time, the idea of sending the text just popped into my head.  It wasn't something I normally did.

Now I know why.

Two Wise Men just doesn't make sense.