Can We Have A Moment of Silence?.....

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So goodbye Yellow Brick Road,

Where the dogs of society howl,

You can't plant me in your penthouse,

I'm going back to my plough...

("Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

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Someday little girl you'll wonder what life's about,

What others have known--- few battles are won alone,

So, you'll look around to find,

Someone who's kind-- someone who is fearless like you...

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("True Grit", Glenn Campbell)

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Hats off, folks... an era has passed...

Bo's trusty Jeep, blessed road nurse vehicle, crosser of valleys, forger through storms, forder through flash floods, and 4-wheeler over tree-trunks and boulders.....

.....has been sold.

Let us all have a moment of silence for this legendary vehicle, which unselfishly and steadfastly gave it's life in the service of others.

This hard-working four-wheel drive Jeep Wrangler Sport was equipped with "shift-on-the-fly" 4-wheeling capacity, all-weather tires to prevent skids on ice or sleet, an extra electrical system to defrost windows during emergencies like blizzards, a protective hard top and roll-bar in case I "rolled" on dangerous Texas cattle-country terrain, floor drains in case of flooding--- and it was purchased very specifically as the "indestructable" and necessary transport of me and my nursing equipment during the rough years of my profession as a Road Nurse.

And it worked its heart out for me!! It carried me to see my patients through long years of sunshine, rain, or snow; storm or calm; inner city or Texas ranch country; chicken farms or fruit orchards; good times or bad---all during a wild-west cacophony of human episodes of drama, comedy, heartbreak, and horror---and it just tears me up to have to sell the thing.

This Jeep had HEART. And it never failed to carry me and my nursing bag to my destination--- a seriously ill patient who needed me. It never failed me--- NEVER, I tell you, NEVER....sniff...

No, it never failed me nor my patients--- nor my fellow Road Nurses, those good ole girls I worked alongside in the wilds of the vast, sprawling lands of Texan cattle country.

But, like its owner, the Jeep is battered and bruised from many long years of work in the nursing profession. Also like its owner, it was injured and worn out, repeatedly, in the line of duty (its mechanical innards--- and its owner's broken back and joints) and is now finding it necessary to bow out of the profession prematurely and with reluctance---yet laden with thousands of memories--- some good, some not so good....

Here are some of the highlights of this wondrous Jeep's life during my long Road Nurse career, much of it in the ranch and cattle-lands of Texas (and please forgive the varying blog layouts or styles---some of these were written in the "early years"):

Where the Texan part of the story began---at first simply to talk about knitting, but which turned into something much more complicated.... in a hicktown far, far away....

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2006/05/long-time-ago-in-hicktown-far-far-away.html

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Er...and then there was the time I caused a cattle stampede and thought I was going to get myself killed in a very un-glamourous way:

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2007/02/cow-pies-or-donkey-pies-i-dont-know.html *

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During the tragic, yet glorious years of the infamous Band of Sisters:

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2007/02/band-of-sisters.html

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When the Jeep actually forded a deadly flash flood that I had stupidly attempted to drive through--- but the faithful Jeep saved my idiot ass:

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2007/08/are-ya-chicken-mcfly.html

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The plight of small-town Road Nurses in Podunk---when we ourselves were not always strong or healthy....

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2007/02/steel-bluebonnets.html

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During the years I learned to deal with Texan patients:

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2007/10/this-aint-my-first-rodeo-or-please.html

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And my beloved Jeep never got its feelings hurt, even when I was in a completely bitchy mood--- like when they called me Eddie Haskell:

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2006/12/they-call-me-eddie-haskell.html

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Ah yes...and who could forget the Rough Girls....

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2006/12/rough-girls.html

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The times I gratefully realized that you never have to shoot an injured Jeep with a broken axle--- versus in the "olden days" when Road Nurses had to ride horses (and where I describe what I say verbally to patients... versus what I'm REALLY THINKING):

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2006/09/at-least-you-never-have-to-shoot-jeep.html

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Ah yes....can't leave out the tales of Legendary Road Nurses (and please forgive that some paragraphs run into each other due to my crappy HTML skills):

http://bohemianknitter.blogspot.com/2006/07/war-stories.html

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....aahhh, but there's a million stories.....and the Jeep was there through it all...

But now it's time that the Jeep is allowed to retire and age gracefully---and it has been sold to a trusted someone who will give it a softer life rambling around a nice peaceful Texan "deer lease"--- or ferrying bargain-hunters around to flea markets and such....

Roll on, Noble Jeep.... roll on......

How I will miss thee......

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