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9N'er
07-10-2000 08:30:38
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A deep breath...a sigh. My 9N is outside the window idling away. It sounds really nice. I took the morning off from work. Last night, I rushed to the veterinary hospital. My 12 year companion Whimpy the wonder dog was put to sleep. Sadness. This morning, I drove 3 hours round trip to Lovell, Maine, to see Don Chandler who operates Lovell Garage. Inside, Don and another fella were working some tire irons on a front tractor rim..removing a tire. Amid the debris in the garage was an 800 split in half. A retired old fella sitting on a crate, and Don's assistant (who "doesn't work on the tractors") we're cajoling over something. A small town gararage in rural Maine, tractor parts everywhere, an old man sitting on a crate, and I walk in and say: "it looks like you'all are having too much fun now, get to work!" Don looks up, smile on his face, goes into the backroom while we step around the 800 in parts, move through tractor tires and parts laying on the floor and he hands me a new 9N coil. I ask about the resistors he uses...he opens an old steel cabinet and says: this resistor works for the 9N (ford part A8NN-12250-B). I said: "I'll take it." We discuss things and I say: "hey, on your front porch...tell me about those odd looking steel wheels...I just saw those steel wheels on an 8N picture what kind are they? He said: "I'm an Oliver man, and they go on an Oliver...they're called tip toe wheels." I said: "they look like paddles..." and he said, yeah, and they were used in the fields instead of the flat steel wheels during the war years, my Dad sold tractors then..." I said: well, they must be bone mashers to sit and drive with." To make a long story short, I drove home thinking about Whimpy, feeling sad, and Don has a dog with cancer too. About 5 days before Christmas this year, we lost a dog. Hit by a car...9 month old Lab and Chessy mix. Sad too. After we put her to sleep, the vet sends a symapthy card. In it, was a poem titled: "The Rainbow Bridge" essentially about a place where pets go and play, and don't want for anything, and are made whole or young again...and when they see their owner they break from the group, and greet their owner once again, licking, jumping etc. I tucked that poem away. Sort of forgot about it. Last night, I came home after I held Whimpy in my lap and the vet injected her. Her time came fast...and seemed painless. As I drove to the vet hospital Whimpy lay there on the van floor hyperventillating, but the pain subsiding...I gave her more Rymadil than prescribed to help her. In front of us, a rainbow appears, a full rainbow, all the colors of the spectrum, going from one mountain to a beautiful field on the other side of the arc. I looked at the rainbow and then looked at Whimpy, and said to "Whimp's": "Whimpy, I'm taking you to the other side of the rainbow now" ...she raised her head and then put it back down. Came home found the poem and remembered the title...and I said to my wife, tears rolling down my cheeks..."that was the sign I was looking for." Well, this morning, I put on the new coil, new resistor, put some gas into the cylinders...turned it over several times...and she fired up. She's idling still, smooth as ever as I type this story. The name of my 9N tractor? "The Whimpster." thank you Whimpy for being my companion, and thank you for your spirit. N-Boarders...just "Thank You." -9N'er
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