I was driving South on 680 yesterday and a flat bed trailer caught my eye. There was nothing special about it, except the color of the thing it was carrying. It was caring a tractor, an orange tractor, a Kubota orange tractor.

Then a flood of memories came to me.

While growing up, I lived on a small horse ranch. One day, my dad decided we needed a tractor. My whole life I’ve beed around tractors, so it was cool we were going to get one. I knew in my head what tractors looked like: they were green. They were made by John Deere. All tractors were like that.

But my dad brought home an orange tractor. What the hell is an orange tractor? Then it hit me. Anyone can make a tractor. Why couldn’t the Japanesse make a tractor? What’s so special about green, anyway?

It’s fun to remember when your world gets tilted a little. It keeps me grounded. I’d like to think I spend all day tilting my world a little.

As a side note, it’s a little surprising my brother and I aren’t dead from all the times we abused that tractor. It had an articulated bucket on the front. I remember taking turns to riding it up and down. Damn that was fun.