I'm laying here in my bedroom with the window wide open. I live in the countryside so can hear nothing but the rumble of combines and heavy tractors them going through the village every once in a while. It's a sound of pure bliss and one of the many reasons I love living where I do.
It really irritates me when I hear some people moaning that they are stuck behind this large and often very slow machinery. It's almost as if their lives are so much more important than that farmers'. They probably forget that the slow tractor they are stuck behind for all of a few minutes is possibly hauling the ingredients that they will then later buy off the shelves.
Farm workers tend to be some of the hardest working people I know. They are up long before the crack of dawn and will be working into the early hours of the morning. It's something that I truly could not do.
I suppose I do have a personal reason for this post. My family have been working the land for many generations and it is lovely to see now my brother doing the same. He is capable of driving these huge vehicles safely and with courtesy for other road users yet there are still some people that feel the need to swear at him or make gestures. I'm not sure how they think they have any other way of getting from field to field without actual driving. Combines and tractors do not fly!
I've seen him and generations before him go without precious sleep and quality time with their own families in order to enable food to go on the supermarket shelves. I think a little respect and just an ounce of patience would work wonders. Either that, or maybe not live where tractors tend to be.