I received a comm from PyjamaSam. It always brought a smirk to face to hear from him; the crazy adventures that seemed to populate his life unwittingly were an eternal well of mirth to me. As he began to speak, I realized the well was nowhere near running dry.

“So I bought a farm.” is how Sam began, to give you a small indication of how the conversation went.

It seemed Sam was on a quest for internal peace and quiet; his brilliant mind never able to shut itself off completely and enjoy the same relaxation many of us take for granted. There was always some scheme, some issue that needed solving, and he realized he was starting to go a little crazy. Of course, if one realizes one is going crazy, does that mean they aren’t? Or is the fact one is talking about one’s self a further indication of how far one has really gone around the bend? He went on like this for a good fifteen minutes before I managed to interject, wanting to know the reason for his call.

“Well, the farm needs work. I got 14 acres; grape vineyards, pear groves, peach trees, plum trees, a chicken coop, though a weasel got in last night and tore the heads off of all the chickens, a pigeon barn with about two tonnes of crap on the barn floor, a greenhouse in disarray, though it does have some lovely red onions in it, need to build me a fire pit, and a sixty year old tractor that somehow still functions, but barely. I’m going to automate the tractor eventually to tend the fields itself of course. You wouldn’t believe how tall the weeds are here, and then there’s the…” He had lost himself already in his incessant banter. His mouth was functioning on autopilot, his mind probably already re-analyzing each listed item for the thousandth time as he spoke, completely oblivious at this point that he hadn’t answered my question.

“Sam, for the love of crap!” I interjected, cutting him off.

“What?” he asked with the pure innocence of a child.

“What do you want from me?” I said, chuckling. With anyone else, I would’ve been far more impatient, but Sam was one of the few true friends I had during that stage of my lives, and I valued that greatly.

“Oh.” Sam said, somewhat embarrassed. “You’re the only guy I know that would find manual labour on a farm all day to be fun.” he said.

With that, we both laughed, and began making arrangements. A capsuleer had to be careful when traveling publicly; there were always those that could profit from knowing the locations of unpodded immortals. There had been a growing tension in the attitudes of the Empires’ populaces towards us pod pilots as of late. There had even been rumours of civilians managing to sneak aboard the “capsuleer only” levels of space stations; something nobody would ever have thought possible.

A public transport to the orbital station; a shuttle to the surface, a commuter train to the nearest rural station, then some old fashioned hitchhiking on the back of a dairy truck, and I made it inconspicuously to Sam’s farm.

One look around and I knew that for once he hadn’t been exaggerating about the state of things. The land was as wild as a jungle. What had I gotten myself into this time?

—

As an item of side-interest, I had sat across from a young local on the commuter train; one that seemed to be a fan of the Brutor tribe; one that refused to look at me directly, which I found amusing being a member of the Brutor tribe. I took a quick snapshot with my sunglasses, just to treasure the moment.

THE CONTEST

The contest is simple. Create a caption for the image above. It can be funny, witty, serious; anything you like. Post your caption in the comments below.

THE PRIZE

The winner of the Roc that Caption #2 contest will have their EVE Online character featured in a story here on Roc’s Ramblings, written by yours truly, as well as:

• 50 million of my ISK
• be a featured co-host on the Missions Collide podcast

THE RULES

Entrants may only submit one caption. All entries must be received by 11:59 PM EST, Friday August 13, 2010 to qualify. The entries will be judged by me alone. I will choose the winner based on what I personally find to be the best fitting caption.

Good luck!