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I Didn't Know How Long I'd Survive
我不知道自己還能活多久
The morning of Good Friday started like any other for Kurt Kaser, a third-generation farmer in northeast Nebraska.
對內布拉斯加州東北部的第三代農民庫爾特·卡斯爾來說，耶穌受難日的早晨像平時一樣開始了。
The 63-year-old, taciturn and as lean as a fence post, woke around 5:30, his wife, Lori Kaser, by his side.
這位63歲的老人沉默寡言、身體瘦弱，他大約在五點半左右醒來，妻子洛莉·凱瑟就在他身邊。
He lit a cigarette, pulled on his muck boots, stuck an old pocketknife in a front pocket, and headed outside to start his day.
他點上一支煙，穿上他的破靴子，把一把舊的小刀插在前面的口袋里，然后出去了，他的一天開始了。
With 3,000 hogs and roughly 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans, not to mention a small trucking business,
庫爾特有3000頭豬和大約1500英畝的玉米和大豆，更不用說還有一家小型卡車運輸公司。
Kurt's to-do list never really shrank so much as recycled itself, though he understood all too well the dangers of rushing on the job.
庫爾特的待辦清單從來沒有這么縮水過，盡管他非常清楚匆忙開工的危險性。
In sixth grade, he'd jumped down from his father's tractor only to land with one foot inside the corn picker.
六年級時，他從父親的拖拉機上跳下來，結果一只腳伸進了玉米采摘機。
Though he didn't break any bones, the teeth mauled his foot and ankle so badly he spent the next three months in and out of a hospital bed,
雖然他沒有骨折，但輪齒嚴重地損傷了他的腳和腳踝。在接下來的三個月里，他多次住院，
the surgeons finally grafting skin from the top of his leg to the bottom before it could fully repair.
外科醫生們終于將其皮膚從大腿頂部移植到底部，然后才完全修復。
"Everybody gets in a hurry and we just don't think," he says. "I got lucky on that one."
“每個人都很著急，我們只是不去想，”他說，“我在這件事上很幸運。”
On this Friday morning in 2019, he sent a few of his hired hands out to load some corn, then hopped in a grain truck himself to do the same.
2019年的這個周五早上，他派出幾個雇工出去裝玉米，然后自己跳上了一輛谷物卡車做同樣的事情。
It was a beautiful day for a drive, Kurt remembers.
庫爾特回憶說，那天是個開車的好日子，
Crisp and clear and, if the meteorologists were to be trusted, headed for the upper 60s by late afternoon.
涼爽、晴朗，如果氣象員可信的話，下午晚些時候溫度將為15度左右。
No rain, thank God—the Midwest and Great Plains had just endured historic flooding that destroyed a billion dollars' worth of crops.
感謝上帝，沒有下雨，中西部和大平原地區剛剛經歷了歷史性的洪水，摧毀了價值10億美元的農作物。
And only the slightest northwest breeze in Thurston County.
瑟斯頓縣只有輕微的西北風。
He'd lived there, just a few miles outside of small-town Pender (population 1,100),
他就住在那里，離彭德小鎮（人口1100）只有幾英里遠，
his entire life—long enough to know the fickleness of spring and appreciate a calm and sunny morning when he caught one.
他的一生足以體會春天的變化無常，當他遇到這樣的日子時，就會讓自己享受一個寧靜而陽光明媚的早晨。
Long enough to marry Lori and raise a son and two daughters.
他娶了洛莉，育有一子兩女。
Long enough to stumble and stand again, to crutch on booze and finally cut loose, to feel his community supporting him when he needed it the most.
他跌倒后又站起來，酗酒成癮后，最終又戒了酒，在他最需要幫助的時候感受到了所在社區的支持。
