Thursday, March 09, 2006

Mother Nature and the Apple Cart

The apples were rolling every which way but loose this morning. Mother Nature came during the night and totally upset my morning routine. About 3 a.m. the power went off. Didn't come back on until 6 a.m. So, what's to do when daylight is dawning and there's no reason to stay under the warm covers anymore, 'cept to stay warm, of course.

I did everything backward this morning, and I'll have to admit it created a nice but confusing change of pace. In fact, I'm writing this posting with clean, blow-dried hair. Can ya tell the difference? My horses were shocked when I showed up out there in my sweat pants two hours early. Wasn't much I could do inside the house once I'd gone to the bathroom.

No coffee, no early Internet reading. Couldn't even read the papers until it got lighter, so I figured I might as well feed the horses. They were happy. Then, I planned to walk down the snow-crusted driveway and retrieve the papers, cuz, by that time, it was getting lighter. I spotted Bill standing in the doorway surveying the situation with his miner's light strapped over his head. Bill's a Boy Scout; he's always prepared.

Just then, I noticed the porch light come on. "We're back in the 21st Century," I thought. I was actually kinda looking forward to roughing it for at least a couple of hours during this March snow/blow/ ice storm. That was not to be.

"Put the coffee on. I'll go get the papers," I yelled. Kiwi was confused. When it's dark, she gets to go to the end of the driveway with me as I get the papers. There's not much traffic on the road then. In the daylight, however, when I get the mail, she knows to remain back in the yard and wait for me. She knew that it wasn't mail gathering time, so she followed me halfway out the driveway with her Folgers can until I told her firmly to "Stay." She complied.

The coffee had just started dripping by the time I got back to the house, so I robbed from the pot which now had 300-proof caffeine rather than the usual 100-proof. That was a quick wake-up, which was good, because by the time I usually read the papers, I've drunk my first cup. The extra-strong caffeine failed to make the news seem much different this morning. Lots of sex problems going on in Spokane. What else is new?

I was kinda disappointed, though, to see that the Sandpoint's Planning and Zoning folks seem to be holding developers to much higher standards in downtown residential areas than they ever did to that farm down our country road that hit the chopping block last year. I guess there weren't enough of us in our rural neighborhood to yell at 'em and scare 'em when that one was going through their review.

Anyway, after reading the papers, I noticed that the cats weren't nearly as happy as my horses. I'd forgotten to feed them. That task normally occurs right after I've taken my bath and entered the kitchen for the first time around 5 a.m. So, they weren't purring. Internet reading time usually comes directly after cat-feeding time, so things were really mixed up, including some moods, at my house this morning.

Nonetheless, I'm looking at the clock and noting that the same things that get done every single morning at this house by 7:30 have been completed. Bill's eaten his breakfast. We've both made comments about Lawrence Fury's and Gretchen Ward's letters to the Daily Bee editor. Kiwi's had Festus' head in her mouth at least once, and Willie's toes are slime-covered. Bill's headed off to work. Kiwi's waiting here at my side to go out and feed the horses------sorry Kiwi, we already did that.

The only real difference right now is that Willie hasn't left to go to Newport. He'll not be doing that again, as yesterday was his last day as sports editor/general assignment reporter for the Miner newspaper. Last night, he brought home a big bouquet of beautiful balloons from his staff. I'm sure it was a tough day for everyone over that way as good byes were exchanged. He'll be going to Lightning Lube for an oil change and then he'll point that red car down the road toward Boise and on a new journey in his career.

This will be the fourth time we've adjusted to saying good bye since that first tear-jerking day back in 1995 when he went off to college. It's never any easier, but we've got the routine down, and because we do, we're just like Kiwi. We'll "stay here" and wish for the best for both Willie and Debbie.

So, now that I've got most of the apples back in the cart, I'll go about my normal day. Hope you all have a good one.

1 comment:

Bay Views said...

It is obvious to me that your problem was not the power outage...It was getting out of bed too early. Had you stayed in bed, the problem would have resolved itself.
The only other critizism I have, is that you were not my Journalism/English teacher.