September 04, 2001 ~ It�s not the first time this has happened.
I goofed around this morning. Pokey, slow, lazy, whatever you want to call it, that was me. For the first time in who knows how long, I forgot to set my alarm, and it�s pretty much gone downhill from there. Son let me sleep late, then Susan called to say she was ill and wouldn�t be able to walk with me this morning, so naturally I thought, well, in THAT case, I don�t need to rush around to feed the animals. I can just take my time, have a leisurely breakfast, read the paper, spend a �few minutes� (ha ha ha ha ha!) on the computer, and then go outside. In fact, feeling quite virtuous, I slathered on the industrial-strength sunscreen, figuring I�d get the mowing done right after I fed the animals, and would get a really great start on the day. Yeah, right.
Funny thing, though. I noticed that it seemed awfully dark outside, given the time of day. And when the morning�s mist had cleared, the ground still looked... wet. Odd. And before I could even think another thought, the skies unleashed a torrent of rain. Not just a little, oh, no. Buckets and buckets, which is just what we need. But if you think I�m going outside in that, you�re mistaken. Not yet, anyway. I�ve learned to be patient. And I don�t want to chase away the rain. What usually happens is this -- I put on all the dorky rain gear... poncho, hat, boots, etc., go out and feed the babies. I come inside, get dried off (more or less), and -- Poof! -- the rain stops. So I�m really not lazy, I�m just trying to keep the rain coming down. You buying that? Well, it�s true. That, and I hate the dorky rain gear. It�s hard to see with that stuff on. It scares the horses; it scares the cats; if I look in the mirror, it almost scares me.
I did feed the porch cats, the ones who spend a lot of time on the porch. The house cats, of course, are taken care of. But the barn cats are probably saying a few ugly words just about now. I do believe I heard my name mentioned more than once. The horses... well, they sulk. They put their ears back. And then they poop. A lot. They are probably pooping great big piles of poop, way more than usual, letting me know what THEY think of my tardiness. Who do you think has to clean up that mess? You didn�t think horses were dumb, did you? Guess again.
It is getting later and later, and here I sit, NOT feeding the horses. It�s just about to the point where I have to go out there anyway. To do otherwise would be cruel and inhumane. So here I go, getting ready to get all dorked up, ugly camo-green poncho and all.
I know it�s going to stop raining.
You can blame me.
Later...
Okay, the deed is done, and everybody was just about as grumpy as I would expect. Except for Taffy, one of the barn cats -- he was really happy to see me. The others, I�m afraid, were about ready to fire me. My job security is hanging by a thread.
And as promised, it has... wait for it... stopped raining.
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