I am sure in every family, at one time or another, the man of the family shoots a possum in the laundry room. The shooting happened a few minutes before he rushed out the door, around 10:30 at night, to go to work. On his way out the door he yelled, " I had to shoot a possum in the laundry room. Don't worry about the mess. I will clean it up in the morning." Sounded normal to me.
Our youngest daughter, Melodi, knocked on my bedroom door and said, " By any chance did Dad just shoot something in our laundry room?"
"Why yes he did darlin'...it was a possum...he will take care of it in the morning. Now go back to sleep and don't worry. Everything is fine." This was the best motherly advice I could give on the spur of the moment. What followed were several rounds of belly laughter accompanied by every crazy story we could remember. Melodi crawled in bed with me and we laughed until we cried. I am sure this is a common mother and daughter bonding moment in many homes across America; if not it should be. There are times when life is down right funny.
The only room in our home to catch fire was the bathroom. I did not think this was funny or unusual, until Lisa's boyfriend brought this fact to our attention. If memory serves me right, he tried to say, while laughing out loud in the school's lunch room, "No one has their bathroom catch on fire! It is always some other room. Honestly sweetheart, you have the oddest family I have ever known." Hmmm...I am thrilled Lisa did not marry 'sweetheart'. I am sure thousands of families have had their bathroom almost burn down on the coldest, snow covered, meanest night of winter.. silly boy.
There are too many instances to write down. We have been married 45 years and each year has had its share of peculiarities. Last Saturday night, we may have reached an all time high in our home. The year isn't over yet so one never knows for sure.
It rained and stormed Saturday night, at times the thunder shook our home. In the early morning hours the storm raged, lightning struck our phone line and knocked out the service. Tommy and I heard the storms romping through our dreams, in the distant depths of our sleep. We forgot our dogs were outside, sleeping in the garage. As a rule, they sleep in the house. Our grandkids had spent the past two nights with us and the dogs slept on blankets in the garage while Jacy and Logan were here.
I woke up around 6:30 a.m. I was surprised to see our German shepherd, Sabella, in the house and soaking wet. I figured Tommy woke up during the night and let her in. Sandy, our lab, is deaf and would not know it stormed until she woke up the next morning and stepped in little rivers of water and mud in our driveway. She would be surprised as she waddled to the back door.
I made coffee and proceeded to dry Sabella off with three large towels. She was soaked. About this time, Tommy woke up, walks down the hall and sees Sabella. I asked him what time he let her inside. Tommy informed me he did not let her in. We looked at each other and at the back door. It was still locked. Words failed. We had not had enough coffee yet to figure out much of anything.
We were on our second cup of coffee when I noticed the coffee table in front of our living room window was messed up; a few of the books were in the floor and the lamp shade was crooked . I remember saying, "Man, the winds must have really gotten rough to blow things around like that. Shhhh, what a mess!" About that time, Tommy sees a rip in the screen. It was about a foot long and at least eighteen inches above the table. It was closed so I did not notice it from across the room.
Both of us got up to check out the screen. Sabella walked into the kitchen far away from the window. She thought she was in TROUBLE. We understand Sabella. Our fearless dog is terrified of storms. She wanted in her house. Her humans were asleep with the door locked, so she took matters into her own paws. She climbed up on the temporary patio I have in front of the living room window, climbed in the biggest pot of yellow daisies growing under the window and clawed the screen until there was a rip wide enough for her to get her head through. Once the head was through, everything else followed. It sort of reminded me of giving birth...
I wasn't convinced 100% this was what happened. The more we talked about it...the more sense it made. The first time it thunders or lightning flashes, Sabella finds a place to hide. It does not matter to her that she is safe and dry, in our home and we are within arms reach. To be caught outside in a storm must have been a horrible experience for her. I am sure she was frightened beyond barks. Also after Tommy and I got up she was afraid she was in trouble for the mess she made. It started to rain again and she ran and hid. Sabella wasn't in trouble. I remember last week when a black snake was lying across my patio table. If I had been outside and the door was locked, I hate to think what I would have done.
All of these weird memories make up a huge portion of our lives. It is seldom boring at the Carter home. On the rare occasion it does get boring, we go somewhere or sit around telling all the stories of the "do you remember?" sort. It always helps to have a back up plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment