Dead Battery(ies)

One of those cycles has begun when the battery in this, that, and the other thing dies.  Sometimes they expire one at a time, sometimes all together or in groups.  I could deal with the living room wall clock slowing down five minutes, but gasping its last at fifteen minutes behind told me it's time to put the poor thing out of its misery and replace the battery.  A night ago, the batteries in the bedroom TV remote died without warning; no change the channel, no turn it off.  Dead, dead, dead.  Drat.  On the verge of sleep, the turning-it-off problem was solved by using the timer remote so I didn't have to listen to infomercials all night in my dreams.  One drawer in the kitchen is devoted to batteries, batteries of all sizes:  A, AA, AAA, C, D, and 9-volt (why are there no B batteries?).  As has been said before, it doesn't pay to run out of any staple up here, so batteries immediately went up on the board as soon as I'd replaced them in clock and remote.  I also kicked myself for not buying the 8-pack instead of the 4.  Once the cycle starts, I can anticipate more dead-o's in the near future.  The ones I really hate are the smoke alarms which signal imminent demise with an intermittent high-pitched scream that drives the cats and dog into a panic and doesn't do my heart rate any good, either.

There have been so many sightings of and/or killings by mountain lions in this area lately that the goats being spooked last night had me on high alert.  A task that normally takes about five minutes lasted a good half-hour last evening as no one wanted to go to bed.  I tried explaining that they'd be safer inside behind locked doors, but the girls clumped together, snorting and staring into Robert's vineyard.  Patience is definitely a virtue when working with animals, but mine was getting stretched thin as the sun dropped and dark was coming on.  Finally, slowly and one at a time, the girls gave up and hesitatingly went to their rooms.  By that time, my own batteries were getting low and I went back to the house to get recharged.