Wicked

Nature has a wicked sense of humor and she played a mean game of Gotcha yesterday.  The morning was cool, sunny and bright.  I should have seen the old girl lurking behind the few white puffy cotton ball clouds in the blue, blue sky, but I went on about chores blissfully unaware.  Throughout the morning, I put the electronic servants to work washing dishes and doing laundry while I settled in to watch NASCAR.  Speaking of laundry, I now have four sets of bibbies and can get about a week's wear from each unless there is a barnyard disaster.  Unrolling cuffs from the three sets in the basket was like going on an archeological dig.  In addition to the alfalfa stems and leaves and the accumulated dirt, I could trace back three weeks of weed seeds, from burrs to foxtails.  Each set had something different.  Brushing out the detritus has to be done over a wastebasket because of the mess.  At any rate, I left the washing machine chugging away and went to watch the cars go round and round.  I had plenty of time to go to the feed store later.  That was probably the thought in my mind as my eyes closed for the obligatory nap.  Waking about a half-hour later, yikes!  Nature had snuck in, marshaled her troops, and dark clouds covered the sky.  "Come on, Bess, we have to boogie!"  One or two raindrops hit the windshield on the way to Mt. Aukum and I had my fingers crossed.  Yeah, how'd that work for you?  While I was paying for my purchases and the poor guy was loading the truck, the skies opened up and it was pouring.  Ratchafratch.  Bessie Anne and I hustled home through the hills and I was reminded that I was carrying new windshield wipers in the truck.  A fat lot of good they were doing behind the seat.  Pulling up in front of the feed shed, I struggled to pull slippery wet sacks, the seventy-five and fifty-pound varieties, from the bed of the pickup and into the shed as it continued to pour rain.  Huffing and puffing, I parked the truck and Bess and I made a dash for the house.  Bess ate her cookies on the porch and I went to change my soggy jacket.  And then, of course, the rain stopped.  I swear I could hear Nature chuckling as she murmured, "Gotcha!"

I thought she might have another go at me at sundown, but she only waved goodbye as I put the goats to bed.