Get A Clue

Bessie Anne has her "senior moments" these days.  I can see the wheels turning when she walks into a room, stands there, and tries to remember why she came in there in the first place.  I know that feeling well.  She's nearly if not completely deaf.  She doesn't hear trucks pull up in the driveway anymore and I can stand directly behind her and yell my loudest and she doesn't even turn her head.

While her eyesight is fading, she's not yet blind and I find it fascinating how she watches me for clues.  It's a good thing that, when she was a puppy, I taught her hand signals as well as voice commands.  She knows "stop" and "come," but they only work if she's looking at me.  It's the everyday things that she watches me for.  For instance, Bess is usually up on the bed behind me while I'm at the computer.  I go nowhere alone, but when I'm done in the morning and head out to start the day, she waits until I actually turn off the hall light to jump down.  She knows that I'm infamous for leaving the room, forget something I need and head back (sometimes several times).  Not one to waste energy, she stays on the bed until she gets that clue.  She watches to see how fast I walk through the house.  My usual slow pace gets little reaction, but if quickly, something exciting might happen and she wouldn't want to miss out and she follows.  These are just a few examples.  Bess is a pretty smart cookie, infirmities notwithstanding.

This the same lilac hedge I posted just a few days ago, now almost bare.  It's another clue that fall is here.  In addition, the crows are starting to arrive.  I'm always amazed at the range of their vocabulary.  It's not that I listen in on their conversations, but they don't know the meaning of quiet talk and I can't help overhearing.  (It's a little like people on cellphones in the store.)  Even though I no longer see ground squirrels in the barn, I know they are there and getting ready for winter because they're stealing wipes from the bucket to line their burrows.

I am so not looking forward to the time change coming soon.  I'm already putting the girls to bed by six o'clock now instead of nearly nine in the summer, and it won't be long until it's four-thirty.  It makes for such a long, long evening.  I'm like the goats; dark means bedtime.  Sigh.