This has been a very tough couple of weeks for me and Sarah.
Walter, my mom’s repair man, has been running in and out of the house for days and days. He keeps making stinky painting smells and banging on things. Sarah and I have been trying to keep up with all our barking and monitoring of the situation, but frankly, it’s EXHAUSTING. We have practically run our short little legs to nubins keeping up with it all.
Now, with everyone gone, Mom and I (oh, and Sarah) are enjoying the quiet. Mom is also recuperating from a bit of a strange situation today.
See, coming back from the gym after lunch, she was driving past the Catholic church in our little town. Out front a woman was jumping up and down and waving her arms, looking frantic. My mom pulled over to see what the emergency was. Surely there must be a fire, a heart attack or some such emergency that required assistance, right?
As mom stopped and began to fumble for the window button in my dad’s unfamiliar car, THE WOMAN JUMPED INTO THE CAR!
“Thanks for the ride! I really appreciate it!”
What?!? Mom doesn’t pick up hitchhikers! In fact, this woman wasn’t a hitchhiker. She was someone signaling an emergency. Or so Mom thought anyway.
Well, the woman strapped herself in and proceeded to tell Mom that she needed to go to the apartment complex about a mile up the road, all the while thanking her profusely for kindly stopping to pick her up.
Mom said that the woman was too drunk to do any real harm aside from gassing up the car. And since she was hardly wearing any clothes she couldn’t be concealing a weapon. So Mom went ahead and took her there, figuring it would just be faster than trying to convince the woman that she was only stopping for a fire or heart attack, not to give anyone a ride.
It has taken all afternoon for the boozy smell to wear out of Dad’s car. I noticed that Mom also spent some time figuring out how to work the locks and windows on Dad’s car too so it doesn’t happen again.
By the way, I just took a look at Mom’s To-Do list for the weekend. Some of the items:
- Make goat cheese
- Make parmesan cheese
- Mow the lawn
- Clear tomatoes and store Texas tomato cages
- Spread manure
- Turn compost pile
- Rake leaves
- Cut back wisteria vine
- Plant 1,000 bulbs
- Transplant bushes
- Repot some houseplants
- Finish re-organizing kitchen cabinets
- Make coming home dinner for Dad and Ben
I have a pool going on how many of these items she gets done. Email me if you want in.
Arf Arf!
–Sophie (Bumblebee’s Dog)
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Dear Sophie, I dare say that you won’t have to worry about trying to keep up with Mom while she is doing her chores this weekend. There are far too many things on her list and she will probably just sit around and watch the cheese ferment. Besides you all deserve a rest after having your nerves all rattled by Walter and the drunken hitchhiker. Better just stay on that pillow and relax.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:36 am
Sophie – I advise you to keep nipping at mom’s heels all weekend so she can get thru 1/2 her list. I had to go lay down after READING it. So, if you see HER laying down, be sure to
1) bark nonstop
2) jump on her stomach, walk up to her face and pant loudly (she loves smelling your breath!)
3) When she finally throws you outside, bark some more, until you see her with her pruners or shovel.
4) You better rest up tonight so you’ll be ready tomorrow…
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:06 am
Sophie… That does look like an ambitious list, doesn’t it? Be sure to be underfoot and stay close so you can ‘help’ at a moment’s notice. You and Sarah might want to take turns ‘helping’ so you don’t wear yourselves out. Have a great weekend.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:56 am
Lisa – Arf! If it didn’t give people the wrong idea about my Mom’s blog, I would re-name this post "Walter and the Drunken Hitchhiker!"
Cloverann and Carol – Don’t worry at all. I am ALWAYS within just a few feet of my mom. But I would prefer that she not work so hard, but rather spend time rubbing my tummy.
–Sophie (Guest Blogger)
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
goodness, you can’t be too careful nowadays..with any luck you can convince mom that pandering to his supreme furiness is what she ought to be doing : )
November 4th, 2007 at 1:31 am
Dear Sophie,
Couldn’t you and Sarah help by digging some holes for those 1000 bulbs?
Please don’t let Mom work so hard all the time, keep following her around and reminding her to sit down and pet you two every so often.