Mistakes, Missed Opportunities and a Mishmash of Thoughts

Levi, my schnauzer, is so predictable yet he fools me every time I come home and he acts like he’s got to go outside to pee near his private fire hydrant. “I’m desperate, Mom, hurry up and open the door!” I oblige his canine-to-human mind communication and open the door to the garage, intending next to open the door that leads to his yard. Only instead of him following me he leisurely strolls around the car sniffing and lingering here or there to see where I’ve been, then he goes back in the house. Yesterday before going back inside he gave me a dirty look. I think he knew I went to the pet store without him.

I normally do take him with me to Dog Shopping-land but yesterday wasn’t a normal day. I woke up, had a quick breakfast, let Levi take care of his business, took a shower and raced off to the senior hall to catch a bus: destination the First African Church in town and a Buddhist Temple, part of the monthly ‘How we Worship’ series. The problem was I was a day too early. It was on my calendar correctly but I made an old person mistake and got my days mixed up. Don’t tell anyone, okay? Plan B. With extra time on my hands I went to the pet store and post office then dropped my primary ballot off at City Hall. Ya, I finally made up my mind who to support.

In case you’re wondering about Levi’s private fire hydrant in my back yard, Don bought it from a scrap iron place years ago when we were on our way out West. He bought two to keep and others to sell for a shocking profit---but it was a challenge moving around inside our motor home with fire hydrants covering the floor. That was so typical of Don. I still have those two hydrants. They were restored at a body shop. One is very small, over a hundred years old and I wonder if they’ll let me take it to nursing home when I go. I suppose I should be taking a photo of it instead for that time when we’ll have to part company. Now, it sits next to an Eco Air Meter and a large Mobil flying Pegasus in my tribute-to-my-husband corner of the garage. They are the last of his gas station memorabilia collectibles. Not sure if this is true or not, but I’ve always believed that Native American Indians in the Old West used to pick up peddles, feathers and small things to put in their possible bags as souvenirs of special days or events. Don and I used to kid each other that we had Indian blood in our veins because we were the king and queen of bringing souvenirs back from our trips.

So here it is the correct morning of the church tours and I’m trying to decide if I want to go. I’ve been spoiled by the mild winter we’ve had and we have a monster storm due to hit my area about the time I’m supposed to leave. They’re talking lots of blowing snow, accidents and wide spread power outages. The weather people are calling it “heart attack” snow because it will be wet, heavy and deep. Okay, just typing that has made me decide to stay home and finish the book I was reading into the wee hours of the morning. The senior hall only cancels their tours if the schools close and I suspect tomorrow’s lecture on storm chasing will be collateral damage of the storm. But if they send the kids home early today, and I’m on the tour in the heart of downtown dependent on the school bus drivers, we could get stranded and end up at the soup kitchen with the homeless for dinner and a night sleeping on the floor. Yes, my imagination is out of control. At least there will be no chance of snow for next month’s church tour. We’re going to an Islamic Center where we’ll have a transitional Muslim lunch. We have to wear long sleeves, dark colors and head scarfs and I hope some mad shooter doesn’t pick that day to demonstrate his hate. Sad, isn't it, when fear and going to a place of worship gets bundled in the same sentence.

I’ve been watching The People VS. O.J. Simpson TV series. It’s fascinating. I remember when the real trial was televised. Just about everyone I knew was glued to the TV day after day include Don and me and I have since read all the books written by the major “players” in the trial. I thought Don and one of his brothers would come to blows over whether or not O.J. was guilty. I wonder if his brother is watching this series and still thinks he’s innocent. Does anyone still think O.J. is innocent? 

Time to get some breakfast and hope I didn’t make a bad call by not going on the tour. The missed opportunity to see the Buddhist Temple made the decision hard. The weather people have been wrong before but the satellite maps show a pretty wide storm approaching, not much chance for mistakes in their forecast. Time will tell and in the meantime I have a book about living on Mars to finish. ©