Recently our home was seriously damaged by a severe hail storm. The baseball size hail stones shattered seven windows and disintegrated all the vinyl siding on the front of our house. During the storm, I just happened to be picking up supplies at the Strasburg Veterinary Clinic. As I was getting ready to head home my son called me and said, “Whatever you do don’t come home! We are in the middle of a huge hailstorm! I will call you when it’s over.”
Thirty minutes later I was given the go ahead to head home. When I turned into my driveway I immediately saw the devastation. I stopped the truck and spent the next 5 minutes laughing hysterically. In times like these I figure I only have two choices either laugh or cry. I usually choose to laugh.
When I walked into the house my husband said ” You aren’t going to believe it! The glass and frame on the storm door is completely gone! It must have disintegrated! I have been looking for it and can’t find a shred of it anywhere!” I replied “That’s because you took it off last summer and it’s still behind the refrigerator.”
Some days I’m glad to know that I am not the only one that forgets things!
Recently I took my daughters to the grand opening of a new library in our area called Anythink. The new building is big, bold and beautiful. There are so many books I could spend days there and not see them all. The new library has an entire room filled with computers and a room where kids can experience performers highlighting different cultural experiences.
On this particular day the theme was dances from around the world. Dancers were there performing in fantastic costumes. The sights and sounds were unusual. So I decided it would be a good idea to take Jasper to see what was going on. I was only standing there for a few minutes when they decided that Jasper and I should join them. I politely declined their invitation but they just would not take no for an answer.
So there we were Jasper and I stumbling around trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing. The dance was extremely simple. I think there were a total of four different steps but the gap between us and the other people kept getting larger. No matter how hard I tried I just could not figure out what I was supposed to be doing.
Eventually a nice lady took pity on me. She took a hold of my hand and said, “just follow my lead”. By this time even young children were following along with ease but the gap between me and the other people continued to increase. I am sure out of complete exasperation this poor lady pulled me aside, looked me in the eyes and said, “ma’am can you see anything at all?” When I realized they all thought I was blind because I had a service dog with me I said, ” Actually I can see just fine. I just have a little bit of brain damage.” Everyone thought that was just hilarious. I don’t think any of them realized that I wasn’t joking.
It’s been pretty hot lately. Having an air conditioner that worked would be really nice right about now. Most days the temperature in our house by late afternoon is right around 85-90 degrees. So today the kids and I started a little bit of complaining about the heat. In fact I told my husband that it was so hot it was making me feel a little sick. To which my husband responded, “Well then turn on the air conditioner”. I gave him a puzzled look and said “I would but it‘s broken”. He responded by saying ” No it’s not. It’s brand new. I replaced the broken air conditioner several years ago.”I have absolutely no recollection of this event. Of course knowing that I had a working air conditioner last year would have been really nice too. Especially during the many weeks I spent canning fruits and vegetables in an unbearably hot house. Oh well, guess I’ll give this event a little chuckle, kick back and enjoy my new found cool house.
My daughter Allison had an appointment to get her teeth cleaned. Since this was a new dentist we arrived approximately 15 minutes early. I put Jasper in a down-stay, told him what a good boy he was and began the lengthy process of filling out the paperwork.
After Allison was taken back to have her teeth cleaned I decided to get a magazine. I stood up, told Jasper to stay and walked away to browse the magazines. When I returned to my seat I again told Jasper he was a good boy. As Allison, Jasper and I were leaving the receptionist began to laugh hysterically. I turned around to see what was so funny. The receptionist said “I am so sorry but I can’t see over the counter so the whole time you‘ve been here I have been thinking to myself oh my gosh that woman speaks to her son like he is a dog!”
Every year the kids help me plant a huge garden. It’s probably close to 1/2 an acre. Since we had errands to do in town we decided to stop at the Walmart gardening center just to see if they had any vegetable plants on sale. We shop at this particular store all the time. However we had never taken Jasper into the store through the garden entrance. As soon as we got through the door Jasper began to growl and shake all at the same time. He had never behaved this way before so I quickly looked around to figure out what the problem was. About five feet in front of me there it was a statue of a deer. I quickly lengthened his leash, walked up to the statue and began to pet its head. By this time at least a dozen people had crowded around to see what all the commotion was about. A few minutes later Jasper walked up sniffed its nose and then immediately proceeded to run around and smell the statues hind end. The small crowd burst into laughter. Honestly though I think Jasper made their day!