Small Blessings

The head of the library board passed away after a series of small stokes. She was in her eighties, a farm wife with lots of kids and a good friend of my library angel. Her long funeral procession passed by as I was working outside. I said a silent good by. I didn't know her really well. It's sad to think of someone here and then gone in an instant. She was a good person.

The cat gets the award for best of breed today. On our late afternoon walk he always hangs back, wary of Mandy's 100 mph dare devil chicken runs. He'll either roll in a somersault or leap in the air as she runs straight at him and tries to bowl the raccoon tail cat over. The award, however, isn't for acrobatics. The back yard has a maze of mole tunnels. Mandy digs a few holes in the tunnels until I yell at her for destroying my lawn. The Pooch stops at one of the tunnel holes and pees . Thataway boy. Piss on those gawd awful varmints.

Dawn's been home on vacation for a few days. We take day trips with the dog. The Pooch has a favorite fleece blanket in a vegetable box on a table in the garage. If it's a short trip, he'll stay in the garage and snooze in his box. In the afternoon the two kids are the picture of contentment-the Pooch curled in his box and Mandy on the red arm chair.

I align the box so that the cat can peer out of the hand holds of the short side of the box. Lately he's been sleeping with us at night. The king size bed has room for a small army, yet the little blighter has to bump up next to you. He's dead weight trying to move him over and one risks a bite of annoyance. I get the bright idea to bring his box upstairs. As I read in bed he plays with the blanket in the box. The box has small circular holes on the side for ventilation. He hooks the blanket with a claw and tries to pull the fleece through the pint size hole until I nix the annoying game and return to my book.

Unbelievably fair weather for the second week of November has me hustling. I mark off winterizing projects from a list. On a visit to the Heartland Co-op I spend $65 on fuel, oil and air filters for all our equipment. This afternoon I opened up Uncle Bob's service station, changed oil on two mowers and Dawns aging Chevy Prism. After a visit to a cattle auction in Richland Center, I'll finish up the truck and Fred the riding mower. The rototiller is the last piece of machinery on the list. I need it to turn over the tomato garden which is loaded with weeds, stakes and wire cages. I saved the fun for last.