RAIN! A Wonderful Gift!

 RAIN! A Wonderful Gift!

 

God gave us rain! According to the gauge, it is not quite an inch, but who’s counting? It just makes me feel so good to see the ground soaking up every drop! Barbara Mathews called today and said that her husband needed every drop to fall on their place for pasture and whatever else he has planted. We were about to get pretty desperate around here. And maybe this won’t last long, but it certainly beats not having any at all. Of course, we now have dog prints inside the house. It will mop.

 

Had to laugh at the dogs and the old woman. The storm came in sideways and every which direction when it first hit. Put the thunder shirts on my dogs because they were so upset with the winds slamming everything. The heavy door on the deck was whammed into the side of the house. The trees bent over and then went back and forth for several minutes. Thought the old woman needed a thunder shirt, too! In about thirty minutes, we had slightly over half an inch of rain! That stuff certainly meant business!

 

It has been a really good day. Talked to all of the children except Grayson, and he is working. Think everyone is about ready for school to be out and over with for the time being. Am sure the teachers feel the very same way. Deep breath and blow it away.

 

Connie Cooke laughs about her “kitty TV” when her two cats sit and watch out the windows of her apartment. My dogs have the same situation, except they can run out the doggie door to the back yard and side lots. A squirrel ran across the front yard a few minutes ago and started a ruckus! Thompson really would have enjoyed chasing that furry varmint. Guess he will just have to stick with chasing rabbits in the back.

 

Cooked some more pork loin for the dogs, but have not done anything else with it yet. Lazy day for a lazy ol’ woman! Slept some this morning when the rain was coming down with that pattern of whishing sounds that accompany rain falling on the leaves and on the roof. The chicken coop and the deck don’t have that soothing type of sound in the rain. It sounds more like thunk, thunk, drummmm! Oh well. The hens don’t seem to mind overly much.

 

The dogs are standing here getting treats out of their box. They don’t usually do that at all. They wait until one is handed to them. Guess they prefer to pick out the ones they want. That each one is the same makes no difference to them, of course.

 

Have tried to thank everyone who sent birthday greetings today, but it is for sure that some will be missed. If you are missed, it is certainly not intentional. It just makes the day a bit more special to have someone notice that an old body managed to make it to another year of life.

 

Barbara M. told me today that our classmate Billie Jean has cancer throughout her body. She had been to the doctors here, and they told her it was nothing. Her daughter took her to Dallas and they removed the one part that had been noticeable. Now it is beyond help, but they have used chemo anyway. Most of you already know that my feelings about chemo and that type of “medicine” are pretty well equivalent to seeing them as barbaric horrors! My sweet sister-in-law might have done well with just a double mastectomy, but they did chemo, and now her hands are crippled and she has lost most of her muscle tone. Insanity! Some day we will know not only what causes the crud, but how to deal with diseases of the body—and the mind.

 

My friend Michelle seemed down when she called the other day. Her husband has been gone now for just over a year. It is so very hard to adjust—not just to living alone, but the lack of exchanging thoughts and concerns. Children don’t need to be on the receiving end of that kind of worries or upsets. It is just difficult to live alone after having your heart held in deep love by someone you have learned to trust totally. Life without that mate can’t be the same. But memories come each day with each sound, song, smell, and opportunity to hold on to that person’s closeness.

 

Just stopped long enough to clean up the treat crumbs! These dogs! Gotta love ‘em!

 

Let us remember those whose lives have been so disrupted by war, terrorism, diseases, and economic instability. Then let us ask God to give our nation the rains it will need to replenish the deep lakes and rivers. May He forgive us and bless us.

 

Rest and rejoice in life tonight. You are loved.