I was looking forward to a week of not much to do – work inside, stay warm and get the house ready for winter. We’ve had some cold weather lately, but despite the sleet, snow showers and wind, these petunias are still looking great! I don’t have the heart to pull them out yet.
And the evening sunsets have been spectacular this week.
The week started out fine; nothing much going on except the usual routine things like taking care of my mini donkeys, Samson and Delilah. I never realized how attached I’d get to these two; it’s like having two large canine companions!
Delilah likes to get close and have me pet her, especially rubbing her cheek. She leans into me just enough without knocking me over. She’s a very gentle girl and gets a big hug. Samson, on the other hand, thinks he can push me around. He tries to sneak up behind me and pushes me with his forehead; he knows I don’t like it.
I never hit them but with Sammy, I use a loud voice and say, “No!” He’s very sensitive and when I yell at him, his bottom lip quivers and he hangs his head as if to say, “I’m sorry, Mom.” They both enjoy their time outside but in the afternoon at 4 p.m., supper time for them, they know I’m heading to the barn to feed them. They both start braying. I keep them locked out until I get their hay racks filled and until I put a little sweet feed in each of their dishes.
Samson
Delilah
Because they’re cousins, they are in separate pastures. But when they hear me spilling sweet feed into the dishes, they both come running. It’s a race to see who can get into their individual stalls first! Delilah runs into her stall at a gentle pace, but Sammy comes barreling in, stopping just in time before he hits the gate between their stalls. They run in because whoever gets in first can gobble up the sweet feed that I put on the post that holds the gate that separates their stalls.
Once in, all you hear in the stalls is the crunching of sweet feed! Ah, life is good ….
The “nothing week” ended when my “land line” phone was out of order. I called CenturyLink repair. Thanks goodness for cell phones. I was downsized out of Sprint some years ago so I know the usual procedure for repair calls. This is a small town and I happen to know the repair guy from when he was in my Management Development classes for Sprint. He also lives here in the Clear Fork Valley. I stopped and talked to him for a few minutes while he was working on the pedestal up the road. He shared with me that my phone was out of order because a mouse had gotten into the pedestal, built a cozy nest and chewed my phone wires! He got things fixed in no time.
W
hen I got back home, I discovered that I couldn’t access my email account with Google. I’m pretty dependent on email so that didn’t make me too happy!
OK, that’s two things in one day. Bad luck comes in three’s so I wondered what would happen next.
It didn’t take long for No. 3 to happen.
The day after the phone and email problems, I noticed I had very little water pressure – not a good sign out here in the country with a well. I called Jamison Well Service and they came out immediately. The well pump had burned out!
Great! The fellas got the new pump in and were in the basement checking the tank when they delivered the bad news. This was No. 4 – the tank also had to be replaced.
I figure I have a “credit” now on the bad luck stuff!
They got the new tank in place, checked everything out and were finished in about two hours. I was very appreciative! If the pump had gone out in the middle of winter, they would never have gotten their huge truck up here!
I have my fingers crossed – only on one hand so I don’t jinx myself – that all will be well with no more bad luck for a long time!
