Quiet Mornings

It is quiet in our little house this morning.  I was up early, doing the morning things, shower, letting the dogs out and making coffee.  I enjoy the quiet, when all you hear are the birds outside the windows, before the TV or radio come on, before the phone rings or before activity truly begins. 

It has been especially quiet here, my wonderful husband went on a road trip, helping a friend drive to Florida.  Oh yes, I may have enjoyed the idea of having the house to myself for a couple days, no set meal times and no need to explain why I'm on the computer.  I may have enjoyed having the entire bed to myself, if you don't count one little dog.  I may have enjoyed being a bit messier, using the same coffee cup for a couple days, or leaving the knife and plate on the counter to use again.  Yes, fun for a couple of days and then reality sets in.........

The first night my wonderful husband was gone, I was snuggled in the living room with the dogs, fire going in the gas stove, and a good movie on TV.  I decided to go to bed about midnight, when I walked through the curtains into the old part of the house it was much like walking outside!  The temperature was 54 degrees!  I know this cannot wait until morning, it is way too cold for that!  So all I can think to do is call my wonderful husband as I know they are still driving so it won't be waking him up.  He is puzzled, our furnace is not very old, so he says to me, "You'll have to go outside and check the propane tank to make sure you have fuel."  You have got to understand, the tank sits away from the house, there is 5 inches of snow on the ground and it is midnight and I'm in my nightgown!  So I go and dress, put on winter coats and boots and make my way to the propane tank.  Got out there and raised the lid and I find I'm too short to see the gauge, so I must climb the rickety fence to be tall enough to see the gauge!  Propane level fine..........  Back in the house and another call to Richard.  This time he thinks I should go into the furnace room and flip the switch to restart the furnace. I conclude that all the off and on power outages confused my furnace and it decided to just shut down.  So an hour later, furnace running fine, I head to bed.  Then at six fifteen Tere calls and grand daughters have a school delay because of more snow, could she bring them down in thirty minutes and could I get them on the bus in two hours.  No problem, man, that was a short night!

Of course with Richard gone, I am doing the outside chores.  I admit that isn't all that hard and they are my horses, dogs and cats.  For some reason in the winter time it is always much harder to get the chores done quickly.  The water hose has to be drained after filling the water tank, the hay must be carried and they eat more in the cold winter weather, which means more than one trip carrying hay!  The cats in the studio don't want to go outside and there is the kitty litter in need cleaning and I have a lame horse that needs extra attention!  When my wonderful husband is home, he does the feeding and I do the horse treatments and the kitty litter cleaning. (He does draw the line.)  I just have to say it is so nice sitting in the house, having a little more coffee and watching him feed the horses in the wintertime. 

Yes, I know what you are thinking, "Spoiled!".  I agree, but now he is in Florida, soaking up the sunshine, riding wave runners and enjoying the life of leisure and I am carrying hay to the horses the snow.  I hate carrying hay across the barn yard, the shaft sticks to my fleece jacket and scarf, then when I go to town wearing said fleece jacket and scarf I look a bit like a scarcrow!  So being a creative thinker, I made a tarp sled!  I took a rope and tied to the grommets of a tarp and put the hay on the tarp and let it slide smoothly across the snow to the horses.  Genius!  No more hay in my hair or on my clothes!

Of course Richard is not going to like that I didn't shovel the sidewalks, he won't like that the little dogs hate to go into the deep snow and have left traces of yellow snow on the unshoveled sidewalk.  He probably won't be happy that I had steal a bungee cord off of something he was using it for to fix the mailbox that the snowplows blasted off the post this week.  But when I think of these things........  I remember the text picture of last nights sunset on the beach of the Atlantic ocean or the picture off the balcony of their condo looking over the ocean! 

Oh, I think I'm meandering again, this started off being about how quiet it is around our little house.  It is too quiet this morning and I am ready to have my wonderful husband home, fixing my coffee and morning breakfast, having him sit and share morning conversation before he bundles up for winter and feeds my horses and shovels the sidewalks for me and the little dogs.  It's just too quiet this morning............