First day of fall and I'm looking at the week with mixed emotions. Most significant is that my birthday is Friday. Otherwise, I'm wondering if this will be another year when I should be waiting for the other shoe to fall. Not that any has fallen, just that I've been blind-sided before.
One year, I had 2 molars pulled but it wasn't so bad unless being the first and fearing the unknown is factored in. Having 2 days of pain behind me made it worthwhile.
Another year, coon hunters set fire to a dead tree on property next to our farm and then walked off and left it the next morning. We lived in town and that afternoon, there was a knock on the door. A mentally handicapped man who lived across the swale from our farm came to tell me the fire had burned the field the tree was in (not our property) and was already burning the fence that divided the 2 places. Of course I called the fire department first, then headed out to see for myself. By the time the fire was out, it had burned a 3-acre field and most of the fence around it and had gotten as far as a small patch of timber. We were in the process of thinning out several storm-damaged trees and a couple of the felled ones were scorched. The next day, my husband and I went out again. He was wearing a very worn shirt because we were painting our house in town. He was carrying our older daughter and in juggling her around, his shirt pocket ripped and let his wallet drop. We didn't know that until we got to another town to pick up more paint. At the register, I realized I hadn't renewed my drivers' license when the cashier put its number on the check and it was at that point my husband discovered his wallet was gone. Luckily, we made it back home, found the wallet where it had fallen in the burned field and nothing else went wrong.
A couple of years later, my father-in-law died the day after my birthday.
Second marriage, my husband had bought an antique stove replica because I fell in love with it when I saw it in the store. We had company the evening before my birthday and it was chilly so I went out to get kindling to build the first fire in the new stove. I turned my ankle and sustained a compound leg fracture that kept me in the hospital overnight and in a cast for 7 months.
My 2nd husband's birthday was 2 days after mine and in 1997, I arranged for another couple to meet us at a restaurant for his birthday. He had been in and out of the hospital since the previous April with a worsening heart condition, had bypass surgery first and then a pacemaker implanted. None of it had gone well but he was better that week than he had been. Two days later, he passed away but on the day between his birthday and death, I overheard him talking to his sister in another state, telling her all he had eaten and how much he enjoyed our evening out. In the days and weeks that followed, and even yet, I'm grateful we had that one last special occasion together with friends, just like old times.
There were several other uncommon incidents that happened this week of the year but they were too insignificant to view as having much importance, just reminders that things don't go right all of the time.
Most years have found me being pleased that the harvest season was almost at an end with only walnuts and hazelnuts to deal with before Thanksgiving. Fruit and vegetables were canned and frozen for winter and I had usually made a little extra money here and there. That was before I went back to working full time when the girls got old enough that I didn't need to be home all the time.
When I was working at a store in the next town, I got home from work on my birthday only to find the doors locked and not a soul at home. That was very strange! I let myself in, feeling somewhat let down that there wasn't anyone there to at least say "Happy Birthday," only to find our good-sized dining table covered with ferns and flowers and lots of vegetables from the garden -- zucchini, tomatoes, acorn squash and carrots, and fruit from the grocery store, 3 birthday cards from my husband and 2 daughters, plus the day's mail with more cards. As I stood there contemplating the whole array, I detected movement and looked in the direction of the patio door. There was my gang laughing about it all. They had parked the pickup out of sight from the house and walked down to watch my moment of discovery. Of course we went out to dinner that evening -- there definitely was no room at the table!
So, do I tiptoe around the rest of this week or charge full speed ahead, grinning all the way?
