A Little Peace and Quiet. Or Not

It was finally sort of quiet around my house last week. For the first time, I was alone for much of the time at our new home. Gary was working, which isn’t unusual. Logan was away at camp, which is.

Monday, after Gary left for work, I considered my options. Everyone gone for the day, just me and the dogs at the end of dead end road in the middle of nowhere. I put on a minimum of makeup, and the most comfortable t-shirt and shorts I own, which means they are also the rattiest. I ran my fingers through my hair to settle it into some semblance of order and considered myself dressed.

A few hours later, the mini-dog and giant dog set up a din. There was a man in my yard. The telephone man had come to see about burying my phone cable. Again. They’ve been promising to fix it, immediately, for six weeks. He assured me he would take care of that day. We are still waiting.

A little while after that, another doggy alarm led me to the door. Who needs to wait for the doorbell with these two around? The mailman had a package. An hour later. Growl and Growlier ran to the window. This time not one, but two guys were in my yard.

Lovely. The day I look the scariest, there is a virtual parade of people at my house. The electric cooperative folks wanted permission to spray for weeds and cut tree limbs out around the power lines. Absolutely. Cut and spray and chop anything you want to. We’ve got twenty acres that were badly damaged in the ice storm. It all needs to be cut and sprayed and chopped. Please. Go right ahead.

The next morning, I had learned my lesson. I got up, got dressed in decent clothes, and fixed my hair and my face. Not one soul came up that day. Maybe I scared them all off Monday.

Wednesday Gary was home, and we got ready for a cookout we were planning. We bought a new grill a few weeks ago. It has gas on one side, charcoal in the middle, and a smoker on the end. We’ve had it about two weeks, but just now got brave enough to invite anyone over. Our old grill died more than a year ago, and we are just now getting around to replacing it.

The first week was sort of hit and miss. If we got something done one day, it was burned the next. Gary and I both had a few disasters, but we have gotten better now.

Thursday we did a test run by cooking some of the same things we were planning on making for everyone Friday. Since we have had some missteps, we didn’t want our family to starve, so we secretly experimented Thursday so we wouldn’t poison anyone Friday.

My son finally got home from camp, my sister was here, and my mom and dad were visiting too. My husband was off work, so it was a great day. In my family, being together and getting to eat always adds up to a good time.

Happily, we didn’t kill anyone with our cooking, burn anything down or serve anything raw. We might just be getting the hang of this. Then again, I’m probably not going to have anyone over that doesn’t love me for a while, either. Just in case.