Friday, October 05, 2012

Blanket Weather!

It's Fall and it feels like it.  I'm not complaining!  I'm actually enjoying the cooler weather, although I'm sure I'll get my fill of it soon enough.  In the meantime, I got blankets out of the storage chest and they are ready to be deployed for some couch time tomorrow.

Today was in the low 50's, which is quite a change from the 70's - 80's we've had lately.  It's also misting off and on.  It's going to get colder tonight, and tomorrow's high is in the 40's.  It might actually be a little warmer, maybe low 50's but it's also supposed to be rainy tomorrow.  Since it will be Saturday, we wouldn't be going anywhere anyway.  Sunday is supposed to be in the low 60's and dry, although it might be overcast.  Sunday is Fair Day.

Otter's allergies are a lot better but they are still bothering her.  However, she's at the point where Sunday at the Fair should be ok.  We will have to take jackets with us.  She's still going to ride as many rides as is humanly possible, since we have already bought her ride pass and Sunday is the last day of the fair.  We don't anticipate a sunburn, unlike the last time we went.

Fraiser's all healed up!  But he's still a goof.  He is licking some, it's impossible to stop him, but the spot is healed.  It's rough looking skin and is thick, I'm watching to make sure he doesn't lick it to the point of rawness.  Is that a word?  Anyway, he has been out of the cone for a while now and he's happy about that.  So's Maggie Moo!

I had an interesting experience yesterday.  Well, it probably wasn't interesting for all the parties involved.  I was running an errand yesterday, it was shortly before 7:00 last night so it was getting dark but it was still plenty light.  As I got down my street a few houses, I noticed two girls in a driveway and they looked like they were about to run across the street judging by their crouched-about-to-spring-up posture.  So, I slowed down a little bit just in case.  They weren't about to run across the street.  They were waiting for something else.  For a car to go down the street so they could throw rocks at it.  Which they did, and as soon as I realized what they did and heard the rocks hit the car, I slammed on the brakes.  You know the expression "deer in the headlights?"  Well, that would be a good description of these two girls, who were probably about 9 or 10 - if that, they might have been closer to 8 or 9.  They obviously had not thought this through, because they were not expecting me to stop.  As soon as I did, they turned tail and ran as fast as they could to the front door of the house that they were in front of.  I rolled down the window and yelled at them that it was too late because I'd seen where they were going.  And then I followed them to the front door.  As I got to the door, Dad opened it and asked me what had happened because they had run in the door screaming in fear about a car and I told him exactly what had just happened.  One girl was obviously visiting and she immediately owned up to her mistake and apologized - repeatedly.  I told her that apologizing was the right thing to do and that she'd better not do it again - she said she won't and I hope she meant it.  The girl that was obviously his daugher looked extremely terrified of me (Otter says I can be scary in full RHTW and/or MadMom mode and I'm sure I was last night - I was trying to be) and she tried to deny it, then she must have realized that it wasn't going to work because her friend had just confessed and also her Dad was standing right there.  So, then she said that she was throwing rocks up in the air and it accidentally got away from her - Dad did not look like he believed her, by the way.  I pointed my finger at her and told her that she was telling me a lie and that she knew it.  Dad was turning colors at this point - he wasn't made at me, but he was furious.  He sent her to her room and told her that he'd been there in a minute to deal with her and he told the visiting friend that he'd deal with her next.  She squeaked "with me?" and he said yes, with her as well.  He started to ask me if the car was damaged (it isn't) and I told him no and that as long as he was going to take care of the situation with his daughter, then I was satisfied.

No, I didn't overreact.  What I did was deliberate and to hopefully put the Fear of Mom (or Dad in this case) into them (it would have been called a Come to Jesus moment in S. TEXAS and parts of the south.)  Because they were obviously starting down a very dark path.  It's kind of been an epidemic in this state, and it's usually teenagers, to drop things off overpasses and throw things at cars driving by.  People have literally died from having that happen to them.  There have also been some instances of people shooting at cars off of overpasses.  I wanted to get the point across to them that this is not acceptable behaviour, and that there are consequences to our actions.  I think I did.  I'm also pretty sure that the instigator was the visiting friend and not the girl that lives in the house because we've seen them before since they live down the street.  The parents seem like they are very involved with their children and believe in discipline.

I just wouldn't want to be in the girls' shoes at the moment.  My dad would have tanned my hide, to use a TEXAN expression.  And I'd have deserved it, too.

OK, I think I'm going to start my couch & blanket time in a very few minutes.  We aren't going to turn the heater on yet, since it's not really that cold and will be nicer next week.  But I still have cold feet!  My feet always get cold, generally from about September 1 but it was later this year.  They stay cold until around May 31.  It's not that they really are cold, they aren't.  It's just that my south TEXAN upbringing did not include very much in the way of cold weather.

When we say we had 90 degree Christmases, we aren't exaggerating!

No comments: