Merc Happens!

Well, I can sure tell that Mercury is in retrograde—which is not good for me—it really affects me. Two days ago, Ben sent me an e-mail, to let me know or should I say warn me, about Mercury being in retrograde until October 20th! That news upset me, because it means my birthday will be under the influence of Mercury in retrograde. Life is not fair.

This morning, around 5:30, I was rudely awakened by Mama and Abbie. They were in the backyard, barking up a storm, which they never do. I climbed out of bed to see what was the matter. I went to the backdoor, flipped on the porch light, and then went outside. Twenty feet away, there stood, right next to our fence— a three hundred pound, black and white—wild hog! I quickly got the girls to come inside, and then I locked the backdoor.

By sunup, the hog had wandered off, so I let Abbie and Mama go back outside, and I fed them on the back porch. I then came back inside and fed the dogs and Lucky. While they were eating, I grabbed the aspirin bottle, opened it, took out a pill and then popped it into my mouth—realizing immediately, that I had forgotten to get a glass of water first—to help wash it down. This has been a habit of mine for over twenty years, and I have never forgotten to do this— water first, aspirin second.

As the aspirin was dissolving in my mouth, I quickly pulled a glass out from the cabinet, and went to fill it at our Ozarka Water Cooler! It was dry—completely out of water! So, I skipped over to the refrigerator, and pulled out a carton of milk, I thought—poured it into my glass and quickly chugged it down! Then I felt like throwing up!

It wasn’t organic milk—it was organic buttermilk —that had gone bad! I returned to the fridge, found the pomegranate juice, poured some into another glass, and then I gulped it down, to help get that nasty taste out of my mouth.

Note: We do not get our water from a well, it comes directly from the clear running creek, below us. I have drank it, and our ice maker uses it, and we have never, knock-on-wood, gotten sick from it. In fact, many people who live in the Texas Hill Country, get their water from creeks and drink it, but I prefer not to. Tony says I’m a sissy.

Once I had that awful taste out of my mouth, I looked down, to see that the dog’s water bowl was empty! I felt horrible. I told my best friends, they would have water as soon as Tony got home and then I apologized to them.

Eleven minutes later, Tony and Aaron drove up. As soon as Tony got out of Buttermilk, I told him the dogs and me were out of water, and we were all real thirsty! “Completely out?” Tony asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll go check the pump house,” Aaron volunteered, as he jumped into Kermit.

“No Aaron, we have water in the house,” I said. “We just need a bottle of Ozarka.”

Tony looked over at Aaron and they burst out laughing! “We’ll go get a bottle and bring it up to the house,” Tony said, before driving off. I went back inside the trailer.

A couple of minutes later, Tony and Aaron came inside the trailer and replaced the empty water bottle with a full one. “Why did y’all laugh at me earlier?” I asked. They started laughing, again. “What was so funny? We were out of water and we were thirsty.”

“Nance, you were out of water and you weren’t,” Tony said, as he and Aaron chuckled some more. Tony then walked over to the empty water bowl, on the floor, picked it up—and then he began filling it with water from the kitchen sink—then I started laughing—I felt like a fool—our dogs always drink creek water—not Ozarka.

“Aaron, this is what I have to put up with,” Tony teased, as he shot me a wink and a smile. “Never a dull moment around here—never.”

“I feel like a complete idiot,” I said. “But I do have an excuse—Mercury is in retrograde!” They started laughing even harder.

We invited Aaron to join us for breakfast, and I was teased non-stop throughout the entire meal.

Later this morning, Tony and I went over to the Lodge, to drink some coffee with Kinky. “Y’all know, how hunting dogs will instinctually point, or tree an animal that’s trapped up in a tree,” Tony said. “Well, we have two dogs, Princess and Emily—who treed a Tarantula this morning!”

“You’re kidding me?” I said.

“Really?” Kinky asked. “A Tarantula?”

“Yes,” Tony said. “I was fixing to go into their pen to clean it, when they started barking fiercely at a tree. I went over to the tree to check it out, and there was this giant Tarantula! I pulled out my camera and shot it, and then I took it from the tree and set it free—far away from the pens. Wait till you see the pictures I took!”