When I was growing up my mom must have loved mirrors or at least thought they were a necessary accessory to make a house a home. As I think about it, I believe she had a mirror or reflective surface in every room of the house. Mirrors can be amazing things, not only do they make a small room appear larger but they also show a person’s physical flaws without any forgiveness. They also can hide sinister beings that creep out on you in the night.
When I was growing up I had a full length mirror on the back of my bedroom door. As I look back on it, that was an awful stupid place to put a mirror as my door was always open. I rarely shut that door and hardly ever used the mirror on it. I always applied my makeup in the bathroom while gazing in the mirror over the sink. If I wanted to check out my appearance, I went out to the living room where another large antique mirror hung. Most of the time I even got dressed in the bathroom.
I have worn glasses since the 4th grade. Without my glasses my world is a blurry haze. Because of that fact, even if I have to pee in the night I always grab my glasses for the trip. For some reason, I have always had to see to pee. Even though I am a born klutz, I also have the habit of never turning on lights for these nocturnal journeys to the toilet. I have never been able to stumble to the bathroom without running into a wall as I went. Regardless, then and now, there has always been a night light in the bathroom to light my way.
One night I woke with the need to pee, grabbed my glasses and took off in the dark for the toilet. As I approached the hallway, I saw someone standing there in the darkness. My heart raced. The person was coming toward me. I was half asleep, but my terror of discovering someone in the house that shouldn’t be scared the living be Je$u$ out of me. I rushed back to my bed screaming all the way, grabbed the covers up to my nose, and turned the lamp beside the bed on to discover no one was there. My door was shut and I found my reflection staring back at me looking just as terrified as I felt. In a flash my door flew open and my mom was staring at me with a look of alarm on her face. “Are you all right?” All I could manage as I trembled was that I had to pee. “Well get up and go to the BATHROOM before you pi$$ the bed!!” My mom shook her head, said good night, and went back to bed giving me one of those "wondering why" looks which had the effect of making me feel like a complete a$$. A real a$$ considering I was a teenager at the time and old enough to not be afraid of things that go bump in the night.
Like Tigger in “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”, I discovered my bogey man was only a reflection of myself. Things in the mirror are not always as they appear until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.
Did you ever have one of those weeks where absolutely nothing went as planned and nothing was as it seemed? I really don’t like change, upheaval or anything that upsets my applecart in any way. I would just rather drift along in the status quo. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for me. Although I planned to post everyday, those plans went to hell in a hand basket in short order. Instead of giving a specific topic, the Writer’s Post blog hop challenge is to write anything of my choosing. I could write about why the little birdie flies upside down on the Peanuts cartoons or I could explore the mystery of why my dog Jolly is capable of blowing random fart juice when the urge strikes, but that would be just a little too much. Instead I will give you a view of just what my week was like.
We tried out a new 4H cluband were happily impressed. The meeting started promptly when it was supposed to and the club actually had an agenda! We didn’t have to wait another half hour to see if any latecomers wandered in. Instead of the leader running the whole meeting and complaining about her involvement at every turn and continually repeating all the major decisions were to be left to the under 13 age group who stared ahead clueless, the president rapped his gavel on the table and the meeting commenced. There were promises of barbeques and ice cream in the future and even mock judging so the kids could tweak their projects and stand a better chance at a blue ribbon.
By Wednesday, I was still fairly optimistic. My daughter had been experiencing severe headaches and I finally had the money to have her eyes tested. The result was the obvious…she needed glasses to read. I scored two pair for her for the bargain price of $59.00 and the eye exam was free. I love it when I actually get a great deal!
At the butt crack of dawn Thursday morning my cell phone roused me from a deep sleep. I reached over and answered it. The superintendent of schools was calling to announce a two hour delay due to weather. Since I had no clue any bad weather had been forecasted, this was news to me. When I let out the dogs I discovered the world blanketed with a dense layer of fog. I reset the clock to reflect the two hour delay and happily burrowed back under my warm blankets quickly falling to sleep. From the deep abyss of dreamland, once again the rings of my cell phone jolted me awake. Once again I answered to discover the superintendent of schools on the other end. This time he was canceling school altogether. Back in my day we would have had to have snow clear to our armpits and a wind chill of 60 below to catch a break and get to stay home!
The fact that both of my kids got a day off school didn’t change the fact that I had things to do and errands to run so we all piled into the blazer and took off. I didn’t get far before the windshield wiper malfunctioned. Instead of traveling across the windshield the stupid thing was jerking completely off the window and then only going half way back. It was raining and I barely could see where I was going so I turned tail and hurried back to the house. We switched vehicles, and continued on our merry way. By the end of the day my son was complaining of a sore throat and pain in his neck. Needless to say, he was home sick Friday.
So in light of everything that happened this week, the fog lifted on more than one front. I was enlightened about fart juice and a new 4H club, my daughter got glasses and her vision cleared, and my son is on antibiotics. After all that, I hope I have fulfilled the challenge in some capacity while bringing you all up to speed until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.
