Small towns

Animals really do figure strongly in a lot of our posts. It seems they either fascinate, annoy, repulse, or otherwise interest us in a lot of ways. The dogs... well most of you know dogs are NOT my favorite animals. I tolerate them. Abby, the big one, I really didn't mind, because she was the quiet, stalwart kind that just looks up at you with those soulful eyes. Lotty was stupid, or as Laurie put it "she doesn't have two brain cells to rub together." And Rosie... lets just say she could and did jump straight into the air to chest height, just to get your attention because she was so excited to see you walk out the back door. But I think we've written enough about the dogs. Final count, only one animal death while house-sitting.

I really did think I'd have a lot more time to do the stuff on the internet that I wanted to get around to while we were house sitting. Instead I find myself questioning where all our time went. I guess that's the trouble with working full time. I did make a decent stew. Hmmm, what I love about a small town is that I can walk into the butcher shop, he knows me and asks how I'm doing and what Laurie's up to. Then I ask him what he recommends for a stew, and he's ready with some good suggestions. I walk from there to the grocery store, pick up the other essentials, walk out and run into someone from work who insists on giving me a ride home with my groceries. In the last week, more than half the time I try and walk anywhere, someone has stopped and offered me a lift. We have gone out for at least one meal with other people every day for the last four days, many of them on very short notice. It's neat, because we're really starting to feel like part of the community. Especially as we can't go anywhere without recognizing someone and trying to figure out where we've seen that person before. I think what I like even more about being in a small town is the fact that there's always someone working at the hospital who's lived in town for YEARS and can tell you the complete family history on patients who walk in and if that patient is the type that complains about everything or doesn't come in unless he's dying. (Yes, "HE"'s are most likely to leave things until they're halfdead before coming in.)
Anyways, I'm working nights, so there may be a good few of these random entries this week.