Assumptions

October 25, 2015

My current desktop is this thing?

“What is it?” you ask.

Well, I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t know what to Google to find out either.

Then the Kipp’s were here, Lamar and Rosie. They come up most days to take care of the wild cats and they sit and visit with us if we are around. I asked Lamar if he knew what it might be.

“It looks like wild cucumber,” Lamar said and I was taken aback. I didn’t expect him to know what it was because I was under the impression that they didn’t know much about wildflowers and I have to confess; this is a conclusion I came to all on my own.

“Does that mean you made an assumption, Peg?” you ask.

Well, yeah. I was trying not to use the ‘a’ word because you know what happens when you assume, don’t you? It makes an ‘ass’ out of ’u’ and ’me’. I thought to skirt the whole issue by using the word ‘conclusion’ but I should have known you guys wouldn’t let me get away with it.

“So why did you assume they didn’t know anything about wildflowers?”

I brought some passionflower fruits with me and asked the Kipp’s if they would like to plant some. “That would be like a death sentence,” Rosie told me. “We just kill flowers.”

Translation, in this peon brain of mine, they don’t know anything about wildflowers.

“I could be wrong about what it is,” Lamar said. “You could look it up on the internet.”

Now that I had a place to start I did check the internet. I Goggled wild cucumber and it came right up. Lamar was right. It is wild cucumber, which are not eatable-editable.

“If you didn’t think Lamar knew what it was, why did you ask him?” you may be wondering.

Well, in the very least, I thought it was interesting and something they might like to see and something we could talk about. Not that talking with the Kipp’s is hard because it’s not. The Kipp’s are just about the nicest, kindest, people you could ever want to meet and conversations with them are easy and full of fun and laughter.

Between them and the Robinson’s - literally our place is between the Kipp’s and the Robinson’s! - we have the best neighbors in the whole wide world!

Lamar and Rosie take care of our mill cats when we aren’t here. Heck, they take care of them when we are here too! I can’t tell you how much that means to us. We like having cats because they keep the mice and other rodents down and who doesn’t love kittens?

When the Kipp’s are gone and can’t feed the cats the Robinson’s pinch-hit for them.

Currently we don’t have many cats. Just three at last count plus a stray from somewhere else that is welcome to come and eat with our cats.

“What happened to all your cats?” you ask. “Last I knew you had a dozen!”

I know, right!

It seems we have predators higher on the food chain living in the area, namely foxes and coyotes. They keep our cat population down and that helps with our cat food bill, don’t you know, but one thing that doesn’t help with our cat food bill are squatters.

“Squatters?”

Squatters. Raccoons. And boy, are they smart! The raccoons have managed to get into every container that Lamar has put the cat food in so Lamar set a live trap. He caught a raccoon which is what he expected to catch and he put the coon in the trunk of his car and drove it down around and across to the other side of the Susquehanna somewhere and set it free.

“Now stay on this side of the river!” Lamar admonished the coon as it scampered away.

And the cat food was still disappearing faster than Lamar thought it should. He set the trap again. This time when he checked he had no coon and he had no trap either. Not only was that coon smart, he was strong too! He pulled the trap apart and got out. Lamar, ever practical, decided to keep the cat food at his house and just carry up the days rations.

<<<<<>>>>

Assumptions.

Assuming.

Assume.

I always manage to get myself into trouble when I do any one of those things. And at my age, with as much trouble and embarrassment as I’ve caused myself over the years, you would think that I would know better, wouldn’t you? And yet I continue to assume things.

Sometimes when I don’t know something I just make it up. That’s not to say that I lie, because I don’t. There are many ways to be kind and still tell the truth, but sometimes if I don’t know something, I just put words in to make my stories flow.

“That sounds like a lie to me, Peg!”

If you don’t know it’s a lie, then is it really a lie?

“What are you going on about now!”

Okay, here’s the deal. A couple of weeks ago I was talking about buying Halloween candy for the Halloween Party that is held every year at Luby’s on the Strip in Lake Ozark. I know how much money Mike and I spend on those little goblins, witches and zombies, but what I didn’t know was how much our dear friend Margaret spends. I didn’t want to leave Margaret out of the story because she is a very valuable part of what makes the Halloween Party such a great success, but I didn’t know what she spends. So plainly and simply I said that Margaret buys some candy too.

“I spend as much as you do and sometimes more!” Margaret told me.

I felt like a creep. Margaret is one of the most generous and giving persons you could ever want to meet. Margaret would not only give you the shirt off her own back, she’d go out and buy you two more! I deeply treasure my relationship Margaret and would never intentionally hurt her feelings.

Margaret, I’m sorry and I love you.

<<<<<>>>>>

I talked about working in my shop and making butterflies and here are the two butterflies that I made.

One was for Rosie and the other I made and sent to my beautiful sister.

“I made Phyllis a purple butterfly,” I told Momma on the phone one day.

“Purple! Her favorite color!” Momma said.

I finished all the glass projects that Rosie wanted and now I get to play. I’ve been making a new kind of wind chime that I really like. It is just bits of glass strung together and even if I put the same number and the same shapes of pieces of glass together in different strings, they sound different!

Do I sound surprised?

I am!

I made four and gave Rosie choice.

“Let me hear that one,” Rosie said indicating one of the chimes I presented for her consideration.

I made it move and tinkle and said, “It’s the same as this one, see?” then I tinkled the other one. Boy, was I surprised! “They do sound different!” I exclaimed. Rosie must have known they would, but I didn’t. I really expected them to sound the same and I don’t understand why they don’t.

“I like that one better,” Rosie said and the fact that it had more green in it didn’t factor into it all (even if green is Rosie’s favorite color!).

I’m thinking I’ll be able to make and send a few of these out for Christmas gifts this year so if you think you’d like one, you’d better be letting me know.

“But Peg loves me and knows I’d like one,” you say.

Yeah. I do. But I wouldn’t count on that. Better safe than sorry.