Tempting Fate

 

The past couple of weeks have seen me bitten by a cat, a dog, and a horse.  I’ve broken a big toe then had it stomped on my two different horses.  I had new bruises on my body each night that I couldn’t remember deserving.  I’ve walked into walls, slammed fingers in truck doors, and tripped over lumpy air.  It’s been a hell of a month.

You see, when I’m exhausted or sick, I become more of a clutz than normal.  And trust me, normally I can’t walk twenty feet without finding something to stub a toe on, or trip over.  So multiply that clumsiness by 50 when I’m exhausted.   

Yesterday was my trip to the ER for a tetnus shot after the cat ripped into me.  I was saving the damned thing from a pack of seven dogs and that was how I was thanked.  Silly kitty.  I was already running on fumes when I got home that night, so I turned on my auto pilot and got to work feeding horses.  I was bound and determined to not work any horses.  I was just going to feed, shower, eat, fall into bed. But then I found these beauties on my way back to the house from feeding Seymour.

 

Ahhhhh… wild black raspberries!  Just the thing to make life a little sweeter.  The problem was that the brambles were on a steep bank on the other side of the pond.  I was tired, my boots were untied, laces trailing the ground, the grass was wet and slick… disaster waiting to happen.  I wasn’t about to tie my boots because then I’d have to expend energy to untie them later.  I just wasn’t sure I had it in me to bend over and didn’t want to sleep in my boots.  That’s just the way I roll, ya’ll.

So I spent 20 minutes picking, and eating, berries.  I almost slipped and fell several times.  I almost went head over heels into the rocky stream bed when I tripped over Calypso, who was trying so very hard to assist me in my berry picking endeavors. I almost went down on one knee on top of a large rock when climbing back up the bank.  My scream would have been heard in Ohio if I had.  I almost tipped over the four wheeler while driving back to the house with one hand holding up my shirt full of goodies. 

When I made it back to the house I slowly and carefully tip toed into the house, put the berries in a bowl, flipped off my boots, and gently sat down.  I then marveled at my incredible good fortune in escaping the brambles unscathed, or at least without any new wounds or injuries.  Has my luck finally changed?  Will I no longer require the economy sized box of band aids I purchased last week?  Will that half used tube of Arnica gel now collect dust in my bathroom vanity?  What about the Tylenol PM that gained me a few hours of sleep each night?

I’m feeling so lucky that I think I’ll head to town and buy a lottery ticket or twelve.  Or maybe search for the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

 

Because while some might say that this is the calm before the storm, I prefer to think of it as the calm after a storm.