Stressors and Cows

Last night over supper with Hiromi, in the process of telling him how much I was enjoying the evening at home and the prospect of an unscheduled day today, I listed all the things that I have found stressful of late.  Until I named them, I had very little idea of the size to which this pile of stressors had grown.  He listened agreeably and sympathetically, which, as we all know, is most likely to happen when the list does not include anything that could possibly be construed as blame directed toward the listener.  It was the straightforward unedited version too.  Editing would have taxed my tired brain unduly, so it was a good thing the "spilled" version worked.

Unstressed for the moment, I can count my blessings--

1.  Two funerals one week apart involving the families of teachers at our school are past.  The schedule disruptions involved are history, and the emotional energy of the events has mostly been expended.

2.  We know now who will fill our government offices for one more term.  I'm happy that this is decided, and happy that our immediate duties toward office-holders are clear, especially the praying one.  I'm especially happy that some of the lead-in rhetoric is behind us.  Loyalty to a candidate doesn't bother me, but rancor, black-and-white-open-shut-take-it-from-one-who-really-KNOWS words and attitudes really stress me, especially when it comes from someone I'm responsible for or close to.

3.  Some urgent and sticky situations at school are closed cases for now.

4.  The plan for comp class for the next few weeks is on paper and has been communicated to the class.

5.  The small-comforter-like play mat I'm making for Joel and Hilda's baby got knotted before the baby arrived, thanks to help from Hilda, Susanna, and Susie Peters--after a lovely meal at Susie's house.  We finished Tristan's AFTER he arrived, so this is progress.

6.  I decided to order Menumailer again.  My meal planning skills have gone down the tubes in the presence of the aforementioned stressors.

7.  Troubling aspects of situations involving  family friends seem to be moving in the right direction, after some risky input on my part actually worked out well.

8.  The salad I made for yesterday's funeral was delivered on time and the bowl came back clean and empty.

9.  The book I kept forgetting to take to school for Marsha for her research subject was delivered to our church mailbox where she will pick it up today when she helps clean the church for a Spanish class fundraiser.

10.  Lowell and David have presumably arrived at their destination in India.

11.  I feel agreed with and affirmed in several small ways, which no one but Hiromi knows I noticed.  (He doesn't accuse me of bragging or gloating when I tell him such things--which is very nice of him.)

12.  I finally got my bone-dry house plants watered.

13.  Marian is coming today, which is a good thing, given the fact that our regular housecleaning day got displaced two weeks in a row with funerals.

14.  Barbara H. from Iowa brought me a half a suitcase full of tuberoses bulbs or corms or whatever they are, when she came here by train for Ervin's funeral.  She was here a month earlier for a wedding and told me then that she was sorry she hadn't thought to bring them along for  me.  This has been one very beneficial fellow cutflower grower friendship.

15.  I've dug and stored the Calla lily bulbs for this year.

16.  Twice, last night, when there were unexpected knocks on the door while Hiromi was gone, it was friends, Josh and Darrell and Karen, and they needed things I could point them to--a little gas for Josh to get home on, and the black freezer for the young couple hosting a big family event today.  They had talked to Shane about where his discounted meat could be found.  Much better than scary strangers with strange requests.

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I've gotten some additional details on an earlier post.  Louisa was present after the disaster involving a trailer load of cattle; she was busy harvesting the bounty the Lord provided after she and Sheldon had prayed for a cow--to eat, presumably.  It gets better.  She left her husband at home, asleep in bed while she did this, because he had to get up at 3:00 AM to go to work for Abner, making peanut brittle.  It must have reminded her of an earlier era when she and her brother Levi would collaborate on various ventures, before Sheldon was in the picture.

Levi was all over this one--calling for help, rounding up the corral to confine the cattle still on the hoof,  clearing everything with the driver of the truck, who was also the owner of the cattle.  Levi had come upon the accident right after it happened.  He is a farmer who is fond of his animals and the sight of this measure of distress for the animals and the farmer acquaintance who owned them propelled  him to swift action.  He talked to me about some of this one evening last week after school when he was apparently helping to finish up the MCC canner project.

The cow (I always agonize over this term.  How do I know it was an older adult female bovine, after all, instead of a young female bovine, or instead of a male bovine--one of several types, depending on the intactness or alteration of certain body parts?)--the cow on the road was one of the casualties, and I'm no longer sure whether there was a steep bank involved, although I'm sure Jonny said there was.  The truck and trailer traveled into a roadside field, at any rate--actually a very specific uncontrolled rate, probably, but I digress again--and the cause of death for the animals that did not survive was suffocation.    There now.  That covers the details I can remember at the moment.