Friday, May 14, 2010

Scared Silly

Louise Barnes wrote in her blog about things to be scared of at night in the forest. I'm such a scaredy cat about all those things that go bump (and howl and shriek) in the night that I won't even put our dog away at her bedtime. Richard does it for us. I did buy some night vision goggles, just in case I ever need to go out alone after dark, but it's probably hard to control a Great Pyrenees with one hand while holding goggles with the other.

A normal person may love the pitch dark for all the stars that are visible without any ambient light. A normal person may also love the night sounds of woodland creatures that are heard but seldom seen. All I can think of is all the scary tales that were told to us as children in an attempt to make us want to be at home for supper as soon as the street lights turned on, like the one about the old man with the big sack that he put all the bad children in as he sneaked into their rooms at night. And don’t forget about Dorothy wandering through the woods with the lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my!

We may not have tigers, but we certainly have bears, although I’ve only seen one in our yard since we arrived here. And I’ve been told that there are mountain lions. While I like living close to nature, I prefer to have a less up-close-and-personal encounter than coming face to face on a dark night with a predator on the prowl.
My grandchildren and their parents love to run through the woods at night playing hide-and-seek. I would no more walk into the dark and wait for someone to sneak up on me than I would do oral surgery on myself. I don’t even drive after dark unless it’s on a well-lit multi-lane highway.

I know I’m a large woman, but I am still delicate about a lot of things. I have to regularly remind Richard of this fact. He does most of the heavy lifting and runs the tractor and any other power tools more dangerous than a vacuum cleaner. I stick to planting and picking and cooking and canning as he continues to do the more “manly” things. And I certainly don’t want him to stop braving the dark for me and our Pyrenees puppy, who is also delicate, even if big- boned.

Mamie asked me to drive her to Chattanooga to see her daughter who had been hospitalized there. I had to admit that I don’t drive the mountain roads after dark (with the exception of Richard’s recent emergency hospital visit – and we all know how I felt about that escapade). Richard to the rescue! He was our chauffeur for the trip there and back. This gave Mamie and me a chance to chat without having to watch where we were going. I was able to hear more stories of Mamie’s multiple adventures. There are benefits to being girly.