Thursday, February 25, 2016

Thunderstruck, Again

I guess this is the week of adventures with the Wonder Pooch. Yesterday started out normal, if it was inundated with rain. After a frosty start this semi-winter once again relinquished its hold and we entered another spring like stage. This is not a complaint because if this has been snow it would have been measured in feet. I snuck away to see a movie and then returned home for some quality couch time with the Wonder Pooch. The only thing I gleaned from watching the news was we would be getting some heavy rain and winds overnight.
I thought nothing of it and slept, uncharacteristically, through the storm, which later evidence would show was a fairly powerful thunderstorm. Those who’ve read Frail Deeds in the past know that Buddy is not a huge fan of thunderstorms. He enters a panic zone that cannot be quelled by any remedy (believe me – we’ve tried them all). The evidence I spoke of awaited me when I came downstairs for my normal morning routine. It started off strangely because there was no Buddy panting at the cellar door impatient with the amount of time it was taking me to descend into the cellar to feed him. My fears were realized when I opened the door and found the carpet at the bottom of the steps and my wife’s collection of unused winter boots strewn about. I shuddered to think what awaited me downstairs. Buddy no longer sleeps in his cage at night, we bought a comfortable bed and he has the entire cellar to his own.
That was a problem when the unknown thunderstorm passed through. I found the comfortable bed improbably relocated to the top of the stack of Christmas decorations. Buddy tries to burrow during storms and he evidently had a banner night with that activity. As near as I can figure, using my acute CSI skills, he delved underneath a low rack to get under the stairs and then over some mattresses before arriving at the barriers I constructed to prevent him from reaching the furniture we have in storage. The barriers held but he found a new access point by somehow climbing over a bookcase to reach the center of the stored furniture and then tunneled down. While I was staring open mouthed at the devastation and commenting on his lineage in less than flattering manner, Buddy’s head popped out of his sanctuary and he sheepishly climbed down from his hidey hole. I just couldn’t get mad at him, he can’t help himself. I was a little late into work today after commencing rebuilding efforts in the basement. I’ll have to improve my barrier skills but I think anything short of a minefield is just wasted effort.
The movie I went to see was The Witch. Scary as hell in a very dour manner; a lot of the dialogue, authentic to early 1600’s New England, was unintelligible as this family seemed to communicate through mumbling. However this movie is all about texture and while it would have been helpful to understand what the actors were saying, it wasn’t critical. There was obvious, painstaking detail to the challenges of early colonial life in America. An ardent Puritan takes his family away from their established community to set up home at the edge of a large, dark forest. This turns out to be a bad move, as the resident witch population takes exception to their intrusion. 
I thought this was going to be one of those movies where they point out the fallacy and ignorance of religious fanaticism and while there is that the movie definitely goes another, scarier way. I'm never going near a black goat again, ever. The last fifteen minutes of the movie, where that scarier turn manifests itself, in spades, will haunt me for a long time. Turns out, there really was something to fear in those dark woods.

Some more samples of my daily photo fix from California:






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