All Alone, an Animal Man

Today I am alone.

Sandy took the kids to Duluth to escape flying roofing debris, and today I finished prepping the house for a shingler who will come tomorrow. I worked all day.

I didn't get tired. I did not have lunch or dinner but instead had a cup of coffee around noon and a couple pops on and off.

I remembered to take the dog out and in.

At days end, I thought I was done. I had removed my clothes and was preparing to climb into bed, when I heard a scraping noise from the roof.

I quick threw on some shorts and a new T shirt., put on my boots, and went out. All of the threes were whipping about wildly. It was pitch black, save for some moonlight. It was raining.

I climbed up the wet ladder and found that some of the rows of tar paper had blown off. Quickly I ran down and grabbed the staple hammer (pre-filled for tomorrow), a screw driver, and 2x4s. I climbed the ladder, stapled the rows down again, and then laid 2x4s over them and screwed them into the roof deck. It held.

I came in.

Threw a plastic bag of pizza into the microwave for a minute. Went to the bathroom. Took a hot shower until the hot water was all gone. Dried myself with the hairdryer (which smells like a log cabin because I use it for lighting the BBQ) until it got too hot and died.

Threw the again not-warm-enough bag of pizza into the microwave for the remaining 25 seconds. Came down and turned on the fireplace which now heats my back. I will sleep down here tonight.

If Sandy and the Kids were here it would be different. She would have had lunch and dinner made for me. The kids would have hugged me goodnight. But they are in Duluth.

That's OK.

I am sure somewhere tonight there is a fox out hunting, or a deer away from its family.Maybe a wolf traveled too far from his home in the Rockies and needs to sleep in a hollow tree. He will not get to playfully bite his children, but instead, he licks his wound. That one there where the farmer was too quick for him, and grazed him with some buckshot.

It's OK. Tomorrow he will get the rest of the chickens. Tomorrow will come. It always does.