Sleep, A New Blog Addiction and Surviving on Coffee....

This past weekend The King Fish took Tiger Shark and Jabber Jaw camping. Small Fry stayed home with me... and we ran about town, visiting the zoo and shopping a little here and there. I'm usually pretty comfortable with him gone, but for some reason I was unnerved last evening. Some kids played a prank and rang my doorbell at 10pm, and then at midnight I heard them talking quietly in the street. We have one on our street that has been in trouble with the law, and weekends his friends tend to visit as well. It was pitch black outside, and there was no way I was opening the door to tell them to move on... (being by myself and all.) Nope... not happening. And since it wasn't an actual noise disturbance I didn't think calling law enforcement was required either. So, I felt more comfortable just staying awake a little later. (I am a night owl ya know....) Except that I felt pretty tired and really wanted to lay down.

That's when I found the archives to Pioneer Woman's blog. Specifically... her story of how she and Marlboro Man met. It's titled "From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - A Love Story", and I got sucked in from their first encounter.

Let me tell you... it is just not a good thing to start reading her blog at midnight on any night... but especially a night before you have to get up for church the next day. Seriously not good. If you don't know her background she is a city girl who met and married her cowboy aka: Marlboro Man and moved out to the prairie to live on his cattle ranch and now raises their family there. What a life change! Their love story was so full of humor and suspense I couldn't help but keep reading. One chapter left me hanging and I had to go onto the next! It was like a good romance novel, you just can't put it down.

At one point, less than a month into their dating relationship, she was invited to a family wedding. It was summer and hot, and she was meeting all his relatives for the first time in a butter colored wool suit. Midway through she had to excuse herself to head indoors to the air conditioned bathroom and disrobe standing on the toilet to try get the air from the ceiling vent to cool her off. Oh my gosh... you just have to read it yourself.... I actually was laughing so hard I was crying! You can read it for yourself HERE. You can read the entire story of how they met HERE... and her blog is HERE. Just be sure to start reading well before midnight....

Anyway, 3:00am I found myself still sucked in and not even half way through the story of how they met. And then I heard a sound outside. It was on my front porch and it sounded like walking. Being very jumpy from my previous dealings of the evening... I snuck up (as opposed to sneaked) and peeked out the window. There at my front door was the neighbor's cat, scratching and pawing at my jute type welcome mat. Relief flooded over me and in what I can only describe as drug induced delirium, I headed back to my "drug" of choice, Pioneer Woman's blog.....knowing full well I needed to go to bed.

About 10 minutes later I heard another sound..... a wild sound. A sound that I had never heard before. Maybe it was reading about Pioneer Woman, the prairie and wilderness that put the thought into my head. But I was certain it was a coyote. We have those around here ya know.... maybe farther out in the country.... ummmmm... not exactly within 10 minutes of Publix. I heard that coyotes like to attack the cats around this general area. So, not being sure what the sound was.... I googled coyote sounds. Nope it wasn't a coyote.... it was the sound below. Which just proves that I have no clue about wildlife, and do not belong in the country or on a prairie or anywhere out in the general wilderness. Certainly it questions whether I really am a night owl after all... don't you think?

Click on the following link to see the Youtube video... it won't let me embed it in this post... :-( Youtube Wild Sound

I went to bed after that... too tired to read more about this couple. The alarm clock buzzed in my ear at 7:59 and I hit snooze many times. Finally at 8:30 the high shrill of our house alarm woke me to action. The King Fish and the boys were home. I jumped to turn off the alarm and began my day with the help of large quantities of coffee........ once again!