Boo!
I can’t help it: I still am a city girl. Or at least that’s what my brain tells me.
There are instances where I am caught off guard by something I see or hear when here at the farm and my immediate reaction is to Think a City Thought. It happened again to me early this morning when I blearily stepped outside in my bathrobe (yes, Not a City Habit) to feed the chicks and chickens. It was still somewhat dark outside. A big patch of white caught the corner of my eye and I thought, “Who parked a van in our side yard?”
It was a blooming crabapple tree, not a white van.
I remember walking our dog at night when we first moved here in late November of ’04. (He was a city dog, and therefore expected a walk. Our current country dog assumes no such courtesy.) As I waited for Alex to do his thing, I looked diagonally across the property and I saw a red light, then a green light. “Wow,” I thought. “I don’t remember there being a stop light over in that direction.”
Not a stoplight. A neighbor’s Christmas lights. The nearest stoplight? Five miles away, in town, one of two.
Sometimes I will wake up and hear voices, and I won’t assume it’s the tv downstairs (which it is, as Tom’s a night owl) but I will think “wow, those people are out late walking, aren’t they.”
I wonder if I will ever lose city-centered thoughts. Will I ever wake up in the city and wonder who planted a crabapple tree on the curbline?
Glad you came to visit!
Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.
fast grow the weeds 
ha ha ha !!! that was so funny!
I am that way too….the noise of our old house freaks me out! Not knowing that my wife had come back home one day…and hearing noises on the second floor – I called 911 : ) Undercover agents came to the house with guns aimed….asking my wife if she should be there….[i did bring some somosas to the police station later for causing all the trouble : )]
Have a snake free day : )
So sweet. I love the last line about wondering who put a crabapple in the curbing. ha!
So funny! Happens to me everyday – I keep thinking I need to put up blinds and curtains ASAP to keep out prying eyes. Then I realize that there’s no one to see in except the birds and the neighbors cows.
My MIL was at the house for Mother’s Day and when we went inside she said, “Oh, I better lock my car because my purse is in there!” I told she didn’t need to bother locking her car. She conceded that but still insisted that she better bring any valuables in. I wondered who she thought was going to steal them, the chickens?
When we moved from the city to the country about 2.5 years ago, my youngest (then almost 5) said (in complete terror) “I can see the noises!” I don’t know what would possibly happen to her if we went back to the city now.
What a great post! I always lock my car when visiting friends in the country! They look at me like I’m crazy too.
Habit.
I think I’d move out to the country if I had a coffee house an acre away to walk to. Until then, it’s farming in the city for us. 🙂
WF: I think samosas would grease the wheels with even the most intractable authority! Wow though that cracks me up. Your poor wife.
Verde: Thank you. It’s so funny: right after I typed this up I heard what I thought was a smoke alarm. It was a bird.
Laura: Losing the lock-up habit was one of the first things to happen. It was (is) still easier to find one’s keys if they’re still in the cars’ ignitions! But yeah. Curtains. IMHO, unnecessary, except maybe on the bathroom window. Half the bathroom window, actually.
Alecto, now that’s just spooky. Your poor girl! I remember taking my girl to Chicago and actually pointing out a bus and singing “The Wheels on the Bus” to her and ding! Light bulb goes off (she was about 18 months). Our city house was actually on a busline, so yeah, she’s lost a lot…in a good way.
Ah Amanda you’ve brought up the dark underbelly to country living: good coffee!!! Luckily we have a friend who’s a hobbyist roaster in Oregon, so we get the greatest stuff shipped to us in the mail in 7 lb boxes. The maillady loves us for that as it stinks up her car something awful. Anyway, we’re on coffee maker #3 now because of our habit, and our mineral-laden water. We ended up getting a reverse osmosis system NOT for our own drinking but for the benefit of the coffee maker. Topsy-turvy world out here! But it’s okay if you lock your car. I have to remember to lock mine now when I go somewhere.
I still do those things at times as well. For a long time after moving out here, I had issues walking out to the barn at night. Neve know who was hiding in the shadows. My mother locks her car door when she comes out to visit as well.
Phelan, but doesn’t your mom live in the country?? You know, I have no problem walking OUT to our outbuildings in the dark. I have a problem going INTO them in the dark…too many spooky move-fast-freak-me-out things out there in the world, like mice, or sleeping barn swallows. Luckily I let the dog go in first 🙂