THUNDER IN THE NOVEMBER SKY

Rained all night bringing in warmer temps & a light fog this morning. Thunder rolled in over the lake around 5 a.m. & stayed long enough to scare Checkers & the little Motormouse so no morning walk for those two critters. But Max was raring to go so off we went. Managed to take a few photos between raindrops while heading around the pond near our house. It's deer hunting season here so the sporadic gun shots out in the forest scared the guys as well. Good thing for the deer there is no snow on the ground making it much harder for the hunter's to track them. I would bring all the deer home & hide them under my bed if I could. Received a few comments on my blog earlier about not being the brightest crayon in the box & that got me thinking of another dumb thing I did two winters ago down in Arizona. Worst part about this dumb thing was that I did it twice within a couple days. We were at the Hickiwan Trails RV Park near Why in the southwest part of Arizona. This is the blog I posted on January 8th, 2007. We had a truck & fifth wheel at the time............................. JANUARY 8TH, 2007 HICKIWAN TRAILS RV PARK, WHY, AZ.
Boy oh boy oh boy, did I ever do something dumb yesterday. I had been re-organizing my wallet in the afternoon & had laid it on a table outside. Max bumped the table & my wallet fell off into the dog's water dish. No problem as I quickly lifted it out, but then I made the first part of a big mistake. Laid the contents of my wallet on the tonneau cover of the pick-up truck to dry. All my credit cards, driver's license, CAA card, etc. The tonneau cover is black & felt warm from the sun so figured everything would dry quick. Well, you probably know what's coming, Yep, a couple of hours later just after supper I decided to head down the road to update the website so out I went, jumped in the truck, & took off out of the park & down the highway. When I reached the wi-fi site at Coyote Howls I stopped, got out of the truck, walked around to the passenger side to move the computer, glanced at the back of the truck & "OH OH!!" I remembered my wallet & cards and..........they were all gone. Raced back to the trailer, rushed in & told Kelly what had happened. I knew the only hope I had of ever finding anything lying on the ground was to get an expert ground scanning person involved & with Kelly's recent rock hounding interest I knew she was the right person for the job. She quickly headed out the driveway to the highway in full scan mode. I took the truck & started driving the highway shoulder & immediately found my Scotia debit card lying in the middle of the road. Continued up the road aways & turned around. By the time I got back to the area where I found the debit card I saw Kelly busily scooping things off the highway & alongside the road. Oblivious to traffic, she was on the job!! By the time I got the truck stopped she had already retrieved my wallet which had been lying open upside down in the westbound lane. She had also found what was left of my driver's license. It was the only thing damaged. In my panic to find things, I later realized I had driven over my own stuff 3 times!! I found one more card on the southbound shoulder & that completed everything. We were only moments away from complete nightfall but the eagle eyed rock hound had saved the day once again. Nothing missing from inside the wallet either. Both American & Canadian money were intact. It sure would have put an unfavorable dent in our vacation plans if all had been lost. Now, you would think that a normal person under these circumstances would have learned their lesson. Key word there was "normal." Well, would you believe a couple of days later I practically did the same thing all over again. I was cleaning the truck cab & found my black cowboy hat getting in the way so reached up, took it off & tossed it around the corner onto the tonneau cover of the truck. For me, as soon as something is out of sight it's ancient history. Finished the cleaning & came inside the trailer & started working on the blog. Kelly said, "I'm going in to Ajo to get some groceries so won't be long." "Ok," I said & off she went. About 10 minutes later I decided to head back outside. Now, where the heck is my hat!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh!!!!!
My most favorite hat of all time was gone & I instantly realized the huge mistake I had made. Raced across the parking lot, out the driveway & onto the highway desperately looking for some tell tale sign of my hat on the road or in the ditch. Walked about a quarter mile up the road & back down the other side again but no hat. I was just about jumping out of my skin because of the anger & frustration with myself. How could I have made the same mistake twice in a row. Over the next hour or so I beat myself up pretty bad as I sat dejectedly in the trailer mourning the loss of my favorite hat. I was convinced it was gone forever & probably perched on top of somebody else's head by now.

I heard the truck pull in beside the trailer but I didn't even feel like going outside to help bring the groceries in. I was in a total funk. The screen door opened, I heard the rustle of plastic grocery bags & Kelly stepped through the door..............and there it was, my black cowboy hat perched atop her head. Yaaaaaaaaay Kelly:))))) Almost enough to make a grown man cry I'd say. She said she hadn't noticed the hat when she left but after she had pulled out onto the highway she glanced in the rear view mirror & saw my had dancing across the tonneau cover about to take flight into Arizona's wild blue yonder. She slowed the truck down & the hat aborted it's take off roll. Pulling off to the side of the road, Kelly retrieved the hat & proceeded on her way. She had once again saved the day:)) As for me, well the only thing I was able to save, was the memory of an old saying........... "sometimes we get too soon old & too late smart:(("

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