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A heavy case of the Mondays

3 min read

I had one of those days the other day. It wasn’t a Monday, but it felt like one. I had worked all day and had more to do after work.

For some reason, I was feeling particularly tired. I drove straight home after work, bypassing the stop at the grocery store I had promised myself I would make, in favor of a few minutes of couch time before I began those evening chores.

I had barely gotten comfortable on the couch when my phone rang. My sister was on the other end of the call asking for a favor. She had locked herself out of her house and I had the only spare key. Would I mind terribly returning to town to let her and her children inside? Of course, I did it. And I was happy for an excuse to see my nieces and nephew unscheduled.

When I returned home that time, I decided to go ahead and complete my chores so that when I hit the couch I could stay there. I grabbed a couple of buckets of water to take to my cows and headed down into the field where they’re staked in the grass.

After untangling one from around the tree and the other from its own legs, I gave them each a drink. At the exact moment I was finished, the dark clouds that had been rolling in all afternoon burst open and a torrent of water fell from the sky. I leaned against a massive tree to wait it out. My loyal dog sat at attention beside me, his big, brown eyes asking why we weren’t playing in the large drops.

When the rain lightened up some, we made a run for the house. I grabbed a towel from inside the door and we both dried off before heading back to the living room.

Just about the time I settled in to watch an “NCIS” rerun, I heard the very distinctive sound of a cat being sick and jumped up to go grab paper towels. On the way to the kitchen I saw my dog swatting something across the foyer floor. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it was a cat turd he had plucked from the litter box.

I paused long enough to retrieve it and toss it in the garbage before heading on toward the kitchen. I hurried to grab the paper towels and get back to the vomit that I knew awaited me. I got there just in time to stop the dog from eating the hairball. I cleaned it up and washed my hands.

Fully exhausted now after taking care of all of those messes, I decided to skip dinner and my reruns, and go straight to bed. Tomorrow, I figured, couldn’t be as challenging as today had been.

At least it wasn’t supposed to be a Monday. Of course, neither had the day I had just completed.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.

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