Monday, July 18, 2011

before I lay me down to sleep...

After the rain ended I waited a short time for the water to run off the roadway and the cars and trucks to dry it. There I met a man and his son, he offered a place to park midway between Hillsboro and Le Farge which was beyond what we could walk in the late afternoon heat. Now that the sun is going down the stifling heat is tolerable (with a fan thanks to an outside plug), Nice (the dog) has had plenty of iced water and food since we stopped walking before three o'clock. We would have stayed the rest of the day under some shade tree had we not been graced with the shade of this building (there are no shade trees in a lumber mill yard). I also met a robust woman who like me is fluffy and fit. Both of us are active yet we can not hope to get to super model status. We talked of being the largest in a crowd most of the time and we are more active than most but still we are built like trucks, not sleek sports cars. She left saying she would walk. My work there was finished. The cars no longer blew up a fine dirty mist so we went along our merry way with the clouds crashing against the oppressive heat wave causing rumbling thunder across the sky from one side to the other. Awesome,say it with me, AWESOME. Then came the heat and head wind.
The Amish buggy horses invariably try to run off in the ditch when they pass by so I roll off as far as I can and stop. Two buggies stopped to talk as their horses stared nervously at the giant eye looking back. The three tiny children stared from the back bench while I spoke to their father. When I waved and said goodbye to them the children with their little hats and bonnets were so dumbfounded they where not ready when the started off, all I saw was six little feet flying up. You can't by that in the grocery store...As the day progressed the horse dropping on the road dried and no longer clung to the World. And the heat increased.
We got to the base of the big hill before the mill yard where we stayed for over an hour cooling off. There we talked to a few who stopped as my boots dried a little in the sun and Nice relaxed, unless he was jumping at their feet for the illusive frogs that only hide under strangers feet. We finally walked up the long hill and down to the shade of the mill building. A friend I met in Hillsboro came with a ride and after over five hours of heat and a visit from -The Stanecks with treats and their tale of loss of a loved one due to Diabetes (sigh)... I lay me down to sleep.

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