Losing it

I don't know for sure, but it could be that people around me are starting to lose it. Maybe it's the pressure change in their brains, or maybe it's me. Our neighbor with the crazy dogs has an above-ground pool. Every year by this time, he has added water, put in enough chemicals to shock the system of every man, woman and child with in two or three houses, and started standing outside with no shirt on to clean the pool with that vacuum hose thing. It's how we have started summer for the past three years, and he is running behind this year. He just added something that caused the water to look as though it had sprouted mushrooms, and after two days it has disappeared. Where did it go? Is it safe to jump in his pool now?

Alex cannot keep up with what day it is. I told him 18 times yesterday that it was Monday, which is trash day. Wednesday is recycle day, but today he started getting ready to put the recycling out, and it doesn't happen until tomorrow! He yelled from downstairs, "What is today? Wasn't yesterday Tuesday?" That would be today, and in all honesty, I think it's the last day of calm before the sea of craziness moves in.

Across the street is Cisco the beagle. For the longest time I thought her name was Cisco-No but have found out that it's just plain Cisco. I don't know how much you know about beagles, but Alex used to raise them, and they are about the strongest-willed animal alive. Any dog that will chase a coon up into a tree and wait there until you come shoot it out has got to have some will issues. Anyway, Cisco has been trained to stay in her yard, and that seem to have worked until it started getting warm. Alex and I were sitting on the front porch swing and heard the war cry "Cisco-No!" and saw her dash out into the street and back into the yard. Heard the cry again and saw her run out of her yard and into the neighbor’s to chase a squirrel. I gotta say, beagles need space and lots of it.

A storm moved in last evening, and we got dumped on in a short amount of time. Then the sun came out. A double rainbow formed, which used to happen all the time in Colorado. It was so close and so huge that I could have touched it if I could have made it stand still. Every time I see a rainbow, I think of the time we had to put our beloved dog Shyela down. As I was leaving for work and Alex was getting ready to take her in to the vet, this gi-normous rainbow formed, and I was able to drive under it. It was as if God were saying, "It's going to be OK. I’ve got you, and I’ve got her." So seeing that rainbow last night was a reassurance from God that He's got us, all of us, during this transformational time, even if we do act like we're losing it.