Happy Full Moon-itis

All week I have been watching the moon grow. Wednesday I intended to go out at dusk and photo the moon just rising over the pond, but loud voices revealed the presence of other pond /moon enjoyers and deterred me.

Last night I had a case of full moon itis. I was wound up and tired, still trying to catch up on my R&R, so I turned in around midnight. I was trying to get comfy, and all of a sudden a loud squawk, and the two white roosters, each of whom claims a high perch in trees on opposite corners of the house (one right outside my window, thanks very much) started crowing. Yes, at midnight.

The moon was full and high in the sky-I don't know if they thought it was high noon, or what?
Finally I sat up and looked out the window, and seeing no pack of coyotes or invading aliens, I rapped sharply on the glass, demanding, "What's going on out there?" IN response the two roosters, being chickens, shut up.

I tried to get comfortable again, and I could hear goat horns crashing and crashing. I have two large wethers that are kept separate, because one of them is mean to the little goats. I was sure I was hearing the sound of large goats beating up small goats, so I dressed and wandered outside to check. Everything was normal-the little goats taking advantage of the midnight sun to play King of the big boulder. Sweet.

That was last night. Today we had to run some errands, including a dump run, or transfer station as it is now. The old dump was a back-up and dump landfill. At the transfer station, everything goes into bins to be hauled away, with separate stations for recycled items.

I have the system down fairly well-first the general trash, then cans, glass, general metal, around to number two plastic, mixed paper, and cardboard. This week I had a bag of stuff from an old woods dump that we cleaned up on the property. Yes, even out in the middle of nowhere, one can find the remains of mankind years ago. In our case, we have excavated several small piles of trash from about 40 years ago-which is now just glass and rusty cans.

I was trying to sort the glass from the cans and debating whether the rusty cans should go into the can barrels or the general metal dumpster (wow, real rocket science going on there...hehe) and was approached by a nicely dressed woman .

"Where should I put the blue glass?" she asked .

I suggested she set it to the side since the barrels are only labeled "green, brown, or white"
Then she had some other things she had questions about-mostly plastic, which I took for her in my now empty sack to go into the general trash, as our station only recycles number two.

She was apparently cleaning out stuff for her folks-ancient liquor bottles and odd plastic bits, a box of ancient reader's digest books.

She drove back over to the general trash area to get rid of the rest of her non recycled plastic, and I took my two , now empty paint cans over to the metal can. By the time I came back, or about 30 seconds from the start of this story, one of the guys that worked there had spotted the blue glass bottle and tucked it under his arm like a college quarterback making his first touch down.

Ok, blue glass goes to the guy. :D

I wondered about the woman afterwards, her folks..if they were still alive, or moved away, and was she cleaning out the summer home?

We moved on to the next stop.

The out of state driver plates have arrived. We went the rest of the way into town with me spouting off plates as they passed.."Massachusetts, Virginia, NorthCarolina...I think that was Texas!"

I made sure I was on my best host-state behavior, pausing several times to wave "visitors from away" into traffic-tricky spots that still rely on common small town courtesy to keep traffic flowing at intersections.

One place at the top of town had received a very expensive makeover including a traffic light-which has turned that spot into a living nightmare. From two or three directions turning drivers still have to rely on common courtesy to get through-but that is now dictated by if the light is green or not. We made it through town alright, but one had to wonder at the reason for the light, since traffic can barely go 10 mph down main street .

We had a chance to go through the expanded grocery store-and the saplings were goggling with awe at the atrium complete with twenty foot tall fake trees in the produce section.

We just needed something for supper-with the heat and travel time unless I take an ice chest, meat purchases are limited to that night's dinner when so far from home. We were in the express lane, and suddenly a woman behind me said, "What beautiful children you have."

I said, "Yes, I am VERY lucky," very sincere; I often think how blessed I am with my children!!!
She was about my age, and looked tired and sad and lost in thought as we walked away. I had to wonder about her story, her children, or the children she didn't have...

and despite all the little crazy annoying things that happened today, my ego wanting to scream..."grrrr...why me?" I found myself thinking about the two women I had spoken with today...the well groomed woman with or without parents, the tired rumpled woman with or without children...either might have been me in an alternate reality... and how did their days go?

Happy Full Moon. ;)