My family looks forward to my sister’ visit every year. She flies down from Idaho and stays for a week or two doing chores and projects for all of us.
It may seem mercenary to make her work so hard on her vacation but, if we don’t, I fear the rest of the world could be in danger. A snippet from a recent email:
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I only worked 8 hours today, came home and split a bunch of wood, tarped the dog house, made sure everyone has lots of food and water, spread a bale of straw in the chicken hoop coops, spread bales of cedar shavings in the horse shelter, now I’m going to take a shower and relax. |
I left out the part where she said they forecast a HIGH of 6 degrees for a while, hence all the preparations. But STILL, there are so many things wrong with her statement I am not sure where to begin.
First, she “only” worked 8 hours that day. The slacker.
Next, she split a bunch of wood, then continued to do more chores. Normal people would fall down immediately and ask the nearest person for a massage or some aspirin or perhaps a beer.
Finally, she lives on a farm. Clearly. That is a full time job in and of itself without the additional day job and wood chopping. But how does one know to spread straw and cedar shavings when it gets cold? Is there an adult education class for people who live in the boondocks? Do you get extra credit for making your own pie crust?
And yet we both love science fictions and fantasy so always have something to talk about.
In addition to scheming about how we can organize mom’s house while she is sleeping so she doesn’t see us throw away the bottle of whiskey that is so old it only cost $4.79 and replace it with a new one.
We will always have those kinds of bonding moments.
