Browsing Archives for Country Life

I struggle with paying the water bill. I used to write about these struggles on a semi-annual basis, but sometimes in life it really is best to move on.  However, a few short months ago, I received yet another letter from my Rural Water Department, chastising me for once again not sending them the proper funds. Evidently I had miscalculated and wound up under-paying my bill by quite a significant amount.  This oversight resulted in the usual letter written in angry red ink with lots of arrows and exclamation points and circles and double underlines emphasizing my error, from the person at the Rural Water Department whom I refer to as ‘the red ink lady at the RWD’.

Why do I struggle so with paying the water bill?   It’s a long story, but let’s just say that our local RWD places far too much responsibility of the monitoring and reporting of household water usage on the actual inhabitants of said households. Also – in order to get the correct numbers to send to the RWD (along with the proper remittance) a long uphill hike is involved followed by reaching into a spidery hole, followed by trying to read numbers inside of a spidery hole, followed by writing down those numbers in a shaky spidery hole panic, and since none of those things are particularly pleasant, I usually opt to guess the amount of water we have used for the month.  Turns out – I am not a very good guesser.  And then I get another letter from the ‘red ink lady at the RWD’.

In protest of the latest red-inked letter  I received from the red ink lady at the RWD, I actually included a note with my delinquent payment and asked why the corrective letters are always written in red ink? Why not the more calming blue… or the more understated black? Even a peppy purple or a soothing mint green would be better than the caustic red that makes one feel like one has miserably failed an essay exam.

To this she replied in our next bill – “Red ink is the color typically used by accountants.”

Typical!

Accountants!

Maybe I will send her one of those fancy pens with all the different colors of ink for Christmas. Then she can quickly switch from ‘angry accounting red’ to ‘not at all antagonizing blue’ when she scratches out the next letter of reprimand to me.

Which brings me to my latest chapter in my personal RWD wrestling match.

I sat down to pay bills on Monday, but I ran out of 44 cent stamps before I got to the water bill. Fortunately I had a huge collection of one, two and three cent stamps accumulated over years and years of stamp price raising. I decided to use them all up on the water bill. I wonder what the ‘red ink lady’ will think? Maybe I should have drawn a smiley face somewhere to make sure she knew I meant no harm?  But as you can see… there really wasn’t room for a smiley face.

The Country Doctor was horrified that I sent this letter.

But the Country Doctor has never reached his hand into a spidery hole after an uphill climb has he?

So his horror is somewhat pale in comparison to mine.

I hope you never make the ghastly mistake of assuming that small towns lack adventure, drama and interesting people.

Because then you might never know about pickleball!

Pickleball is a recent import to our fair community.

Show Cat Breeders Rosie and Gordon brought it all the way from Arizona.

It was hard lugging this court clear across the country in a trailer full of Show Cats, but Rosie and Gordon are not faint of heart.

Pickleball is played on a small court with a wiffle ball and you have to know if you are “one” or “two”. I never know if I am a “one” or a “two” but in my family of four sons, there is always someone willing to tell me.

Pickleball is kind of like tennis except it is way funner because it is way easier.

Even the most grossly incompetent athlete such as myself are occasionally able to hit the ball over the net.

And when I don’t hit it over the net, Rosie always insists that I get another chance… which is why Rosie is my favorite.

Rosie and Gordon’s hammock is also my favorite.

I find that I play my very best pickleball games from this position.

For in the fading twilight of a cool summer evening, there is perhaps no better spot on earth.

Than on a pickleball court in a friends back yard.

Thanks Rosie and Gordon!