November 1, 1979
Mother Nature knew just exactly what she was doing when she made me a human being rather than a squirrel. I’ve been watching the little fellow who lives in our elm tree and at times I’m just a little envious of him.
He is busy every day gathering MY pecans and working hard at either burying them or else toting them up the tree to his pantry.
Then when winter lands in the middle of us, he’s going to be prepared.
I’m not so sure I would be able to keep my mind on a task like that.
No doubt about it! I would starve plumb to death by the second day of cold weather.
I can’t even make a trip to the grocery store where all I have to do is pick what I want off a shelf and get home with EVERYTHING I need!
I might go to town with intentions of buying taco makings, end up with ten bags of food only to find when they’re unloaded that I’ve forgotten tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese.
For some strange reason chocolate chips and marshmallow cream do not make good taco salad!
And can you imagine the hullabaloo if I awoke to find a foot of snow and my tummy telling me to feed it.
Easy! Crawl down out of that nice warm nest, find the buried treasure and have a merry old feast!
The only trouble is that I can’t even find anything lying out in the open in my house.
Once I searched in vain for the dishcloth at least half an hour.
Finally, one of the kids pointed it out to me—laying on the top refrigerator shelf! !!
It’s probably best that I learn to be satisfied with the form Mother Nature deemed best to put me in. But sometimes I think about that free living—no taxes, no nine to five job, no worry about the price of roast—and I am a bit jealous.
Of course, I do have to remember that day that the squirrel teased the neighbor’s
cat, Sylvester, and barely escaped up the tree. With the grace I have—my husband says I’m as graceful as a hippopotamus on ice—I would have been Sylvester’s lunch. Well!?! How much did you say that roast was on sale for this week!!!!!