Hi! Mr. Monte here!
To my 23,417 feline followers, especially my many cat cousins residing in Virginia and Ohio, I have some words of wisdom to pass along to you. Please note that none of this will make any sense whatsoever to John the Hiker, one of my less than ardent human followers.
Now, on with my story. Whether he knows it or not, Ol’ Fuzz Face has given me carte blanche to make full use of my feline sense of honesty to air all the dirty laundry from Serendipity Farmhouse. In this particular case, the laundry is not so much dirty as it is soggy.
Perhaps a little background will help you understand. In his last post, The Wake-up Call, Fuzzy made the grave mistake of saying, “To be sure, Mr. Monte will have a word or two to put Fuzzy in his proper place and to correct all of our human failings.” – Well if that’s what Fuzzy expects, then that’s what Fuzzy and Blondie will get. As an observant and enlightened feline, it is so very easy to see how fraught with failings are my two humans. And, as we move into the season they call Advent, their failings are amplified and multiplied as they go through their frenzied Advent rituals.
If you’ve been following the weather closely on Serendipity Farmhouse – KVAFLETC4, you will know that November 26th was a beautiful day with a high of 65.7 °F. Blondie determined that it was the perfect day to clean her bathroom carpets. These carpets are especially favored by me because they keep my underside warm when I spend my time in contemplation and rest. Perhaps out of affection for me, knowing that I so love the fresh smells of clothes dried outside, she hung the carpets on the clothesline to let them dry. Then, off she trotted to do a myriad of her hurried, ritual tasks. (In Blondie’s case perhaps trotted is a poor choice of terms. Ambled might work, although sometimes it’s more like hobbled.)
The morning of the 27th was wet and dreary, very wet indeed. As I made my security rounds, I observed two very sad and soggy carpets hanging on the line. It was my duty, of course, to tell one of the so-called SFH authorities. So, I went to Fuzzy and reported my finding. In his usual cowardly way, he decided he didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. He told me it would be better to let Blondie figure it out on her own. – – She did, and Fuzzy and I played dumb.
Three days passed, each was wet and inclement. The carpets remained on the line. Blondie wandered about the house muttering about how wet the carpets were, how dirty they were getting, and how upsetting this was to her peace. I considered needling her about this and add to her list of woes by advising her of how this must look to the neighbors. I dismissed that thought however and merely asked her, “Mom, where are my nice, warm, cozy carpets? I really miss them.” That question was more than sufficient to cause her to fret even more.
During all of this, Fuzzy laid low. He knew any comments to Blondie about the sad state of the soggy carpets would trigger an entirely unpleasant response. At this point, Fuzzy should have been a little more concerned about his own glass house. He too should have been watching the weather forecasts. At 638 AM EST on the 30th, the National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook bulletin reading in part: “Breezy, with a south wind 15 to 24 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph.“
Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, that bulletin contained the stone that would break his little glass house. Why and how? Think back to the SFH post SFH Journal: 2020-02-24 through 03-01 – Drat!!!. In Fuzzy’s words, “… wind gusts exceeding 20 mph toppled our newly erected arbor early on the morning of February 26 [2020].” So the great engineer devised what he thought was a clever way to anchor the arbor securely. This picture clearly shows that one of his anchors failed the test and that his clever little plan was an abject failure. – – Great job, Fuzzy!!
So there it is! I am now living with a pair of humbled humans with a great many failings. To be sure, they’re lovable in their own ways and I feel very much a necessary part of the Serendipity Farmhouse family. But also be sure that living with their failings, soothing their feelings of humiliation, and keeping them on the right track is a full-time job.
So, look again at the featured picture at the beginning of this post. – – Their laundry isn’t dirty, but it is soggy. And I will continue to air it whenever the need arises.