First, I'm pretty sure tonight's post should win an award of some kind for the longest blog post title in the history of the world. Second, get ready for confession number ... oh, heck, I have no idea how many confessions I've made in my blog posts this year, but I've got another one. Ready? I've been kind of grumpy this week. I'm sure those of you who read my previous two posts are saying in unison, "Well, duh, Terrie." But since I've heard that confession is good for the soul, it's got to be good for me to recognize and confess my grumpiness. Hello, my name is Terrie, and I've been grumpy all week. I don't get grumpy often ... there's a huge difference, by the way, between being grumpy and being sad ... but this week, grumpy has been my middle, if not first, name. Now, having bared my soul once again concerning my state of mind and heart, on to what's behind my totally awesome longest blog post title in the history of the world.
Ollie and I had met a friend earlier in the evening to walk together with her dog, but I was restless and decided to make Mr. Oliver go for another walk with me ... a very dark walk long after the sun had set. We walked quite a long time in the cool night air, and it was as we turned off the sidewalk and stepped onto the short piece of the trail that leads us home when it happened. I was walking at a brisk pace when it caught my eye ... something moving just to the left of us on the trail. I obviously am not afraid to walk in the dark because I do it all the time, but I am, however, abundantly afraid of being chased through the darkness on the trail by some sort of wild and ravenous critter seeking out its dinnertime meal or late-night snack. Generally, Ollie lets me know if there is a creature nearby, but tonight, my faithful wiener dog failed to alert me to the dangerous animal that was threatening to tear us apart limb by limb.
It only took a moment or two for me to realize that the significantly sized, oddly shaped being was keeping pace with me and Ollie ... the faster I walked, the faster it walked, staying dead even with us with an unrelenting determination. Keeping my eyes glued to the shadowy figure, I scooped Ollie into my arms and decided that ... well ... I decided to flipping run!! As the now humongous, snarling ... hey, now, in my mind it was huge and snarling anyway ... creature continued along in the same rhythm and pace as Ollie and I, my heart began to pound as my mind tried to figure out a way of escape for me and my little hound. Being the always rational, logical, clear-thinking woman I am, I was by then completely convinced that the hungry, drooling beast had to be a bear or a bobcat or a mountain lion or, the most likely of all ... a giant rabid moose with antlers as big as my car. And ... and ... and ... I felt like a complete fool as I glanced back to see where the creature was when I was stepping off the curb to cross the street and make a mad dash for home. That's when I finally realized just exactly what it was that was chasing us ... my one and only, terribly frightening shadow. Yep, it was my shadow ... that's the beast I was so terrified of, friends, my own little old shadow. But in my irrational defense ... the bill of my ball cap really did look a lot like antlers in my shadow. And when I figured out that it was my shadow, I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks ... I laughed the rest of the way home, and I'm still chuckling as I sit on my couch typing this post.
I learned three lessons tonight from my close encounter with my super sneaky scary shadow ...
1) Things aren't always what they appear to be, and often what I create in my own mind is terribly way far off the mark
2) It is stinking hard to run with a 15-pound wiener dog on your shoulder.
3) Sometimes you just to laugh ... nothing more, nothing less ... just let out a hardy and strong guffaw. It's really hard to be grumpy when you're laughing, you know.
I'll leave you with those pearls of wisdom to ponder for a while ... I'm pooped and heading to bed. One bit of advice before I hit the sack, though ... watch out for those super sneaky scary shadows because they will scare the crap out of you while you're out walking at night.
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