Drying and Dying

Besides being superb for chopping rye, yesterday’s sunny, breezy conditions were perfect for drying laundry outdoors, too.  Thank goodness for that, as our dryer still languishes in an unrepaired state.

Lilacs swaying in the wind watched from overhead as I pinned the clothes to the line.  Yesterday was probably the lilacs’ peak day of beauty and fragrance.  It’ll be all downhill from here. 

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Yesterday morning while I was way out in the field videotaping the rye chopping, I happened to look back toward the house just in time to see a FedEx truck leaving our place in a cloud of dust.  Hmm……I wasn’t expecting any deliveries, so had no idea what the driver might have dropped off.

When I got back to the house later, my daughter had just come down from upstairs and she excitedly said, “Do you have my package?”  I didn’t, and I wondered what she was talking about.  She proceeded to tell me she had just received an email from FedEx saying they had left a package for her “at the front door”.  It contained a plane ticket and and other important paperwork for her trip abroad this summer.

We searched the area “at the front door” and found no sign of a package.  We checked around the other doors,  under the bushes by the house, in the garage, in the car, in the pickup……no sign of a package.  The dogs couldn’t have carried it off because they had been out in the field with me.  The gang of cats parked outside the house door were of no help, they simply directed wide-eyed stares at us.

My daughter found the package’s tracking number and I called the FedEx 800 number to explain the problem.  The representative was very helpful and said she would contact the driver to come back to our house or give us a call.  Meanwhile, I worked on getting lunch ready for the guys and Daughter headed to Waterloo to run errands. 

When Husband came in later to eat, I told him about the FedEx truck coming here, but apparently leaving no package.  Right away, he said, “There’s something hanging on the Morton Building door.”  What?? The “Morton Building” is a machinery shed beyond the garage……not near the house at all.  Sure enough, though, the FedEx package was hanging on the shed door behind some long grass.  So that was the “front door” the driver had referred to in the email??  Goodness……was he unable to tell the difference between the machine shed and the house??

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On a somber note, I will be helping at a funeral lunch at our church today.  The deceased was in his early 60’s, seemingly healthy until less than a month ago when he was diagnosed with cancer.  Three Sundays ago his name was mentioned in the church service prayers and now he’s passed away already.  His death doesn’t seem right at all---as if death ever does---he and his family have carried a heavy load over the past 25 years and his sudden tragic death seems to be the ultimate insult added to injury.

Last night a group of us living and hopefully healthy church members met to set up tables for the funeral lunch.  On my way there, I could see the deceased farmer’s fields and farm buildings.  His tractor was sitting behind a shed…..I have no idea if he felt well enough to do any fieldwork this spring.  Our church congregation is not especially close……there are several extended family groups and you don’t know much about the groups you’re not a part of.  I’m guessing that’s typical of a rural/small town church where the same close-knit families have been in attendance for generations. 

My sister’s father-in-law passed away a few months ago and his gravestone has just been installed.  Here’s the inscription on the back of it……the first line of Emily Dickinson’s famous poem:

I didn’t mean to cast a pall on your day.  Have a good one!

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