I’m Seeing Things

March 11, 2014 by Ruth 24 Comments

Yesterday was a strange day for me.  It really started Sunday, actually.  Lanky Brit usually works Friday, Saturday and Sunday in twelve hour shifts, so he gets up at 3:00 a.m.  I lay in the bed for a few more minutes and then I get up, too.  Because I’m awake.  I might be able to go back to sleep but, for some reason, I like to see him off when he leaves at 5:00 a.m.  Sometimes I go back to sleep after that but most of the time I don’t.  Well, Sunday was one of those days when I did.  I had thought that I wouldn’t.

I was going to get to work organizing my home office.  We bought this house last summer and around the same time we moved in the renter in a rental property we own moved out.  My sister volunteered to help me fix it up – the rental, that is – so I could sell.  Because I’m tired of renting it.  Because I’m not cut out to be anybody’s landlord.  I have trouble making people move out when they don’t pay.  I live too far away to manage it properly and it was my reward(award, whatever) in the divorce.  A cinder block house in a not-so-good-neighborhood.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story.  So my sister and the Brit did help me fix it up and it did sell, thankfully.

Anyway I haven’t had a chance, really, to work on the house we actually live in until recently. I call it my 1970’s Brady Bunch house.  I’m going with an eclectic mix of things. So I was going to get started on that home office. I did.  I worked for about half an hour and then I got sleepy.  So I laid on the couch and when I fell asleep House, M.D. was on.  When I woke up Dr. David Jeremiah was on.  He apparently had three points, a poem, and a prayer.  I woke up on point three.

The sermon had been about the new heaven and the new earth, y’know after Jesus comes back and scorches this one to smitherenes.  You can download the outline.  You can even listen to the sermon if you like.  For some reason I didn’t repulsively change the channel and instead listened.  The third point had three points.  In the new earth, God’s removing the sea.  We won’t need it anymore, apparently.  I was only half awake at that point.  He’s also going to remove the curse that he placed on the earth when Adam and Eve snacked on fruit from the wrong tree. Finally, this earth (the one we currently inhabit) will be restored.  To perfection.  Which should give Christians a new appreciation of the world we live in now.  For some reason Christians should be conservationists because the new earth is going to be the old earth, just restored.  To perfection.  So Christians ought to be taking care of it now because it’s the same one they’ll be living in then; without a sea.  And the Christians will be reigning on this new earth with Jesus under God.  He never did say what they’d be reining over.  Each other?  Will there be animals that need to be reigned over?  The vegetation?  *shrug* I did find this little gem that explains it.  I decided procrastination was overrated and went on with my task for the day.

Fast-forward to yesterday. The Brit was slated for some extra work so we were back up at 3:00 a.m.  Maybe it was the phase of the moon or lack of sleep or something, but I wasn’t in a particularly chipper mood.  I found myself in a debate in the comment section on another blog.  Why?  I’m not a debater.  I even told myself not to bite.  ‘Don’t get sucked into this’, I said. ‘Just ignore it’, I said.  But did I listen?  Noooo. Sigh…

I failed to eat lunch yesterday, then had to go the grocery store when I got off work. Not a good combo. It took me forever in the grocery store because it’s hard to be decisive when you’re ready to chew your friggin’ arm off. This explains why I thought I was hallucinating when I arrived home yesterday afternoon and saw a pig rooting around by my mailbox. I did a double-take. Surely it was a strange looking dog. No, it was a pig.

I hauled my groceries inside and decided to go investigate this pig sighting.  What is a pig doing in a golf community?  When I went back out he was gone.  Yep, I thought, I was seeing things.  I walked to the corner and looked both ways and there he was, rooting around in the neighbor’s front yard.

There’s a house just down the street a couple of houses down that takes in a lot of foster animals and animal rescues.  I saw their foster child out shooting hoops in the front driveway.  As I approached him he started to walk away.  He saw me, but he appeared to be retreating.  ‘In fairness, he doesn’t know me’, I thought.   Suddenly he stopped, turned around and took a huge shot at the hoop.

“Excuse me,” I said.  “Yes, ma’am”, he replied timidly.  “I know this is going to sound a little weird but, do you have a pig?”  He gave me a strange, puzzled look and said, “Well, yeah. How’d you know that?”  “He’s over here in the neighbor’s front yard,” I said with a smile.  He loosened up a little then and said, “He’s real nice.  We rescued him.” He leaned down and gave the pig a scratch.  With that they both turned and trotted back home.

Sigh…I guess I need to find out what potbellied pigs eat and help them out with some food for him.  I don’t know how these folks afford all these strays they take in – kids and animals.  Lanky already helps with one of the cats they took in that only has three legs and a nub.  He calls him Stumpy and my little cat(Scamper) is his friend and his military defense system.