It
was just after midnight, I was closing down the house and heading
to bed. Turning off a few lights and wandering around as I did.
Some flashes of light caught my eye, and I made my way to the
sliding door that leads onto a back deck.
Lightning.
An absolutely brilliant display of it.
I
didn’t actually see any lightning, but the flashes of light were
tremendous. It was a back and forth effort, triggered every four
or five seconds, off to the left and then from the right.
It
wasn’t really raining. It did, but not steady. The storm was close
but not on top of us. So, you had that wonderful scenario that
occasionally hits where the storm was there, surrounding you,
but you were basically an observer.
The
storm itself hovered in the area for almost two hours. By the
time morning arrived, the ground was wet and the skies were blue.
For anyone that slept through it, chances are good that the belief
would be that rain passed by in the darkness. And those thoughts
would be completely off the mark for what really swept across
the area.
It
makes me wonder about other things where the evidence seems so
obvious, but the results could be so wrong.
Weeding
the other day. Nothing too exciting there. Arrived at a couple
of plants with damage that suggests leaves had been eaten. Probably
a deer.
The
first reaction to such a thing is that a deer was enjoying a snack
barely five-feet from our front door. The second reaction was
wondering if it actually was a deer.
Apparently,
chipmunks and rabbits love hosta leaves as well. This might not
be the work of deer crossing my yard in the middle of the night.
All
of which brings about this: Who is eating the leaves? Obviously,
that seems like a pretty straightforward item, and not much of
a twist. But play out the full scenario. If you think deer are
eating your plants, you might find yourself debating different
types of fences to install. That can get pretty expensive, physically
demanding, and take away from the overall visual appeal. Those
are three lovely things to endure, only to finish the project
and have a group of chipmunks involved that are undeterred by
such an obstacle.
Now,
some of you right now are thinking about this idea. You’re debating
mysteries that have been going on around your home, or maybe thinking
of things that were solved in very unexpected ways. You might
even specifically need to address some chipmunks that have been
running around. I’m not sure I can help you out. I don’t know
the answers at my house.
(And
a few of you are wondering how the hell I made the switch from
lightning to chipmunks.)
What
I can say about all of this is simple: Enjoy.
Yup.
Enjoy. That’s it. Because the reality of all of this is pretty
basic. You’re either going to try and solve the mystery (or fix
it), or, you’re not (or can’t).
If
you plan on investing the time and energy into righting whatever
is wrong, then I’m going to wish you luck and hope it works out.
So, yeah, enjoy.
If
you’re not going to put some work in, then whatever you decide
to do instead I hope goes well. Again, enjoy. (And if it means
you find some great show streaming while looking around for other
things to do, don’t be afraid to share.)
Finally,
if it’s something like a tremendous display of lightning, and
we’re not talking about incredible loss and destruction, then
just take it all in. Enjoy.