Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Caretaker’s Log, Friday, May 30, 2014

It takes a bottle of water, breakfast, and two cups of coffee to get rid of my I Stayed Up Too Late Reading hangover.

I sit out on the porch and finish The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. The cat finally comes from who knows where to get her morning attentions and to sit in the chair next to me.

Just after noon, the bald eagle is out soaring over the north slope.

Two youngster elk are munching grass in the east field.

From 2:00 to 3:30, I finish washing up the inside windows in the back room and upstairs in the loft. I disturb some spiders. Sorry, guys.

It rains a little. 

All of a sudden it’s 4:00. I don’t know how the day passed so quickly.

The osprey is out looking for fish.

The red tailed hawk is circling the forest.

I try to find something new to read.

After I start some quinoa cooking, I trudge over to the root cellar to replenish my house supply of canned pineapple cubes. I bring in nine cans. It’s quinoa and a can of pineapple chunks for dinner.

No luck finding something interesting to read. I must be too fresh off Stieg Larsson’s series. This is maybe the first time since I’ve been here that I’m bored. In between books. Not wanting to start something like a puzzle or a show. Maybe this is just the ennui that comes from being a bit tired, a bit grouchy. Early to bed tonight.

Caretaker’s Log, Saturday, May 31, 2014

The sun is out in full force. I wake up from a strange dream about running a four mile race in socks. One of those dreams where the race never actually starts and I wander around trying to get the staff in line and make sure my parents and my grandmother don’t mind the wait. There’s a rain delay in the dream. There’s a false start. There’s commiseration with the other three racers. There’s my Pappaw eating a hotdog.  

In real life, I sit in the sun and the dream fades away. Before I start to burn, I go inside and begin some research on the Marshall Islands Atomic Bomb Testing of the 1950s.

A helicopter flies over my valley.

A bit past noon, a dark cloud rolls in. A bit before 1:00, the thunder announces itself as serious. Then the rain starts.

These are quick little storms.

Feeling suddenly ill-kempt, I go take a bath and wash my hair.

I read about meteorology and atomic energy.

Well, that was a brief, but effective bit of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning.

Grandmama calls.

The eagle is out.

I make kitcheree.

  

At 7:00 I take measure of the day’s weather. 0.02 inches of precipitation. And that’s the day.

Caretaker’s Log, Sunday, June 1, 2014

Suddenly, it’s June.

Heading to the front porch with my coffee cup in hand, I see the coyote. I haven’t seen her in weeks. How I’ve missed her! I watch as she makes her way across the east pasture. She disappears into the tall growth. I consider getting up on the roof to watch her longer, but I don’t do it.

  

The cat is frisky. She chases the ground squirrels and her own shadow across the front yard.

The clouds create a constant interruption to my sunning. I finally go inside. During a sunny break through, I go back out. Warmed by the sun. Then chilled under the clouds. That sunny lull was brief. The eagle soars over the pasture. The insects must be out. A flock of birds (nuthatches?) flies in changing formation over my head.

The clouds piss me off. It’s too chill to stay outside. Grumpily, I go sit on the couch and wrap a blanket around my shoulders.

At 2:00, I get to cleaning the kitchen. Four hours later I stop to eat dinner. At 7:00, I take the weather. I close out the month of May on the online weather recording site. I put away some of the dried dishes. I make two discoveries while I’m cleaning. 1. There are actually lids to the little pots I’ve been cooking my rice and quinoa in. I’ve been using skillets as lids for the past eight weeks. 2. Someone (not me) put the spices on the shelf in alphabetical order. OCD or efficient? If I’d done it… well, it would have been to satisfy my occasional OCD tendencies. And to be frightfully efficient, of course. Obviously, my power of observation needs some working on.

Through the den window I see a bird of prey that I don’t recognize. It has lots of white. I’ve never seen it before. Even through the binoculars it’s too far away for me to identify.

Michaela calls to make sure I’m alive. Apparently I hadn’t posted anything online all day.

Phinehas calls.

A little before 8:00, I give in and build a fire. A fire for June 1^st.