Sheila O'Riley
Where'd that come from?
You’ve all experienced it. The moment you see
something that is so mind boggling, time seems to come to a halt as your
mind tries to wrap itself around what it is seeing. Then as the gears of
the mind slowly begin to turn again, these words pour out, “Where’d that
come from?”
I experienced two such episodes last week; one
puzzling and one bizarre.
In the first episode, I had taken a plastic
container of frozen homegrown strawberries out of the freezer. I wanted
to thaw them slightly and quickly for the jello salad I was preparing. I
put water in a saucepan that I use everyday. I brought the water to a
boil and set the container of strawberries in it for a while.
When I removed the container of strawberries from the pan, there was a jigsaw puzzle piece lying in the water in the bottom of the pan. Bewildered, I picked the piece up and inspected it. Although, it had faded, I recognized it immediately. “Where’d that come from?” It was from a puzzle I was working on over three years ago.
I can remember because I put several jigsaw puzzles together at that time when I was laid up with a cast on my leg. That was the last time I jigsawed. I remember that particular jigsaw of antique Santas and Christmas decorations as when it was completed, I was missing two pieces. Gee, I wonder where the other piece is. This one must have been stuck to the bottom of the strawberry container, but the strawberries were only a year old and the piece had been missing for three years?
The next episode has me moving wet laundry from my washer to my dryer. I was almost done and had picked up another handful when I heard a loud buzzing sound; sort of like a cell phone set to vibrate. I stood a moment trying to locate the sound when I realized something was vibrating in my fingers and I could feel ridges moving.
Here we go into slow motion mode—I looked in my hand and saw what could have been a dark sock, but it was definitely moving. When my mind decided it couldn’t identify it, it finally allowed me to drop whatever it was. I peered over the top of the washer for a look-see. I saw a squirming brown bat! “Where’d that come from?!?!?”
Son, Jared, picked it up by the wing, ‘er arm, with pliers and threw it outdoors. Don’t know what happened to it then; don’t care. Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate wildlife, but not in my house!
How did the bat survive wash, spin, rinse, spin and spin again? Where was it before it got in the washer; in the clothes on the back porch, in the hamper upstairs? How did it get in the house? Are there more? Will I ever be able to do laundry again without being on high alert?
Lesson:
The more you know, the more questions you have.
Or is it…
Gremlins are real. They
invade your home when you are asleep and wreak havoc such as hiding
puzzle pieces and dropping bats in your washer. Who knows what they’ll
do next.
