Shock and Awe

Nothing on earth made any of us happier than to coax laughter from my husband.  He had a great sense of humor, but he was sometimes hard to get laughter started with.  Ricky could always make him laugh and over time, I developed the knack for it too...although it usually meant I had to do something really careless or dumb...but we got there.

One thing my husband knew about me was "I am an over-thinker."  You would think that meant that I rarely did careless or dumb things, but it didn't.  It seems the more I over-though stuff, the more likely I was to really step in it.

During the course of our marriage there were a few years Roger lived and worked in Kansas City while I kept the home fires burning here in Arkansas.  Our ultimate goal was to relocate there but than plan went all pear shaped and never happened.

But, when your husband is hours away and you overthink, you get in a lot of little tangles....all by yourself.

It was during this time we had the sister dogs Betty and Vernoica (aka The Shredder Sisters) and their lives contributed greatly to almost daily events worth writing about.  But for brevities sake, I will confine this to one event I will always call Shock and Awe.

We were still fairly new dog owners then and hadn't evolved to our preferred level of fanaticism so we were still learning.  The sisters were barkers, we live in town.  I hate dogs that just stand in yards and bark for fun....so I employed shock collars.  I know I know, I'm sorry.  But you will see I paid the price for this decision.

One day, I was changing the batteries in the collars and as I finished the task, the collar emitted a soft little "beep" and click, my mind engaged.  Did this hurt them?  Surely their fur protected them from real pain.  Overthinking..............How can I make sure I'm not harming them?  Overthinking..........  And, by now you know where we are headed here I'm sure.

Pressing one pronged control box to my throat, I made a deep and satisfying BARK.  I think I passed out, I woke up on the floor having wet my pants.  My vocal cords had seized up and I couldn't make a sound.  My eyesight was blurred and the sisters were standing there telegraphing "see, now you know, don't you?"

It took a while but when I regained vocal function I called my husband and started to tell him what I'd done.  He was obviously very busy as he rushed me off the phone and with a strangling sound in his voice assured me he would call me right back.  RUDE!

Finally my phone rang but it wasn't him.  It was someone that worked with him asking me what I had said to him because he was rolling on the floor of his office with tears running down his face.  In the background I could hear him laughing.

This event became great holiday entertainment that year as everyone had to try it and they went so far as to eventually branch out into a TENS unit with some pretty hilarious and sometimes unfortunate results.

In spite of it all, making Roger laugh was worth it.  

**Cancer update- yesterday was too big a day.  It wore me all the way out....not much has gotten done today.  But I live to fight another day.  Neuropathy in my feet seems some better but not enough that I am confident enough to just take out on a hike.  My hands are still gone.  Typing is "iffy" so apologies in advance for typos.  I am so hopeful that by the time the weekend blows through I have seen some improvement.  I'd like to go to work....I'd like to be with productive people....I'd like to feel like a person again and not a sick one.

But, today....I hope you laughed.