"What if..."

I was going out the other morning to feed my chickens and saw Joy (the cat) on the edge of my pool looking in the water. The pool cover is still on and the top is filled with water and she was leaning over into the pool batting at a leaf. I called her name and walked over to the edge of the pool, I reached out and touched her and she reacted by leaping straight up in the air and landing in the middle of the pool, she sprung forward grabbing the edge of the pool cover and hauled herself out and ran across the lawn. My heart was in my throat! I started thinking "What if....the pool cover had ripped and she had slid under the cover, since the ladder is not up, how would I have gotten her? Could I get to something to try and cut the cover off the pool, would I have had the strength to rescue her? Would I have been able to find something to stand on to get into the pool? What if she slid underneath the cover and I couldn't get to her in time, What if I couldn't find something to cut the cover with in time, What if I couldn't find something to stand on to reach or get into the pool, What if I couldn't find something for her to grab on to? What if....What if.. all kinds of thoughts ran through my head and my heart was pounding with all the visions of doom I was having. Later that evening, Jenn and Mark stopped over and I was telling Jenn the story and I said, "What if..." and Mark said, "Now I know where Jenn gets the "what ifs from!" I guess I never realized that it was not just me that thought this way, maybe I inherited this...!!!
MOM.!!
Does everyone else in the family have the "What ifs'?? or is it just me and my daughters...obviously it is a female thing, because none of the male members of my family ever think of the things I do, or maybe they just don't admit it. David said, "You always add more to a situation then there really is." and he is right..I "what if....it to death!! I have many visions of different scenarios and I can play them back in my mind over and over again and they are always the worst that could happen, it is like some horror film. OK I really am not crazy!! but then again,
What if I am??? Love to all...Patti

Apologies

Apologies to the older, sophisticated sister... who did her share of shoveling and now lives in sunny, warm Texas. I love you!! :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (somewhere else!)

I just wanted to share my morning with all of you...and yes, that is a black cow. (No heat loss there!) Shoveling my car out, brought back a memory of when I was a teenager. This is how I recalled this memory.(it may not be accurate, we will have to verify with Chris and Mom)
It was a snowy day and we had no school, we lived in the big house on Main St. and the mill workers used to come and plow the driveway, but they never shoveled the path from the garage to the house. I believe I was about 14 and Chris was 16, and we had relaxed for the day, I am sure we were doing important things!! Dad came home and asked why we hadn't shoveled the path and Chris and I were just too busy. So he said, "After supper, you two will go shovel the path!". I was appalled!! Manual labor!! and it was getting dark..I was sure that making us shovel the pathway was borderline child abuse!! So off we went after supper and it was dark and we were complaining loudly, crying and carrying on!! It didn't seem to faze Dad, he put the outside light on for us...We couldn't understand why our mother, who we were sure was in there pleading with him to allow us to come in out of the cold, was allowing him to treat us like slaves, we were sure he was a tyrant!! So Chris and I started arguing. I had to start from the garage and Chris started from the house. I was sure we were going to die from hypothermia, I was sure they would find us in the morning frozen in a snowbank, (and boy, Dad would be sorry then, he would be begging our forgiveness!) As i was wallowing in self pity and shoveling and crying..my path was not straight as Chris's was, I can never make a straight line, so my was kind of curvy. When we met in the middle, there was a 4 inch wide 8 inches high pile of snow between us, Chris decides that she has shoveled more than her share and I am sure I have shoveled more than my share, so we argue back and forth over this 4 inch wide hump in the middle of the path, but it was about 8 inches deep. and we could not come to an agreement on who needed to shovel it..so Chris said,"I am not doing it." and turned and walked into the house, usually I would submit and after much crying and yelling, I would do it, but not this time...so I turned and said,"I am not doing it either!" and walked into the house. Dad said, "Is is all done?" and we both answered "Yes" and then we went to bed. During the night, it had started to rain a freezing drizzle which turned our little hump of snow into a frozen hump of ice.. So you can just imagine, Dad's surprise as he went out to go to work in the morning and walked down the path, and then had to climb over the hump and continued down the path, I am sure he was just thrilled!!! He later referred to my path as straight as a dog's back leg!!(I didn't get what he meant at the time, I thought it was a compliment!!) It stayed that way for quite a while until it was warm enough to melt it...I cannot remember the consequences of that shoveling episode,but I am sure there was some!! and Dad did laugh about it later in life, (much later!!). I don't believe Margaret ever had to shovel, she was always older and to sophisticated. (that's what we always thought) When Lori was old enough to have to shovel, Dad bought a snow blower!!! (they wouldn't have dreamt of throwing her out in the dark, freezing night to shovel now would they!!) Chris and I always had all the grunt work, as Dad would say, we were always badly done to.. I told Jenny this story and she laughed and laughed. I am sure Chris could add something to this, I could only write about the injustice that I felt... That's all for now, Pray for warmer weather...Spring is supposed to be here!! Love to all...Patti