November Storms

     NOVEMBER STORMS   

                         
I felt a sense of relief when flipping the October calendar page to November. Tales of the Great Pumpkin, Goblins, and Gargoyles would be retired for another year. Goodbye to spooky Halloween and tasty-sized candy treats. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin milkshakes linger, giving taste buds the flavor of autumn. A new month to relax until the Thanksgiving Turkey Day feast.

Shorter days and cold nights showed the November seasonal change, signaling time to dress in layers for outdoors, and stripping layers when indoors. Turn up the heat, close the door, and lounge around in leisure sweatsuits. November, a Goldilocks month, not too hot, not too cold, but cold enough.

The first two weeks of November were blurry hours of Daylight Savings Time, climate change, and the toilet talking to me, starting with a whisper, then building to a shout. Flush, glub-glub-glub and glub-glub. I called a plumber, and on November thirteenth, quickly got two new toilets for my old bottom. I didn’t want the other bathroom to feel ignored and inspired to sassy back talk. I was on a roll being responsible and taking care of business.
On Monday November 18, I went to pay the bill for the phone in the car. While the phone “specialist” knew everything about phones, he wasn’t much of a conversationalist, maybe I was too old to be understood, but I insisted he should know the car phone is just for emergencies. He gave a grunt, a nod, and a receipt. As I said goodbye, I added, “I hope there isn’t any emergency, ever” and laughed as I walked out the door.

As I entered the freeway and merged into the lane I needed, the back seatbelt light on the dashboard started flashing with a bing-bing-bing-bing-bing warning. Going sixty miles an hour, I couldn’t look in the backseat. Quickly I had hair-raising memories sitting by summertime campfires, hearing stories about not checking the backseat and later on being strangled by an escaped madman. Exiting the freeway, luckily, I stopped at a red light, checked the backseat, and was much relieved no one was hiding there.

Not sure if the warning was an emergency, as I drove to the grocery, the annoying bing-bing-bing-bing-bing continued on, making me think it could be the ghost of Mother, returning for an opportunity to be the ultimate “backseat driver.” Mom never had sat in the backseat, but that didn’t stop her from being an extreme backseat driver, inside or outside of the car.
Groceries collected, I decided when I got home to let the car rest in the garage for a couple of days, 

maybe it was the rain puddles that had set off some kind of modern technology. I looked on the computer for reasons why the back seatbelt warning would be triggered, and found it was a problem more common than I expected. Similar to the game “Twenty Questions,” the warning could have been caused by something as simple as the key battery needing to be changed, or an expensive chip replacement.

Tuesday November 19 became a “weather warn” day, a “bomb cyclone” was expected to blow through the state. I checked the flashlight batteries, and set out sweatshirts and blankets, ready for a windy night. The sun set, the house shook, and power went out for eight noisy, cold hours. When the sun rose, I was relieved that trees were still standing, but the cedar gate on the fence had blown down. Watching the television news, I knew I was extremely lucky compared to surrounding areas. I called the fence company for a replacement gate, and was warned it would take some time after the storm.

A few days later, I drove the bing-bing-bing warning to the car dealership for an expert opinion. The mechanic told me it could take all day to diagnose the problem, or maybe it is just the weather. I asked if they had time to do an oil change, winter check-up, and replace the battery in the key. When all was done, as I drove home, the bing-bing began again. A few days later, I drove out of the garage and enjoyed a happy silence. Maybe it had been the ghost of Mom, or the weather, or the handy-dandy new battery change for the key...but the problem was solved, hurray!

Thanksgiving was a welcome relief, tasty leftovers, turkey sandwiches covered in mayo and cranberry sauce, true comfort food with pumpkin pie covered in whipped cream. A day of calm after a mysterious and stormy month.

This week I was told the new gate will be replaced next Friday--Friday the thirteenth. I wonder what mischievous events will happen before Christmas.

April Ryan has shared many poems as well as many stories, like this one, over the years with Northwest Prime Time.

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