View from my house

By Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Yesterday afternoon I looked up from my keyboard to see a city worker planting a tiny blue flag in my yard. I knew exactly what he was doing, but not why. He was marking the water line. I hurried outside, concerned that my water would be shut off because he had tagged the wrong address. "Excuse me, but why did you mark my water line?" I asked. "I paid my bill."

His response: "Are you having a phone line buried?"

Ah, yeah, right. I had forgotten about that line, so accustomed had I become to the black phone wire that runs along the driveway, above the overhead garage door, across the path into the garage, along the outside garage wall, across the lawn and up the hill.

A short while later I did a double take when I saw a guy standing alongside Willow Street, thumb stuck in the air. He was attempting to hitch a ride. Last I saw, he was still walking south on the road that leads to Owatonna.

More road action followed. My neighbor boy, who is supposed to check in with me after school, failed to do so. Instead, I nervously watched as he ambled across our busy street while reading a book. He seemed rather oblivious to the post school traffic rush.

Finally, back on my computer, I resumed writing. But that didn't last long. I heard a rustle that sounded suspiciously like a bag of M&Ms being opened. I was right. My 14-year-old was dipping into the candy, my candy, a Mother's Day gift from him. "Why are you eating my candy?" I inquired. "You should at least ask first."

His response: "Well, you wouldn't have the candy if I hadn't gotten it for you." Ah, the logic of a teen.

Finally, there's the rabbit. The cottontail appeared on my back steps after supper. Never has a rabbit come quite that close. I can only deduce that my newly-potted plants placed on the patio proved too tempting. (Try repeating "newly-potted plants placed on the patio proved too tempting" three times.) The rabbit seemed rather indecisive as he/she sat there in a show-down with me. "Should I scamper back to the woods or seek shelter in this lady's garage?" he/she seemed to contemplate. My husband decided for the rabbit. He hit the garage door opener button, scaring the rabbit to the edge of the patio and eventually away.

Later that evening I paged through a metro magazine. I came upon a food feature that included rabbit braised with red wine, rosemary, sage and thyme. And how appetizing do you think that appeared given my earlier bunny encounter? I really couldn't share the writer's opinion that rabbit fit into a story titled "NO-GUILT DINING."