Autumnal Urges and Mammoths

I've been distracted from blogging by the wonderful fall weather! Apparently it's the weather that has brought on what can only be viewed as a phenomenon where I'm concerned..the urge to clean things! Only a month ago some will-of-the-wisp carried on that first autumnal breeze was whispering to me to be off..to go where the wild goose goes..(for all you youngins, a singer, Frankie Lane used to belt out a great song..My Heart Goes Where the Wild Goose Goes).

Now, I find myself in prepare for winter mode. Again, this is nothing I am thinking, it's just something I can't seem to help....washing windows and curtains etc. I can't help thinking of all of our Grandmothers who were driven to a frenzy of housekeeping twice a year, spring and fall.

As I scrubbed out the fridg, trying not to think too much about the unidentifiable contents of various zip lock bags, I remembered a good friend who used to clean the fridge for me.

Our friends moved away to Florida about thirty years ago, so this was when we were young and our children were small. K and D used to drive the eighty miles from Phoenix to spend weekends with us in the forested community of Groom Creek about six miles above Prescott in the Bradshaw Mountains. We usually stayed up late playing cards, talking and laughing a lot. The next morning, while the rest of us slept in, D. would rise at his normal, early hour, make coffee and clean my refrigerator. By the time we were all up, the inside of the fridge gleamed like the inside of the space shuttle and all the various jars and containers were lined up in orderly rows arranged by size. It was great, and I still appreciate it, and like my spurt of seasonal cleaning, he just couldn't help himself.

On the other hand, K was my kindred soul, cleaning only when she had to and giving what my Grandmother called a lick and a promise whenever possible. Once in his slow and ironic drawl, D. said, "I try to move every five years so K can have a clean oven."

On a complete change of subject, I saw an interesting bit about Mammoths (if you click this you have to put up with a commercial prior to the report) on Fox News. It seems about 25 mammoth skeletons were found near Waco Texas about thirty years ago. Apparently, a herd was trapped by mud beneath a cliff. The cliff collapsed on them trapping and killing them all. I mention it because the archaeologists investigating the site have come to the conclusion that the adults were in the process of attempting to lift the juveniles out of the mud when the collapse occurred. This is sad, but interesting to me because some 50 to 70 million years ago these great beast were doing their best to save their young. Again, I am struck by animal behavior that humans can readily relate to.