When Bobcats Attack!

Well, I just got back from service. It was an ok morning, although everyone got split up into two groups. One group was in the van, just doing return visits, and the other group was doing actual door-to-door. I wanted to be in the door-to-door group, since I'm running low on return visits, and need to get some more. We did like two streets the last time I was out, and out of those few doors I got a lady who was really nice and might take a Bible Teach book. So I really wanted to get some calls. Plus, that group had Marisella, Luke Galloway and Bronson Kim, who are all really fun to work with. So I volunteered to go with them, but Cal put me in the van with everybody else, and I ended up riding around all morning. I got out one time, on one of Darci's calls, and they weren't home.

So yeah, that was pretty boring and frustrating. Shirley was cracking me up all morning, though. I swear, she is a ditzy blonde at heart. She was going on an on about Cal and Leslie's dogs, Riley and Phoebe. (Shirley calls them her grandpuppies). "Riley takes after you so much, Cal, it's really funny!" she said. "And Phoebe is just like Leslie!" I swear, she thinks they're people.

I was sitting in the back with Carol Galloway, Luke's mom, who is pretty nice. She said she bought a boxed set of the BBC Sherlock Holmes series at Costco, and wants to invite me and Zack over next weekend to watch part of it. It's funny because I just ordered a (different) Sherlock Holmes series from Blockbuster, and watched the first episode yesterday. I was pretty happy about the invitation, but then she mentioned that they needed Zack to take a look at their computer, and my stomach sank a little. I felt like that was the real reason she was inviting us over, and not just to be friends. But oh well, I shouldn't be so negative. Carol works nights at a hospital and is tired all the time, and probably doesn't really do much socializing with anybody outside her own family. So it's not like she's having parties all the time and inviting everybody but us. And, on the bright side, it is cool to have a husband who is handy and who can help people out. When he's able to fix someone's computer, it always makes me feel proud of him.

Cal Eaton (our service group overseer) was driving. He called his wife, Leslie, who's on vacation at a spa down in Arizona, and then turned on the speaker phone and hung his cell from the rearview mirror. Leslie has been making plans to totally remodel her kitchen, picking out all new cabinets and appliances, granite for the countertops, etc. She is just in heaven, because she's lived in the same teen-tiny little house since, like, 1980 and never done a thing to it, and now Cal is finally letting her do something nice. She really deserves this, because she's pioneered as long as I've been alive, and given up a lot of things, including having kids. But Cal is kind of a penny-pincher and getting stomach aches over the amount of money she plans to spend on this kitchen. So it was funny hearing Leslie rave over the luxurious spa, and say how she's now thinking of doing a marble floor in her kitchen. "What?!" cried Cal. "Marble? I've got a can of marbles. I'll pour them on the kitchen floor for you, and that'll be your marble floor." Meanwhile, Shirley (Leslie's mom), was sitting behind Cal saying, "I think you should have a marble floor, Leslie. You deserve it and Cal knows you do." I was in the very back, just listening and laughing to myself as they all went back and forth.

Something exciting happened to Leslie yesterday! She was sitting outside in the jacuzzi, just relaxing, late in the afternoon. Nobody else was around. Suddenly, a guy came out with a stack of towels or something and got this shocked look on his face. "Ma'am! Ma'am!" he said, pointing to something behind Leslie. She turned and looked over her shoulder, sort of puzzled, only to see a huge bobcat rushing toward her in a crouch, with its ears back and its tail whipping back and forth. It was coming straight for the edge of the jacuzzi, and while she was staring at it in shock, not sure what to do, she saw a glimpse of another bobcat out of the corner of her eye, sneaking towards her from another direction. They had spotted her all alone in the jacuzzi, "and I didn't look very big," she said. "All they could see of me was my head, bobbing around," and so they decided to have her for lunch! It was like a scene straight out of Jurassic Park, with the velociraptors! Only this was no movie, it was very real wild animals. The pool guy didn't know what to do, so he called for help from inside the spa. Just as the first bobcat got to the edge of the jacuzzi, a guy came out and scared them both away. And so Leslie was safe.