life in the country

It's 3:00 in the morning...who will you call? I know that when an emergency strikes at my house...wake up the husband. If you can. Sometimes he's snoring too loud to hear anything.

3:30 am last night, the dogs start to growl, and then bark. Shhh, be quiet. They finally listen. I hear what they heard. Horse's hooves clip-clopping down the road. HUH? At 3:30 am? I climb out of bed, sneak to the window (like the horse is going to jump out of the bushes and get me). Yep, sure enough, horses. A car driving down the road catches them in headlights. Wait, what are cars doing driving down my road at 3:30? There were a half dozen in the time that i stood on the porch. We'll have to investigate that on another night. Maybe follow and see where they're going, since there is nothing out here to go to.

Back to the horses. I wake up my husband. Horses, going down the road. A sane man would have said, "Honey, go back to sleep." But, as usual, I convince him this is some big mystery and not someone out for a nice ride in the cool of the...evening? Horse Thieves! He gets up, goes out. Sure enough, he sees them too. We look to the field west of us. Are all of the mules out there? I suddenly can't count to four. There might only be three. He gets his car keys. Oh, wait, there are four. But what about the one at the neighbor's house? What if IT isn't there.
Husband goes down the road in the car. Two men on horseback.
He drives back to the location of the lone mule, to make sure it is there. He drives up the neighbor's drive, shines headlights all over. CALLS and WAKES UP the sleeping neighbor. "Where's your mule?"
I'm laughing just thinking about the poor guy at, by now, 4:00 am, getting this phone call.
The mule is there--of course.
Husband comes home. He can't sleep. Funny, cause I'm already back in bed, dozing off. I closed the door so I wouldn't have to hear him stomping around the house.

Who says life in the country isn't exciting?