I saw a mule standing on a pond yesterday morning.  It made me giggle.  (We don't see that sort of things much in these parts.)

He was standing with his head hung low and his butt to the wind, and I couldn't help but hear Eeyore's voice coming out of his head:  I wish I could have a drink of water.

You had to be there, I reckon.

I needed a giggle, for I had made The Boss and myself 30 minutes late for court.

I'm not entirely sure it was entirely my fault.  Court was supposed to officially open at 10:30 (a change from our usual 9 a.m. time).  I had it on my calendar.  10:30.  The Boss had called over the weekend to tell me that she'd be well enough to work by Monday, and we'd even discussed that we didn't have to be there until 10:30.  But The Boss says that she told me she wanted to be there by 10.  I guess I missed that part.

Anyway . . . .

I was a few miles short of halfway to work when she called, alarmed that I hadn't arrived.  When I told her I'd be there in 15 minutes, she said I was supposed to have been there 15 minutes ago.  I said I'd punch it.

I'd no sooner punched it than I rounded a bend and came upon a pickup truck loaded with furniture.  He was driving responsibly, considering his load.  I followed him for several miles, anticipating the long, straight stretch up the road where I could blow his doors off.   When we got to that stretch, he punched it, and I thought, Okay, he has seen me back here and has decided to move on.  And he did move on . . . until we got to the top of the next hill, where the road gets curvy again.  I could've throttled him.

So I got to The Boss's house, and got behind the steering wheel of her car, and we took off.  Since she hasn't been feeling well, she dropped off to sleep before we'd gone 5 of our 90 miles.  (She was asleep when we passed the mule.)  

I take a lot of crap from family and friends - and even The Boss, at times - about how slowly I drive. Our route takes us down curvy, two-lane backroads for most of the trip.  Along the way, we've regularly encountered deer jumping out of nowhere (with more coming behind them) and flocks of buzzards partying in the road.  It pays to be cautious.  My detractors should've seen me yesterday, deliberately exceeding the speed limit on those curvy backroads. 

The Boss continued to snooze in the passenger seat.  I slung her all over the place, going around curves.  

It was 9:59 when I pulled into the courthouse parking lot and dropped The Boss off at the back door.  "If you RUN up the stairs, you can be in the courtroom by 10."

She gathered up her stuff and said, "I ain't runnin' up the stairs."

Her grammar occasionally suffers from having worked with me for 25+ years.