I woke up this morning at about 4:40, because the baby dogs were crying. They were in their crate, and I think they were frightened by the thunder and lightning, because they were making yips and cries and I decided to take them outside. But that didn’t help. It was cold and no dog wants to ‘go’ when it’s wet and stormy, especially a basenji. So I took them back inside, my daughter showed up and we each held a wriggling, worried dog for a while. Finally we put them back in the crate and covered it with a sheet. The rain was coming down strongly on the tin-roofed back porch.

I decided to go back to sleep, though I was worried that if I did I wouldn’t be able to get up again in time for work. The rain washing down seemed to suggest I choose inactivity over getting up. I felt too tired to stay awake and it was too early for coffee, so I bundled up in the chaise lounge by the window and listened to the rain, closed my eyes, and rested. The rain coming down formed a steady thrum on the roof, cars driving by in the street splashed water, and everything was dark. I fell back asleep.

At 6:35 I got up again, woke the kids and went to make lunches. I got that done okay, but then when I went back to the bedrooms to check on them, not one kid was up.  I rewoke them, but only the oldest seemed at all ready to rise. And even he had an excuse. In his dreamlike state, he told me “Alan called me,” he told me. “He said school is cancelled because of the rain.”

I shook him again. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll get up,” he told me. “I guess it was only a dream.”