We went to town and picked up Badger’s new glasses.
She seems to like the everyday camouflage pair best.
As soon as we got home, she insisted I take a picture of her wearing them.
They came with a strap too, and that turned out to be lucky later in the day.
We came home, and it seemed like no time at all before it was time for dinner.
Dinner today was a leftover smorgasbord.
Badger cleaned out the refrigerators, and we threw everything we had onto the stove.
I wasn’t totally mean, though.
Since Cowboy doesn’t like leftovers, I picked him up a pork chop while we were at Walmart.
Cowboy headed to work, and Badger and I headed to the Creek Church.
That's where the day went to hell in a handbasket.
I was sitting reading those terrible AI generated stories on my phone when I heard a loud scrabbling sound, then a splash, then a voice calling from upstream, “Come here now!”
I headed upstream, and Badger had slid down the embankment and crashed into the creek.
She was soaked from head to toe, and the camera was dripping too.
She was freaking out because all she could think about was that dead possum that lay in the creek forever, cows peeing upstream, and that rumor about waste water.
She sure couldn’t walk home like that.
So there I was at a church on a busy highway, houses everywhere, with no dry clothes for her, giving her my T-shirt so at least her top half would be dry, then getting myself into a jacket.
I’m pretty sure a few cars saw my bright red bra.
It would’ve been easier to just give her my jacket, but with her sensory issues she won’t wear a heavier hooded jacket.
She wadded up her wet, muddy socks and T-shirt and somehow managed to stuff them into her shorts pockets.
Those shorts have very deep pockets.
Then we squished and dripped our way home.
After we got home, Badger quickly took the camera apart to try to dry it out.
It looks like it’s been ruined beyond use.
It’s not even a year old yet, but the warranty doesn’t cover abuse, and dropping it in a creek counts as abuse.
She threw all her clothes and shoes in the washer and headed to the bathroom for a long, probably very hot shower.
Badger spent the evening on the couch under a blanket, watching a movie with Sally Field and an octopus.
I imagine she scared herself half to death.
It wasn’t that far of a drop, and the creek isn’t deep, but it’s still scary when you start slipping and sliding and can’t stop yourself.
This is the part of parenting where your first instinct is to yell, even though it wasn’t carelessness.
She was taking pictures, doing what she always does, and she didn’t realize how slick that mud was.
One bad step and that was it.
She didn’t set out to fall in a creek.
It was an accident, and it could have been a lot worse than a broken camera.
And Badger is an adult.
You don’t yell at your adult kids.
It doesn’t help anything, and they already know when they’ve messed up.
I’m still a little mad about the camera because I know what it cost.
I’ve spent years doing without and never really having money to spare.
The cost of things is something I can never forget.
But I’m keeping my mouth shut because she already feels terrible.
I know I should just be grateful Badger is all right, and I am.
Cameras can be replaced.
People can’t.
Badger wasn’t hurt.
At the end of the day that’s really all that matters.
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