Life on the Front Burner

The Back Burner Life has a beauty all its own - but I don't have that Life

I love making schedules; it reminds me of what I’m not going to do. 

…

6:00am - Wakey Wakey!

6:15am - Exercise 

6:45am - Shower

7:00am - Devotional and Family Breakfast

7:30am - Feed and Water Livestock

…

That is my fantasy.  This is my reality: 

…

6:00am - Go to bed after staying up all night answering calls

8:30am - wake up in a panic because we’re late

8:31am - run around like a chicken with my head cut off waking everyone because everyone else has an on call schedule just like me

8:45am - yell outside the bathroom door that it’s 8:45am and we have to leave now because the tones are dropping

8:55am - get in car and eat peanuts on way to another call, pray on the way

10:30am - get home, do half of Ranch chores until 11:00am because another call drops

…

For extra flavour, try different combos each day.

Now, I know this answer to this conundrum.  Household management is a full time job, and it deserves a full time employee.  Traditionally, this job would have fallen to me - but since we all help with Volunteer Emergency Response, this job is split between all of us in our household. We are all in high demand at some jobs which demand immediate attention or people might die, and that means we often prioritise other people’s lives over our own. It’s Life on the Front Burner: on again, off again, then back on again until the next crisis…

and schedules are frequently in utter chaos.

Due to low humidity and uplift, our little Volunteer Fire Department was busy-busy this week;  Chief Runs-Towards-Fire took off hell-for-leather with his intrepid attaches Sir Chance-A-Lot and Miss Map-N-Flap for day-long expeditions of derring-do. This required a home team effort, as I am the one who sends spot fireweather forecasts to our teams on scene. As a result, my dishes are still not done -

I better do the dishes now.

Tonight the storms will be rolling in ahead of a strong cold front. There is a possibility of severe weather, but this is Texas and there is ALWAYS a possibility of severe weather.  That means storm spotting duties; as soon as the first little clouds roll across the prairie, the Storm Spotters will be calling.  They are an eager bunch, waiting with intense excitement for any weather event for which observation may be needed - when one lives four to eight thousand feet below the radar signal, one gets to be very aware of what is going on in the lower atmosphere.

You see, not all radar coverage is equal. Due to the curvature of the earth, and Other Boring Stuff, radar doesn’t always catch everything in the lower atmosphere, especially at the outer edges of the radar field. Since radars are rightly located where population density is the greatest, that means those of us farthest away from the cities - in these beautiful  Hinterlands of Texas - need extra eyes on the skies. One never knows when the sky might just decide to kill you…

Texas Tornadoes are a real thing, and they are very exciting, especially when they rip up the trees next to the Courthouse. Once that happens, people never forget and they have a tendency to want a little warning in advance.. enter the National Weather Service and their Storm Spotters.

Storm Spotters are needed, especially after dark; they observe and call in to local Weather Net (WXNET) and WXNET will call it in to the National Weather Service. The Ham Radio Operators among them will take to the airwaves and give concise reports direct to the Meteorologists on duty; others will confer with other Emergency Management officials if events warrant an activation of local Amateur Radio Emergency Services.  Then if needed, a Warning will be issued.

Spotters are the National Weather Service ‘eyes on the skies’ - and they take their job very, very seriously. While some are glamorous Mobile Spotters who take to the roads with their live feeds, most are ‘Point Spotters’ who report from a fixed location. It’s a symbiotic relationship - we feed information to each other and make certain that the local Community comes first. It only takes one derecho event or tornado in your backyard to highlight the need for Local Storm Spotters.

Tonight we will watch the radar and direct Spotters. The whole Storm Spotting team will be chomping at the bit for action, and much discussion will take place over coffee and radar. As storms approach in the wee hours of the morning, little old ladies will peer off their porches into the darkness, burly firefighters will glance out of station doors while sharing Bar-Be-Que, and fresh-faced youths will livestream from their locations.  It’s an exciting time - and that means my fantasy schedule will be annihilated. 

I can live with that - because my Storm Spotters are making sure I will get the warnings I need to live. Still, I sometimes become lost in fantasy, imagining Life on the Back Burner, with me as its dedicated, designated Guardian.

In that dreamy place, a pot of soup is simmering on the back burner, a giant stockpot of leftover roasted chicken with the bones making real chicken soup and not that abomination some call ‘broth’.  The dishes are done, the schedule is running smoothly, and chocolate oatmeal cookies have been made. The counters are clean, and the decorator pillows are perfectly fluffed, and household is filled with peace.  Hand-painted art and crocheted doilies adorn the rooms, alive with colour and devoid of dust. I gaze out the bay window to see ruby-throated hummingbirds flitting about the purple morning glory vines planted by the porch and

oh look, there are fresh wildflowers in Jelly Jars upon the table…

I catch a glimpse in the Mirror and behold a beautiful woman, dressed in fashionable blouses and golden earrings, and recognise my Mother.

I will always miss my Mother. She had a beautiful job to match her beautiful Artist’s soul, the job of managing our household.  I tried to emulate you - but I failed, I failed, dear Mother, and the dishes are still not done…

I wake to the sound of tones dropping, the radio signal from the county that something is actively on fire or getting blown away, and I rise. Life on the Front Burner is heating up, and I have to answer a call. I am not my Mother, no one but her could ever be my Mother -

but I am me, and the storms are coming.