Rosemary and Time

I lost my pocket knife.

Had been meaning to pick up a replacement, but hadn’t gotten around to it.

Don’t know why.

Vital all-purpose tool.

Rumaging around in a box of junk, I found an old one. Supposed to be a “horsemans’” knife with a hoof pick, etc on it. Hard to open, though. Needed some oiling.

I laid it on my desk so I wouldn’t forget about it, and promptly forgot about it.

A week or so later, I was heading out to the barn, grabbed my hat, and for some reason remembered that knife and stuck it in my pocket.

When I arrived at the barn, something was up.

The ponies seemed agitated.

My partner K was at the far side of his paddock and as soon as he saw me, galloped – and I do mean galloped – over to me and called loudly.

What the hell?

I heard something like chain rattling and I looked across to where he’d been standing.

There’s a stand of trees there where some machinery is kept.

A disc harrow.

Couple other things.

I could glimpse one of the blonde girls in amongst those trees, rearing up, making that noise like Morley’s ghost.

I sprinted over and found Duchess had managed to entangle her halter on one of those mechanical monstrosities and was trying to pull free.

Soaked with sweat.

Not having a good time.

No way I could disentangle her.

I grabbed that knife out of my pocket, it opened up slick and easy, and I cut her halter off.

She snorted a few curses and bolted off.

Turned out she had some lacerations on her legs, but nothing serious.

Insert sigh of relief here.

Reminded me of something else.....

I was heading out early one morning, going to an “extrication” class at the fire academy.

That’s a class on how to get people quickly and safely out of smashed-up vehicles at traffic accidents by disassembling the vehicle.

Cutting up cars, basically.

I was already out the door juggling keys, coffee and turnout gear, when I had a sudden urge to go back. I found a packet of Kleenex tissue on the bathroom counter and stuck it in my pocket.

Don’t know what made me do that.

Didn’t think another thing about it.

That afternoon, one of the firefighters at the class got a tiny shard of glass in his eye.

An instructor, who’s a superb EMT, by the way, took over and asked if anyone had a clean tissue.

I dug out the Kleenex packet, extricated a virgin tissue from the middle.

Just what we needed right at that moment…

A lady I know recalls to me a time we were going out to dinner and I stopped for the light at a certain intersection.

When the light turned green, I waited instead of going ahead.

A second or two later, another vehicle came blazing through the intersection, not even slowing down for the red light, if he even saw it.

Had I gone ahead as usual, he’d have slammed into us broadside.

And I was in the death seat.

“How do you DO that?” she asked.

Good question.

Some people call it “synchronicity.”

If you’re waiting for me to explain just what the hell that is, you’ve got a long wait.

But I think it’s good that we don’t know all the answers.

Keeps you on your toes.

sj