Mud

Living in the country has a few disadvantages.  For instance, when your mind starts to go, you forget to buy important things when you are in town, like toilet paper or toothpaste.  Sometimes it is really, really important things like chocolate or Saint Brendan's Irish Cream, (for medicinal purposes only).  Another big disadvantage is mud and dirt.

I know it seems impossible to urban dwellers who walk and drive everywhere on asphalt or concrete, but not every inch of the earth has been covered over with impenetrable substances.  Untreated soil allows dirt to sift into and onto a person's vehicle.  If you add just a little snow or rain, you actually get a horrible substance known as mud.  It sticks to everything - dog paws, human shoes, clothing, horse hide, tires.  It atomizes and splatters up into the air and coats the windshield and expensively painted outer shell of an automobile.  A person tracks it into her old crappy home and her pristine new home despite best efforts to avoid it.

I just discovered that mud also has protective properties.  Both of my adult children, though highly educated and gainfully employed, are working at such low-paying jobs that neither of them can cover all of their monthly expenses.  I have told both of them they might have to move home until this economy improves to the point where a full-time job actually pays a person enough to live.  Amazingly enough, mud is the most common reason cited for their less than gracious refusal to move home.  No one wants it on their car!

Thank you, Mud.