Okay, this hugely strange flower is forgottenman’s fault.  It was his idea that I form soggy towels into a flower and use them for my flower of the day. Obviously, there is a story that goes with this request.

First of all, in the middle of the night, there was a tremendous storm that went on for hours.  I went to sleep with LOUD rain and woke up early in the morning to LOUD rain.  I also awakened to Annie’s strident cries for breakfast, even though it was probably only 4 or 5 in the morning.  She was not to be denied, so I got up, walked down the hall from my bedroom towards the kitchen, and when I got to my guest room, discovered to my horror that the screen, locking bars and sliding glass door had all been left wide open and the half of the room nearest to those doors was filled with about 1/4 inch of rainwater!  The  bottom 2 feet of the drapes were soaked, furniture was standing in water, but luckily it had not yet reached the bedspread.  I waded through, locked all three doors,  then sloshed to the bathroom, collecting every towel I could find, along with a wastepaper basket and a big plastic bag.

Then I soaked up water. And soaked up water. And soaked up water, until all the towels were completely sodden.  I moved furniture, but when I found the CD player cord was wrapped around the big mirror/chest of drawers, I had to lean down and unplug it.  Unfortunately, the cord must have been frayed because I got a tremendous shock when I touched the cord.  Since I was standing in 1/4 inch of water, I was very lucky that I had rubber soles on my shoes.  That chest stayed where it was. After I had sopped up most of the water, I dragged the wastebasket (too heavy to carry) with the fully sodden towels down the hall to my shower and dumped the towels.

As security conscious as I usually am, why were the doors standing fully open? Well, that is the rest of the story.  The late afternoon/early evening before, when I had gone to feed the outside cats, I was dishing out the food when I heard a strange wild squeaking sound as the three cats streamed into the house to finish off whatever food my inside cat Annie had left from her last meal. This is their usual practice and they stream out again once I’ve dished up their portion outside.  This time, however, Ollie had brought in an uninvited guest–a squirming, still-live mouse.  He went streaking by, with me in hot pursuit.  I had visions of that mouse sneaking off to my closet or under a bed to raise a family.  In 17 years, I have never had a mouse in the house, other than those brought as offerings by the cats, and so far, they had exited calmly once requested to, but this was not the case with Ollie. For five minutes, I chased him unsuccessfully through the house.

When I changed my tactics and remained calm, he batted the mouse around, then took off for the spare room.  In hopes he would exit, I had opened all three layers of the doors: bars, screen, glass, but soon he had streaked off back down the hall, where I caught him batting the mouse around and quickly stepped on the tail of the now dead mouse so Ollie couldn’t reclaim it, nudging him aside with my foot and shutting the bedroom door on him so I could get the mouse in a garbage can without his assistance.  I then dumped the remains in the empty lot below me.  Story over.  Except the part of the story where I went back and closed the doors!!!

When I told forgottenman this story this morning, he of course insisted I should have taken photos for a blog story.  Fat chance!  Then, later, he Skyped me that I should arrange the towels into a flower and use them for flower of the day.  First I scoffed. Then I left to to complete the various errands of the day, getting home in late afternoon to that now-forgotten still-soaked pile of towels.  And, as usual, I followed directions.

Not all of the towels made the selection for floral material.  Here are the remaining towels.

Now, Cee, does this qualify as one of the most rule-breaking flower posts of your career?  Is it at least in the running?

Ollie, resting up after the jolly chase.

For Cee’s Flower of the Day.