This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  Some persons say that there is such a thing as personal space. And that you need it.  Some persons say that there are close talkers. Or close barkers.  Some persons say that sometimes, you can be too close for comfort.  As usual, I am going to disagree to agree.  Yes…I said that right.  Too close for comfort?  Never.

As usual, it is my job to set not only the Sheriff straight, but the persons as well.  As usual, they need help to recognize the good things right before them.  Like this weekend, when Girl Person couldn’t hear anymore after she took a shower.  I told them about taking showers so much.  They don’t listen.

Apparently, at this awesome campground that we have had to stay at for the weekend, they have a policy.  Give everyone as much space as possible.  No, not at the campsite. It is time to know your neighbor. Enjoy the creek behind you. Make yourself comfortable.

Socialize. Get a little closer.  Talk as close as you want to.  Bark as close as you can. At everything.

But in the shower?  The shower that is clean with hot, fresh water?  Nope.  You should not be too close.  No.  Not at all.  You are gonna feel the force of that hot, fresh water from about 10 feet above your head.  And you are gonna enjoy it.

You might remember during our travels that Girl Person has had encounters with many showers that would frighten the pants off of anyone if they wore pants…which I do not.  Spiders, crickets, drains that don’t work, persons singing really loud, cold water, freezing water, trickles of water, push button timers…should I go on?  So on the rare opportunity that a shower this clean and hot awaits them, it is a wonderful thing.  But apparently, Girl Person does not remember how to take a proper shower.  Apparently, she forgot that when the water is coming out at you from the likes of a 60 foot waterfall, you forget your name. You forget everything you have been taught about the universe, about the stars, about gravity. You forget about keeping your feet on the ground.  Because you are seeing stars.

Girl Person put the shampoo on her head.  And as she tried to rinse it out and keep herself from falling out of the shower by the sheer force of it, she decided to cling to the wall.  Surely, if she wedged herself in the corner, she wouldn’t fall out and also she would get that shampoo out.  But as she wedged herself in the corner, she felt it.  She had put too much shampoo on her head.  She couldn’t see now, and so she tilted her head up.  Big mistake.  Now, the shampoo was pushed into her ears so hard that she wondered.  Was it really worth it to be clean? Well, after trying to get the shampoo out with no success, Girl Person finally realized that she would have to try something else.  She jumped up and down.  Water still in her ears.  She tried to suction it out.  Water still in her ears.  She tried to dance.  Which was not pretty I can imagine, but I don’t want to.  Now she was seeing stars…and she definitely wasn’t going to be a star with this routine.

If the campsites were made for socializing, this was now in jeopardy too.

You see, anyone that had heard the commotion in the shower was now going to avoid Girl Person at all costs.  Which actually worked out.  Because now she could not hear them…even if they were a close talker.

After Girl Person and Boy Person shared their shower stories of the night, Sheriff Brickle looked at me, and I knew.  It was time that they were reminded that finding the negative things in the positive things of your day is not acceptable.  Even if you are Girl Person and now you can’t hear and have an earache from a hot shower.  Because when we get back on the road and back in the prison showers, the waterfall shower will be called to mind as the hottest, cleanest and most forceful shower of all.  And it surely did its job of getting her clean. Now, even the inside of her ears are clean.  Can she hear?  No, no, she still cannot.  But it’s not like I can’t howl a little louder.

Life is all about experiences.  Some are unexpected like the waterfall shower.

But if you don’t find the humor in unexpected things, and the good in them, how fun is that?  Girl Person knows now, because I reminded her with my loud howling, that life can be fun in the rain or the shine.  It is how we look at the unexpected things and the experiences we have that make the fun.

So, Girl Person? Lesson learned.  You can never be too close for comfort.  Stay close to the positive things like that waterfall shower that was built by probably Paul Bunyan. And stay away from the negativity. No one needs that.

So today, instead of heading back to the Rose Cottage at Boy Person’s sister’s house for two weeks, we are going to give Girl Person one more day to enjoy the waterfall.  Shower.  Stay tuned this week for other waterfall visits and more small town visits in North Carolina!

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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