My son is getting ready to take and pass his driving test.

When he passes his test, he will get his driver’s license.

That’s amazing and terrifying.

My children are getting mighty independent.

Last night, we went out to do some night driving. We have to keep a driving log and one of the requirements is that we drive a certain number of hours after dark.  We drove all over the back roads around our house.  We drove up some pretty curvy back roads.  Up and down and around some very wiggly roads.  We zigged…and we zagged.

At night.  In the dark.

That was interesting.

Actually, most of the roads around our house are “back roads”.  When you live out in the country, all the roads are “back roads”….some are just more “backy” than others.  The roads we were on were the most “back” I could think of.

Before we left for our nocturnal adventure, I’d been repairing an entrance way door on the downstairs porch entrance.  The door was a cheap one when we got it….recycled/used…neglected by me and in need of some “fixin’ “.  So I was gluing and clamping and sanding and painting…seeing if I could resurrect it…make the entrance to our “airlock” a little nicer.

( I used to call that outside porch an “airlock”…people got a kick out of that…like that old door was a porthole or something….”hold your breath….we’re getting ready to go into the kitchen…you’re in the “airlock” now…you’re safe.” )

I suppose the word “mudroom” would have made more sense.

Anyway, I’d been working on the door so it was still up on sawhorses.

I’d forgotten to leave any lights on in that outer airlock mudroom…so when I got home, I sauntered in to the lower porch to flick the switch and get back to the job at hand.

The cat was up on the washing machine watching something.

I looked where the cat was looking…and it was something really furry and white…and black.  It didn’t really register at first exactly what this thing was.  I didn’t remember what kind of animal looked like that…black and white?  Furry?

Then I remembered…IT WAS A SKUNK’S REAR END!

I think that what I had going for me was that the skunk was as surprised as I was.  He was oriented to let me know of his “pre-scents”…but too surprised to really “do the deed”.

I liked that part of the story.

I don’t want to make it sound like I pondered any of this while it was happening.  It didn’t take me a long time to react.  I figured out what to do pretty quickly.

I backed out fast… tripped over and spilled the can of paint I thought I’d closed tightly,  ran upstairs and went in the top entrance, checked my shoes for paint when I got inside and on the nice new floor, got the flashlight out of the drawer in the bedroom, ran back downstairs, shined the light out of the kitchen window…

and realized that the skunk was gone.

I must have terrified surprised him, too.

I put the door back up before I went to bed….even if the paint was still a little moist.