Top of the hill...

Did I mention that our house is in the country? We moved out in the "hood" about five years ago. I absolutely love it here. The only time I ever hear traffic is when the garbage guy comes and the dogs go into spasms of hysteria. They run frantically around the edge of the property. They can only go so far because we have an underground fence for them. Brutus hikes his leg and pees everywhere because that garbage guy is like, 300 feet away from him and he needs to mark his territory. You never know what that garbage guy can do. Anyway, we don't hear traffic and we see lots of wonderful things in nature. I love it.
We also homeschool our younguns out here. We have a bunker in the back nine and we never leave the property. Oh wait. Sorry. That is what my dreams are. Never having to sit in my car again and drive. I just noticed that when we got our little gas miser Corolla almost three years ago it only had 36,000 miles on it. Today it has 90,000. It won't be three years until July. So we are out a lot.
We do have some perks though. Some might not like this perk, but Rodger commutes to work. All of the 100 feet from our house to his office in the barn. Yes, it is a real office with real lights and real walls and a real computer that just officially died today. Yes. Dead. One week of work was not backed up on the external hard drive... poor soul.
As a perk of Rodger working out of our "home" we get to see Rodger EVERY. DAY. Now personally, I really like that. We get along well, and in fact I am quite enamored with him. He makes me smile. Probably because he is a flatliner kind of guy and I am the laugher in the house. So my goal is to get him to smile.
Apparently my goal was just reinvented for me too.
Recently we were out on a little coffee date. We took the kids to their Wednesday night churchy opportunity (see Nacho Libre for that bit of humor if you are offended...). Rodger is a civil engineer and he has a few clients come to the house and every so often he will go to a job site to see a building or whatever it is that needs his personal attention. However, he is mostly here on top of our hill in his office. He does not leave the property as often as I do. We have four kids and all of them are involved in something. Soccer, ballet, soccer, soccer, basketball, skiing, soccer... So you get it. I am the driver of the children because "I don't work". Therefore I interact with people WAY more than Rodger does. Most of his interaction is via email or phone.
So recently this atrocity was brought to my attention when we were at the fine dining establishment named "What's 4 Dessert". We were nestled in a little corner table and enjoying our coffee and Rodger got a desert. I was snagging a bite of his desert every once in a while and we were enjoying seeing a few friends that came in. Good times my friends, good times.
Until it happened. Rodger started growing a beard a few years ago just during the winter time. I like to call him Mountain Man because, well, we live on the top of a hill and he wears this rugged looking jacket and some boots that look Mountain Man-ish.
Well apparently 'ol Mountain Man hasn't been off the mountain to often and forgot some simple rules of etiquette. While I was sitting back and we were chatting softly, Mountain Man lifted his shirt just over his belly button and scratched it. He scratched for what felt like minutes because there were PEOPLE in this place. I was shocked. No, really. Dude. You just lifted your shirt and scratched your belly button. In public. I think he might have been going for lint too. I'm sure if he had a blog he would refute my claim, so since this is my space and I did warn him that he was fodder, well, you'll have to believe me that he pulled up his shirt for the entire establishment to see his belly button and watch him scratch.
So now not only do I homeschool my kiddos, but apparently I'm needing to do some etiquette classes. For the other adult in the family.
Our first lesson is going to be on what not to do in public when you have an itch.
Wish me well.