One would think…

That the middle of night catnoodling would be quiet, quieter than quiet, but surprisingly there was noise…different kinds of noise…middle of the night noise…

Traffic on the interstate miles away, swish swish swishing by…a distant train lumbering down the tracks, it’s sharp whistle paired with a clickety clack, clickety clack…

The rustling of the brush as a hungry armadillo digs nearby, looking for whatever it is armadillo’s eat…
The crunch of a stick as a tiny fox, sleek, beautiful, rounds the corner of the cabin, stopping in the light of the moon as he spies a pair of catnoodlers…curious…watchful…

There was something calming about those noises, often hidden by the rush of the day…like waves lapping against smooth rock…

Until it’s interrupted by voices…body-less voices coming from a balcony next door…hidden by buildings…hidden by dark…

A man and a woman…not young by any means…talking to their son, loudly, on speaker phone explaining an incident that had recently occurred…

They on a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico…some big fight…he pushed her-according to him…he THREW her-according to her-across the room into the coffee table and broke her collar bone…

It was unnerving…is STILL unnerving…never saw the pair…wouldn’t know the pair…but in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time-me…can’t unhear or unpicture the story…

And so it is…in life…the secrets of the night may not be quite as secret as one would think…all you have to do…is listen…

Even if you don’t mean to…
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And that cat friend of mine…agrees…

This old gal…

Was on a zoom call with that middle daughter of hers…she sharing an outline recently written for her grad class…nosy me couldn’t help but notice her message tab open on the screen…

Looked at the list of names…co-workers, friends, family, then noticed a heading called Sister Wives…nosy me, getting even nosier, asked who was in the group chat under that title…

“Oh,” came a laugh, “that’s me and the girls and J-Man”…J-Man, that brother-in-law of hers, married to her beautiful oldest sister…apparently that day they’d been talking about brackets…March Madness brackets…and were ribbing each other about their choices…

And with that it became apparent that J-Man has morphed into one of the sisters…trusted, respected, loved…

And there for them…EACH of them…flying to Iowa to drive the Uhaul…moving furniture, making budgets, doing taxes, fixing meals, riding bikes, going on sisterly grand adventures…

And it warms this mother’s heart to know those babies of hers have someone to turn to, someone to support them, when she no longer can…

So today we celebrate one of our sisters, who’s actually a brother, and husband…and let him know how blessed we are that he chose US to be family…

Happy Birthday, J-Man!
Welcome to the club…
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And those daughters of mine…agree…

This old gal…

And Top Dog, camp cat bff, have developed a little nighttime routine…or maybe more like a MIDDLE of the nighttime routine…

Took three months to gain trust…three months for the first pet…and four months to get to the point of kitty canoodling…

HIS way…HIS rules…one of us sits on the porch step while the other weaves in and out around legs…cat purring…old gal petting…cat snuggling…old gal petting…until cat’s had enough and heads off to do what cats do…in the middle of the night…

Because this Catnoodling…this Catcuddling…this Catconnecting is always requested sometime between midnight and 5 am, AM, dark time, sleep time, no one is awake time…

Except a kitty…a lonely kitty, or maybe a bored kitty, who makes enough noise to wake the dead, gets a snack and then meows at the end of the porch until someone…someone who loves cats…someone who can’t say no…

Throws on some shoes and clothes and heads outside…

Because she can…because he asks…because in the middle of the night, he feels safe…

And isn’t that what we all want: to feel safe…in our home…in our neighborhood…on the step of the porch in the middle of night?…

Of course we do…
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And that sweet cat friend of mine…agrees…

One of us…

Has a club…the Join The Club club…

Those words at the eye doctor, “I usually see this in people 20 years older than you”, hitting a little hard…that husband of mine, 7 years older, following up with…

Join the club…

And he’s not wrong…he IS in the I Can’t See Well club and after trying to cross stitch without magnifiers and a headlight that younger wife of his is certainly now a member…

But let’s not forget the…

Frozen shoulder…
Join the club…

Pesky tinnitus…
Join the club…

Arthritis…back pain…can’t lose the belly blob…
Join the club, join the club, join the club…

But maybe…just maybe this old gal doesn’t WANT to join the club…the curses of old age club…pretend it’s not happening…pretend things aren’t changing…

But what would she be without her club…those friends who commiserate…been there done that…offer suggestions, support, camaraderie?…

She’d be lost…

We got this, my friends…let’s navigate this thing called life together…and when you get lucky enough to join…

Then welcome to the club…
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And this husband of mine…agrees…

This old gal…

Doesn’t remember spring break…

It’s not one of those over-partying, black out things…we just didn’t have one, or it wasn’t called that in the olden days…

In college, spring break was more pizza making hours to earn money to pay tuition…no getaways with friends to sunny beaches and airbnbs…

But lately, this place is a buzz with spring break fever and young at heart me is tempted…so tempted…to join in the fun…

Like…why not…nothing’s stopping this old bird…except the fear of being seen in a bathing suit…

My Mr…not keen on the water…joins in by cheering his bathing beauty on… following the shoreline…snapping photos…pointing out fish…turtles…possible snakes…

And being on the alert…need he leap in and save his bride from drowning in the very shallow water…
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Always...this old gal's...hero...
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And this husband of mine…agrees...

This old gal…

Saw a commercial…a shampoo commercial for Herbal Essence shampoo…and something about it seemed off…

Used Herbal Essence back in the day…way way back in the day…and in fact had just bought a bottle after a thirty year hiatus…

Herbal Essence…but could have sworn on the commercial they were saying Herbal Essences…like so many s’s…too many s's…it’s hard to say…loses impact…

I use Herbal Essences’s’s’s’s…Grab that bottle of Herbal Essences's's's's…We're
almost out of Herbal Essences's's's's shampoo…

But old gal me wasn't hearing things…checked the bottle in the shower…googled it for details and sure enough it went from essence to essences in 1995…

Can’t believe one of us has been saying it wrong all this time…and she still will…because seriously Clairol…a blend of scents could still be one essence…

And so it is…in life…don’t overthink it…don’t try too hard…simplicity is key…because the last thing we need in the world of shampoo and elsewhere…is more…nuisances’s’s’s…
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And this husband of mine agrees…

This old gal’s heart sank…

At the eye doctor…he doing some test then mumbling the old…oh…let’s check that again phrase…

Know what that means…had enough exams in these 64 years to know that “oh let’s check that again” means something isn’t right…

And it wasn’t…those eye pressures a little high…know nothing about eye pressure but learned soon enough, this was not a good thing…

And also learned soon enough that this is why it’s important to have regular eye appointments…silly me…daft me…whatever me…really just felt like she was going to update her glasses prescription…

So didn’t go last year…and apparently…didn’t go the year before…and now we’re looking glaucoma in the eye…which would not have a happy ending…

Caught it early…will follow up in six months and lay off the Flonase…another little tidbit one of us didn’t know…Flonase causes high eye pressure…

And so it is…in life…ignorance is bliss…until you go blind…and then it’s just called…stupidity…
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And this husband of mine…agrees…

This old gal…

Went for a walk…try to get her three miles in…headed to the quaint downtown full of shops…restaurants…fancy boutiques…

The place was bustling…the weather gorgeous…kids on holiday break…walked passed two young men doing a quick hug outside an eatery…

Saying their good-byes…doing the back pat thing…one heading one way…one heading the other, coincidentally falling right in step with walker me…

And stood fairly close…the pace the same…step step step step…passed a woman on her phone talking loudly…”It’s probably just old age,” she said…and walking me laughed…

Which caused the young man to turn…make eye contact…cuter than cute…about 20 years old or so and he started to chat, the conversation going something like this…

Him…Was she talking about me?…chuckle chuckle…
Me…She was talking about herself but it’s funny because my husband says that all the time…
Him…Are you from here?..
Me…No, I’m from Iowa. My husband was born around here so we come here for the winter…
Him…You picked a great place.

And that’s when walking me slowed down…said nice to meet you and ducked into the nearest shop because that’s when walking me suddenly panicked…

All that stuff on TV recently…juggers grabbing purses of innocent old ladies…girls disappearing in parks…

Like what was this kid going to do on this busy street in the middle of downtown after just having lunch with his bestie?…

Grab an old gal’s fanny pack and steal her pepper spray and chapstick?.. kidnap her and sell her already wrinkled and aging organs?..

Of course not…

And it makes an old gal sad…makes her long for the days where the fear of the ugly wasn’t always looming in the back of the mind…

Where a clean cut young kid could talk to an old lady just because he’s kind and it does nothing but make her smile…

Where have those days gone?..

For our kids and our grandkids and our grandkids’ kids…let’s find them…and bring them back…
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And this husband of mine…agrees…

This old gal…

Woke up in the middle of night, in the middle of a dream…she at a preschool, all the little boys wearing dress suits going on a field trip being taken there in a fishing boat being pulled on a trailer by a guy who sells cars in her old home town…and she thought…

Omg, I know why those jeans I bought two years ago in Texas for my birthday were sparkly!…they were RODEO jeans!…

Saw them in a boutique…unique…shiny…like someone she knows, someone she aspires to be…chose them for her birthday gift and honestly…hasn’t worn them much since…

Not because they don’t fit…not because they are a little heavy for an old gal who is always hot…but because, in Iowa, people don’t wear sparkly jeans unless you’re under the age of 6 or so…

But at the rodeo, in Texas, sparkly jeans are everywhere…sparkly hems, sparkly hips, sparkly knees, sparkly legs…gems, jewels, diamonds big and small…

And it works…it’s fun…it makes sense…

And why not?…sparkle is good for the soul…so let it shine…be the change…

Bring the sparkle…
Share the sparkle…
BE the sparkle…
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And those fancy jeans in Iowa…agree…

This husband and I…

Saw a sign in the parking lot of the Alamo Land hotel…several signs actually…laughed at them…thought they were funny…

Bird droppings-park at your own risk…

Thought ok…that’s nice…warning us not to park under trees…easy to do…there weren’t that many…but then later that night, laughing us, had to eat crow…

For out of seemingly nowhere, in they flew…in droves…by hundreds…swooping, squawking, landing, flying…birds, birds, and more birds…

Like that Alfred Hitchcock movie from the past, a favorite of young me…birds taking over the skies, attacking, pecking eyes out…only lucky for us this didn’t happen…because it was quite a sight to see…

Magnificent…spectacular…beautiful in its own way…Mother Nature creating ever-changing masterpieces in the vast evening sky…

And so it is…in life…sh*t happens…and apparently behind the hotel in Alamo Land more often than you’d think…but fortunately in this case…one can’t say…they weren’t warned…
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And this husband of mine…agrees…