ANOTHER DREAM

I am in a hallway with another person, when a tall thin young man with a long pointed knife comes at us to do us harm.  I struggle for the knife and wrestle it away, stabbing him in the back; and he bleeds and dies.  From then on I am regarded an unlikely heroine, saving both the other person and myself from horrible slashing.

I go into action sparing my friend and myself by plunging the knife in.

Immediately I begin crying for the life I ended and must apologize to his neighbors, a group of belligerent low-brows who endlessly laud the dead man's attributes and see me as murderer.

At last they are persuaded by my genuine sorrow over the matter and we part with hugs.

Next moment I am off to the carnival and contest others in a parachute jump, the first person to the bottom being the winner.  I shoot down like a rock stopping in a timely fashion to spare broken legs and I win.

I plummet like a rock to the bottom

However I am disqualified for not registering first.

Damn you, administrative red tape!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is Husband's 73rd birthday, commemorating the day his mother gave a mighty heave and brought forth the light of my life; or at least the flashlight, since he is portable in every sense of the word, on the go most of the time.

He was born with a congenital heart defect which required major heart surgery in the 50's, when heart surgery was a rare occasion.  All his life with me he felt lucky to be living and never anticipated to be 73. Happily he is, and will probably outlive me!

Husband around the time of his heart repair

We have endured each other for 50 years of our lives and now help each other up after falls and swear to mutually deny any accusation of senility or incapacity on our respective parts.  God forbid that anyone should discover that we belong in a "home."

It is his day today and we'll be attending a collective birthday party for people in his high school class who are born in January.  There will be soups, salads, and birthday cake.  Yum

Snapshot of last year's party with everyone in aprons

including Husband

Since it is extremely cold here, we will be bundled up tonight like Eskimos and praying we don't slip on the ice and break an elderly bone.  Wherever you are, remember to toast Husband and have a merry time!

Husband and Leo the cat "watching TV." 

BLACK FRIDAY

Husband struck out early to enter the competition for Christmas bargains known as Black Friday.  I wished him well and stayed home since I stopped Christmas shopping a few years ago.  It finally dawned on me that shopping had absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.  Just because three wise men brought three gifts to Baby Jesus does not require the whole world to repeat the process annually.

When he returned he had purchased a saw at a $60.00 saving.  Husband is a compulsive coupon clipper and has a wallet exclusively for his wad of paper treasures.  My task is to keep a hawk eye on the register monitor and catch every "failure to enter" the promoted and displayed sale price.  And I am good.  Needless to say, the checkers remember me, even though none of the errors are their fault.

Below are items Husband got from Harbor Freight Tools at a savings of $18.48, paying only $2.61.  He was so excited he had to show me the receipt.

Behold a Pittsburgh Quickfind Tapemeasure

a plumber's brush

multipurpose scissors

and a 3.5" mini flashlight

He came home the other day with a laser-gun thermometer, which he uses to detect cold air entering the house.  What a guy.

I know you are all out there envying me, dreaming that you had a super shopper/dreamboat like mine.  Hang in there because surely there is one more out there somewhere.  Try Colorado.

  

When we were younger, but nevertheless thrifty

THANKSGIVING

I am thankful for life, love and the pursuit of awesomeness.

For Daughter I and Her Glorious Brood

For Daughter II and Her Atlanta Good Life

And For Daughter III and Her Irrepressible Curiosity

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

HOLD THAT POSE!

I'm sitting on the sofa with my slacks down around my ankles watching "The Enchanted Cottage," while making notes on the back of a receipt from the veterinarian for the purchase of special requirement cat food  How did this come to be?

    1.  I hit my knee on Husband's beloved trailer hitch when removing groceries from the car.

    2.  Since my pants leg would not pull up to reveal the injury, I pulled down my pants and sat on the sofa to examine it.

    3.  The television happened to be playing one of my favorite movies from 1945, "The Enchanted Cottage," starring Robert young and Dorothy McGuire, which instantly involved my thinking.

Dorothy McGuire as the homely heroine

    4.  Before you conclude that I am having an erotic interlude with myself, know that this was simply a convergence of independent events that sound all too incriminating.

    5.  At that moment I began to have a word storm descend upon me in said position.  Hence I am writing with legs crossed, pants down, and attention diverted by the story of love's soft assurance and triumph over the world's most cruel tragedies...homeliness and disfigurement.  This long ago story had a low threshold for measuring misfortune and failed to capture my appreciation of such sad affliction; however the intention of it resonates with me.

Robert Young as the disfigured WWII serviceman

 RKO's "The Enchanted Cottage" is about two physically repulsive people finding euphoric perfection while occupying the magic space of an English cottage.  An introvert's dream scenario of us against the world happens in a cocoon warding off criticism, pity and condescension; oh and perfectly illustrating the transcendent power of love.  See it in a theater near you 68 years ago.

The couple as they saw themselves through the eyes of love

MEMORIES OF SUMMER

Autumn has slowly slipped into our lives, leaving summer only in our fading recollection.  Here are a few sights that were familiar outside my door only a few weeks ago.

My zinnias blooming around the deck

My garden with chest high tomatoes and waist high basil and peppers

Butterflies enjoying a taste of nectar

And sensing they had to take advantage of the time left

The place for summer relaxing in its final moments

The dogwood trees have red leaves now, soon to be shed

Welcome, Autumn!

ENTROPY

Entropy is defined as disorder or chaos.  The second law of thermodynamics holds that in an isolated or closed system, order tends toward and becomes disorder.  While these are subjective terms (order, disorder), examples can be pointed to in everyday terms.  Every bright light bulb will eventually fail and go to the trash.  Children are born who will always grow old and die.  One distant day the sun will burn out and our environmentally well-ordered planet earth will be incinerated in the enveloping expansion of its dying star.  No matter how many times we scrub the kitchen floor, it will be dirtier than ever over time.

My rear view is nowhere near this orderly now.

Depressing as this is, there is one thing not considered in all of this:  beginnings.  Currently science says that beginning (as in the big bang) can come from nothing.  This defies human logic and causes tremendous problems of symmetry, or balance.  No rising from the ashes and going on to repeat the process.  No symmetry.  I feature that beginnings come from unknown endings, at least that is my natural supposition since I'm preparing for a period of permanent disorder (old age).

These roses had their day, shattered and fell to the ground (entropy).

But new roses will be around next year to do the same.

I have always shied away from "hard" science, otherwise known as physics, because I feared it was difficult enough to bring down my grades and cause entropy of my self esteem.  So in high school I signed up for physics and dropped it for study hall out of panic.  Another girl seized the opportunity and begged to purchase my used and therefore cheap textbook for the price I paid.  Later on, I changed my mind and decided to return to physics.  When I asked to buy back my book, the other girl said "No," and I was forced to pay for a new text book which I could ill afford.  The irony of all this:  the girl who found my book such a bargain was a millionaire's daughter who grew up on a big southern plantation.  I, on the other hand, was abandoned by my father and supported by my unemployed mother.  Everyone knew this.  In that moment I felt first hand the cruelty and apathy of the "haves" in this world.  And the concept of entropy here:  used book (order), selling the book in a moment of weakness (beginning disorder) having to buy more expensive book (0 minus 10 on the order scale).  Science rules.

Science rules and is spectacularly beautiful!