Even the Lone Ranger had Someone

I was feeling kind of down. Maye it was my milestone birthday. This was going to be a tough one, but in five years, that birthday is going to be an even harder one.

Or maybe it was the workshop that I signed up for, a 13-week course on divorce and separation, every Monday evening. Mondays are turning out to be self-reflective moments that leave me feeling loss and drained.

Or maybe it is the dark months and lack of sun. But I should be okay; I take Vitamin D tablets, which are good for lack of sun and even great for your heart.

Or maybe it was the stinking comment from my son made about my cooking. I showed him, he made supper that night.

Then I pondered my life and realized, except for my cat, I am alone. I realized that people pretty much have someone in their lives.

Look, let's face it, you know those couples: Lucy and Desi, Dick and Laura Petrie, Dick and Jane, Romeo and Juliet, Rachel and Ross, Sonny and Cher, Adam and Eve, Ken and Barbie, Fred and Wilma, Betty and Barney, Homer and Marge, Roy and Dale, Bud and Lou, Martin and Lewis, Laurel and Hardy, Lady and Tramp, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast, Donald and Daisy, Superman and Lois Lane, Angeline and Billy and Brad and Jennifer.

Well, you get the picture. I guess I want to be part of another half. Heck, even the Lone Ranger had someone. He had Tonto. Where's my Tonto, or Sonny, or Roy, or Dick or Desi????

Out there somewhere! Right now if I have to settle for my other half, I guess it would have to be my black and white long-haired cat, Scraps. At least Scraps never complains about the food and likes to sleep on my bed, on top of my legs. And ever so often she licks my hand. I think she has a salt deficiency.

If I think about that long enough - I realize the Lone Ranger may have had Tonto but I bet he didn't purr at him or lick his hand.

Agree to Disagree

I have a friend and we are as different as night and day. We share some similarities, like our love for our children and grandchildren, food, books, art, and running off for a writer's weekend. We like to eat but not the same things, we love to read but we like different books.

Where I baby-sit often, my friend baby-sits daily and loves it. I drive. My friend doesn't. We try to find time to go off writing somewhere for a short weekend. I drive and my friend is the perfect GPS.

Some of our differences are found in our politics that we try not to express, but sometimes that is difficult. I am a registered Independent, and my friend is a dyed in the wool Democrat. Sometimes we talk politics and get carried away. So far we have managed not to let that strain our friendship. But that is important to be able to express our differences and our feelings. That's what friends do. I know sometimes we get ticked off at what the other has expressed and maybe we hold on to our irritations for a time.

Our difference doesn't stand in our way or keep us from being with one another. I think we have come to respect one another. We are able to be civil and allow ourselves to express our opinions. We may not agree all the time but that is why we are friends, because of our spirited rhetoric that doesn't become too uncivil and full of hatred.

We may not change each other's thoughts or votes. We do reflect and think about what the other has said. Sometimes it does change our opinions.

Bottom line, we are friends, who can talk, who can agree to disagree. Being friends and respecting each other allows us to politely agree to disagree.

Bless Me Father

My niece finally responded to my email. I had tried to call her and didn't leave a message on her answering machine. I emailed and waited and to my surprise, I received a response. She assured me that she does read her emails but is lousy in responding. She sounded exactly like her father, my brother. I would email my brother, Jack, and never received a response from him. I knew that he read the emails but never bothered to respond to them. Frustrating to say the least. But in the email, my niece mentioned a few things. One was that it was now six months since my brother had died.

At first this could be a beginning of a confession: "Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been six months since my last confession." But it wasn't. Besides I no longer go to confession. Not to a priest. I do make an Act of Contrition and pour out my sins to God, telling Him that I am sorry and asking Him for forgiveness. I assume He hears me and He absolves me. Amen.

But yes, it has been six months since my brother died. I have lived every day of those six months, thinking about my brother and saying a prayer to him. Notice a prayer to him and not for him. To me, my brother was a walking, living, breathing saint on this earth. Something I know and I firmly believe. He was special; a special human being and that special teacher that everyone should have in their lives. He taught history at Loyola Academy in Chicago, Illinois. He taught for over 30 years. He taught a lot of students and in turn, he taught their children. He was a legend to his fellow peers, and students, and friends, and to any one who met him. They repeated his stories and antics. They even set up a page on Facebook dedicated to him.

My brother was a kind and loving person, who never hurt a single person. He was funny and had a great sense of humor. I liked being around him, even if we did live hundreds of miles away from each other, both busy with our families.

My parents did a lot for us but the biggest gift they gave my brother and I was the gift that we were brother and sister, and the same blood that flowed through our veins would bind us. We were close in mind and heart and thought. And we remained close until the end.

So, yes, I guess I would have to say, "Bless me, God, it has been six months since you took my brother home. My sin is that I have missed him, every day. I will always miss him. Amen."

Kindle

This modern technology is something else. My kids and grandkids are whizzes at it but I am - well, I am one of those dinosaurs, who didn't grow up with it. I can turn a light switch on and off, figure out my microwave, set my clock, work the washer, dryer dishwasher, and stove.

Yet, I never knew that modern technology would make me look like a dinosaur. I can handle the basics. When the video was the "in" thing - it took written directions for me to figure out how to tape a television program. When my kids owned video games, I watched them play and when I tried, I was out of the game before I even started.

I remember taking computer lessons at my local community college and I didn't even have my own computer at the time. Being a freelance writer, I was intrigued with how the backspace bar on the keyboard took away my mistakes by magic. After all those years of having to retype my copies to get it mistake free, then it was the correction tape, followed by White Out. Well the backspace is an absolute miracle! The invention of the keyboard and computer was beautiful! So far, I have owned four computers, and two laptops. I can't imagine life without a computer. Yes, I have come a long way baby.

I sometimes have to work and try four or five times before I hit the right buttons to get my TV on, let alone hit the right program to get the DVD to play and forget the DVR. My son jokes about getting me a black and white television set with the old rabbit ears. He may be right about that. He actually has written step-by-step directions on how to turn on the television, the cable and the DVD player.

The last time I went into Radio Shack, I came out with an old transistor radio. One of my sons put a piece of aluminum, foil on the antenna and laughed himself silly with the joke. I have to admit that it was pretty funny. I bought that transistor last year because I needed something to get me through my work at the greenhouse. This Christmas when we had our White Elephant gift exchange, someone else received my transistor with the foil on the antenna as their gift.

Cell phones, what can I say about them. I have one of those phones that I use with a calling card and I hate that as well. Don't bother to call me up because I don't know my phone number. Besides, the phone is lost somewhere in my house.

I did surprise my family when I invested in an Apple iPod. I read about those neat little electronic devises and figured that it would be a lot easier to manage a tiny iPod, instead of the bulky hand held Walkman that I owned. No way would I even think about bringing that ridiculous transistor radio with the foil on the antenna into the gym. They probably wouldn't let me into the gym with one of those things. In the beginning my daughter had to download the songs for me. Now, I have actually downloaded more music and I have no idea as to how I even did that successfully. The gods seemed to smile on babies and idiots.

I have a Blog and am on Facebook. Thank you to whoever founded Facebook and Blogs for Dummies. I have both of those books on my bookshelf next to my computer. Plus my genius daughter-in-law, who helps me with Blog questions, is an email away if I need her.

I also have a great camera but one of my kids has been the one to download the pictures on my computer. But I do know how to print the pictures up by myself at Target. I have no idea how to play video games or Wii games, even though my grandson tries to teach me. Dinosaur, yes...I am one. I will admit to that, even though I am not proud of that fact.

And now for my birthday, I have been given a Kindle. Something I wanted. Before I went to bed, I prayed to God - Please help me to be able to figure this one out, God. But then, I bet there is a Kindle book for Dummies.