No, No, No; You can't take that Away from me

The way you sip your tea. I remember all that

So your life is going fine and so it goes. The usual pains, the bills, the overeating and the longing. Not heavy breathing longing like you had a lot of hormones and you were 16, but the yearning for simpler times when you had all your faculties and health you took for granted. So as I said, your life is going on in measured steps and you are in that numbed state of contentment when the rug is pulled out from under you and you fall down 70 flights of stairs while standing in a patio home.

Your childhood best friend lets you know she is dying, She is not next door but removed by 2000, miles and 42 years. You know that her death will take like Dorothy's tornado in the Wizard of Oz, everything you are and have always known, whirl you around and deposit you befuddled somewhere else without anchor.

Suddenly you are the rock and foundation for each other you hadn't been in years. You are living the movie "Beaches" and loving the process but not the finale.

Maybe it is a good thing to stop and really look around and say what did my lifetime mean? I am the sum of so many parts. My childhood and young adulthood are long gone. But those memories of carefree youth with all my loved ones around me; no death, no pain and unfilled dreams to color the horizon.

Maybe Susan and I should rejoice in this reunion for however long it lasts and just continue to say I am so blessed that you were and are still part of my life.

Archie and Other Pets I have Known - a Tribute

Archie passed away yesterday. He had a good and trying life. He was not a world champion Beagle like Uno. He was a world champion pain-in-the-ass. Like Marley he had demon like energy and was able to eat screen doors and reading glasses with the same voracious and indiscriminate appetite. He knew. Yes he knew if you had no patience for him and wouldn't be suckered in to think that occasional pandering and petting made you change your feelings. My daughter loved Archie. Archie didn't criticize her or give her conditional anything. Archie was always there happy to see her, glad to snuggle and sing along with her. That is the thing about dogs they are loyal and loving to a level unable to be matched by human beings. If there is a "me first" it is when they are in line for treats.

I lost my dog Garozzo three years ago, and Lesley lost Chelsea, Jackie lost Bud and Colleen lost her cat; all since then. We all grieved at the time and still grieve. The animals are fine where they are but we feel the void daily. We were their "rock" and their "sun, moon and stars." Where to find that love again. Oh yes the pet store and breeders and humane society all bring new loves and new hope...but that song "I will never love this way again..." that wasn't written about human love
I am convinced it was written for Archie, Garozzo, Chelsea, Bud and Abbey and all those pets that leave our lives having given us so much.