Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
My Patriotic Cat and Other Things of Note
I would never stage my cat, but I’m not above taking the opportunity to catch him napping next to the American flag which happens to be stuck between the cushions of the recliner that I used to sit in before Herc took possession.
Hours were spent in that chair watching and then re-watching all the seasons of Outlander during the pandemic. Looking back now, I wonder how the crippling anxiety about Covid didn’t end my life on the spot. A lot of things that you think will kill you end up not. That is a lesson to remember in these heart-stopping times.
I am glad for many things today. First, there was a great opinion piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel written by a retired award-winning journalist who is now on the Commission on Aging. It lays out the damage being done and contemplated by the intentional wreckage of the Social Security Administration.
Then, there was a great dog walk and the amazement of getting $17 off my grocery bill at Meijer’s because for once I had a rewards card and actually used it!
Clearing last fall’s debris from my hopeful little hostas made me feel like a master gardener even though I could barely get up from little stool afterward. Earlier, I watched with annoyance people on social media posting about President Biden needing to hold someone’s hand going down the stairs (sans railing) at the Pope’s funeral and extrapolating that this must mean he’s frail and decrepit and done for. And to that I have this to say: DO NOT EXTRAPOLATE! Yes, it is hard for me to stand up from sitting on a very low stool and no, that doesn’t mean that I need a stretcher.
After doing my ten minutes of gardening, I bravely did another load of laundry and carried a wet dog bed from the basement to the trash bin in the backyard. I am, as we used to say in the old country, strong like ox. I noticed when the neighbors on the other side of our shared driveway had four containers of something wonderful looking sitting on their porch railing, cooling. Our neighbors are getting ready for their week, I thought. The beat goes on.
Right now, one of the girls from a very observant Jewish family on our block is roller blading down the middle of the street like there’s no tomorrow, her long skirt flaring out behind her.
Also, the sun is still shining.
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
life is good even with the jerky things that happen in between. as my italian grandmother used to say, and as I now say to my daughter when we asked about our large calves and ankles, ‘we are made of sturdy stock.’