Mary Beth Writes

Last year was the Covid quarantine so most of us didn’t do very much over the 4th of July holiday.

This year, with half Americans now vaccinated there’s more freedom to do things and be with people.

So what did Len and I do? Um. Made and decorated cookies with two little girls on Friday. Saturday Len walked with Dems in a parade, and I weeded the yard. We grilled bacon-wrapped filets for dinner. Watched The Big Short, the 2015 movie about the 2008 economic collapse. Highly recommend it if you have the stomach to watch hot-shot American economic power break the world economy. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/

Sunday we both read a lot. Talked to our kids at a leisurely pace on the phone. Today Len rode his bike while I took a long sweaty walk. I’ve been thinking about a story I might write. He’s been diving deep in Drupal (a computer language).

It’s been great although I’ll grant it’s hard to tell the difference between when we can leave the house and when we can’t. 

I wonder how much of the exhaustion and constant irritation around us is because introverts are being pancaked into extrovert spaces and vice versa. 

“The actual ratio of introverts to extroverts based on a random sample by the Myers-Briggs organization showed Introverts are 50.7% of the population and extroverts 49.3% of the USA.” 

Half and half.  No wonder so many of us are stressed.

About that photo of the little white cat on the porch of the little white building.

My cousin-in-law David S sent it to me. He says I can share it along with his explanation. I’ve left in his specific references to trains because some of you might be train enthusiasts, too.

“Here’s a non-railroad photo taken when I was waiting for NS trains to pass by the rail park in Locust Grove, GA. I took a couple of photos of this shabby structure across the tracks (it’s on the wrong side of the track). Judy (David’s wife, who passed away several years ago) would have been taking photos of it long before I noticed it. Then this white cat came to sit there, so I took a couple more photos. Shortly, a woman came along and parked by the building. She got out, unlocked the shop door, and let the cat in. Smart cat: it knows when it’s about time for the shop to open.”

Today while we were eating breakfast the cats were bothering us. I told them to go in the other room and read a book.

Len started thinking about titles for Romances for Cats:

  • Tom Cat on the Prowl
  • Muffy’s Secret
  • Teacher’s Pet
  • Last Licks for Old Tom
  • Clandestine Crunchies
  • The Midnight Yowl
  • Forbidden Kibble
  • Who’s There, Pussycat?
  • Calico Trouble
  • Tabby of Clarendon Manor
  • Rustle in the Sheets
  • Cinnamon Meets Cookie
  • Smokey and Cinnamon
  • Highland Mitzi
  • Silken Socks
  • Fallen for a Mouser
  • Mousekeeping Can Wait!
  • Only a Bad Cat Could Scratch that Itch

Suggested by perspicatious readers:

  • Howlin' for my Honey
  • Warm Your Mittens on our Kittens 
  • A Tale o' Nine Cats
  • Yowser, Bowser!
  • Tomorrow is for Digging
  • Murphy;s Drool
  • A Fool for Drool
  • Diggety Dogs
  • Puppy Love

Feel free to send in your titles for Romances for Cats. Or Romances for Dogs.

 

 

Comments

Hi! Love those titles.
Leonard's picture

"All right people: This is what we've practiced for!" Seriously, I know the last year has been devastating for many people, but I don't know how I could've read this much otherwise.

Howlin’ for my honey. Actual sign outside a Spenard, AK massage parlor, back in the day “ Come warm your mittens on our kittens”. True.
Mary Beth's picture

Added to the list above. And I'm laughing. Thanks!

Yowser bowser Tomorrow is for diggin Murphy’s Drool A Fool for Drool Diggetey dogs Puppy love

A Tale o’ Nine Cats

We watched the movie a few years ago (?) and McKnight just read the book on our vacation to CO. He recommends, and now wants to re-watch the movie. I don't know if I can stomach it again. Grrrrrrr.

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Y is for Yellowstone

9/27/2023

Back in February I asked you to give me topics to write about that would correspond to the alphabet. Sometimes several of you sent ideas for one letter and sometimes I wrote about all of them (I’s and S’s) Here we are at letter Y for which your suggestions are Yummy Food and Yawns. The word yawn absolutely makes me yawn; no way I could write about that - I would yawn for hours. I worked on Yummy Food but could only find a scolding voice about Americans eating too much sugar. Bah. True but not interesting.

So, I gave Y a go again. Y is for?

"I was Scott Simon's teller."

9/22/2023

First of all - Thank you to those of you who came to the Wisconsin Writers Association zoom gala last night. I HAD received an email a week ago which said I would be reading my whole story. Cutting it in half while I was reading was awkward! It was still a happy event for me and the other writers. Thanks for being there! 

X is for Xeriscape

9/20/2023

Xeriscape is pronounced ‘zeer-eh-scape’ and it means landscaping with little to no irrigated water. Readers in the west already know about this. Those of us who don’t live in arid or desert places need to wake up to the incredible resource that water is - then begin to accommodate ourselves to “water all around and beneath us all the time” is no longer our reality. Nor is it our right. We’ve got to get smarter and do better.

W is for Wonder

9/13/202

To whomever suggested Wonder - Thank You!  ‘Wonder’ has been bobbing in my mind like a frog in a pond.

However, I have FOUR suggestions from you guys for X - but I do not want to write four X essays. These are the suggestions:

1.) X signature substitution

2.) xylophone on a string pulled by a toddler

3.) xenophobia

4.) Xmas. 

If you have an opinion respond with the one you would like me to attempt. I will choose whichever X gets the most comments.

There will be no gerrymandering in this election.

GNTL - NAMI

9/7/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

NAMI

Most of you know about my former weird and lovely job of coordinating an employability skills program for Huber-qualified inmates in the Racine County Jail (that’s a mouthful). Early on I realized that most of the people I would work with were people with 1.) huge addiction problems, and 2.) underlying and over-the-top and to-the-side just lying around mental health issues.

V is for Vocabulary

9/6/2023 

For those who are new here - This year I am writing about topics, in alphabetical order, that were suggested to me by readers. Sometimes this is hard! 

IRTNOG

My cousin-in-law Dave has some powerfully thorough avocations (for fun and profit he earned a PhD in biochemistry; you will notice this in his list). This year, among other pursuits, he has been collecting words which have appeared in our culture since 1945, which was the year he also appeared in our culture.

Tag Cloud

9/11 17 minutes 500 Words A-Z AARPtaxes AAUW abortion Acadia accident Accountable Advent aging Alaska anniversary antibiotics antlers apples appointments Arrows art Ashland August Augustine aunts baby Badlands balance Baldwin Barbara Barkskins Beauty Becky Becoming Esther Berry birthday bistro BLM Blue BookReport books boy scout Bread BrokenDays BuyAngry Cabeza de Vaca Cahokia calendars Canada canoe cat romance cats cello Chicago China Choosing Christmas cilantro Cinnabuns circus climate change clouds Clowns clutter Colonialism comet ComfortZone CommonSense community consumerism Cops Corvid-19 Courage Covid-19 Crazy creditreport creosote CrimeShows danger DarkRiver death Debate December DecisionFatigue decluttering democracy dentist depression Destination Today Detroit Didion disasterprep dogs dollhouse Dreams Duty Easter eBay Echoes Eclipse election EmilyDickinson eschatology Esquipulas exit polls eyes Fable FairTrade family farmer Fata Morgana ferns firealarm Fitness Five Flatbread Flexible flu Food Pantry Fort de Chartres frame Franc FrancGarcia friends frugal FrugalHacks Frugality frustration Ft.Ticonderoga fungi fusion Galena Gannets Garden GarfieldParkConservatory Gaspe genius geode GeorgeFloyd gerrymandering ghosts gifts girls GNTL gorgons goulash GovernorThompsonStatePark Graduation grandkids granola groceries Guatemala gum guns Hair happiness HaveYouEver? hawks healthcare Healthinsurance hearings heart heaven HelleKBerry heroes hike History home HomeRepair Honduras Hope HowCrowGotOutofJail humor hurricane Ice Cream idiosyncrasy igloos impeachment Innkeeper Instincts integrity InternetPrivacy Interview InviteMe2Speak James Baldwin Jan 6 Janus jewelry JoyceAndrews Judy JulianofNorwich Jump justice Karen kites ladder Lady Lamb LangstonHuges LaphamPeak laundry LeeLeeMcKnight lemming Len Light Lincoln Little Women LockedOut Loki loneliness LouisArmstrong Love Ludington Macaw macho Manitoulin MargaretFuller Maria Hamilton Marquette marriage Marsden Hartley masks Mayan MayaWorks meme Memories men Middlemarch MilesWallyDiego MindfulChickens Mistakes MLK moon Mother MothersDay mounds mouser movies museums must-haves Mustapha NAMI Nancy Drew Newfoundland New Mexico New York City Nomadland nope observation OBUUC Ocotillo OnaJudge ordinary OscarRomero osprey Outside oximeter Parade mayhem PastorBettyRendon Paul Hessert PDQ Penny persimmon photos Pi Pies pineapples poetry Preaching privacy procrastination Protest QE2 Quern quest Questions Rabbit holes racism reading recipe recipes recommendations Remember RepresentationMatters Reruns responsetoKapenga Retirement rhubarb Ricky rime RitesofPassage romance Rosemary Ruether Roses Roti Ruth SamaritanWoman Sanctuary Sandhillcranes Santuario de Chimayo SaraKurtz SaraRodriguez satellites ScottSimon sculpture Seasons Sermon ServantsoftheQuest sewing Shepherd Shontay ShortStory shoulder sick sickness Slower snow Social Security SofritoBandito solstice South Dakota SpaceShuttle spirituality spring square feet staining stars stele Stereotypes stories StoryStarts stream monitoring stress Survival swim Talent taxes teenager thankgsgiving Thanksgiving TheBridge TheMaid ThePerpetualYou therapy ThreeBillBoards Three Thing ThreeThings Three Things TidalBore TimeBeing toddler Tom tortillas Trains travel Traveler Tubing turtle Twilight Bark Tyrone Ukraine Ulysses Grant Umbrella UnrelatedObservations Up North urgency vacation vaccine Valentines vanilla Vietnam vision VivianWokeUpDrowning Vocabulary vole volunteer WalkingAndSeeing Wampanaog war WarsanShire weather weaving Webs wedding whines WhyAttendChurch Wiley Willa WillaCather Wisteria Won! Wonder words Xeriscape Yellowstone
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