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.

Add new comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

GNTL - So Many Words!

5/30/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives - Words!

The month of May might have been above my paygrade. I contributed to a weeks-long writing project in our congregation. I met friends more often than usual to talk and catch up. Two grandkids came for a sleepover last week. Our daughter and her little dog spent last Friday with us. Saturday another grandkid slept over.

GNTL - Kathryn's Garden

5/29/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives - Kathryn’s Garden

My friend Kathryn sent some beautiful photos of her garden to me this morning, I asked if I could post them here and she said yes. 

Some of you know Kathryn Rouse so you know this is not a garden-come-lately. She’s been building and growing her garden since, I think, the late 1970’s. The bunny in a hurry is a Bill Reid sculpture.

I think Kathryn's photos are the right frame for the poem.

A-Z Observation

5/24/2023   O is for Observation

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a pre-telescope Danish astronomer who looked at the sky more precisely than anyone before him had done. He was obsessively careful about measuring what he saw and he studied the sky every night he could. To accomplish what he wanted he reinvented and fine-tuned the sky-gauging tools of his era – sextant and quadrant.

You may have seen these tools in paintings of old-time sailors. They would hold them up to their face, look at the stars, figure out where they were in the world.

GNTL - Squirrels & Gardens & the Sonoran Desert

5/18/2023

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

My garden thrives in ignominy.

Yesterday I posted some frugal things I’ve done lately at the Non-Consumer Advocate website. I do this because the kinds of people who try to be frugal are often (not always) people who I wish would come over here and read my website, too. I don’t write too much about frugal strategies but I write lot about values. We are in the same Venn diagram, right?

GNTL - Walk, Mounds, Spirit

Grownups Noticing Their Lives

5/17/2023 

The local TV weather folks talked about ‘a pneumonia front’ for two days. I’d never heard the term before but we all know temps can change fast, right? It’s more generally called life on planet earth. Keep a jacket handy if you can.

M is for Various Mom Memories

If you haven’t read yesterday’s comments, go back to read some wonderful memories of peoples’ aunts and “aunts”.

My morning's been packed. Before it was even 8:00 we played facetime dollhouse with our 6-year-old grandkid. She laughed extremely hard at the wedding of wee Kristoff (the Frozen story) to a new clothespin doll from Goodwill, because the groomsman kept standing on the cupcake table. No one could get the groomsman to straighten out so a collie had to run over and bite him.

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 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 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 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 Nancy Drew 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 Protest QE2 Quern quest Questions Rabbit holes racism recipe recipes recommendations Remember RepresentationMatters Reruns responsetoKapenga Retirement rhubarb Ricky rime RitesofPassage Rosemary Ruether Roses Roti Ruth SamaritanWoman Sanctuary Sandhillcranes Santuario de Chimayo SaraKurtz SaraRodriguez sculpture 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 taxes teenager thankgsgiving Thanksgiving TheBridge TheMaid ThePerpetualYou ThreeBillBoards Three Thing ThreeThings Three Things TidalBore TimeBeing toddler Tom tortillas Trains travel Traveler Tubing turtle Twilight Bark Tyrone Ukraine Ulysses Grant UnrelatedObservations Up North urgency vacation vaccine Valentines vanilla Vietnam vision VivianWokeUpDrowning vole volunteer WalkingAndSeeing Wampanaog war WarsanShire weather weaving Webs wedding whines WhyAttendChurch Wiley Willa WillaCather Wisteria words
Ad Promotion