I Don't Mind

          I don’t mind when there’s a quiet week in the Luby household.

          I don’t mind at all.

          Until Saturday rolls around and I don’t have anything to talk about, that is!

          “That’s hard to believe!” you say.

          I know, right! Even with nothing to say I can still fill up three or four pages at least!

          “Your love note is a good start to a blog. Some week you ought to just collect 7 days of love notes to us and blog it for the week.” That was a suggestion, a very good suggestion, by my beautiful friend Jody.

          I love my morning Love Club! Eight siblings, one cousin, one niece, one son, two nephews, an ex-daughter-in-law (whom I’ve always loved), and nine friends are the current members. I like hearing from them every morning. Not all of them write back every morning and that’s okay, but there is a select group that do write every day. The rest touch bases with me from time to time when they have something to say.

          My morning love notes consist of whatever’s on my mind and sometimes I do use them when I write my letter blog as a way to remember what happened during the week. But not everything that’s in my morning love notes makes it into my letter blog. Most of it’s useless jibber-jabber like, “I had a hard time sleeping last night,” or “I had a hard time rolling out of my nice warm nest this morning.” Sometimes I talk about what I’m cooking for the day or what craft I’m working on or what errand we have to run.

          I got the sweetest note from my beautiful cousin Lorraine. She was the only one who had anything to say about this subject.

“WOW!!!! 25 years of letter writing!! That's incredible!! What a meaningful, rich legacy you’ve created! With words and photos, you've allowed us to peek through the window of your daily life! I love and appreciate you!”

Sometimes, when our words and lives intersect, I weave you into the tapestry of my life’s story, like I did just now with Lorraine’s comment.

I’m happy and proud to leave this legacy for my offspring or anyone who wants to know what the life of a mid-to-old age, middle-class American woman looked like. That is providing my words survive long after I’m gone. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. I would’ve loved to have had something like this from my grandmother or great-grandmother.

“They were too busy living to write a diary,” is what Momma said to me.

My morning peeps are also writing their stories when they respond to my love note. The sad part is often I’m the only one who gets to read it.

The exception to that is the note to my siblings and cousin Lorraine. We are all on one email note so we all get to see what the others say.

My handsome brother David. When he talks about all the food he’s gonna cook that day, my mind sees a refrigerator packed to spilling out with leftovers. At least it would be if I cooked that amount of food! But he’s such a great cook and he never fails to leave my mouth watering after I’ve read one of his notes.

This morning David talked about bleach getting old and not working anymore. I was today-years-old when I learned that bleach can get old and not work.

My beautiful sister Phyllis is in the middle of a home repair and remodel and shares pictures with us. She’s another talented cook in our family but she’s also a fabulous handyman — handylady? — handyperson? — too! One thing she’s done that I wish I’d’ve shared with you was when her dog chewed the corners of her table and benches and Phyllis fixed them good as new! She’s one smart and ingenious lady.

Beautiful, beautiful Lorraine. She and her handsome husband moved to Boquete, Panama last year and she shares pictures and stories of her life there.

I always enjoy and look forward to them. Right now, we’re embroiled in a story about a cat. Lorraine’s neighbor Gabi moved two miles away and her cat Bandito keeps coming back to the old house.

My oldest, much-adored and dearly loved sister Patti loves to rub it in when her Arizona temperatures are nice and warm and it’s cold and snowy here in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

Sometimes our love for each other gets a little competitive.

“I love you more than Peggy does,” David said one morning and since my heart is full to overflowing with love for them, that means he loves us an awful lot.

Patti remarked that as families go, we have a pretty good one. We all get along and no one is estranged. She recently saw and shared a poem with us that says it all. I Love My Family So Much is the title.

 

To be a part of a family like mine

is so divine

where love is shown

hurt is shared

our love for each other is never impaired

 

we talk

we laugh

we cry

 

but we are a family

and we do it all together

for as a family

we do it all as one

 

you hurt one

you hurt all

and as a family unit

we will all stand tall

 

for we are family

a family full of strength

a family full of love

a family no one can touch

that’s why I love my family so much.

 

          In conclusion, I love my family and my friends and I’m not afraid to tell them — every morning! I also love knowing how all y’all are moving through this world. And I know that without this connection, my life would be a whole lot lonelier.

>>>*<<<

          A morning sunrise. (Like a sunrise can happen any other time of the day, right?)

          A little later that same morning I took Raini out for a walkabout. The first one since she took off on me.

          Are these mouse tunnels in the snow?  

          Raini would run a little way off and come right back to me. We got to the pond and she stood at the edge.

          I don’t know how thick the ice is and I bet Raini doesn’t either, but she decided to walk on the wild side! Isn’t that what it’s called when you do something dangerous?

          She didn’t fall in and when I turned to go back to the house, she followed. 

          I saw Raini dig through the toybox on the kitchen patio, pick out her frisbee and try to bring it in. It wouldn’t fit through the dog door. She tried and came in without it.

          I opened the door for her. “Go get your frisbee,” I told her.

          She trotted out, picked it up, and brought it in. She spent the rest of the day tossing it around and chasing it. When it landed on her dinosaur, she had fun pulling the dinosaur through the center of the frisbee.

          I laughed. “You silly girl!”

          Raini stopped and looked at me. 

          A couple of days later, Mike asked if I wanted to walk down to the pond with him. I was in dish soap bubbles up to my elbows. “No. Take Raini.”

          He called Raini and she went running. This is the first time Mike’s ever taken Raini out off leash. I had to watch. I dropped the bowl I was washing back into the dishwater, dried my hands, grabbed my camera and went to the window.

          Raini behaved the same with Mike as she does with me. She ranges a little ahead but comes right back. I saw her stop and eat something from the ground. It was either deer or rabbit poo and I don’t think it’ll hurt her. Regardless, my yard is full of it and short of keeping her in her run, I’m not likely gonna be able to stop her.

          At the pond, Mike pulled out his phone and took a picture. By then Raini had caught up to him and she went out on the ice.

          “I was afraid she’d fall in and get trapped under the ice,” Mike told me later.

          If she falls in while I’m with her and can’t get out, I’m going in after her! 

          When Mike headed back to the house, Raini came with him and came in with no problem at all. 

          One thing that worries me is what’ll happen if she hears a vehicle on the road. She does race cars when she’s in the run. If she decided to race one when she’s off leash, she might not stop till she gets to Dushore! And I worry she’ll get hit. So far, I’ve been lucky in that when I had her out, no cars passed.

          These dogs do need a job and if you don’t give them one, they’ll find one on their own. So far, Raini has several jobs. The one that never fails to tickle me is Guard of the Night-time Light Switches. Every single night Raini stops and watches that I turn off the light over my desk. You can see her head swivel as she goes from my face to my hand to the place on the wall where the switch is. Once that light is out, she races ahead to the living room, her stance proud with her tail stiff and curled over her back, ears up and attentive, she watches as I reach to outten the living room light. Raini races into the bedroom and up onto the bed where she waits for me to deposit my iPad and phone on the headboard. And I am thankful that I’ve broken her of the habit of jumping at me and nipping my hand as I turn out lights for the night.

          I told you that every time Mike comes to the kitchen, Raini races out the door and waits for him. I’ve figured out that Mike’s been using the kitchen door to go out and get the mail and she waits at the fence for him to come back. Why she doesn’t understand that he only goes out once a day to get the mail but comes out into the kitchen several times during the day is beyond me.

          But my handsome mountain man has a gentle heart and he humors her. He’ll go to the door and step out onto the patio and spend a few minutes with her.

          Raini’s job boils down to running outside whenever she thinks anyone is going out. She’s figured out when I’ll be going out to the patio. That’s just how smart she is. She knows when I get in the freezer, I’m getting bird suet and she races out the dog door to wait for me. Unfortunately, I get in the freezer for other things, too, but she’s not taking any chances and always goes out.

Another time she knows I’ll be going out is when she hears me crack an egg. She’s so funny. The scrap bin is outside the kitchen door and I will be throwing shells out, but sometimes I’ll set the shells aside and toss them later. Raini waits a few minutes before she gives up and comes in but she watches. She knows those shells are going out. Even if I’m just heading to get a utensil out of the drawer, or a bowl off the shelf, if it’s the direction of the door, she’s gone. I’ll get my spoon or my bowl and glance around the corner and see those beautiful eyes looking in at me.

          I don’t know which of the dogs is dominant and which is submissive because I’ve seen both of them in both roles. Sometimes Raini stands overtop of Bondi and makes her submit and other times she submits, like in these pictures I took yesterday.

          I’ve seen Bondi submit but I’ve also seen her stand her ground when it’s something she really wants, like a bone.

          We don’t have as many spats as we used to have. They tend to just leave each other alone until the bone is abandoned then they go in and take it. 

          This week, I finished a commissioned snowman board. I really think my trees suck but don’t know any other way to make them.

          “Put ornaments on them,” my handsome son suggested.

          That is such a great idea and would go a long way to improving the looks of the tree, or at least give you something else to focus on, but that would make it too Christmassy and thus narrow the time frame you could use it. This way you could have it out all winter. 

          I have to tell you one more story.

          I’m reading another Bosch novel.

          Bosch went to the house to give a death notification. The wife made coffee and Bosch took a sip before speaking. The next page she hands him his coffee. I had to laugh.

I really didn’t expect to find any mistakes in a professional novel such as this one.

 Let’s call this one done!