Paying it forward

Hi everyone,

I’ve been fighting back trouble for a week. It started when I pulled some bags of mulch from the trunk and leaned down at an awkward angle for the last one. Dumb stunt. Anyway, sitting at my desk chair has been bothersome so I’ve been sitting on a bar stool in the pool room and sometimes standing while I work.

I’m taking three meds and the back is less painful than it was so yesterday I took a manuscript outside and sat at there for a while. When I looked up through the trees, I discovered a couple of clouds taking a quick kiss. I don’t think they knew they were being watched.Sandy came home not long after that. I kissed her for no particular reason.

Happy Anniversary, Sandy

Hi everyone,

I can’t tell you how many years we’ve been married. She won’t even tell me! I can tell you that Mrs. Harrison (sometimes when I’ve been good I get to call her Sandy), and I have been together for a while now. And as it works so often with long-term couples, we agree more and more on just about everything. There are those rare exceptions, of course. When we’ve both been good, life is sweet. At the end of the day or the trip or the road, we’re going to have some mighty fine memories.
Happy anniversary, Sweetheart. I love you.

Tell me the truth, do I need a life?

Hi everyone,

Yesterday morning Sandy and I sat by a living room window to read the paper and have our coffee. Just beyond the glass, on a patio chair cushion, a small creature was at rest in the weak sunlight. I kept looking at it, trying to decide if it was a spider or a large fly. To see a fly remain in one spot so long is uncommon. I wondered if I might be watching a fly in the process of dying. Not that it mattered much but I was curious enough to invest twenty minutes of observation.

I happened to mention it to my M.O.W., who immediately got up, opened the door, said “fly,” and smacked at it with a napkin. I watched the insect zip away safely, leaving behind a tiny dark spot on the cushion. My curiosity ended just short of going out to investigate the gift. For one thing, it was on the chair she sits in, next to mine.

Things you may not know about my M.O.W.

Hi everyone,

I kid about Sandy but I know you know that’s all it is. She does so many tasks around here that I don’t get around to because I’m writing and don’t want to have my concentration broken. Examples: I rarely answer the telephone, so she does. I literally never make reservations when we’re going somewhere, so she does. I never pay household bills. She does. If I need airline tickets, Sandy looks for best times, best prices, and buys them. If I need a new shirt, it appears in my closet though some sort of magic. Or else Sandy’s doing it. Wrinkles in my shirts suddenly disappear via the same mysterious process. Weeds also disappear from our patio. I have no clue how that happens. Only yesterday she bothered my concentration with the sound of her shop vac on the patio.

Last week part of a hackberry tree in our back yard fell over. It had been trying not to die for a while but finally gave in to illness and wind. I looked at it with sadness. Sandy looked at it with sadness, too, but also started making phone calls. This week we’ve had four firms come to the house to make bids. The high bid was six times more than the lowest one. Sandy came home from work or stayed home from work to meet and talk with each one. I was busy writing.

Did I mention that Sandy manages our gift store and works there five or six days a week? Of course I do my part. I stop by on Wednesdays at noon for twenty or thirty minutes to do some back office work. Exhausting. Sandy also did all these things during her career as a high school guidance counselor. She was a dynamite counselor! I can’t take her anywhere without being bothered by her fans when I’m trying to concentrate on a story in my head. She’s inconsiderate that way.

Well . . . I wasn’t sure you were aware of some of the things I have to put up with around here. I look forward to your sympathy. From time to time it occurs to me to thank my wife for saying, “Yes.” I think she has earned that.

P.S. Honey, I love you.