>60

"Oh, good!" said the nurse practitioner conducting my annual wellness check when I mentioned that I was recently retired. "Maybe getting these screenings done won't be too inconvenient for you."

Her list was extensive: mammogram, bone density, thyroid, dermatologist, eye doctor, and colonoscopy, with an optional CAT scan for plaque. And really? Are any of those tests ever actually "convenient"? However, I can schedule them without delay or consideration for conflict.

"Just think!" she added. "Your wellness can be a retirement project!"

In-N-Out

I read today that the summer TikTok trend of "very demure, very mindful" has run its course and is over.

Well.  

I'm glad I met it on its way out the door.

Leave It

Judging from how much sniffing Lucy and Lady were doing up on the hill this afternoon, I reckoned that something big had recently gone down in the canine community. 

And when we saw the disembodied squirrel tail, I knew what they were on to, and we hastily made our way past the scene of the crime.

No Drama

"There's throw-up in the slide!" Charlie reported to his mom. "We can't go down it!"

He was high over our heads on a rope bridge in the enormous play structure by the farmers' market. Kids of all ages began a mini-evacuation to the ladder at the other side of the structure. They filed through the rope and wood tunnels in a perfectly orderly way, then took turns climbing down the ladder. Even though no adults were with them, there was no pushing, yelling, or tears.

"Let's go play on the other one!" Charlie said when he made it down, and that is what they did.

Canine Connection

Ordinarily, Lucy is a stay-a-bed. When I am the early riser on the weekends, she usually snuffles and sighs before cuddling up to Heidi, who is still sleeping. I'm okay with it. On these days, I enjoy the solitude of the kitchen as I unload the dishwasher, make the coffee, and prepare breakfast.

Today, though, Lucy hopped out of bed the minute I was dressed and practically danced down the stairs as I made my way to the kitchen. After quickly assessing whether this was exuberance or a bathroom emergency, I made myself some coffee before snapping on her collar and leash.

On the stoop, Lucy raised her nose before setting off purposefully up the drive. Having seen this behavior in the past, I fully expected to run into one of our dog-owning neighbors, but the complex was quiet. Even so, this didn't stop Lucy from leaving little breadcrumbs of pee along our route. 

When at last she had pooped, and we were on our way home, I spotted one of her favorite people with her oldest doggie friend way down the parking lot.

AJ was sleepy but awake enough to turn his back to an excited incoming Lucy. This time, though, she was all about the dog. Lucy and Lady greeted each other as if it had been weeks instead of days since last they met. "Wow!" said AJ, "that's the most energy I've seen from her in ages."

It was true. 14-year-old Lady was leaping and play bowing in circles around us, and Lucy matched her enthusiasm.

"She woke me up from a sound sleep to come out here," AJ told me.

"Lucy has been looking for someone for the last ten minutes," I replied. "It really seems like she knew you guys were going to be out here."

"Dogs," he shook his head. "How do they do that?"

I shrugged.

"I'm going back to bed," he said.

And when we got home? That's exactly what Lucy did, too.

And That's What You Missed

"I want to watch Glee," Heidi said early last spring.

I reluctantly agreed. It seemed unappealing to me to re-watch something that didn't seem that far away.

That was 120 episodes ago. Tonight, we watch the series finale, which originally aired on March 20, 2015. More than anything else, I have been struck by how much has changed since the show started 15 years ago. Politics, social norms, the lives of the cast, and our lives, too, are all in much different places now. Some things have evolved, others have regressed; there have been gains and losses, successes and failures. But I still love Burt Hummel, although I'm only now realizing that Kurt is the heart and soul of the show. 

Overall, Heidi was right. It's been a worthwhile six months, and I will miss it.

Reba's Reflections

As I was sorting through boxes yesterday, I found a mini-memoir written in brief chapters by my grandmother's youngest sister. Aunt Reba was born in 1917 and passed away in 2001, the last living sibling of 14. The typed pages I found were copies of some recollections she had written for her grandchildren, which told stories of her childhood. 

I remember hearing about these tales, and maybe even seeing them once at my mother's house, and I'm sure she gave them to me before she died, part of a thick stack of photos and artifacts. I'd never read them, though until today. 

I was charmed and absorbed in her stories of the huge pecan tree outside the family home (it thrived as soon as they put the outhouse under it), her mother's center table, which was in the parlor and served as the altar for three of her sister's weddings, the first snow she ever saw: it fell three days before Christmas in 1928, and the birth of her youngest brother, when her mother was 48. 

She also tells how the first of her line made their way from South Carolina to Collins, Mississippi, and hints at the dark changes that the depression made in their lives. She mentions tenant farmers, camellia trees, magnolia blossoms, and the big, beautiful oak table that came to her via one of her siblings and a German doctor's estate in Wisconsin.

Last week, as I cleaned out my closet,  I listened to a recording of Anna Quindlen reading her book-length essay, Write for Your Life. In the piece, she advocates for journaling, letter writing, and any other form of personal expression that gives all of us the chance to record our lives. She argues that this type of writing serves both the writer and any future audience, whether known or intended, who may just treasure it.

Aunt Reba's reflections are certainly a testament to that notion.