Gabby

Pictured above is Gabby and her "sister" Luna playing their favorite fishing game on my wife's tablet. I put sisters in quotation marks because they are not blood kin, but rather are the last of my wife's brood of nine cats. Luna was a Tuxedo and Gabby, a black Burmese. 

We lost Luna to a heart attack a few years ago.  Luna adopted me as her human as soon as she met me. She was my first cat master.  I was a dog kinda guy before her.

Gabby, when I met her, was the cat that didn't speak. She would move her mouth, but nothing came out, unless it was 2 AM in the morning.  Then she would find a toy and walk around the living room yowling at the top of her lungs.

Both cats belonged to my wife. But Gabby was HER cat and Sue was Gabby's human.  I have already told the story of how Sue and I found each other again after 48 years, were both single, got together and after a couple of years, got married.

Gabby and Luna came with us when Sue moved to Phoenix Arizona. And Gabby alone came when we moved to Windsock Ranch.  She stayed with Sue just as she always had.  Beneath her feet in the kitchen, sharing her chair while watching TV, and cuddled close at bed time.  If Sue got up in the middle of the night, so did Gabby, her four legged shadow for more than fourteen years.    

Somewhere along the way Gabby found her voice again. Whatever trauma had caused her to stop speaking before Sue adopted her from Pets-mart was forgotten while living with us at the ranch. 

Happy cat.

Gabby was struck down the day after Christmas by unknown medical causes.  We found her alone, here under my desk, unconscious, but breathing.  She was not responsive, and lasted but 3 hours before finally passing.

Gabby, the cat that didn't speak, who was my wife's closest friend and confidant was silent again. And, it may be cliche, but her silence is deafening. 

Be Well

My World is Changing

 

 

This last year, 2020, has been a rampage of changes for everyone on the planet. But mine has also changed in a different way.

 It all started two years ago September, or three years ago this coming September, if you prefer. I was standing in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport awaiting the arrival of my high school sweetheart. My palms were sweaty, I had infringed on a stranger to use my phone to video the meeting with my phone, and I stood at the top of the landing with a cup of her favorite coffee, and a tiny ring.

Then, forty-eight years after we met, the following March we made it official

Now it's a year and a half later (give or take) and we're making another big move.

We've sold our house in Phoenix and bought a 22 acre ranch in Southern Arizona.

 

 

Together, my wife Sue, myself, my eldest son, resident deer, road runners, and javelina - soon to be joined by an unknown commodity of dogs, cats, chickens, milking goats, honey bees and perhaps a donkey named "Kevin", will share this little property in southern Arizona to be known, from this day forward, as 

'Windsock Ranch." 

This will also change this Blog to "Tales from Windsock Ranch."

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. -Margaret Mead

Just random...

Yup, its real. 4 leaves.

Everyday, I am amazed how Arizona drivers demonstrate their inability to grasp the concept of merging traffic. It's "I go,then you go." What's so hard about that?

How can the burgers be "Fresh Flame Broiled" if the damn broiler machine is never on?  Or does it beep like a microwave oven... Teenie tiny flame broilers.  The great big one must just be for show.

I told you those damn computer storage "clouds" weren't secure.  Now the NSA has copies of all your naked "selfies".

I text you when it's something I want you to read at your convenience. Not while you're driving.
I email you to give you the details that are too long and involved to text.
I call you to apologize for not texting or emailing you.
I don't tweet.  It's just silly.

Does anyone really think that "liquid smoke" makes anything taste better?  It just gives me the "liquid smoke" burps the rest of the day.

After having been married and divorced twice, I was asked if I would ever marry again.  I suppose the person was insinuating the "third time's a charm" rule.  My answer is no, I don't think so.  instead, every 10 years or so, I'm just going to put half of my stuff out on the curb.  At least that way I get to pick what goes.

Windows 8 = Windows ME you can touch.

Why is it that my cable company only agreed to lower my monthly bill AFTER I cancelled my cable?  Really!  I had done everything to keep my bill below $100 a month until I finally didn't have enough left to make it worth keeping. NOW I get emails and snail mail adverts telling me how inexpensive my cable would be if I came back... Too late.  I invested in a TV antenna and a ROKU.

I just set up a ROTH IRA on one of the trading sites and I'm looking at the stocks I can invest in on the market.  Perhaps someone can explain to me why the stock price of General Motors ( a company that had to be bailed out by the federal government or go bankrupt) is nearly twice that of the Ford Motor Company that remain solvent and needed no bailout during the entire financial crisis?  Do these people really believe that GM learned anything?  Or do they just think that they haven't lost enough money in the markets.

This is the time of year when I have to find five things to give up so I can have my eggnog and brandy at bedtime and not gain weight... *sigh*

My veterinarian closed or moved or something.  Anyway he's gone and I had to put my 16 1/2 year old dog down after she had a stroke followed by a seizure the next day.  I contacted a local pet hospital that came very well recommended.   They were very nice and patient and took care of all the grizzly details after I sat with my dog and watched her pass.  My problem is, now they are sending me discount dog healthcare coupons... ?

Enough for now.  Be Well.

A time to leave...

It began as a glance.  

Not across a crowded room at a party or anything quite so romantic or cliché, but you walked past on a jobsite.  

Covered in paint, hair like a wild pony’s mane, coarse, knotted and bleached by the summer sun.  

It’s been a long trip since that day, well over twenty-three years.  

Since that first day I knew I would never be able to keep you.  

No one ever will.

Even before I had you, I knew.  

But I held on for as long as I could.  

Longer than I should. 

There is so much good to remember, sad that some is spoiled by the ending.

I will never know another woman like you.

But you will never be loved, like you were by me.

Good-bye.