Upside Ann

 "Are you hopeful?" "I'm willing to see what will happen," I replied.  "But I'm not sure it can work." "That is a very sad truth,"  I said.  "I can't be sure of anything.  I know only what I feel." "Then you are ahead of the pack." "Whatever the pack is, if I am ahead of it, then that's another sad truth, " I admitted.

"Baby, I'm amazed at the way you help me sing my song" Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney and Wings

After my mother died, I combed the local stores (Meijer, Lowes, Walmart, Andy's Garden Center, our local florist, to find daffodils and other spring flowering plants for her memorial.  The season was Easter-y and the pickings were a bit slim.  I succeeded, however, and filled the suite in the funeral home with viburnum, hyacinth, lilies, pansies and daffodils.  As our guests left, I gifted each a blooming bulb so they might plant it in their garden and remember her each spring.  I kept the viburnum and a few of the daffodils and created a bed in the backyard which she could have looked down upon from her bedroom window.  The last two years have been decidedly disappointing with the rectangle looking mostly grave-like (thank you to Marianna for that apt descriptor) with mostly dirt and very, very few plants.  I buy plants.  Rabbits eat plants.  I even considered that the local groundhog might have been salading in my bed. Nobody touches the daffodi...

  October 2025 Boarding the bus Zupe can still look like my little boy - if he's not pictured towering above me.

  Mt. Vernon, Ohio   August 2025 Years ago, I found that Ruby Tuesday had pretty great shepherd's pie and zucchini as a side that Zupe loved.  So, I bought a gift certificate for my mother-in-law as a Christmas gift.  When I did this, I got a second card.  I kept that one.  Years past - hence the beginning words, years ago - and it has become very hard to find a Ruby Tuesday.  The gift card languished in my wallet.  During our trip to Denver last summer, we endeavored to locate one.  Unsuccessfully.  I don't remember everything from that quest - mostly that we would find a location by Google search only to learn that it had been closed. Once home we applied our search to restaurants in the state and identified that there was still a location in Mt. Vernon.  And, on a bright and beautiful Saturday, we drove there for lunch.  To use the $11.97 remaining on that card.  (I had NO idea how much was still on the card.)...

 I believe the saying goes, "You are what you eat."  I am cool, raw, and mostly orange.  (Except for the hot green part.) Which reminds me of a story. Once upon a time, I was a professional woman flying across the country to attend a veterinary conference.  I was seated in the back row of the plane and across the aisle sat a young girl traveling alone.  I must make a good impression, I thought.  Give her a role model that she might want to emulate as she chooses a life-course.  The plane took off.  I grabbed the clam-shell of sushi I had bought before boarding and began to eat my lunch.  The wasabi began to irritate my throat.  My soft palate burned and try as I might, I could not stop the cough...which splattered rice ALL OVER the seatback in front of me.  I drank water.  Laid off the wasabi AND ginger, just in case, and hoped she hadn't noticed.   After eating, and only coughing a couple more times, I busied myself ...