Sunday morning.

DH is reading the NYT on his laptop, while Bigun ravages his super-duty Kong to get the three treats wedged inside. I'm on my last -- maybe next to last cup of coffee. It's still dark outside and the only sounds are Bigun's crunching, my tapping, and the low whirring noise from my laptop.

Sigh. Would that all life would be as comfortable and at peace as I am at this moment. This heavenly NOW. Thank you, God.

Yesterday, I started to...

Outside our sunroom windows, behind the drawn blinds, comes the rising lilt of U2's "Only to be with You" from the painters' radio. I sit here at this magic box, listening, remembering.

All my life I've felt that a kinship with others was possible, just beyond my present reach. If only I kept reaching, kept trying. Time after time, my reach is just too short. Or, perhaps the other just wasn't trying. I don't know.

Is this the secret of life, that God really...

Last Friday DH went up into the mountains south of Thorpe, WA to participate in DH's ham radio Field Day. We'd scoped out the area a couple of weeks before, and he found a few places that would work for him. They were due back Sunday evening.

Sunday morning I received a call from a repeater station master informing me that DH was on his radio with a message for me that Ritz was missing. He'd been looking for her since early morning. We arranged a place to meet him, and I headed out...

DH came home from his fishing trip with our little dog, Ritz. She's a 15 year old Lhasa Apso that had oral surgery to remove seven teeth last Thursday, and was looking pretty out of it when they left. Now, she's fully recovered -- maybe even better than before. (Certainly chipper. She scampered around our little house last night like a puppy! )

Big' was very glad to see his best ball pitcher home again, but not so excited about Ritz. They have a love-hate relationship that ebbs...

All my life people have confused me. I noticed early on that those that loved me hated others, and that taught me to make sure I stayed on their "good" side. Trouble is that in managing to stay on their good sides, it was easy to get on someone else's "bad" side. Then, worse, I began to understand that within my group of loving family and friends -- not all of them were on each other's good side, and a wrong step could jeopardize the whole balance. (Aunt Nita was the most dangerous...