1. WE’VE REACHED THAT AGE WHERE NEVER A DULL MOMENT IS ROCKING OUR BOATS

 Yesterday, I received this text from a dear friend of more than forty years, who had open heart surgery in Houston Bout twenty years back when I was busy with brain surgery—

Hi Annie,

, I had decided months ago not to tell you about my heart problems because even if  you only worried a tiny bit, I felt you had enough on your plate. Since August I was fairly incapacitated...I wasn’t getting enough oxygen so I was extremely weak and very scared from the wild palpitations and arrhythmias. Most of that is gone now after the ablation today. The Dr couldn’t get the worst spot but he did cauterize the next largest areas of atrial flutter and much more. I’m so happy feeling like myself again after these last awful months.  I hope you’re feeling even better than last week and getting stronger by the minute!! Love to you, Will and your entire crew! 😍B

My reply—

Dear Barbara,

You were right—I did have a reaction to yesterday’s text, which is why I couldn’t reply till today.  So I truly appreciate your insight and caring concerning waiting till my lack of physical and emotional strength began to recoup.

In addition to Covid, You, Joyce and I have been experiencing deeply trying times, and each time I think of Joyce’s break up with Bob, I feel so sad—they had been so in love, and he’d be taking such good care of her, 24/7, just as I’m sure Skip’s love holds you as tenderly as Will’s love shelters me.  (Joyce’s battle with a serious cancer is on-going.  Her beloved husband succumbed to lung cancer about fifteen years back, and several years ago, her happiness with a widower and his with her had shone forth so naturally from both pairs of eyes that romance brightened the air with every breath their starry-eyed smiles seemed to share .

Yesterday, while I was absorbing your  (Barbara’s) news, none of these thoughts lined up inside my mind; my heart was too busy calming emotional unrest to hope to free my processor to think in such a well organized fashion so as to express my love clearly for you and Joyce, too.  I hope to hear that you are feeling better and better, every day.  And when the temp permits and you are able, let’s plan to e joy each other—you and Skip sitting in comfort on our patio rocking chairs, we just inside our Arcadia door.

🙋🏻‍♀️❤️🌈🌻Annie

PS my take on the disastrous nature of last night’s presidential debate, tomorrow