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Occasions Observations – On the fifteenth of this month my Incomparable First Wife observes her birthday.

And how old is she, you might ask? Come on, now. You know it isn’t polite to divulge a lady’s age. Were that not so I could tell you it is the last year she will be a septuagenarian. But of course I’m not going to do that. No way.

The following day she will giddily celebrate her wedding anniversary. Oh, such matrimonial ecstasy.

You see, it will be her fifty-eighth. When you add her 58 to my 58, that makes one hundred and sixteen. She says it sure seems like that. Isn’t that sweet of her to feel that way? (I couldn’t possibly misinterpret that, could I? Could I?)

In the Mail – My friends at our paper passed on to me a letter received from someone who expressed concern about trash all over the roads. He said that he picked up three bags of it one day, and he’s tired of doing that. Understandable. Trashy people.

He concluded his letter by mentioning that he wished I would write again about our dogs, even saying he had sent the recent column to a friend.

Knowing me, I’m sure I’ll, sooner or later, do so. That is, write about our dogs, past and present. Doing that, however, makes me sad. It rarely fails to evoke “eyeball sweat”, and sometimes a bit of a “shower.” The price of love, as regards to people AND pets, is grief. Many of you, I suspect, understand.

Bruderschaft – A small group of us gather weekly (attendance waxes and wanes due to individual commitments) to break bread and share comments about a wide range of topics. Such profundity!

We are all senior citizens, of course. Or had you guessed?

Making Sure – When my journey here is over, and I find my earthly record being checked at the gate, whether or not I’m let in, there’s something I really want to do.

And what might that be? It’s that I want the Supreme Being to know how grateful I am for being given the opportunity and blessing of coaching so many, many, boys-and-girls-to- young men and women.

Without question, the very most important thing that came out of all those years was the love that grew in me for each of them. I carry such memories in my heart.

Gratefully so.

Time to wrap this up. Take care of one another.