Questions I Have for Myself Tonight While Watching the Hallmark Channel

1.  Why is that woman who used to be a girl in "Full House" in all of these movies?
2.  Why are the women in these movies always more attractive than the supposedly attractive men?
3.  Why do all these people almost look like someone who's famous?
4.  Why does the light in these movies look like summer light instead of winter light?
5.  Why am I watching the Hallmark Channel instead of the Texans/Titans game on ESPN?
6.  Why don't I ever care about expansion teams like the Texans?
7.  Why am I watching the Hallmark Channel instead of writing an "Ask Ann Cannon" column?
8.  Why did I just eat another chocolate-covered caramel?
9.  Why weren't the four caramels I ate before that one enough?

The Little Things You Miss

I've lived long enough now to have more than a passing acquaintance with the experience of losing loved ones.  My 98 year-old mother-in-law died last week.  Her death, in the words of my friend Sally, was a sad blessing.  A blessing, because the past two years have been hard for her.  Sad, because she's no longer a physical presence in our lives.

We knew her death was coming, of course, but in the end it came faster than we expected once she went on hospice.  Meanwhile, the holidays--which Ruth loved mightily--have arrived.  And I realized yesterday that one of the things I missed most was picking up the phone and wishing her a Happy Thanksgiving.

This is what happens after a person passes.  You spend the next few years discovering all the ways there are to miss her.

In Search of a TV Boyfriend

For starters, let me make it VERY CLEAR that Ken Cannon and I are totally good, okay?  That's not what this post is about.  It's just that I've been thinking about a conversation my walking partners and I recently had at 6:00 in the morning when you feel like you can say any old thing you feel like saying because you're under the cover of darkness #circleoftrust.

Anyway!  One confessed she loves to watch Jeff Glor deliver the news every night.  The other said she clears her calendar for Tucker Carlson.  Okay.  Neither of those guys is my cup of tea.  But yeah.  It's kind of fun to have someone you look forward to seeing regularly on the small screen, right?

I have had TV boyfriends in the past.  Tom Selleck as Magnum P.I. was one.  I also liked Don Johnson as Sonny Crockett on "Miami Vice."  I even had a mild thing for that old British guy who played the original Equalizer.

As you can tell, I was fairly hormonal during the 1980s.

But it's been awhile since I've had a TV crush and I think it's time for me to find a new one.  I thought for a minute that I might enjoy watching the guy who plays the hardass cop on that new series "The Rookie."  So I looked him up online and discovered that he'd been a male model in a past life, and while some of my best friends are male models, I can't take them seriously as TV crushes.  As it turns out, male modeling = dealbreaker for me.

So.  I'm in the market for suggestions.  Please help.

My Bones

This morning when I was out walking the dogs (ugh!) (three of them!) (I thought I learned the lesson about not having three dogs at the same time before, yo!), I caught my wrist up in a tangle of leashes and said to myself, "Watch out for the wrist bone.  It could break."

I have broken my wrist before, so there's that.  But the interesting thing this morning was realizing that I was almost viewing my bones as something apart from me, something to watch out for like a toddler you're babysitting.  Separate entities entirely.  There's me.  And then there are my bones.

I don't think I'm expressing myself very well here.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when I was younger I wouldn't have made such a distinction.  My bones were me.  There was congruence.  I was strong and healthy and game, and so were my bones.  But now?  Hey, I'm still strong and healthy and game.  It's just that my bones (and also my knees) haven't kept up.

I believe this is what they call aging.

What I Thought I Knew About Jesus When I Was a Little Kid

As I was going through some of TRQ's old files, I found something I must have been given while I was in Primary or Sunday School.  It's a handout with a picture of Jesus.  Underneath there is one sentence with two spaces to fill-in-the-blanks.  Here it is.

The first miracle of Jesus was performed in _________ when Jesus turned the water into ___________.

You'll be please to know I answered "Cana"and "punch."

Punch is in the house, y'all.  Party on.

TRQ

People often ask how TRQ is doing and I always say YOU CANNOT KEEP A BOOT-WEARING, BUTT-KICKING WYOMING GIRL DOWN.  Because you can't.

But things have been hard, of course, and the last month has been particularly difficult for her, which is probably why I feel like her grandmother--the former game warden of Sublette County, the terrorizer of men and animals who stood in her way, the doubter of my father's worthiness to marry her granddaughter because he didn't know how to fish, the woman for whom TRQ was named--has been whispering in my ear lately.  Here's what she says:  Look after my granddaughter right now unless you want THIS boot-wearing, butt-kicking Wyoming girl to tan your little hide when I see you again on the other side.

OK, Grandma Pat.  Message received.

Things I Have Done This Summer to Make Myself Feel Better

One of my boys today told me he'd read my blog post about Churchill's little black dog and wanted to know if I was still doing better.  I said to him OKAY, YOU ARE NOW MY FAVORITE SON BECAUSE YOU READ MY BLOG.  (Note to my other four sons:  you'll be my favorites, too, if you tell me you've read my blog.)

But that's not the point.  The point is his question made me think a little about the things I've been doing that have elevated my mood.  Here they are in no particular order.

1.  Gardening
2.  Sitting on the back porch every night, watching the day fade away
3.  Reading
4.  Walking through the cemetery with Ken Cannon and the dogs
5.  Connecting with grandkids
6.  Listening to baseball on the radio
7.  Going to Bees games
8.  Attending a concert or two at Red Butte
9.  Having tea with Lisa B and her girls
10. Traveling with TRQ
11. Eating KFC whenever I feel like it
12. Dude.  I love KFC
13. Strolling through Liberty Park with Gigi
14. Working on a novel I may never finish and encouraging Louise to do the same
15. Walking every morning with Sally, Kathy and Nancy