Cranky Crone News

We make wishes but they don’t always come into being.  We hope to do something.  It doesn’t happen.  This morning I lay in bed wishing for sleep.  Planning for sleep.  Hoping for sleep.  I found that, as usual, my thoughts continued to flow.  “Just get up and write,” I said to myself.  You are not going to sleep, right now.  And, tomorrow is another day.  You have no where to go and only the things on your list to be done.”

I found a tiny book (4 inches by 3 ½ inches) at my pharmacist’s.  I love tiny books that can hide in a hand, a pocket or a purse.  My library has many.

Sayings gathered by Talia Levy and Jax Berman, in Sloth Wisdom makes it one of the most enjoyable and refreshing books I’ve read in a long time.  It was illustrated by Lindsay Dale; wonderful pictures of sloths. 

DOGS DO NOT BELONG IN GROCERY STORES!  OR, RESTAURANTS

 This is a really (REALLY) long post.  I just couldn’t make it smaller.  Please bear with me.  And, you need to know – it IS A RANT!

Today, at the Safeway on Downing and Evans, as I entered the store, a younger woman with a dog on a leash sailed through the door.  Small dog.  Not the size of the service dogs that I’m accustomed to seeing.  When I got back to the pharmacy area, there she was.  I said to her that she should not have the dog in the store because it is not a service dog.  It is very small.  It didn’t look as though it had been trained to do anything special for her.  And, it had been barking at people.

Readers, I had planned another BLOG for this week, but then Life happened.  Or, maybe, I should say, the inevitable happened.  Or, more accurately, stupidity happened.

The good part is that I’ve actually started painting the year-long project of the front covers of the free-standing closets.  That is good.  But, there is a LOT of work to do before it is presentable.  Then, as I said, stupidity (with a capital “S”) arrived.

You’ve heard from me that “once in a while, I do the right thing.”  Something occurred, this week, that provoked me to think about some of those things that I’ve done and really think they were the right thing.

I receive lunch every weekday, Monday through Friday, from Meals on Wheels.  Each day, a different driver delivers my meal.  Usually, the driver for each day is the same person each week.  A man (let’s call him JW) delivers my Thursday meals.  Of course, being somewhat (somewhat??) loquacious, I talk with the persons kind enough to deliver my meals.  Talking with JW was no different.

It turns out that JW is a writer. Or, at least, he has been a writer, but his life seems to have made him curtail his writing.  He loved being  a writer.  When I heard that he had stopped writing, it was like waving a “red flag in front of a bull.”  I began encouraging him to resume his writing – strongly encouraging him. 

He assured me that he just didn’t have time.  He had many things that interfered with taking time to write.  Reason after reason.  And, I kept saying he should take fifteen or fewer minutes a day.  Still he didn’t have time.  Ten minutes, then.  Or, five.  Still no time.

I pulled one of my blank thin, soft-cover books from my collection of these books waiting for writing and gave it to him.  I told him I was giving him a red one so he could not lose it!  And, I wrote a personal note to him on the first page with his name written on the front cover.  Maybe, I thought, he would stumble over the book on a regular basis and write something.

That was months ago.

Every week, my first sentence to him was, “Have your written something?”  Usually, his answer was that he had not.  I know my weekly question was like badgering him, but I thought my question was kind enough; perhaps, it would be a stimulus for him to write.  Then, I went to Seattle and Portland with my daughters, returning this past week.

Regular as clockwork, JW delivered my MOW meal on Thursday.  Before I could ask him if he had started writing, he said, “I have something to show you.”  With that, he pulled out the red book and handed it to me.

Opening it, if found several pages of writing.  I asked him if he wanted me to read what he had written or if he wanted to read it to me.  He chose to be the reader.  Poetry.  Many pages of poetry.

He spoke from his heart with deep meaning.  He had poured out his heart.  His fears.  His tears.  And, promised that he has more to say.

Once in a while, I do something right.

Be Safe and Be Well
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are appreciated.

First.  Rejoice with me.  My poem for the newsletter of the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild (Tips and Chips), “Dog Days of Summer 2024,” was selected to be included in the Rocky Mountain Federation newsletter.  It’s a rock club thing.

My BLOG has been out of commission for more than a week.  So, today, now that it is up and running, again, I decided to send the BLOG that you would have received last week, Wednesday, September 4.  As you will be able to tell, I’ve been on the West Coast for a short while.  But, as Daughter #1 was driving us back from our trip to Seattle and Portland, I thought about these things.  So, here goes …

Daughter #3 shared this story with me about her recent trip to Seattle for a mother/daughter trip.  I thought you might enjoy the journey.

Years ago and for about twenty years, I was privileged to be a volunteer at Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico.  You may remember, from earlier articles, that I worked with Pomona Hallenbeck, the watercolorist-in-residence.   I went there so often taking her class that I became her “gopher.”

This week’s article will be very short.  The past weekend, my path was to be in our local hospital.  Apparently, nothing very serious, but I spent from Saturday at 4 am to Sunday noon with the health care specialists trying to figure out what was going on.