(and shall be here nameless) puts the ketchup back in the refrigerator, sorts mail, cleans kitty litter, clears clutter, or puts freshly laundered shirts into drawers, letting them sit on the dresser for weeks, said, with a worried look on his face, “Are you all right? I’m worried about you.” What was the cause for concern? Why I had forgotten to put the lid back on the oatmeal container. He’s concerned about memory loss. Oh hoo-haw. He said I have been doing (or not doing) things like that “a lot” lately. I didn't get cute as in, "I'll get back to you on that as soon as I know who you are." Instead, I said, maybe I’ve been distracted. It’s a sign of aging, he said, his frown lines deepening in an approximation of sympathy. Again, oh, hoo-haw. But in the words of a now forgotten good ol’boy “Makes me no never mind.” Maybe it was a Mark Twain character.

I would put his shirts away but his drawers are overstuffed. Let him deal with the overflow methinks since he gets irritated if I put them away and they get smushed and wrinkled. I have more than once said, at a store, “If you buy that shirt, you have to throw one out.”

It’s true, chores are piling up. Both Ed and I have been fighting some kind of low-grade virus that has made us very tired. It’s been so hot and that is also tiring. But even though we discuss it all, he doesn’t think about all that when he asks me why I am not as thorough as I once was. Anyway, I think it’s temporary.

My newish friend, Kathy, fainted, fell on her face and broke her nose. Ed opined that he thought that was an excuse for, perhaps, her abusive boyfriend. I’d know the signs. She is not abused. She went to the doctor and he is treating her for thyroid deficiency. I am thinking of having my thyroid medication rechecked as well.

That’s a slice of my life today.

xx, Teal