Out in the open...ing?

My daughter-in-law (DIL) has started blogging about periods - not the grammatical kind, the menstrual kind. Apparently there are various devices for dealing with the bleeding, like tampons, and now something new called "cupping" - a device that looks kind of like a dreidl without the Hebrew lettering. I don't feel right in making a comment because of the warning included at the beginning of the blog that it is intended for "ladies only." It just seems so sexist, though, to exclude half the human race from this discussion. It seems entirely repulsive to me that someone would even consider using a "used" one - or did I misunderstand? Anyway I admire the courage of someone to blog about this semi-taboo subject and hope that it can be brought out of the shadows and into the mainstream of human sexuality.

Sherry and Farnk head for the garden

"Watch it!....What're you trying to do get me killed? Cheeeez!" my wife yelled as I was driving down North Avenue at 22 mph on our way to our community garden last Saturday.
"Whaddya mean," I said. "That guy just kept coming at me without stopping at all. Is he crazy?" A 20-year old SUV had just pulled out of a service station slowly but without stopping and had forced me to swerve into the oncoming lane. Fortunately, nothing was coming.
"I could've been killed! That guy was coming right into my side! Why didn't you blow you're horn?
"Look, I couldn't believe what was happening. How could he not have seen me?"
"The way you drive makes me wonder," she said. "You should have blown your horn."
"I just can't believe he didn't stop." (I'd left my taser gun at home so I didn't want a confrontation with the other driver.) "Why are you complaining about me? He's the one at fault. How come you never support me?"
"You have to drive defensively." (I now lowered my speed to 18 mph...and the offending vehicle was right behind me.
But why are you always blaming me?
"Look, I could've been killed." Long silence.
"I don't like to blow my horn. Besides there wasn't any time."
I can't drive with you..."
"Do you think it looks like rain?...."

Time e-motion studies

How quickly a week passes...how fast a life begins and ends. Looking at the twilight sky I think of how a life can disappear in the blink of an eye. All our feelings of love...and shame...and gratitude. Our remembrance of loving parents who stood by us in joy or despair. The innocent sounds of our children and the loving tenderness of a grandchild.

The feelings are ineffable. When we connect with each other it feels so good. We always think what can we say that will make the bond even stronger...but we can only carry the interchange to a certain point before interest begins to subside. We wish it were different but we realize that we must go on for if we remain fully complete in each other's presence we will go to sleep...perhaps forever.

In the end all any of us really want...is for others to love us...just the way are.

Killing me with kindness

I send her out of bed if her breathing annoys me, I criticize the way she keeps the dining room table (which is her office), I make fun of the way she walks with the same person every morning. Yet she always thinks of me: comes up with cool pants out of organic material with lots of pockets (she won't tell me where they came from), leaves the largest banana bread loaf for me and takes two smaller ones to the grandkids and, yesterday, when workmen were here putting in a new driveway I looked out and there she was hauling fill into the backyard in wheelbarrow with a flat tire. Flat because I wouldn't let her ask a neighbor for a pump because I like to be self-sufficient. The workmen knew I was in the house, hiding, so I went out to pretend to help her but by that time she was moving heavy rocks - trying to make me look bad.