My husband is in for a routine colonoscopy today. We tried to avoid medical facilities during these enduring COVID times but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
It’s interesting to see how they’ve tried to spread out waiting areas in these facilities to maintain social distancing. Chairs and tables seem to be fairly standard along hallways at this facility. When Earl was taken in back I was asked to leave the waiting room where registration takes place and have a seat ournin the hallway.
It’s much more comfortable out here.
There’s talk of a new COVID variant in Europe and Asia. I don’t know a lot about it. I do know that I’ll continue to wear a mask when I need to and will get any and all booster vaccinations as needed. I’m sure my fairly timid response to Omicron a while back was due to my vaccination. I’m not going to risk a change in that arena when there’s solitons available.
There are two celebrities that brought a tear to my eye (or more than a tear) when I heard of their passing: Elizabeth Montgomery and Betty White.
Lizzie famously played both Samantha Stephens and her mischievous cousin Serena on “Bewitched”. I mentioned this in a blog entry a couple of days ago and showed a freeze frame of Lizzie’s stand-in Melody McCord. In later seasons of the show, the credits showed Serena being played by Pandora Spocks. Not surprisingly, Ms. Spocks bore a shocking resemblance to Elizabeth Montgomery. In reality, Lizzie once remarked some of Serena’s mischief came from her very own cousin Panda. When asked what Lizzie was like in real life, Erin Murphy, who played Tabitha, said “oh, Serena all the way”.
The episode “Serena Steals The Show”, where Serena meets 60s duo Boyce and Hart, and sings their song “I’ll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind”, is one of the more popular episodes from the series. Here’s a clip courtesy of YouTube. Look for a pre-Dyna Girl Judy Strangis as one of the groupies.
Mother Nature is regaling us with cooler temperatures and a sprinkle or two for the introduction of spring to 2022. Seasons are seemingly a little irrelevant here in the desert, if our first year in Tucson is any indication, we basically have “very hot” and “not as hot”, with a few thunderstorms sprinkled in during the Monsoon to keep things interesting.
I’m loving every moment.
The storms have been moving around us today. My lightning detection apps have been indicating lightning nearby, but we haven’t seen or heard anything here at the Desert Compound.
I’m always impressed by weather, no matter what it is and no matter where it is. Even though today is not one of the sunny days we’re known for, it’s a beautiful day.
Looking out of our backyard toward Mount Lemmon.Looking to the west toward Davis-Monthan AFB.To the northwest toward the Tucson metropolitan area.Toward Mt. Lemmon near the entrance gate to our development.
Lucky and Jinx are settling into our home quite well. They run around like playful brother and sister during the day and sleep together at night. They’re still figuring out their boundaries around Truman but there hasn’t been any intense drama on the subject.
They’re cute and a lot of fun but still a little skittish, especially around me. Perhaps I need to carry more treats in my pocket.
Homer invited us to a surprise birthday party for his partner Matt. It was a fun little gathering with vegetarian pizza and a delicious homemade birthday cake. They had been to the house the night before for St. Patrick’s Day and Homer brought Irish Soda Bread. Homer is an enjoyable baker.
Homer and Matt have made us feel quite over our nearly first year here in Tucson and I’m very happy to call them both friends.
At the surprise birthday party I was particularly amused with his selection of napkins for the occasion.
A decade or so ago I mentioned to my friend David, who is five days older than me, that I wasn’t afraid of dying but I wasn’t looking forward to aging. I wasn’t ready to accept life as a middle aged man, I didn’t want to have to wear glasses all the time, and I wasn’t ready to go completely gray (not that there’s a lot to go gray anyways).
Here we are over 10 years later and I’m a middle aged man. I’m surviving this just fine. With middle age comes accomplishment and hopefully some wisdom and I feel like I’ve settled pretty well into the role.
I’m flying airplanes with relative ease. I can manage a decent hike with friends. I still can ride my bicycle, and I don’t need vitameatavegamin to stop from pooping out at parties. Sure, I go to bed early when I have to get up early for work. I really don’t like whatever tries to pass as “Popular Music” these days (it all sounds like uninspired, metallic robot noises to me) and I’m losing patience with folks much younger than me that speak with authority on “history” with a remarkable amount of inaccuracy and then want to argue the point even though I was there and they weren’t even born yet.
As a middle aged American man I believe I’ve seen the modern United States as we know it peak about 20 years ago and start to wane. My husband and I have been debating this a little bit. I’ve seen polarization like I’ve never seen before and even family members talk about things, often from very different points of view, in ways we would have never dreamed of discussing a few decades ago.
I take medication to keep important blood test results in check, I proudly wear glasses, and yes, I’ve accepted my gray hair enough to grow my mustache back and feel comfortable with it. I have wrinkles around the eyes, probably from too much smiling over the decades, and my voice is not quite as youthful as it was when I was in Top 40 radio 30 years ago.
And I’m OK with all of this.
Life feels like it’s moving faster and faster. I still don’t feel like a grown up, but I feel like I at least I look the part. I feel absolutely no impulse to change the natural aging process of my body; what you see is what you get. And for the first time in my life, ever, I am comfortable with the way I look.
Truman has been such a good sport about the new puppies in the house, I thought he deserved an extra Caturday post on his behalf.
As I’ve mentioned before, Truman isn’t a cuddler. He doesn’t want to lay on my chest, he doesn’t want to snuggle in between Earl and me for our nighttime slumber, he wants to be close but we can’t cuddle. He’s not even super excited about being held for more than 60 seconds.
However, he does show his love by stationing himself near us at any given time of the day. When I’m working and Earl is doing chores around our bedroom suite or elsewhere in the house, Truman stations himself to keep an eye on everything. When I go to bed at night, he has designed a spot in my closet as his sleeping area. I don’t know how long he stays there as I usually fall asleep and make it through most of the night. But he’ll get himself situated next to the pillow I’ve thrown down there for him and look in my direction until I fall asleep. The photo looks incredibly bright but the lights were actually quite dim; we can thank Apple for the enhancement of the photo.
It’s comforting to know that my feline friend cares enough to make sure I’m well situated for a good night’s sleep.
Truman is relaxing in front of one of the windows in our bedroom keeping an eye on the local wildlife. His casual approach to observation has extended to the puppies as well; there’s been no hisses or signs of aggression, just a few rumbly growls worthy of a male cat.
I’ve been watching “Bewitched” for as long as I can remember. It’s probably still my favorite show of all time and if I had to choose a favorite era from the show, it’s the first season when Samantha and Darrin were still in the honeymoon phase.
Samantha’s cousin Serena, also played by Elizabeth Montgomery but billed as “Pandora Spocks” in the later years, was introduced in season two. When we first met Serena she was quite sultry; as the series went on she got a bit more kooky. I never count the episode where she was a hippie and wearing long blonde hair, as that never made sense.
Since Lizzie played both roles, 1960s and ’70s technology was used to make this happen. Most often a shot would feature Lizzie’s stand-in, Melody McCord, with her back to the camera. In the standard definition days you would occasionally get a quick glimpse of Melody as either Sam or Serena with her face towards the camera, usually in a very quick shot.
With “Bewitched” episodes restored to quality far surpassing what was available in the 1960s and through the magic of computers, it’s easy to see Melody front and center in either role. In the photo above we can see Melody coming through the front door as Serena.
Melody McCord had a recurring role on “Falcon Crest” and Melody the maid. She was also the stand-in for Goldie Hawn in “Death Becomes Her”. She passed in December 2004. She was more than a decade younger than Elizabeth Montgomery.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
