Pondering on the porch today sitting in the swing. Penelope is surveying her property in the sun in her playpen. I’m actually getting hot sitting in the sun. A little black curly-haired dog just walked by real fast but she didn’t bark at him. If he had looked our way she would have let go with a rabid bark. Only cardinals and chickadees, with one goldfinch friend, were flitting around the feeders. I’ve had a lovely morning. Some times I think I need to burn a little sage and dance around in it. I think my Khama has a krack in it.

Got up this morning to Penelope coughing loudly. She sounded like a rhinoceros with the whooping cough. Had a little gagging going on at the end of each coughing jag. Thank goodness she didn’t throw up on my bed! I ask Alexa every morning what the temperature is outside so I know how to dress myself and Penelope for our morning walk. Actually called her Alissa twice before I realized why she didn’t answer. Guess I need an Amazon Echo Silver! You can call her anything! Even Odessa.

So, I get my phone to call vet brother’s office but my phone says no service. I holler upstairs to ask Stew if his cell phone is working. Course his is working and I hear the most often heard sentence in the house. “What have you done now?” Well…I forgot yesterday was the last day of my service plan so I had to buy a plan and once again I try to call brother’s vet office. We get an appointment and off we go.

We have an uneventful ride to the vet office but I opened the car door before I unbuckled my seat belt. Penelope jumped out and left me trapped with the leash wrapped around one leg and the rest of me still seat belt buckled in. Ever tried to undo the driver’s side seat belt with your left hand? Maybe it’s because I’m chubby? After impersonating a contortionist, I make it to the office door and Penelope races in before I can lock the retractable leash and wraps the leash around a little old lady’s legs standing at the desk. The little old lady’s sweat pants were so baggy, I was afraid we were going to make them fall down. Thank goodness she was a dog lover and got a good chuckle out of Penelope’s antics.

I unwrap Penelope from the lady’s legs and we go right back to an examination room. I tell vet brother she’s coughing like she’s choking on a Chinese spy balloon. We get a laugh and he says she looks like she’s gained weight, which makes me suck in my stomach. But she’s still holding steady at 16 pounds, but she feels like 50 when I have to pick her up. He says she’s eaten some kind of trash in the yard and I’m thinking rabbit toodo, or raccoon toodo, or any other gradoo she snorts around in on our walks. “Watch her on her walks and don’t let her eat or drink anything she finds in the yard,” he says. I tell him I do watch her and he says watch her more closely. He gives her a shot, prescribes an antibiotic, and trims her Velociraptor claws and we were soon back home.

Now, for the next daily chore. A trip to the post office to mail the income tax papers to my oldest son. I put a package of Valentine cup towels in the envelope for my daughter-in-law. I go in the post office with the package and as the lady weighs it she says, “This is not a valid address.” I’m pretty sure it’s correct but I go back to the car to check my address book in my purse. The address is correct according to the address book but I call my daughter-in-law thinking maybe I have number dyslexia but she confirms the address and sends me a text to show the post office lady.

But, once again, the attendant tells me this is not a valid address. She says, “I’m typing a B and the address doesn’t come up.” I say, in my sweetest kiss my grits voice, “Perhaps you need to type the whole name of the street in instead of just a B.” She says, “No, a B is enough.” Then I said, “Here’s your sign!” No, I didn’t verbalize it but I thought it. I said, “I know it’s the right address so I will mail it anyway and hope it gets there and hope I don’t lose all my income tax information and hope that this is somehow a computer glitch, and hope if somehow the address is not valid, the package will return to me.” She says, “I don’t know.” Anyway…

I’m home again and on the back deck filling up the bird feeder, I notice the seeds are coming out as I pour them in. I take the feeder off the hook and I drop it. Broke the plastic tube inside and all the seeds spill out on the railing and floor of the deck. Grandpa raccoon will clean the mess up tonight. Fatty the squirrel and five cardinals were chowing down when I shut the curtains. Penelope and her barking was giving them indigestion.

Gave up and went back to the swing to ponder and plan supper. Thought about pear salad so I came in and put a can of Del Monte, cost a fortune, sliced pears in the fridge to get cold. Sat down to supper — pear salad, pork tenderloin, scalloped potatoes, mac and cheese. I had just drained the pears and poured them in a bowl with grated cheese and mayonnaise. Did not notice the big STICK in the bowl till I took my first bite and bit down on the stick. That just made my day!

But in hindsight it was a beautiful, happy, sunny day and the pondering wrote itself.