Category Archives: Life reflections

The Value of Fifty Cents

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Jack is on time for a change – but with sad news – –

We have a number of ‘neighborhood cats’ that have no fixed abode but know they can always find food outside our front door. There are about four or five of them, and they consider yards on both sides of our street as their domain.

That is obviously a problem on a fairly busy street – –

You may have guessed by now – –

A small white and grey kitten showed up a couple of years ago and joined the gang. I christened him 50% because he was half white and half grey. That quickly shortened to 50 Cents and Wendy thought that was appropriate as he seemed to be missing a few brain cells (not the full shilling as I’d say in Scotland)!

He was a regular at our front door and we were eventually able to trap him and get him neutered so there wouldn’t be any 25 Cents. The only picture we have is of him as a kitten in the trap!

On Sunday evening there was knock on our front door which is unusual as most of our friends know to just come in. I went to investigate and a young man with a backpack was there. I recognized him as one of a number of folk who walk past our house regularly and who live in nearby rental apartments.

He explained that he’d just seen a cat get hit by a car in the street outside our house. The car didn’t stop and he went and checked the cat but it was dead. He lifted it off the street onto the sidewalk then came to see if it was ours. What a contrast between the driver who didn’t stop and the young man who could have kept walking but didn’t.

I double checked and, yes, it was 50 Cents and he was dead but it looked as if it must have been instantaneous – a relief at least.

It may seem strange for me to be grieving for the death of a stray cat but I know them all and they have distinct personalities. I did name him as well, so there’s that too!

God bless that thoughtful young man – – –

Memories and – memories – –

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Jack is late again – –

Every year around this time we were among the favored few that got an end of year letter in the mail from our dear friend Lindsay. Lindsay’s letters were reverse works of art; where everyone else’s holiday missives groaned with good cheer, his just groaned.

Wendy and I still quote what we consider the best line ever from his 2010 card: My sister’s house is sinking down a mine shaft. The council engineers don’t think they can save it.

 Everyone who received his Christmas Cheerless letters felt honored and we would all exchange comments about it wherever we were in the world.

Lindsay left us a few years back, but he will never be forgotten. So – to continue his tradition, here’s a few highlights of the low points of my year.

Dead Furnace

At the start of the year our gas fired central heating furnace died and it took a month to get a replacement, so we used our wood stove to keep heat in the house – –

Health checks

I passed out while getting ready for bed one night and had a whole host of health checks which showed me to be in perfectly good shape!

Scotland

We returned to Scotland in June and I got my first foray over the ‘Rest and be Thankful’ from Arrochar to Iveraray – wonderful views! And then we all caught COVID.

New stove

Our old woodstove had been cheap and too small so we invested in a much better and more efficient one. We also learned about using well-seasoned wood! The guy who took the stove out for us said it was a wonder we hadn’t burned the house down or asphyxiated ourselves on noxious fumes.

Storm damage

We caught the edge of hurricane Helene and lost sections of our recently installed metal roof. To my amazement our insurance company promptly paid for a replacement and local roofers did a magnificent job. We were trapped in the house for a day while they heaved sharp sheet metal shards over the sides of the roof. It was an experience.

Wendy

Wendy produced, researched and presented a series of radio shows that aired across the Appalachian states. Then the funding body cancelled the grant. She joined some of her writing friends for a couple of weeks in Mexico and discovered its health system was cheap and efficient because she had an emergency EKG. (She’s going to be fine.)

So there it is, dripping with Christmas cheer – or something, anyway. Fa la frigging la.

We’re sure that 2015 will be just wonderful – – –