((HUGS))

The best gifts are the unexpected ones.

I was having a busy day yesterday - company coming today, floors to wash, arrangements for supper to be made – when I got a text that threw one more thing into my afternoon. I was now going to a funeral too.

In the morning I had considered attending this service, but things got busy and with Covid one is never sure whether you should add to the crowd inside a building. As luck, or Fate, would have it the oldies channel I was listening to played My Ding-a-Ling, a novelty song by Chuck Berry from 1972 and I had to laugh out loud. This was the era I knew David from and this song never failed to remind me of him. I think he sang it as his theme song for the better part of a year. There is nothing better than happy memories, no church service was going to do a better job of honoring him so I decided I would carry on with my day and bake cookies.

But there was another unexpected gift to come. My high school girlfriend – the reason I knew David – texted me saying they were on their way to the funeral, was I going to be there? This altered everything again.

Although it’s impossible that this is true, it has been a half century since our high school days. We live way too far apart. Facebook keeps us informed of what’s going on in each other’s lives but that is no replacement for spending time together, laughing together, and sharing hugs. On the rare occasion that this can be arranged we are literally the girls who can sit down and take up conversation like it’s only been a week since we last talked, even if it’s been more like a decade.

The cookies would have to wait.

I may be wrong but I’ve always thought that the most important part of a funeral is the time of fellowship afterwards. We gathered outside the church and in the fresh air could put our masks away and smile and laugh and talk. It wasn’t just my friend, but her brothers and many other faces from a shared past. People who I hadn’t seen in a coon’s age – or several coon’s ages, as was pointed out.

We stood across the street from the school where we all began our lives. So much has happened since we walked those hallowed halls ... higher education, jobs, marriages, kids, travels, and now retirement too. There have been good times and bad, divorces and deaths, celebrations and struggles. One would need a full three day reunion to even scratch the surface on catching up with everyone, but all we had was a few minutes out in a chilly breeze on an October afternoon.

They were precious minutes.

How do you cover all the time that’s passed? The experiences we probably have in common, how we’ve been shaped, how we’ve grown, how lessons we learned together so long ago may have influenced decisions we made later on. There just isn’t enough time for all of that – so you distill how you feel into one, single act – a wordless, yet enormously powerful, bear hug.

Man, it was good to see you guys!

And I was right, waiting didn’t hurt the cookies at all.

 ME vs BUGS

So help me Hannah, if one more maple bug even so much as touches me I'm going to ...

I'm going to ...

Well, I'm going to cringe, shudder with revulsion, and shoo it away as fast as I can, that's what I'm going to do!  Just like the thousand other times they've touched me this fall.

You think I exaggerate.  I do not exaggerate.  A thousand is probably low-balling it.

I'm not a scaredy-cat.  I'm made of pretty tough stuff, actually.  There was a time when I waited for my knight in shining armor to save me from life's terrors but I have become much more self reliant.  I can dispatch a garter snake if I find one too close to my house and I have mastered setting and emptying mouse traps all by myself.  A year ago I got myself a self propelled mouse trap with its own disposal unit built right in - he's the best thing since sliced bread.

Not to damage the Knight's ego I still let him deal with skunks though.  Can't have him feeling like he's not needed.

But that still leaves me battling the insect kingdom.  This time of year it's a full time job.

Wood tick season was short.  Don't know what was up with that - maybe the species is dying out?  Hope springs eternal.

The summer was so dry mosquitoes weren't much of a problem.  They were not missed.

The grandchildren came for visits and in time honored grandchild tradition held the doors open for what seemed like hours at a time.  The little darlings went home and I eventually got the fly population down to pre visit numbers.

The odd bee always finds his way into the house. I have no idea where they come from but I do my best to do 'catch and release' with them.  I know we need them to feed the world.

Then came fall and I picked my tomatoes.  As per usual tiny fruit flies followed them in and infested the house.  I set up a pop bottle/stale beer trap.  At least they die happy.

Next, the barn fly population took a look at their tiny little watches and realized they were supposed to be moving in for canning season.  Instantly the windows and doors were covered with the free loading buggers.  I honestly have no clue where those icky, yucky, squishy striped flies come from but they now outnumber the regular flies two to one.  I loath them all with equal passion.

I wish I could say that was the end of it, but oh no, there were still the maple bugs to come.  I would rather deal with spiders. 

All decked out in red and black and creeping forward in their slow, insidious, mindless march they have infiltrated my house.  Google says they are looking for a warm place to bunk down for the winter.  I say they invade my personal space with the single purpose of grossing me out.  Google also says they are harmless.  Google hasn't seen what happens when a maple bug lands stealthily on my shirt and then makes its way up to my collar.  I tell you, what happens when I feel something that big crawling up my neck, well it's NOT harmless.

I know it's a lovely fall.  I agree that still having flowers in bloom in October is something to enjoy.  I also wish it would snow.  Like a ton.  Maybe three tons.  Just to make those creepy bugs go away

Until then my weapon of choice never leaves my side.  The guy who invented the vacuum cleaner is my hero.