Sophie's Story

   One of the jobs I dislike the most is taking Scamp to the vet. When he was small it was not so bad. I put him into his carrier and he would fuss a bit on the drive to the vet. Once we got there he would tolerate the exam and shots with fairly good grace. The I would take him home and give him a treat.   Then one day he decided that enough was enough. While undergoing his usual physical he starting making noises I've never heard him make before. He growled and hissed at the same time. He lunged and tried to bite the tech that was holding him. He screamed and twisted like he was possessed. Then he defecated on one of the vet tech's shoes.   I was very upset. My other cats were very well behaved when taken to the vet. They minded their manners and expressed only slightly their dislike. My sweet, cuddly loveable Scamp had turned into a devil cat.   What made it worse is that he was not like this at home. Most of the time he was well mannered unless he wasn't being given

   The story I am about to write is a true story.  It begins like this.  A few years ago, Sophie, my wife, would say to me on occasion, "I don't like the wedding ring I bought you! I wish you would lose it, so I could buy you a nicer one."  I would always respond, "But honey, I love my ring.  I don't want a different ring.  This is the one I want and I am happy with it."  Sophie would then just say, "I'm glad you like it, but I don't."    Well, this kind of discussion would come up every few months and my response would always be the same. By the way, my name is C.  I'm Sophie's husband.  I love her dearly, and I treasure the wedding ring she gave me, almost 11 years ago now!!  I have always prided myself on being careful with where I placed my ring whenever I would take it off.  Such as when washing dishes, showering, etc. I could never bear the thought of losing that ring!!  The thought of hurting or disappointing Sophie in

   Someone shared an article on Facebook. I knew looking from the title that I was going to get angry reading it. I scrolled past it to see if there were other things to look at. When I was done, I scrolled back up. I was still there. Against my better judgment, I clicked on it. Sure enough, I had only read through about half of it when I felt my blood pressure go up. I'm fairly certain that a small tendril of steam escaped from my ear. It was another article about how whites are racist. This had a different spin on it though. Not only are whites racist, but we refuse to acknowledge our racism because we don't realize that we are in this glorious protective bubble called "white privilege". We aren't affected by racism therefore it doesn't exist. Oh..I forgot...others cannot point out our obvious racism because it hurts our feelings and causes us to get defensive.   I'm getting tired of being told that I'm racist because I happen to have light skin,

  I had lunch with my friend Karin today. I told her that I would be picking up the check. She demurred, but I stood firm. I really wanted to do this. Her oldest son will be leaving on a mission soon and I knew it would be after her birthday before I see her again. She accepted my reasons. We had a nice lunch.   I have a long history of check grabbing. I started out doing it because I made more money than most of my friends. I didn't want someone to be left out due to lack of funds. I also felt then (and still do) that I have been very blessed. I want to share my good fortune with others.   I have several check grabbing techniques. I have gone to the restaurant early and instructed the server to hand the check to me. I left the table saying I was going to the restroom when what I was really going to do was talk to the server to make sure I got the check. I have grabbed the check off the table and refused to surrender it.   I have also engaged in creative check grabbing. When C

   The Independence Day holiday was celebrated  yesterday morning by the Small Town Toastmasters. The Table Topics Mistress provided some decorations to set the mood and also several red,white and blue vests for people to wear. Instead of our usual Pledge of Allegiance (yes we do open our meetings with that and have for as long as I've been a member) the TTM turned on a toy bear that sang "God Bless America".   When the lone speaker had finished her presentation, the TTM took charge. She posed one question. You are entertaining a group of people from a foreign country and it is Independence Day. What will you do?   There were many answers, most of them naming places that would be visited and food that would be eaten. There were descriptions of parades, pig races, rodeos and other festivities. All the answers were really good.   My friend, Dana, was called on to answer the question. She decided to take a different track. She talked about the answer to the question, &q