I’ve lost some important people in my life over the last few years, family members who meant the world to me.  Today, I write about those I have left and those I have chosen, my special family.  They are honest people with good hearts.  They are supportive, loving, and kind.  I am proud to know them.  That said; let me tell you a bit about them.

     Dear Hubby, he loves me despite my faults.  He is my core and my strength.  He always has my back.  He will fight tooth and nail for me when he feels someone has wronged me.  Without him, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. 

     The Aunties, my father’s sisters are my rocks.  They are the bedrock on which I stand when I make decisions.  They are whom I go to when I’m sorrowing, happy, or in need of advice.  These wonderful ladies taught me a good deal over the years.  I love them dearly.

     The Cousins, they are many.  They are my balance and they stop me from becoming full of myself.  They keep my feet on the ground and allow my head to soar in the clouds.  I adore them.

     My friends, some of you I’ve known for many years, others of you are new friendships forged here on line.  You’ve been generous and kind to me and I must say thank you.  You, my friends, you keep my soul nourished.  Love you all.

     My old dryer had an ‘I’m done’ buzzer that you could hear three blocks away, which was a good thing since my washer and dryer reside in the basement.  A couple of years back said dryer croaked for good and went to appliance heaven.  My new dryer, although more efficient, is lacking the buzzer, it has a teensy anemic chime.  Very cute for those of you who have a dryer in a laundry room, just off the bedroom, but my dryer is in the frigging basement.  That cute widdle chime isn’t audible from ten feet away much less, from another floor. 

     I miss my buzzer.  Too often, I forget I have something in the dryer, and by the time I remember, everything is a wrinkled mess.  To set the record straight, no, I don’t iron.  I hate to iron.  I do believe my iron is gathering dust somewhere on the back porch.  There’s a remove wrinkle cycle on the dryer for a reason.

     Manufacturers tend to cater to the rich or near rich.  I am of neither category.  Would it be too much to ask that when they put those anemic chimes in appliances they also add a button or two giving people the choice of say, foghorn, siren, or klaxon?

     The dogs have refused to learn to ‘speak’ when the chime chimes, dag nabbit. 

     I’d be Steel Magnolias’ Ice Age The Meltdown.  Dear Hubby says his would be Road to Perdition’s Baitshop.  Our resident loony dog, Gavin would be One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Look Out Something Wicked This Way Comes.  Patty would be The Last Mimsy Plays Jumanji.

     Dave told me to write about him tonight, so Dave I’m putting you down as Arsenic And Old Lace Meets A Gun, A Car, And A Blonde.  I’m sure you’d rather pick your own title and you are welcome to in the comments.

     I thought of one for one of our cohorts at the PW conferences and I know anyone who knows him will guess who it is by this title—Sin City’s Man of the Year.

     Now dear friends, I’m depending on you to come up with some real humdingers.  So go for it!