All posts by Bonnie Anderson

I Left My Eyebrows in Florida

Last week Bob and I whisked away from sunny Orlando to see New York City at Christmastime. I’m not a huge fan of that city’s large crowds, but there are things there that you can’t find anywhere else, especially at Christmas. They know how to do it up right and bright.

We had a few things booked, and it’s a good thing they were not too highbrow, because I forgot my eyebrow pencil. The last decade has realized a drastic decrease in my use of makeup – I guess, for me, that’s part getting older and part chronically dry eyes. The plus side, over the last several years, I’ve saved so much money on make-up that we could take this trip.

My one make-up hold-out is eyebrow pencil. I’m a pale, white woman. I tell Bob that I wear eyebrow pencil so I can be seen (not in the woke way). If it snowed while we were there, I was concerned that I’d get lost in white-out conditions and Bob wouldn’t be able to find me, especially since I wore a white coat. I mean, what was I thinking?

It didn’t snow, but it did rain. That did not stop us from doing all the things. Uber was meant for rainy days, and we took one to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Walking in the rain around Ground Zero fit the mood.

There is a somberness there that I have only felt a few times before – once while going through the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and once while we visited Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Ground Zero is a place that, if possible, you must see for yourself as it cannot be adequately explained. As we walked through the museum there was a respectful silence despite the thousands of people passing the memorials, displays, pictures, and stories. I’m glad this was an early stop on our trip.

I confess that we had a few highbrow activities planned, and that was concerning due to my lack of eyebrow pencil. But I was determined not to buy any. So, I went bare faced and they let me in!

Radio City Music Hall orchestra before the show

We had tickets to see the Rockettes for their 100^th anniversary and Christmas show. I loved it! The music, the costumes, dozens of Santa Clauses, high-kicking ladies, the Christmas story complete with live camels. Glorious! It’s a special thing for me as a Christian when I see and hear Bible stories presented in non-church settings. That’ll preach! The Bible says in Isaiah 55:11 ^“so also is my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It shall accomplish all I want it to and prosper everywhere I send it.”

There is a thing in NYC called the Broadway Direct Lottery. You enter online between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM for cheap tickets for the next day. I won twice. I know! We went to a matinee of Aladdin and an evening performance of Six (six wives of Henry VIII).

Aladdin curtain call

I especially loved Aladdin. It has that classical Broadway musical thing going strong, and it’s a great family show. Again, eyebrow pencil was not required to go into these relatively highbrow functions.

We brought DOWN AND OUT AND READY FOR A MIRACLE to see Operation Mincemeat. No binoculars required. Our seats were fine.

Honestly, going to a show is not the dress-up event that it once was, and I like that fine. It’s more than shoes and shirts are required, but you see all manner of dress – anything from jeans to semi-formal wear. Nobody cares, so I quickly recovered from forgetting my eyebrow pencil, and Bob never lost me!

4 Comments

by Bonnie Anderson on December 13, 2025 • Permalink

Posted in aging, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle, Holidays

Tagged 9/11 memorial and museum, Aladdin on Broadway, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle, dress for broadway shows, eyebrow pencil, Ground Zero, New York City, New York City at Christmastime, Operation Mincemeat on Broadway, Radio City Music Hall, Six on Broadway, The Rockettes

Posted by Bonnie Anderson on December 13, 2025

https://lifeonthelighterside.com/2025/12/13/i-left-my-eyebrows-in-florida/

One Night in the Yukon

Bob and I discovered Corner Gas one night in the Yukon while we were on our Alaska trip last August. Sometimes you want to unwind after a grueling day touring gold mines and eating salmon, and TV was our option. Corner Gas is a Canadian sitcom set in Saskatchewan. The residents of the town are quirky just like you would expect of a group who live in the middle of nowhere. We have yet to see an episode where there’s snow on the ground, so for sure this show is fictional.

But two of the characters rang true. Oscar and Emma are the parents of the show’s main character Brent, who is the normalish one of the group – representing a typical guy, or at least typical in the prairie of their fictional town named Dog River.

Oscar and Emma are also characters in my book DOWN AND OUT AND READY FOR A MIRACLE. It took me a few episodes to make that connection, but if you watch the show, which streams on Amazon Prime, my disclaimer is that I did not base my characters on those of the show. But there are remarkable similarities.

Their Oscar is a cranky curmudgeon of a guy who is married to Emma. She is the boss who holds the family together. That could also describe my Oscar and Emma. It’s a little freaky, but you can’t make this stuff up. Wait, that is literally what I do when I write a book, but I did not make up this odd connection.

You can check it out for yourselves. Watch Corner Gas on Amazon Prime. It may be too silly for you, but it’s right up my alley. Order my book on Amazon (see side bar), and tell me what you think?

Also, it seems Amazon is a factor in my post today. I can’t imagine life without them. They aren’t perfect, though. For some odd reason my first book became unavailable, and my publisher had to jump through many hoops to get it back online. He was successful! ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE MAGIC is available again and just in time for gift giving. It is a funny and endearing middle-grade (ages 8-12) fictional account of an 11-year-old boy in The Depression who wants to be a magician. It’s based on stories my dad told me about his life in that era. Both my books are now available.

My sweet mom is a huge support for me.

Here’s My Two Cents

A penny for your thoughts? I’m in favor of stopping production of the humble penny. After all, it costs 3.69 cents to produce one. Nowadays, if I see one on the street, I’ll probably pass it by. Since my knee surgery, it’s not worth the risk of squatting and bending despite the old rhyme, “See a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.”

It is true, though, that a penny saved is a penny earned, but we no longer think along those meager lines. You need more than a plethora of pennies to make a difference in your budget. I believe even Benjamin Franklin would revise his thoughts on pennies and dollars from “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves,” to “Watch the credit card use or you’ll go broke.” (quote from me)

I do suppose pennies from heaven is still valid if you look at them like manna from heaven. The simple penny is a metaphor for blessing (and other weird stuff which I won’t mention here). If God were to send pennies falling from heaven, I hope he would do it after we’re all asleep. If we were out and about, it would be more like a plague with people being knocked unconscious by falling pennies. It makes me think of that old TV show, WKRP in Cincinnati, when they dropped turkeys from a helicopter for a Thanksgiving promo. But I digress.

The final five pennies minted in Philadelphia have an OMEGA mark, and those five pennies are said to value between two and five million dollars. I don’t think those will be falling from heaven, more like auctioned to pay for all those pennies we’ve been losing our national shirts producing. I really don’t know, but that’s okay because you don’t come here for cutting edge coin collecting information.

Right after penny production came to a grinding halt, we visited Torchy’s Tacos, who displayed a sign on their door about a penny shortage.

Currently, there are between 250 and 300 billion pennies in circulation, so I don’t know who is hoarding them all. You might want to look in your grandparents’ seat cushions.

If you do have an abundance of pennies lying around your house, you could gather 1,250 of them and order my new book DOWN AND OUT AND READY FOR A MIRACLE. Of course, Amazon doesn’t take pennies, but you’re smart enough to figure out a way.

DOWN AND OUT AND READY FOR A MIRACLE is a humorous and inspirational story which follows Jacko, a middle-aged homeless man who forms connections with a disjointed group of senior citizens—especially the unpredictable Oscar. When some of Jacko’s questionable former associates catch up with him, he learns you’re never too old to start over again. Click picture of the book on the right column to order on Amazon.

2 Comments

by Bonnie Anderson on November 19, 2025 • Permalink

Posted in Current Events, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle, television

Tagged Benjamin Franklin, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle, final pennies minted in Philadelphia, penny sayings, penny shortage, Torchy's Tacos, WKRP in Cincinatti

Posted by Bonnie Anderson on November 19, 2025

https://lifeonthelighterside.com/2025/11/19/heres-my-two-cents/

Celebrating the Launch of My New Book

Exciting News: Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle is Now Available!

I am thrilled to announce the release of my latest book! After many months (okay, years) of dedication, procrastination, creativity, and passion, my new work is officially available to readers everywhere. This book represents a slice of life of those who are reaching their finish line and is inspired by my husband’s family. The story follows Jacko, a middle-aged homeless man, as he forms connections with a disjointed group of senior citizens—especially the unpredictable Oscar—experiencing humor, heartache, and inspiration along the way. Jacko learns that you are never too old to start again, especially if you find a community that will come alongside you despite the crazy and possibly dangerous friends which have become a package deal for him. Laughter and tears are inevitable as two ways of life collide in a delightful and quirky neighborhood which most people have forgotten.

Themes

This new book delves into themes of personal growth, friendship, family, faith, and aging. Readers are invited to follow Jacko as he inserts himself into the life of Oscar and his neighbors. With his not-so-well-meaning friends bringing chaos along the way and threatening his hope of a new life, Jacko learns to trust and find faith in others and God.

Availability

Available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Get your copy today and join me on this new adventure!

Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle: Anderson, Bonnie Manning: 9781948824514: Amazon.com: Books

3 Comments

by Bonnie Anderson on November 10, 2025 • Permalink

Posted in aging, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle, Stuff I Go Through, Writing

Tagged Bonnie Anderson, Bonnie Manning Anderson, community of a neighborhood, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle, homelessness, new book launch, Prevail Press, quirky senior citizens, sounds like Fanny Flagg's writing, starting over in life

Posted by Bonnie Anderson on November 10, 2025

https://lifeonthelighterside.com/2025/11/10/celebrating-the-launch-of-my-new-book/

A House of Dynamite – Movie, I mean Film Review

We recently watched A House of Dynamite on Netflix. It is #3 on the IMDb Top 10 this week. Here’s the plot as per IMDb, “When a single unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.”

I like a pending nuclear disaster movie as much as the next guy, which is usually my husband, so we tuned in. Two of the stars are Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, so that was a good sign.

Early into the movie we realized that we were watching the same story from three different perspectives. That was interesting and really brought home the plot line. I was wondering how this impending disaster would resolve. Which characters would survive? How would POTUS respond? Would this be the beginning of the end of the world?

Here’s the SPOILER ALERT: By the end of the movie, we were aware that, to use their words, “we are all living in a house of dynamite.” It could blow anytime. Therefore, director Kathryn Bigelow, elects to leave the ending unresolved. She wanted the audience to think for themselves about the impending results from a nuclear event. She thought it was important to get information to the viewers to start a conversation. To quote her, “That’s the explosion we’re interested in – the conversation people have about the film afterward.”

My sister Linda, Bob, and I had a conversation at the end, but I don’t think it was what Bigelow was hoping for. It was more along the lines of, “You have to be kidding me! I hate this! I need to punch something!” Originally, I thought we were watching a movie, but now I know it was a film. In my experience, filmmakers want you to think when you watch their story, so my mistake. I was looking for a good story with good acting that would be all tied up with a bow at the end. Two out of three is not enough for me. I need the ending.

About endings, as a writer I know that they are hard to do well. How drawn out should an ending be? Should it be a surprise or exactly what you expected but in a satisfying way? I’m no deep thinker, but in my humble opinion, a director who opts for conversation instead of ending a film well has taken the easy road, though it may look virtuous. This is why I like comedies. They never leave you wondering what happened. They may leave you wondering about other things, but they have an ending.

More about endings. In about two weeks, on November 20, you will be able to order my new book, Down and Out and Ready for a Miracle. It’s humorous and inspirational. You’ll be able to order it on Amazon. It has a beginning, middle, and an ending. So, you can depend on me not to leave you hanging. I’ll tell you more about it in future posts. Oops, I guess I am leaving you hanging a bit. Stay tuned.

2 Comments

by Bonnie Anderson on November 7, 2025 • Permalink

Posted in Movie Reviews, Writing

Tagged A House of Dynamite, film or movie, how to end a story, Idris Elba, movies with disappointing endings, Netflix, Netflix movies of the week, Rebecca Ferguson

Posted by Bonnie Anderson on November 7, 2025

https://lifeonthelighterside.com/2025/11/07/a-house-of-dynamite-movie-i-mean-film-review/

Aye Yai Yai, AI

I have been punked by WordPress, the very website that hosts my blog! I run a modest little blog here. I have a faithful group of followers. I’m not breaking any records in readership, but we laugh together here.

A little backstory – WordPress puts out statistics so I can see how I’m doing (at least by viewer numbers. They don’t ask any personal questions about my general wellbeing.) On October 28, my stats were surprisingly good considering I had not put out any content in a couple weeks. By November 1, WordPress was telling me that my stats were booming, and I was getting more traffic than usual with 69 hourly views. I had my largest “readership” ever on that day, but something seemed off. I wasn’t getting any comments. Also, when somebody new finds me, they usually look at a few different posts. These were one different post view per visitor.

Initially I was excited that my blog was booming, but we all know that if something seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true. That was the case here. AI was “reading” my blog posts. I guess they have a lot of time on their non-hands, so why not.

I asked my faithful blogging friend at www.theromanticvineyard.com if she was having any unusual activity on her blog. She was and she looked into it. (I love friends who will dig around and get an answer.) WordPress allowed AI to read its blogs and try to learn from them. I can’t imagine what they learned from my blog, but I guess even AI needs a sense of humor.

Six days later, and I’m back to my normal level of activity, so I guess I’ve been mined for all the gems that AI could find. If you find anyone out there that sounds a lot like me, ask for some identification please.

On a side note, my ever supportive and optimistic husband said that he thought I was getting bleed-over from when I posted on Facebook a poorly lit video of a bear eating from my camera/feeder in the backyard. It has 595 views so far, more than I ever have received from any blog post. So, to wrap up my story and for your viewing pleasure, I’m including the clip here for you. This happened at 4:30 one morning last week. The bear ripped the feeder off its post and then munched on bird seed for a while. You can hear him chewing. Also, I think he may be upside down in the video because some friends thought he was a pig. Nope. A pig could not have reached that high, and Mr. Bear ate a modest amount of birdseed, so nope in that vein as well. This must have been a dainty bear, because he didn’t even touch the other near-by feeders.

Speaking of big things happening around here, I am getting ready to release a new book! This one is for grown-ups! It will be out before Thanksgiving, and you know what that means! It means my Christmas shopping is done! Tune in to my next blog post for more about it and how you can get some of your Christmas shopping done, too.

Congratulations ‘67’

Dictionary.com has chosen ‘67’ (pronounced six seven) as their word of the year. I wondered how steep the competition was for this dubious honor, so I went to the internet. Were there any words of the classical sense – you know, words that weren’t digits? Yes, there were, but they didn’t win, and some would not be considered a word but a phrase. So, I guess if you’re dictionary.com, the field is wide open.

According to Bing, the words ‘67’ competed against were agentic (having to do with AI technologies), aura farming (cultivating one’s style for online attention – kind of like what I do here), Gen Z stare (think aloof or disengaged), and overtourism (which I can understand since I live in Central Florida.)

But evidently none of them could hold a candle to ’67.’ If you would like to impress or embarrass your teenager and try to work it into a sentence, I will provide a definition for you. SPOILER ALERT: It won’t be of much help, but here goes:

Definitions range from the height of a basketball player to an exclamation to so-so. (I told you it wouldn’t be helpful.)

Dictionary.com says, “Because of its murky and shifting usage, it’s an example of brain-rot slang and is intended to be nonsensical and playfully absurd.” Yes, even dictionary.com appears to have problems defining the… I want to say word, but I just can’t. It’s more like a meme, which is something that is usually funny and spreads quickly through the internet. Like ’67!’

This is why everyone should use Merriam-Webster. I’m confident they would not use brain-rot slang as the word of the year.

ABC News refers to it as a cultural inside joke. I think that sums it up nicely.

A few months ago, Bob and I were visiting our North Carolina kids and grandchildren. Our 17- (pronounced seventeen) year-old grandson, Jett, commented ‘67’ to something that was said, and the conversation went on for ten minutes as we tried to figure out if he was punking us. Eventually, we just rolled with it and threw it into the conversation whenever we deemed it appropriate. At those times Jett rolled with it, too, or at least his eyes did. An eye roll or a groan is as good as applause from a teenager, so we had fun with it.

The positive thing about ‘67’ is that it isn’t derogatory, as far as I can tell. So, I’ll try not to act my age (69) and smile at the nonsensicalness of it all. I would have had a lot more fun with it two years ago.

3 Comments

by Bonnie Anderson on October 31, 2025 • Permalink

Posted in Current Events, grandchildren

Tagged '67', dictionary.com word of the year 2025

Posted by Bonnie Anderson on October 31, 2025

https://lifeonthelighterside.com/2025/10/31/congratulations-67/

How to Keep My Husband Locked Out of the House

My husband has a head for numbers. Golf scores. Football scores. Route numbers. Banking. Anything but our kids’ and grandkids’ birthdays, though he does have a ballpark idea of those. When your family grows, it gets harder to keep track. Combine that with getting older, and it’s much harder to keep track. But he has me, and so far, so good with me remembering the important dates. (Full disclosure, I keep them written down as a failsafe. Don’t tell Bob.)

Remembering these dates is important in order to celebrate with our family and show them some birthday love, but it’s also important to gain access to our house. We have combination lock entries, and I love them because we can tell our code to people who need to get in if we aren’t home, and we also don’t have to carry a key. I hate them because sometimes the batteries die, and we have no idea where the “key” is in case that happens. Of course, it only happens when we are trying to get back in the house – never when we’re leaving. But since we have multiple entries with combinations, we have not been locked out yet. Or I should say I have never been locked out.

Bob told me I could pick out the combinations as he knows numbers vex me. Figuring out a code for our entry keypads was almost as bad as having to come up with a gazillion other passwords to keep our banking, Facebook account, streaming services, Amazon account, different doctors, hospital, funeral home, and on and on ad nauseam. Therefore, I came up with a plan that I would never forget because of the way I think. As it turns out, that also means that Bob will never remember because of the way he thinks.

Without giving you access to our home, my thinking went something like this. Start with my age when Bob and I started dating and find the square root of that number – round up. That’s the first digit.

For digit number two, start with the number of times our daughter texted me that week and subtract the total number of times that our sons texted me. Divide that by four and round up.

For the third digit, I measured the hypotenuse of the smallest triangle that hangs over Bob’s workbench. Easy.

The fourth digit was tough, so I used the combined age of Bob and me when we were married and then subtracted that from our current ages. I used the first digit of that number just to keep it simple.

Seriously, I don’t even understand half of what I just wrote. I had to look up the word hypotenuse! But, I did use information about our family as the keys to our code, and I filled Bob in on these magical numbers that my amazing mind came up with. The end result: Bob was locked out one time too many, so he created a separate code just for him. These keypads take more than one code! That’s a marriage saver!

P.S A big announcement is coming soon!

Light

I have been blogging since March 2011. At that time I chose a weird name for my blog, A Ship Bound for Tarshish. It’s been so long ago, I can’t remember exactly why I chose that name, but it probably had something to do with Jonah and his relatable story of not wanting to do the hard things for God, and how God was going to get things done anyway so you might as well listen and obey.

After a year or so, I decided I needed a blog with a title that didn’t need an explanation and was more direct and understandable, especially to me! Since that time, I have been writing under the title Life on the Lighter Side, which has a double meaning. I like to laugh and find myself laughing a lot at life and myself, plus I come from a funny family line that excels in mixing love and laughter.

Proverbs 17:22 says “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

The other half of my blog title’s double meaning is that Jesus is the light. I want to spread that light. As Christians we are called to. Jesus is the light of the world and in Him is no darkness at all. (I John 1:5)

Contemplate that. It’s hard for me to conceive of no darkness. Not a shadow. Not a darkened corridor. No place where light doesn’t shine. That’s Jesus.

John 8:12 says “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Today, just so there is no shadow of doubt with anyone who reads this, let me proclaim this: that light is in me because I have been born again. Jesus shed his blood for me and I came to Him deep in sin, repented, and was declared righteous by His sacrifice.

I have a debt I cannot pay and he took it away. I must live for him. He is the light of the world.

I am forever grateful for this kind of love. A perfect love.

As I have reflected on the death of Charlie Kirk this past three weeks, I’m sobered and challenged. I don’t want anyone to perish in their sins, but the One that matters doesn’t either.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,^[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Charlie put it all on the line on his mission to make Heaven crowded. I must do the same on my somewhat smaller mission field. The words in my blog are meant to bring laugher and encouragement. Sometimes I don’t mention Jesus, but underneath it all, at a heart level, he is my fuel and the rock I stand on. If you don’t know him already, won’t you join me? There’s plenty of room.

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

4 Comments

by Bonnie Anderson on October 3, 2025 • Permalink

Posted in Current Events, Faith

Tagged being a light for Jesus, being saved, Charlie Kirk, knowing Jesus

Posted by Bonnie Anderson on October 3, 2025

https://lifeonthelighterside.com/2025/10/03/light/

Candid but not on Camera

This past year has brought some physical challenges to Bob and me. You might say that our accumulation of birthdays is catching up with us. Bob had neck surgery last year and gets regular shots in his fingers for arthritis. He has various aches and pains that are consistent with a healthy guy in his early seventies.

I get weirder stuff – things that I can barely find the words to describe so that makes it hard to find what doctor to talk to. Everybody is a specialist, but I wish there were a doctor of weirdology. Somebody that you can talk to about those in-between places that have no specialist of their own. I guess that’s the PCP (primary care physician).

I have had some complaints over the last few years, but they were resolved with PT, or I just gave up on figuring them out. But last year when my knees started acting up, it was just a matter of time before I had to find a knee guy – an orthopedic, if you will. I had two meniscus repairs in one knee and the promise of the other knee needing work down the road. I will wait that out as long as possible.

But now I have a new body part acting up. Bob and I went down our list of doctors and realized that we have an eye doctor, a dentist, a chiropractor, a primary care physician, a neck guy, a shoulder guy, a hand guy, a back guy, and a knee guy. We have no hip guy, and it’s time to find one. I thought my knee pain was radiating up, but it seems it’s hip pain radiating down. Sigh. Either way, I’m not walking as straight as I used to.

Facebook got wind of my growing hip pain and is doing its level best to fill my feed with all the hip reliefs they have to offer, but I’m not ready to bite. Fool me once…

It’s clear I could have arthritis, bursitis, tendinopathy, or maybe even rheumatism. It’s most likely an “itis” or an “ism,” and I’m going to have to figure it out. I remember having growing pains as a kid, now it seems there are growing old pains. I expect some of that, but come on!

I have made adjustments in the way I function since my knee surgery back in May. I can’t kneel on my left knee and squatting is a bad idea, but mostly I get along just fine.

Mostly being the operative word. A few nights back I was struggling to sleep so I popped in an earbud and listened to The Big Bang Theory. I used to watch the show if I couldn’t sleep, but since Bob struggles to go to sleep with the TV on and I love to go to sleep with my eyes closed and the TV on, using earbuds and my phone has been revolutionary for our marriage.

Until one morning Bob left early for a meeting, and I dropped my earbud on the bed. I got up, turned the light on and put on my glasses. It was nowhere. I shook the sheet and felt a little plop on my foot, which indicated the earbud bounced off it and went under the bed. Our bed has about an inch of clearance from the frame to the floor, so I slipped my fingers underneath. Nothing. I stood back and shined a flashlight under but could see nothing. The only way to really check was to get on the floor. I haven’t been on the floor since January.

Of course, I could have waited for Bob, but I thought, how hard can it be?

Getting down was tricky but I did it. Unfortunately, it was a waste of time because the earbud had gone under the nightstand, and I could have reached that by bending at the waist. In all fairness to me, the sun wasn’t even up yet, and I was not fully awake, therefore, my decision-making skills were not intact.

So there I was – sitting on the floor wondering how to get up. I can’t kneel on my left knee and my right hip is acting wonky, so I could feel myself getting anxious. It’s not a true emergency. Bob would be home in another two hours. Maybe I could just grab a pillow and sleep on the floor. No, those days are over. I calmed myself and grabbed a pillow, placed my right knee on it with authority and hoisted myself up.

I am glad we don’t have any security cameras in our bedroom as I’m sure that was not pretty, but it worked. I didn’t feel proud of myself for this amazing feat of strength and dexterity – mainly because I was stupid not to wait for Bob, but mission accomplished anyway.

Later, Bob and I were relaxing in the pool – just standing around talking, when he said, “Don’t move.”

I wondered if I had a bee on me, so I froze. Bob came up and flicked a frog off my neck. It’s a wonder I didn’t pass out, but I think I’m getting braver. The last time I had a frog on me in the pool, I nearly pulled my recently operated on knee out of joint trying to get away from it. These frogs are small, but that doesn’t matter to me. I should note that Bob has never had a frog on him while in the pool. It’s a mystery.

That’s what is going on with me. Wondering about misbehaving body parts, making dumb decisions, and avoiding frogs. Oh, and I am working on my inspirational humor fiction book, which should be available before Christmas. Lord willing and the frogs don’t rise.