Peek-A-Boo

Here is Casper peeking out from the coats he was hiding in. Some sort of game he was playing. He stayed long enough for me to get a picture. He was probably waiting for one of the other cats to come along and he would unsuspectingly jump out at them. One of their usual games. I've never seen him hide in the coats before.

Met my friend tonight. After 25 years, we had a lot of catching up to do. We talked for 4 hours until the restaurant closed up on us. Her Mom is a trooper. Seventy and going as strong as ever. My friend is a social worker at a nursing home. She is the one whose house slid down the hill 8 inches with that last rain from Ivan. There are all kinds of coal mines running under our area in Ohio, but the mining company said, "No, it isn't the mines fault." Insurance says an 'act of God'. She showed me pictures. How heart breaking.

We promised to get together after the first of the year. I used to visit my friend and her Mom on their farm. Her Grandmother was also living at the time. She was from Czechoslovakia. (I guess that would be former, now.) They were like the army. They did more work before 9 a.m. than most people do all day. I remember that I got physically ill doing that much work out in the hot sun. I certainly was not used to it. I was like, "Can we eat breakfast, now?" Good thing I didn't join the service.

We tried to catch up on what classmates were doing. Our class didn't have any reunions. Or, none worth going to. She went to the tenth one, or fifth one. She said it was sad. Pathetic.

We don't live that far away, maybe 40 miles or so. We can get together often enough to reform our friendship. She has not changed at all. She is still the warm, friendly, funny, outgoing farm girl she was back in the seventies. She was loud and outgoing, I was quiet and shy. We made a good pair. Still do.

She moved in with her boyfriend of 24 years, and her Mom moved in with her boyfriend of 29 years. I couldn't imagine being uprooted like that after your home sliding down a hill. Her Mom lived in that house for 70 years. Too sad.