Mom has done it again. I want to post on Sundays and Wednesdays, but we haven’t been doing that. I know that today is Monday. That is the day after Sunday. I knew what I wanted to say, but she kept telling me “Later.” Monday is clearly later. I love her, but sometimes she disappoints me. I really should have expected such treatment. She was gone for most of the day on Saturday. That usually means she will be tired the next day. She left early in the morning to drive to some place called Pecan Gap for a Ladies Club Craft Fair. Why would an author want to offer her books at a craft fair? She said it was an opportunity to meet new people who might be readers. It turns out there were readers there as well as members of a area library board who think it might be nice to have her come there to talk about her writing. That probably means she will be gone on a Wednesday when she should be helping with my blog posting! Actually, it is rather nice to see her getting out to meet new people. She said that the world seemed to shrink when Dad passed. She needs an expanded world to find the words for her stories. Best part is that since she dictates them, she can hold me while she does that. We are in this writing thing together.

Mom has been cleaning. She said it is partly her annual Spring cleaning, partly getting ready to add a housemate when we return after our Spring trip, and partly for the party we will have Sunday to celebrate Dad’s life. When she is planning to have guests in the house, I know that she tries to clean off what she calls the “flat places.” They are some of my favorite places. She always has an interesting collection of items on the end tables and counters that are perfect for me to push onto the floor proving that gravity still works. Gravity, as you may know, is a theory that relies on cats to verify daily. I know that come Sunday morning, she will still be tucking things away, so that the spaces will be cleared for people to rest plates of food. She has already expanded the dining room table to its full length and added extra chairs. I know there will be food enough for the guests to enjoy lunch and dinner on Sunday, Monday and undoubtedly Tuesday. I wish I liked sloppy joes or macaroni salads. I would love to sneak a taste or two of the potato salads. I’m not that fond of potatoes, but I do like the dressings that she uses.

My big disappointment will be that Miko, Missy and I will be confined to the van. If she just has a couple of friends, she lets me say “Hi” and just asks us to stay off the table while everyone is eating. Before and after, she keeps the doors closed so we can’t eat the left overs. I have been known to try a taste off the dirty plates when they are stacked in the kitchen. She makes some really yummy dishes. I’m hopeful that I might get to do that after everyone leaves on Sunday. Missy will probably run around the house hoping that she finds food that has been dropped on the floor. I have higher standards.

This will be a hard day for Mom. Friday will have been Dad’s 83rd birthday. She has collected a few pictures of Dad through his life and of their travels together. She plans to have the pictures in a slide show on the televisions. At the end of the month, they would have celebrated 26 years of being together as a couple. They shared a lot of adventures during those years. Mom said that she plans to take Dad’s ashes to where they had their cabin. She said that is what Dad wanted. I’m happy that Miko, Missy and I will get to go with her. It will be a sad day, but she says they had so many happy moments there. Isn’t life always a mixture of sad and happy moments? I know mine has.

As I told you in my last post, Mom was having a celebration luncheon for Dad yesterday on my normal posting day. As predicted, she locked Missy, Miko and I in the van while most of her friends were here. Missy got to come in before Brian left. She really loves Brian and wanted to give him kisses. She told me that she got distracted. Katelynn was there with her baby boy, Louis. Missy said she had never had the chance to sniff or even see a small baby before (Miko doesn’t count.) She said I’d have liked the smell of him. He didn’t smell like the Sloppy Joes Mom served, but more like a milk shake. I later got to at least see Louis. Katelynn wanted to say Hi to me and to meet Miko (I have no idea why anyone would want to meet my sister.)

Mom showed a slide show of pictures of Dad on both TV’s. I learned later that she got to talk about him and his younger days. She even found a picture of him with his expanded family shortly after his stepfather adopted him. Mom said she didn’t include pictures from all of their trips, but she hit a lot of them. They had good times. Here is the slideshow that she created.