Diary 3/29 - 4/4

Daily thoughts that may or may not be helpful.

3/30/25

Today is the eve of Buddy’s 12th birthday, and we buried his ashes beneath a friendly pine tree, then placed his collar around the rock as a headstone. Strands of his hair blew into the wind, still attached to his collar since it had not been outside since he walked himself outside. The planting of ashes into the earth and the flying of his strands into the sky felt right. Buddy had been a friend planted with us, but he also was an animal, wild and free. He was both at once. Our family of five, plus Oscar, Asia’s boyfriend, came around the memorial lined with rocks. Moments like these are part of family history; they bond and blend each member to another. We thanked God for Buddy, and we took turns sharing memories of a life lived together, which was planted and free.

3/31/25

I tried to add a new phone line for Asher to our AT&T account. I was informed that I needed to pay the $1,800 balance on my account. I said my account was all paid up. They said it was paid up on the first account but not on the second account. Come again? What second account? They said didn’t I open up a second account in November and didn’t I use my college address from 25 years ago, and didn’t I buy a few phones and charge them to the account, and didn’t I ship the phones somewhere else, and didn’t I then close the account before paying it? I said no. Now, there’s a fraud investigation with AT&T and the Charlottesville Police because Asher wanted to text his friends. He’d better make it count.

4/1/25

Tonight, a man in a pickup truck showed up at our house to sell us meat. I listened to his pitch. He tried hard and used classic tactics: Flattery - “Wow, such a beautiful house;” Social Proof - “Several of your neighbors have bought meat;” An Offer that makes you feel obliged - “Would you like some free meat that I don’t want to go home with?; Bargaining - “You misunderstood the free meat…but I’ll give you all this if you just pay a portion;” and Pity - “I’m just trying to meet my quota, can you help me?” I didn’t buy any meat, but I do give him credit. He’s working hard to make a living; there’s dignity in that, even if we don’t prefer strangers interrupting dinner to lay out boxes of frozen shrimp, filets, and tenders at our front door.

4/2/25

Rex is a senior, and he’s in the college search process. This afternoon, he and I were planning to visit a school in Virginia as he awaited news from his first-choice school, James Madison University. Over 44,000 students applied this year, making it challenging to get accepted. I’ve been so impressed by his patience and trust in God’s plans. His refrain has been, “I know God has a plan for me that is best, so why stress?” Well, 40 minutes before we were to leave for our other school visit, Rex got the news—he got into JMU! Praise God! We cancelled our other tour.

4/3/25

How many teenagers would have a karaoke party with their parents? That’s how awesome Rex and Asher are. We have a karaoke microphone that we probably bought at Five Below, and we took turns singing with the lyrics displayed on the TV. I kicked it off with “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson because the only sport I get crazy over is Olympic swimming, and that song became the unofficial song of the USA swimming team the year it came out. Colette sang “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac, which was the song she surprise-sang at our wedding reception (it didn’t surprise her that she sang it; she’d been planning it all along, but it did surprise me). Rex sang “Under The Sea” from The Little Mermaid, which was terrific because a few years ago, he played Sebastian in the school musical, and we’ve all been waiting for a reprise. Asher’s song had only one word in it (“Tequila” by The Champs), which is well played to participate but as minimally as possible. But the boy sang! Since I was feeling confident after singing Carly Rae, I tackled the obvious Subsequent—the Jennifer Hudson version of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” for which she won an Oscar. It did not sound the same.