The Cowboy Angel

 

My landlady and neighbor is named Barbara.  She and I have had our differences.  But I have developed a certain regard for the lady, especially since she seems to actually like me.  Her dogs--two chihuahua ladies named Autumn and Lucy B--seem to love me as well.  Lucy has become my 'New Best Friend'.  It's her horses that are behind me--Lucky, Rebel and Big Boy.  They are very sweet--well, except for Lucky, he doesn't like men but he seems to really like me and I him.  But Miss Barbara has a gentlemen friend--Bruce--who comes over twice a day to care for the horses.  He's almost seventy and she was 67 on New Years.  They have know each other for over thirty years.  They were there when each suffered the lost of their spouses.  They have been through so much together.  She said she would not marry him out of respect for their spouses memories.  He makes sure she is taken care of.  She calls him her 'Cowboy Angel'.  And, yes, he looks like a cowboy.  When they look at each other it is a very deep and knowing look.  There is a love story there.  And it gives me hope.



In The Drivers Seat



  It's a gray day today.  The sky is overcast and it's just cold out.  I pull up Putney to Main and stop at the light.  A young woman with a baby stroller crosses in front of me followed by some guy in a suit trying hard to overtake her.  (Asshole)  Just as the light changes two college guys pass me in a light blue Camry acting like Steve McQueen and James Dean.  (Seriously? In a Camry?)  Then I see the two young ladies who were obviously not adequately dressed for such a chilly day.  I just shake my head and drive on.  The Kroger parking lot was pretty packed to be 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon.  I found what I needed in five minutes flat.  So did everybody else.  Two registers were open--but only the two.  And the lines were looking like those at a carnival ride.  The woman in front of me was complaining about it the whole time I was standing there doing the "move the hell out of the way" shuffle for the other shoppers.  But someone must have heard her swan song because they opened another register.  Where did all these people come from?  Finally, back in my car and moving slowly down High Street I pass the new science building and Jarman Hall.  Classes must have let out--there were students everywhere.  Now the thing about college students is they never look.  They walk out into the street and keep going.  They talk on their cell phones, cluster together in sometimes drunken groups and just randomly walk out in front of you as if you weren't  even there.  They're like zombies in some weird video game you play from behind the wheel of your car. But today, listening to Dave Matthews and his 'Dancing Nancies' and watching the guy in front of me checking out some poor girls ass, I just breathe deep and smile to myself.  Life.  What a fantastic trip it is.  And I am so very grateful to still be in the drivers seat.