-but it’s not getting the message.So I’m telling you it’s May 4, and my best friend, long gone, would have been—I don’t know how old—on May 5, tomorrow.

One of her daughters is coming to Toronto this week and I’ll see her. That will be nice.I ‘ll tell you more later when I think of it. I’m still thinking of The Joy of Aging. I have lots of notes.

I tell you this because I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend reading “cash crops”—notes I wrote before blogs were invented . They were ideas I had for essays I thought I might write to perform on CBC , for money.

An afternoon show called Trans-Canada Matinee paid $200 for an article—a chat about my fresh marriage and the hazards I was discovering.

More tomorrow.

Have I caught up with the date? I hope so.

Now I’m catching up with the routine I missed for the sake of the hot doc I told you about. Puttering is a necessary activity and it must be done. Plants won’t wait to be watered nor will the humidifiers. I have stuff to put away andl letters to write and menus to plan, and a grocery list to order.

And coffee to drink. It’s nice to sit here with it, and wait for my laundry to dry.. Time passes.

Here’s a line I found in my files:

“When I grow up I want to be an old woman.” Miichelle Shocked

I’ll have to look her. up. I never heard of her. God bless Wikipedia

Here she is:

Michelle Shocked

Wikipedttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki ›. Michelle Shocked is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has entered the Billboard Hot 100, been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary ... Short Sharp Shocked · ‎The Texas Campfire Tapes · ‎Anchorage (song)

See? I’’m growing too old to know the young things coming along. It’s like everything else I do.: taking a bath, loving my neighbour. I have to keep doing it.

Or quit.