Crooked Buttons

I button my shirt from the bottom
I always do bottom to top
my mommy says it should be perfect
much different, she says, than ol' Pop.

Now Pop, he does it all backwards
he always goes top straight on down.
Then walks around dressed up in flannel
buttoned crooked all day around town.

Then home he comes for his supper
and what does mom do, one wonders.
She cooks up a nice soup with barley
quite careful to ignore all his blunders.

But me, does she give such leeway?
Oh NO! Here lies the trap.
If I get just one button crooked
there's sure to come a head slap.

A Woman's Prerogative

They say it is a woman's prerogative to change her mind. Well, this morning was a very good example of this in Mimi's and my marriage, now almost 31 years old and still very much a work in progress. As always, before we went to bed last night, I asked, "So.....are you riding your bike tomorrow?" Earlier in the evening, she'd let the cats in and told me it was raining. Before heading into the bedroom, I'd gone out on the front porch to check the sky and pavement. OK, there's some clouds up there, but the pavement is dry. If it was raining earlier, it sure wasn't much. As I tried to cajole her into riding, I told her it sure didn't look like rain to me. No luck. She was not going to ride.

Well, we got up and as I always do, I pushed back the bedroom curtain to see if the pavement is still dry. YEP! And the skies are pretty clear. I asked her again if she was going to ride. Nope. Not gonna happen today. Gotta go to the store. Gotta do this, gotta do that. yada yada yada.

So I go do my bathroom routine, put my coffee on and get dressed. Make a lunch, pack up the panniers, find all my goodies and get ready to roll. She's eating breakfast. As I get ready to head out the door, she says, "Wow. I'm almost done." I don't think any more about it, head downstairs and out to the garage, strap the bags on the bike, turn on the lights and head out. Just as I'm rolling away I hear the back door open. "WAIT FOR ME! Geez, I can't believe you're already gone." She'd changed her mind. I turned around, went back in and waited for her to finish getting her backpack ready, her sash on, her helmet and gloves and a pannier so she can go to the store after work before riding home. This girl's turning into a really awesome commuting partner!

So, after all that, I still got to ride with my sweetie this morning, had the pleasure of a gentle kiss goodbye at Myrtle and Flora instead of the rushed peck on the forehead as I'm heading out the door by myself and so ended up smiling all the way into the office with one thought in mind. "Yep, it's definitely a woman's prerogative."