Bull by Bull

• I recently read where one should be able to rise from a cross-legged sitting position, WITHOUT using your arms or knees. That ship has sailed for me. I use my arms and knees just to roll over so I CAN get up.

• Much is being written of late about being a woman, a leader, and bossy. When my mom was "running" for the leadership position of her church's Altar Guild, some of what she said was, "If you like me I'm a leader, if you don't, I'm bossy." In my life, I, too, have found this to be true.

• While recently visiting me for the first time in some years, my brother, Joe, said, "You need someone to fiddle with." I think we all need someone to fiddle with. It's a good way to take care of ourselves and others. Fiddling is love in all its different costumes.

• Right after we got that huge snowfall, all my resident robins felt the need to take a long, overdue shower. At least 50 at a time gathered on one snow-laden juniper tree limb after another, shaking the boughs mightily then quickly dropping down into the snow shower they had created.

• When she came to live with me, my Pet Place Pepper had been a one-dog puppy mill for most all of her seven years. When I brought her home she still had the stitches from having been spayed right after her last litter was weaned. For weeks and weeks she was bereft without pups to tend. Contentment with her new life finally won out, though, thanks in part to oodles of blankies to snuggle up to ... and be snuggled by ... and four stuffed puppy-size polar bears to fiddle with.

• "Room service," is what I say to my cat, Toesy, every night as I transport her out to the tack room. Said tack room includes a small dog igloo, covered over by an old Army blanket, covered over by a Navajo saddle blanket, and containing a cashmere-lined, soft-sided kitty igloo within.

• Most all my growing-up years I was a guide at Rocky Butte Stables (Red's) in Portland.

I was paid 10 cents per rider per hour, so I made anywhere from 10 cents to $1 an hour, 10 riders being the max in any one group.

Red had a string of 60 horses, each with it's own personality, stall, halter, blanket, saddle, bridle and buddy.

But there were only two categories these 60 horses fell into: "dollar horses," and "dollar-fifty horses." The "dollar horses" rented for $1 an hour, and were the gentle, old, reliable ones who didn't care where they were in line, and were safe for even the littlest kid to ride.

The "dollar-fifty horses" were just more expensive $1 horses who could sometimes be kicked into a lope.

• I never realized just how much exercise I get dusting. Reaching, stretching, and balancing are not exclusive to yoga. Another good thing about dusting is getting to enjoy your favorite stuff. So many memories tied up in each one of those little knickknacks. If they find me dead dusting, everyone who knows me will know I died happy ... fiddling.