Still sharing the same bench after all these years.
Today Herself and Your Humble Narrator celebrate 32 years of holy macaroni.
O, how they laughed Back in the Day®. “It will never last,” they said. “She is a Woman of Quality while he … well, I mean, just look at him.”
I had a brief moment of fear some years later when she had the Lasik surgery, but as luck would have it enhanced eyesight does not always mean sharper vision.
And now here we are, against all odds, 32 years later and still ticking like a fine Swiss time bomb. Timepiece! I meant timepiece!
The usual massive celebration is under way. We kicked it off by singing the “Happy Anniversary” song, then broke fast with coffee and avocado toast. Someone had to take a Zoom meeting (not me). The same someone had to drop her CR-V off at the Honda shop (a noncelebratory blinking warning light, the prelude to a mechanical fishing expedition).
With an eye toward today’s bloggery I resolved a trio of niggling MacIssues without assistance. If only rebooting a Honda were so simple.
Later there shall be a Feast at an undisclosed location. I will not be cooking and Herself will not be cleaning up. And the vet emailed to report that Miss Mia Sopaipilla’s bloodwork was “amazing.” These are all the gifts we require, and more than one of us deserves.
Tags: 32nd wedding anniversary, Miss Mia Sopaipilla, The Flintstones
Mad Blog Media 
May 12, 2022 at 11:31 am |
Congratulations from Exit, Colorado!
May 12, 2022 at 2:21 pm |
Thanks, Scot. Hope all’s well in “Exit.” It’s been a few years since I last dropped by, and the place was growing in leaps and bounds even then. It used to be such a sleepy little burg back when Ed Quillen was running Colorado Central.
May 12, 2022 at 11:43 am |
A tip of my Taylor Guitar cap to you two. Patrick, you are obviously, to the rest of us anyway, doing something right. Enjoy the day and each other! Sandy and I will cruise past 35 years in November.
May 12, 2022 at 2:24 pm |
Gracias, señor. Thirty-five, you say? The charity and generosity of women never fails to astound. The guitar-picking going well? I pick up the Roadhouse now and then, but the Seagull mostly stays in its case. It’s just a little big for me. Maybe I need one of those mahogany Taylor GS Minis.
May 12, 2022 at 2:55 pm |
Mahogany is the real deal. It makes a warm and clear tone and takes the sharp edges off the treble. I don’t know if you need a GS Mini mahogany, but I know you WANT one. Lot’s of guitar for the money.
May 13, 2022 at 6:29 am |
Get thee behind me, Satan!
May 14, 2022 at 11:08 am |
These guys play like we do. Copycats.
May 12, 2022 at 12:15 pm |
With reference to Scoty in “Exit”, I’d say “Happy 32 from Reno” but you know, well Reno and all. But hey, I’m not in Reno and I’m still happy to wish you a fine 32, 33, 34, …
How many miles now on the CR-V? I’m not in a position to visit a dealer (I don’t bend over well with others), so I head scratch my own CR-V check engine light issues. I bought a code scanner to let me know the problems that I’m supposed to get around to fixing. Fortunately it’s a Honda and as long as the oil level is good, the coolant level is proper and not spewing forth (boiling in) into the expansion tank, the engine compartment is free of squirrels caught in the serpentine belt, and I haven’t visited Portland in a while where a tweaker may have stolen the catalytic Converter, then I don’t worry too much.
May 12, 2022 at 2:29 pm |
Thanks, Shawn. Y’know, I have no idea how many miles are on Herself’s rig. I never drive it, mostly because I don’t like automatics. It’s a 2011, but neither of us drives a ton so it’s gotta be low mileage.
The CR-V is ubiquitous here, same way a red Subaru Outback used to be in Colorado. But I prefer my rattly old 2005 Subie Forester. Basic transportation with a five-speed manual.
May 12, 2022 at 12:19 pm |
Congrats, PO’G, and Herself! Another joyous feather in the wings of time, eh?
May 12, 2022 at 2:32 pm |
Indeed, JD. Another lap without getting dropped. Zoom!
May 12, 2022 at 12:39 pm |
Congrats to both of y’all for beating all the odds and expectations!
Aging is too often an exercise in lowered expectations, so it’s inspirational to see your success. Unlike many friends, I continue to celebrate looking at the grass from the top side (yay!) and other small victories like the recent arrival of a new grandcat, who rather resembles Miss Mia. The grandkids are ecstatic! And speaking of cars, I once had to leave the Mini Cooper in the shop overnight to facilitate a software update. We’re a long ways from the real VW beetle days. Some of my parts could use an update, too.
Whatever y’all are doing, keep it up!
May 12, 2022 at 2:34 pm |
Software updates. Sigh. Remember when it was a bouquet of wrenches in a greasy hand with a skinned knuckle or two? But a new grandcat? Now that’s something to shout about.
May 12, 2022 at 1:24 pm |
Congrats, Patrick and Shannon. It is always rather interesting to look back at where we were then and where we are now. Who are those two old coots walking a red dog at the dog park up here? Beats me; they look nothing like what I remember.
It has been 30 years for us. We do double duty. March was our official 30 year wedding anniversary, i.e., the day that our Hindu monk friend said abracadabra in Hindi and there we were, swatting mosquitoes in Ho’omaluhia State Park.
But we didn’t actually get a license until July, when we were buying our first house back in Honolulu and the realtor agent said it would be best to be “tenants in the entirety”, which is shorthand for “if one of you croaks, the survivor’s relatives can’t try to steal half the goodies”. Which, come to think of it, is why I was working on marriage equality a few years later.
Anyway, all the best.
May 12, 2022 at 2:36 pm |
Scary is more like it. I avert my eyes when passing reflective surfaces these days. But Herself still looks like a teenager. I just know that if I root through her desk I’m gonna find a contract with the Devil’s signature on it.
May 12, 2022 at 6:09 pm |
Has Herself been to the crossroads? How well can she play the Roadhouse?
May 13, 2022 at 6:34 am |
I don’t think she did the deal with the Devil for guitar chops. I don’t see any scorch marks on the Roadhouse or Seagull. She just wanted to be able to smile quietly to herself when folks see us together and say, “Isn’t it nice of that young lady to take her old granddad out to dinner?”
May 12, 2022 at 1:58 pm |
Congratulations Patrick and Shannon! And more great news – for Mia!
Enjoy your celebration!
May 12, 2022 at 2:40 pm |
Thanks, Libby. I took Miss Mia to the vet for another try at the full physical — covered her carrier with a blanket, and ran her in before any dogs could comment — but she was still being a little pisspot, so I guess we were lucky to get the bloodwork done. The vet uses your spray stuff routinely on blankets and in exam rooms to calm any nervous felines, but I think Mia has reached that age where she feels like “Enough awready, lemme alone.” And who can blame her?
May 12, 2022 at 9:38 pm |
Happy Anniversary & all the best to you both!
May 13, 2022 at 6:36 am |
Thanks, Miguelito. So far, so good. Well, for me, anyway. Herself could’ve done way better. But she enjoys a challenge.
May 13, 2022 at 1:56 am |
We just celebrated 44 here at Casa de El Poeta, and if I could find the people who bet we wouldn’t last 10 years I would clean up.
May 13, 2022 at 6:38 am |
Forty-four? Wow. You must be the champeen around these parts. Well done indeed. I remember as a youngun hearing about people who had been married 30 or 40 years and thinking, “How the hell do they do it?” You just do it. If you’re lucky.
May 13, 2022 at 9:40 pm |
We did it the same way I survived getting hit from behind by a pickup truck doing 60 MPH(~100 km/hr), too stubborn to give up (or stay dead).
May 15, 2022 at 5:24 pm |
Well now hold on thar partner …I have 48 years of nuptial bliss under my belt. Ok….maybe not bliss but the years and miles have gone by mighty fast. Had I not been hitched I might have ended up (shudder) a lawyer and most likely a Rethuglican.
May 15, 2022 at 7:10 pm |
Wowsah. And you guys have a property big enough to hide a body som’eres, too. The woman is a saint. Or maybe just squeamish.
May 16, 2022 at 6:43 am |
Sandy is telling me more often these days that the desert is vast and she has a shovel. Not sure what that means.
May 16, 2022 at 11:03 am |
As the Rev. Waits has taught us, you gotta keep the Devil way down in the hole.
May 13, 2022 at 9:40 am |
funny and well put. congrats.
May 13, 2022 at 10:19 am |
Thanks, Miles. Just cranking out the old tee and the hee to no particular purpose, as in the Good Old Daze. How’s tricks up in the high country?