Radios, Dogs, and $$$

I drove back to Iowa today in a mighty wind (107 mph here and 5,000 customers without power in our area last night) and suddenly remembered the first "pop" song on a radio station that caught my attention enough to make me buy a transistor radio: "Windy" -- sung by The Association. (I know that I confound some of my readership by referring to something from the sixties. Sorry about that.)

The second song that I loved came out the following year, in 1968: "Blue, Blue, My Love Is Blue." I took the radio to bed with me and listened all night so that I would not miss any of the times the song was played. I can't believe I did that!

So today I drove over one of the bridges that crosses the Mississippi River and because of the wind had trouble keeping my car in its lane. I walked into our house just as the vet called to let us know that Maggie came through this morning's surgery just fine. She had two sizeable lumps removed and even though she's been on morphine, she's acting like her usual wildly alert self.

The good news is that the surgery, which was to cost between $800 and $1,000 only cost us $692. And really, when it comes to the family dog, it's only money. But it's times like this that makes me long for the days when I had an income. Yesterday, at the Anti-Racism training in Chicago, one of my table mates said, "I used to have a job in food service" and another said, "I used to have a job in retail." I said, "I used to have a job." Yeah.