Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
There is much to celebrate this month. It was 24 years ago, at the time this story should be posted, that I married my soul mate. I was married twice before, and she was married once before but this marriage was different. Speaking for myself, this time it was completely different, and I had gone through some tough times to get to this juncture in my life. I can’t say that my first two marriages failed despite the fact that I was a wonderful man that just married terrible women. I fully admit that I was no prize either and certainly did my share of despicable things that led to the failures. But by the time I was out on my own trying to figure out why I was such a loser, I had wised up enough to seek God’s assistance in finding someone to love. There were so many answers to prayer that I am convinced that Carlene was hand-picked by God to be my soul mate. While we have been married 24 years, we were together much longer than that. What my wife sees in me is something I cannot fully understand but definitely appreciate. I’m pretty sure she is an angel sent from heaven.
We decided to get married and asked my mother if she wouldn’t mind sharing her birthday as our anniversary. She was more than delighted and now that she is no longer with us, we can think of her every time we celebrate our delightful marriage. We said our vows in front of Elvis in a small chapel in Las Vegas. Elvis and I got to sing my love to my bride and that was a special occasion too. We got married in the year 2000. I like to say I did it on purpose, so I won’t have difficulty doing the math each year for our anniversary celebration. That’s not true but it makes for a delightful afterthought. Life is great for this unworthy goofball, and we are enjoying growing older together. I know that is true for me and she tells me she feels the same way. I have no reason to doubt that she speaks the truth.
Father’s Day is also this month and while I do not think much of my skills and abilities as a dad, I do love all my children, despite the fact that they don’t all reciprocate the love. That hurts deep down and if it is what some of my children enjoy hearing, so be it. God knows my heart on that subject. At least a majority of them make that a day worth celebrating. That’s all I want to say about that.
Also, this is my birthday month. This year I will be 73, a number that honestly freaks me out. I try to take good care of myself by working out 6 days a week and walking from 7000 to 12000 steps every day, except Sunday. Sometimes I don’t even look at how many steps I take on Sunday. I am quite OCD about some things and that is one of them. If I take a big walk and don’t have my phone in my pocket to count the steps, let’s just say that I do not handle that well. I will usually still clock the minimum 7000 steps on that day, I will just walk more than I get credit for. I know, I’m an idiot…
This month we became a 2-dog family. Sally is getting older, and we thought she might like another dog to be buddies with. She was always going outside to see the neighbor dogs and we figured she would like to have a full-time buddy. It’s been several weeks now, and we think we see progress towards that goal, but we’re not quite sure. I like the fact that Carlene is now walking with us in the mornings. Now our walk is a total family affair. We sometimes even get our feral cat, Neko, joining us on the walk. Sometimes she walks with us and sometimes she walks behind us. She does what she wants to do, we have accepted that fact. This 2-dog family routine is new for me. I’ve never had more than one dog at a time, so they are not the only ones going through a period of adjustment. Pictured is my wife Carlene, our elder dog Sally, our new dog Kaydee, and Neko the cat. I was picking up poop and taking the picture, someone’s gotta do it.
