(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What Did You Do Today? (Monday, June 15, 2026) [1] ['Greg Dworkin', 'Crimson Quillfeather'] Date: 2026-06-20 Many people went to work today, after a weekend off. I did other things instead. I’m retired. I got up wondering if I was experiencing heart rhythm palpitations, but finally decided it was actually “just” spinal problems from arthritis and increasingly poor posture. Just another day as an old fart. So I proceeded to soak dirty dishes and do menu planning, followed by a blood pressure reading, medication decisions and dosing, waiting for an appropriate amount of time to eat left-over pulled pork on toast. Then came the meds, nutrients, and herbals that go with food. After a partial freezer inventory, I brought in the empty trash barrel from the street, fed the outside cats, and re-cleaned their food bowl, re-supplying the lemon juice underneath, which keeps the ants out of the food. Then it was time to organize the pre-prep for the night’s dinner, finish washing the dishes, and take a second blood pressure reading, which was about as good as the first one had been, at 127 over 68 – phenomenal at my advanced age of 78. Some days, it now seems as if 80 is really just too old to be still alive. But today, it somehow seems promising, maybe even fully desirable. I turned on the TV. The news was on, and I listened to the first few moments of President Trump speaking in Paris, with President Emmanuel Macron. Relief from that was found switching to SiriusXM Classic Vinyl. I thoroughly enjoyed dancing alone to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” That was great! It also brought back various memories from years gone by. With the fully anticipated mixed feelings, I thought of the day I danced my last dance with my wife, ailing with terminal cancer. Closing out a day of Thanksgiving celebration, 1998, which had been moved up a week for obvious reasons, we “danced” down the hall to our bedroom. There, she would later pass away in my arms, as we looked deeply into each other’s eyes for the last time. Weeks earlier she had said that she didn’t know if she would “have the strength to go with dignity” when the time came. I had re-assured her that she would. And I was there when we both knew the time had come. My rapid breathing revealed that I was not as calm as she. But I was there to make sure we could take those last few “steps” of life together. Loss is a particularly important and meaningful part of human life. And every loss re-kindles the memories of all that have come before. The year 2026 has been particularly tough for us with financial problems as well as loss of life. Factoring in the exorbitant increase in the cost of living brought on by our government’s incompetence, we have also lost a particularly well-loved family pet. Being our most recent loss, it is still a very tender wound. And I have never missed a so-called family pet like I miss this one. We were very lucky to know the cat named Fozzie Bear. Fozzie was a yellow cat who looked very much like most yellow cats. But his personal differences were quite distinct. He was the only cat I have ever known to exhibit the quality known as empathy – definitely something that cats in particular are not well known for. It wasn’t just the care you see in a mother cat tending to her kitten. That‘s instinct, not empathy. Foz was actually attracted to people in distress. Once at the dining table I bit my lip and uttered a small moan. That cat was immediately right there at my side, looking to come up into my arms to offer whatever he could to comfort me. It was not an isolated occurrence. And it was not something he did just for me. It was legitimate empathy. And it was a trait seen and confirmed by others, not just me. We lost Foz this year in late January to apparent congestive heart failure. He was at the vet’s office in an oxygen tent with my daughter and grandson there to be with him for his final moments. He had been given the injection that would end his suffering, and as he literally lay there dying, he saw “his humans” there, in obvious distress, crying uncontrollably. True to his calling, he tried to get up to come comfort THEM. The vet tech who was present later confirmed, “I SAW THAT!” And that was the very special presence that I had literally referred to as a “golden angel,” the angel we called Fozzie Bear. I was very lucky to know the soul we called Fozzie. Indeed, I have been a very lucky man for most of my life. But this I have addressed in a later chapter in the story of my life, a chapter titled “Lucky Enough to Get Old.” To some people, luck is a silly sort of a thing. It defies logic and science. But if you consistently appear to have it, it does seem to be simply undeniable. And if it is a bit too simple for science, so be it. That doesn’t make being simple a bad thing at all. Just like that song that I started the day dancing to, I found that I could be happy with just some simple things, like being lucky. And dancing. I danced to the music, but I danced to some of those words, too. That song, “Lucky Man,” written by Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Robert Rossington, perhaps said it best. Some of those lyrics do seem to ring true. I borrow and adjust a few of them here. If you do this, it’ll help you some sunny day. Oh, yeah Don’t live too fast, and be a simple kind of man Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold All that you need is in your soul Be a simple kind of man Adapted from “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1973 Simple Man lyrics © Emi/longitude Music, Abkco Music Inc., Songs Of Universal, Inc. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/20/800058402/community/what-did-you-do-today-monday-june-15-2026/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/