Near where my mother used to buy her corn on the cob, Selewsky’s Farm Stand, there is now a place called Young’s Farm (without the apostrophe).  They carry homemade pies, of which one, the dark cherry, is close to my heart, or I should say gut.

There is a cherished person in my life who keeps me  supplied  with one of these pies on occasion, and it’s always a happy one.  It’s one of the ways Providence keeps us joyful rather than contemplating our woes.

There are so many points of happiness at all times of the year.  The top of a sugar maple has just turned to fall colors, a sign of glad things even as the dark cherries fade.

Someone close to me gave me a CD of the rosary, something I had  never seen before.  The rosary is recited just as a good Catholic would, and I followed in audio this prayer of the life of Jesus Christ, with highlights of his mother’s life.  It is a good alternative for those who wince at the masculine depiction of God.

I finished one rosary (five decades of Hail Marys) in fifteen minutes, whereas reciting it by myself usually takes forty-five minutes.  It is easier to meditate on the mysteries when somebody else recites the prayers and your mind follows.

Just why this prayer gained such popularity in the last five hundred years can be attributed to God, for the appearances of the Blessed Lady (Lourdes, Fatima, La Salette) have encouraged this form of prayer.  It is a prayer of our times, incorporating a Lady dear to Our Lord.

What we see is not always what we get.  The other day a loved one bought me a large chocolate chip cookie.  It had, beside the usual chips, raisins and nuts and spice, and tasted delicious.  So this morning I walked into a bakery to buy something for my granddaughter, and saw what I thought were replicas of the original I got at Young’s Farm.

I ordered three of them.  The sales girl tried to tell me they were the same as the big chocolate chip cookies, but without the chips.  I wouldn’t listen, they looked like the originals.

When I got outside I tasted one.  Was I disappointed.  They were just what the sales girl had said.  So I had relied on my own perception and ignored what the helpful sales girl was trying to tell me.  And they cost the same as the ones with the chips.

The horseshoe crab, which occasionally shows up on New York beaches, and is 450 million years old, may yet be saved from extinction from the pharmaceutical companies which hunt it for its blue blood.  The blue blood saves babies’ and grown-ups’ lives by being the only means of identifying harmful bacteria toxins in the blood.

A Singapore lab scientist named Jeak Ling Ding discovered a synthetic Factor C which can replace the blue blood, and now they may leave the horseshoe crab alone.  Hurrah for conservation!

The only hitch is the pharma companies.  They may not switch from using blue blood from the horseshoe crab.  Maybe people should urge them to do that.

As I grow older, I have discovered yet another fault in me, the tendency to be self-righteous.  I discover a fault in somebody else, and I become indignant.  This, when because of my age, I suffer many shortcomings myself.

My doctor’s phlebotomist visits my house regularly to take a blood sample, and the doctor’s nurse reports the results.  Well, one of my samples got lost and I was beside myself.  I finally settled down and made a new appointment.  What did I think, the world had come to an end?

No, I thought my memory was failing, a worse scenario.  And it does, but not that badly yet.  I pray for those oldsters who experience that.