Today, my husband and I celebrate our 38th anniversary … sort of. As best we can, anyhow.

A bit of back ground is needed for today’s amusement.

My husband is disabled with a back injury. Anyone who has had a back injury – especially the lower back – understands how impossible the pain can make things. You can’t sit, can’t lie down, can’t stand, in any position for long. Which means my husband is often up most of the nigh, unable to lie down to sleep, until the wee hours. I often don’t see him at all until the afternoon.

As for myself, I was up earlier. Before 6:30am, I gave up and got up to do the morning routine. Fed the inside cats, got dressed to go outside, did the outside cat feeding and the morning cleaning and refilling of water bowls (I can tell when the raccoons have visited during the night; they make such a mess of the heated water bowls!!), switched out the memory card on the trail cam, got the meter reading for the month, and basically just took care of the usual winter outdoor morning routine.

I even got some pictures.

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The cat in the first picture above is one of the most feral females. We have had zero success at getting anywhere near her (we haven’t come up with a name for her yet) or Sprout (a calico). The ferals have “nests” somewhere in the outer yard and come close to the house only for food and water.

The other two pictures are of the crowd I found in the isolation shelter, as I was finishing up. I didn’t open the windows to get clearer shots, because they would have split up and some would have run away. I counted thirteen cats, all smashed together in the upper level!!!

The outside stuff done, I had intended to go back to bed. I’m feeling better, but still am dealing with pain. I needed to eat something first, so I made a breakfast, ate it at my computer while going through trail cam files (so many deer!!!), then went for a nap.

During this entire time, I did not see my husband. His bedroom door was closed to keep the cats out. I knew he’d been up for much of the night, so I assumed he had finally been able to fall asleep.

I was outside sometime around 7am. By the time I finished the outside stuff, made and ate breakfast, gone through the trail came files, then tried to lie down, it was about 9:30am. Thankfully, I was able to get some much needed sleep and woke up a couple of hours later.

Yes, the timeline is important.

In the afternoon, I was at my computer when I could hear my husband talking to his father on the phone. I sent a quick “happy anniversary” message so as not to interrupt his call. When he was done, he came over to talk to me, and I said happy anniversary again.

My husband started laughing, because we’d already exchanged anniversary greetings. I thought he meant my message, but no. He meant as I went by his bedroom door this morning.

???

I told him, I hadn’t done that.

He laughed again and “reminded” me that when he said happy anniversary to me as I went by, I started singing the “Happy Anniversary” song to him – a joke of a song and dance we picked up from a classic cartoon, many years ago.

???

I told him, I’d done no such thing.

He insisted I had. At about 7:30 this morning.

I explained that I was still outside at that time.

Maybe it was 9:30?

I told him I’d gone back to bed by then, telling him the other things I’d done before then.

My husband is absolutely convinced that we had this conversation this morning, that we’d wished each other a happy anniversary, and I did the silly song and dance that we’ve done for so many years. It is absolutely clear in his memory.

All at times when I was either outside, in the kitchen making breakfast, or in my own bedroom/office. Times when I never heard or saw him at all.

Which means one of us has had some very, very vivid dreams!

Except… well… I’ve got time stamps on photos.

Too funny!

The Re-Farmer