Bull by Bull

• This past winter I noticed being half-spooked about getting older. I mostly always think I'm good to go but somehow in January it all felt kind of worrisome. Maybe it was simply the frozen water-pipe out at the barn. Some days, only knowing one or two things for sure is enough: tomorrow, today will be yesterday, and the pipe will still be frozen.

• Determined to stay the course, I have recently begun taking piano lessons. I especially like practicing, though I suspect my dog, Pepper, is quite tired of it all. The lessons themselves definitely test my mettle, and sometimes even leave me feeling somewhat vulnerable, though my teacher, Ms. Agnes, couldn't be more helpful and kind. Fun AND humbling.

• I remember, it was Easter Sunday in a teeny-tiny Oregon town and we were in church at 6:30 a.m. singing "The Old Rugged Cross" with passion and atonement. I didn't know what atonement was, so I simply sang with passion. With fewer than two dozen folks in attendance, including the preacher and his family, we sang a number of other hymns - some with praise and testimony, some with activity and zeal. After that, we headed down to the basement and ate one of the best breakfasts I've ever eaten, after which we went right back upstairs for more singing.

• It felt like pennies from heaven last summer when I got the chance to purchase Vernon's oil painting, "The Professor." His painting won Best of Show at Transfiguration's 2008 Art Show, and now, seeing it hanging over my fireplace makes me feel like it is I who has won Best of Show.

• My first horse cost $75, $82.50 with new shoes. In 1956 my father told me that I could have a horse when I'd saved up enough money to pay for him and buy a year's feed. The very next summer I bought Apache - shod.

• Anyone who uses a "Pronouncing Gazetteer" is using an OLD dictionary. I have found, however, that many a hard crossword puzzle answer can be found in this section of said old tome. Other things that continue to work just fine for me are all my 27-year-old appliances, though my waterbed sprung a leak last summer. First time in 40 years.

• Not to be maudlin, but as I get older, when I read that something will happen on some year in the future, I immediately figure out how old I will be when that something happens. I figure anything after 20-something, I'll be long gone.