There is a lot of truth in the saying, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME.  We had a mostly easy trip up north with many stops for rest and then staying with Gordon and Dina, Nancy and family and Rosemary and Jeff. We managed to squeeze in some time with Milton, Clara Gee and Nancy. I apologize to all of our friends who we passed by on our way but could not fit seeing them much to our frustration and disappointment.  This motor trip may be our last because of the physical and health problems that come with age.  We are both over 80 and, there is no place like home.  We do have plans for a cruise next November and in the spring of 2009 to visit the Far East.  But this is hopeful on our part while we rethink the fact that toilets are so low in other places and walking is handicapped by the need for canes on both our parts.

I would like to write just a little bit about the thoughts cats might have who live with family and friends.  Gordon has Doodles but Dina does not.  Doodles is relegated to the downstairs where we had a suite of rooms (bed and bath).  He is quite elderly and suffers from various age-related problems but Gordon loves to groom him with Doodles sitting on his lap.  With two active children, the parents, who both work, have little time for him and he visited us hopefully while he was banished from our “suite”.

We found that our sleeping arrangements in one bed would not do from earlier experiences in a hotel.  So, Gordon brought in an air mattress and I bedded down on the floor next to Carol on the bed.  This is difficult since I cannot get down on my knees and sort of had to do push ups to get up on my feet.  But Doodles kept coming back in my mind and I wondered what his thoughts might be like to be shut out from the rest of the family and these new visitors who didn’t seem to want to pet him and fraternize with him.

I think that animals think.  Not particularly like us, but they do think.  They think that the providers of their food and the occasional visit to the Vet which they do not understand or want, are pretty neat for food appears magically and their wastes disappear in the same manner.

I think Doodles gets lonely and probably is frightened by thunder storms and lightning.  If one of the children pulls his tail or chases him he knows of places to go where they cannot get at him.  Doodles thinks but not of the thinking that occupies me when I write THINKING ALLOWED.

Thinking Allowed is back and I hope to have organized a lot of thoughts that came to me while driving the whole distance on our trip which suggested ideas for essays all along the way.  I am glad to be back and I missed you a lot.