41 yrs.

When we get a chicken box, she likes the breasts, and I tear into drumsticks, thighs and wings.  She doesn't like "food with anything else in it," so there goes butter pecan ice cream.  In books, she likes poetry and fiction, where I read nonfiction and biographies almost exclusively.  She can't stand to watch the news, disdaining the awfulness of actual everyday events in this world, and I run from the room when she watches "Grimm," "Once Upon a Time," and "Oprah" - three shows I find sorely lacking in the actuality of this or any other world.  She likes the more modern styles of rock and country music, and regularly suggests that a good deal of my old-skool music CDs really sound a lot better in my truck, so why not leave them there?  And she will not give an inch in my seemingly lifelong battle that if people are going to call Doritos "tor-tee-ya" chips, they also have to call that hairy animal a "yama," not a "lama." She has given up dealing with my insistence on the correct pronunciations of "mayonnaise," "fifth," "sixth," and "February."

There is no better way to tell the differences between us than to say if we go to a restaurant on a birthday, it would kill me if they didn't bring out a free dessert, and it would kill her if they did!

On the other hand, we both love anchovies, although that's a wash, because those few restaurants that even have them on hand hate to serve them.  However, I am sure that Edwina and Deanna, the cats we've recently been adopted by, would love anchovies.

We both love the cats.

I am the luckiest man in the world, in love with the most wonderful woman in the world.  She puts up with me, and that is saying a lot; if you know me, you can't gainsay that.

Today is the 41st anniversary of the day we married, a long time as measured by a lot of marriages but only a downpayment on the eternity we plan to spend together. The secret is simple; I quote it all the time, and it came from Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, who taught us that when someone loves you, the polite thing to is to love them right back. 

I fell in love with Peggy at first sight, and nothing about that has ever changed, which is why I was only too glad to rent a tux and get my hair cut for the wedding on December 8, 1973.  We scooted down to Williamsburg VA for a honeymoon which has never really ended, if you ask me. 

So now that we have entered our precious metal, or "golden" years together - and I have the silver hair and titanium knee to prove it - we're as happy as a couple of lightning bugs with new batteries.  We like to go places and see things just as much as ever, only now, we don't have to hurry home for anything.

Except the cats! 

Thank you, Peggy, for being the most wonderful wife in the world and the sweetest angel ever sent to earth.  There's an old Chinese saying, "Married couples who love each other say a thousand things without talking."  After 41 years, we know each other and predict each other and the fun is that we still have a lot to learn about each other, and infinity together ahead to learn it.