Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Opposites by Bonnie Le Hamilton



Being mirror twins means that Konnie and I are mirror opposites; basically, she’s a left-dominant, and I’m a right-dominant. But yesterday as I was freezing driving to work, I thought about Konnie and how warm Vegas must be this time of year.

Yeah, I know people in Vegas don’t think it's warm. I still remember my last Christmas visit to Konnie’s and how I borrowed one of her jackets because it had dipped to like 60 degrees and all I had was my winter coat (which was decidedly too heavy for 60-degree weather). Come Sunday, I’m wearing one of Konnie’s jackets, and I see people enter the chapel wearing parkas that are all done up, and they are shivering all over the place complaining about how dreadfully cold it was!

I repeat it was around 60 degrees, yesterday morning it got up to a balmy 34 degrees (Sunday morning when I went to Church is 24 degrees and freezing rain), and down in Vegas they complain 60 degrees is too cold! I look forward to 60 degrees, but it won’t arrive here in Idaho until about May, if not later.

Of course, when we get up into the 80s and 90s around here, Vegas is sweltering in temperatures that could make a sidewalk melt.

This is why a few years ago when we talked about getting together for our birthday, I told Konnie, if you want to see me on our birthday, you’re coming to me, period.

This still holds, I plan on never going to Vegas in July.

If I can manage it, I’ll go down there for Christmas, but not for our birthday, ever.

She’s more than welcome to come up here for our birthday.

And what does all this have to do with being mirror twins? Well, only that the climate each of us lives in is the opposite of the climate where the other one lives.

Opposites.

Which is what has been on my mind lately.

Of course, we are not vastly different. We are members of the same church, and we both write (just not all the same genres). I could add something about being married, except these days I’m a widow, she isn’t. Then again, when my husband was alive, we were married and our husbands, well about all they had in common was being members of our church and they married twins.

Tom once said he had nothing to talk about with Jerry. They had no shared interests.

And yes folks, I did note the Tom and Jerry part.

It’s kind of hard not to note that especially when you consider that Tom was as close to six foot as I am to five foot and quite a well-built man (no six-pack, but he did have muscle definition), while Jerry is so short, he’s lucky he found a wife shorter than him. He’s a small guy. And I’m guessing Jerry isn’t quite as hairy as Tom was, considering Konnie’s aversion to hairy men.

So yeah, our husbands are Tom and Jerry, literally and figuratively.

Another thing is of course, that I live alone with one cat. Konnie still has three kids in the house, and they have a whole menagerie of animals under their roof.

My house is quiet except when I have the TV on, am watching YouTube, or something on my phone. Konnie’s house is rarely quiet. There are too many animals and people for that. And they rarely watch TV. I’ve been known to turn my TV on just for the noise.

When Konnie last visited here for our birthday, one day I left a few hours to do my volunteer work, she stayed home, and when I returned, I found she had a video on, but she was also writing. I was surprised at that. Konnie looked at me and said, “It was too quiet, I couldn’t concentrate.”

Yeah, well, I have the opposite problem at your house.

It's true. If I’m visiting her house, the likelihood of me getting any writing done is slim. And yet Konnie is so used to all that racket that she has trouble concentrating on her writing in my quiet house.

Though all of this has to do with what we’ve gotten used to. Even when Tom and I had upwards of thirteen cats and kittens in the house, it was never noisy in the place. And, if I wanted to write while he wanted to watch TV, I’d just close the bedroom door so I couldn’t hear the TV.

At Konnie’s house, you can’t get away from the noise.

And another difference is I do NaNo and she doesn’t. By the way, I had to really buckle down and concentrate for that last week or so, but I did it!

Happy writing everyone!

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