In Ep 4 of Baby Mine, we talk about the David Bowie record Everyone Says Hi from his 2002 album, Heathen. Please take a moment to enjoy the pure joy of this live version of “Everyone Says ‘Hi.’”

This record conjures up many subjects, not least of which is Bowie himself. We discuss him less as a musician and more as an Artist. Like our late daughter Kathleen, Bowie made you look at almost everything differently. Regrettably, we went on these mental trips with Bowie much easier. However, it is always good anytime a work of art, or a person, or your pet rabbit can enable you to see things in a different way. It’s not a small gift to broaden someone else’s mind.

We talk a bit about how travel is a metaphor for death. Grief alone is definitely some sort of trip through unknown and windy roads. Sometimes when we are gone from home or when we are feeling the lowest during our grief, it’s nice to know that someone else is thinking of you, even in the simplest, “everyone says hi.” People would often say it to us when talking about Kathleen…tell her I said hi. And as trite as the sentiment sounds, it may have been the best thing to relay to her. For some people with autism, listening to anyone speak takes a lot of concentration. There was some sort of audio-processing disorder that prevented any sort of fluidity in her hearing. For some reason, it was easier for her to hear when someone was singing. She needed any verbal information provided to her to be direct, simple, and preferably short.

But what really struck us about this song was the idea of speaking for someone else. Throughout Kathleen’s life, someone (usually Katie) had to interpret the meanings of her rote phrases. She would say things like “Binyah. Binyah, PollyWOG!!” (the name of a character from the TV show Gullah Gullah Island. It would often make people laugh, but that phrase was a clue that she was about to start screaming, or worse. Nobody likes to be misunderstood. It was vital that messages were clarified both from Kathleen and to her.

We also discuss the general bummer that is the new administration. In this Bowie song, the lyrics “don't stay in a bad place where they don’t care how you are…” rings true for many of our favorite people. The looming cuts to Medicaid, on which so many people with disabilities rely, are truly gutting. Not to mention the very real threat facing our LGBTQ family and friends are under. We’ve heard stories, and it’s not good out there.

Somehow,

we pivot from the disaster of life in the USA to our cats. What can we say but we’ve lost our damn minds. We tell the long and only somewhat interesting story of how we got our latest cat, Squiggy (see cat in his box). His Picture is below. We also have Enid (the tortie) and Mitzi (our black cat who loves her leash).

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