AFTER MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN

In LA most of our friends were mine...a terrific bunch of guys and their families that I met as a result of working for decades in the animation industry. Fine lads all of them.

My wife had girl friends, but more often than not we spent time with my male friends. My wife was a farm girl and maybe hanging around all those animals gave her a tolerance for the peculiarities of the male sex.

Sigh. Yes, it was a placid, mens club existence...one of tranquil reflection and serene maleness.

BUT....all that's going to come to an end soon.

Soon we'll be moving to the outback; far, far away from civilization.

Out there scorpions and snakes are the kings.

Where we're going most of our friends will be my wife's friends...mostly girls she went to school with. I don't know what they'll think of me.

And presiding over it all will be (Gulp!)...The Matriarch...my wife's mother...my mother-in-law.

She's a nice person...if you don't cross her.

So, Yikes! No more men's club. No more butler leaving the day's newspaper on my leather chair.  No more automatic male backup if my wife and I disagree.

There'll be only the sound of female boots as an army of Amazons descends. Tromp! Tromp! Tromp!