“Sexy beast”

Yesterday a lady who co-owns the kennel where I board my dog, trying to be funny, called me a “sexy beast.”
“Oh stop!” I said. “I’m 75 years old; them days are long gone.”
The girl is 46, and I bet some husband or boyfriend dumped on her. And she’s smitten with me because -a) I make her laugh, and -b) I held her hand (that’s a link, readers) and told her a story a few months ago when she was very depressed.
The fact I did that was pure luck. No one was in her kennel.
“Why can’t all men be like him?” she probably asks.
Years ago I told a young co-worker at the Mighty Mezz “Yer gonna get married some day. Whatever ya do, marry someone who makes ya laugh. Do that and yer in it for the long haul. Yer gonna be frustrated sometimes, jealous, angry, exasperated, etc. But if he can make ya laugh, ya’ll get over it.”
My wife told me the reason we lasted 44&1/2 years, despite my half insanity, was because I made her laugh.
“I have wonderful news,” I told my wife one day. “Of all the places on this vast planet Santa could visit, he’s coming to tiny West Bloomfield.”
“This is why I married you,” my wife said.
I guess my kennel friend lacks class dealing with men. That’s okay with me, since I have no idea how to deal with women. But I can make ‘em laugh, and I make her laugh. And I love seeing her laugh.

• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over 13 years ago. Best job I ever had —I was employed there almost 10 years — over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern. (I had a heart-defect caused stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well. That defect was repaired.)
• I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester.