A Dog's Life

After we got back from our trip to California I stayed "in gear". Dempsey was here. He worked on projects and I caught up on corespondence. I kept moving. Wife and I went to town and out to dinner a few times. Dempsey went home. I was caught up a bit and I slowed down. Wife was a bit tired and stayed around over the weekend. I got into a little routine where I kind of hid out in my room and watched old movies and read. Wife had gotten me a book from Amazon. It was called "Breaking the Spell". It took me two days to get through the book and I kept "saving" a bit for later like you might do with a box of cookies. That's pretty good for non fiction. The guy who wrote it is a popular philosopher and he dumbed his information down for laymen like me.





I'm still in "hide in my room" mode. The fact that I can write to you means I am coming out to join the world. Wife has gone to town. Her dogs are hanging out with me it seems. But they are really just waiting for her. If I talk to them and pet them it makes me feel better. It reminds me of my dog "Jake" who is gone and never forgotten. Thinking about Jake is both sad and happy. It is not "mixed emotions". It is the same emotion.





Speaking of loyal dogs. My friend Steve B. went to Alaska recently. He often goes there to be with his buddies, and work on his cabin, and help his buddies build their northern empires. I guess I could write all day about his amazing buddies, and he. But of all his adventures and deeds I am most impressed by this last Alaska trip. This is a guy who has sailed the Carribean. Sailed the Chesapeake in his own beautiful wooden sailboat. Can jump bareback and barefoot on his horse and ride through the woods at night. Has hosted fabulous festivals at his place in Maryland and has flown as a crewmember in the "show" of traveling town to town in restored WWII bombers which are so old and precious that people come from miles around just to look at them. And to hear them. You have to hear them. He can work on anything and if he can't do it, he'll tell you that. And he knows someone who can. He's a minimalist in a world of runaway technology. But what most impresses me is his recent Alaska trip. Even though he could barely afford his own fare, he took his best friend "Reno", the German Shepherd, with him. On an airliner, for 3,000 miles each way. Steve has taken many friends to Alaska with him, including me. But none of his friends wanted to go with him as much as Reno.





I have a great life. A great wife and son. A great place on Delmarva. My health, such as it is. A few toys. Great dreams of future fun. I envy no man. But for Steve to take this beautiful, smart, wild, faithful companion with him to this place that he so loves to visit, and share it all with a creature who not only loves him, but can love the site more than we can imagine, that action, the doing of it, I must say I have to envy. Thanks Steve. Thanks on behalf of Reno, and all of us dog lovers for the inspiration. You lived a dream.
LLITTY :::::+:::::