one december. . .

Growing up there was always a green-frame glider swing in the yard. There were two seats opposite one another, and each person, with knees touching, shared responsibility for the gentle sway. There is a black and white picture of me, no more than three years old, sitting on the swing opposite Dad. We are leaning toward one another to kiss. It's a sweet, precious picture that means a lot to me. That swing means a lot to me.

Someone stole the swing out of Keith's yard. I'm so angry and upset about it. . . Why did it have to be that?

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I haven't felt well the last few days and woke up last night feeling hot and not at all right. By five this morning I didn't feel better so I stayed home from work. My temperature is back to normal now and as long as I don't stand up I feel good, just tired, but when I stand I get light headed. It's very strange.

I finished reading "Twilight" between two morning naps. It picked up a bit at the end, but I never did become engrossed in the story.

After a short noon nap, I drove over to Tammy's to let Cooper out. I didn't feel up to taking him for a walk, but when he got to the top of the stairs and sniffed at the spots where I always sit the halter and the leash and looked back at me all confused, I decided I could manage a short around-the-block walk.

We were nearly finished when he stopped and became fixated on a new smell. I tugged on the leash and then he performed some kind of ninja Houdini move, and all I saw was the halter on the ground about two feet in front of him. How he managed it to get it off, I have no idea but it better have been a fluke. He didn't run, and I was able to walk up and clip the leash on his collar, and we went home to the safety of the back yard.

When I pulled into my driveway I noticed that the garbage can was missing from the curb. I phoned the garbage company to see if they had picked it up for some reason. I think I said it had disappeared, and the woman asked what I meant. I don't know if she expected me to describe a sudden puff of smoke or a seam in the atmosphere. All I knew was it was there last night when I rolled it down the driveway and it wasn't there after the garbage truck went by this morning.

"Oh, it's across the street I bet," she said matter of factly. "I have a new crew and sometimes they get so excited they just toss them anywhere."

I looked out the front window and there was a container across the street. I couldn't recall whether those neighbors have a wheeled container or use their own cans. It looked like mine, but then it also looked like all the rest of the big garbage containers down the block. I told her I'd go get it, and I gave her their address so that if they called and reported a missing container, she could tell them what happened.

I need shoes, lots of kinds of shoes, but mostly a quality pair of walking shoes.

I haven't worn tennis shoes for years and I don't miss them one bit. Right before I went to France I bought a pair of walking shoes made by Munro. I had read they would stand up to a lot of walking, stayed comfortable all day long and were styled to look European (thus keeping me from looking like a jeans and Nike wearing American oaf). They were insanely expensive and also the best money I ever spent. After all these years they are still the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned. The only trouble is they're made from soft leather, which scuffs easily and doesn't polish all that well. They look very frumpy now and I shouldn't wear them outside the yard. I want another pair just like them but oy the price! In this economy! When I could lose my job in a few months!

So does anyone want to recommend another really good walking shoe and or tennis shoe?

I woke up at 4:30 for no good reason. That probably goes without saying. Is any reason good enough to warrant waking at 4:30 a.m.?

After awhile I gave up trying to fall back asleep and just got up. I wrote a letter to the historical society in a small town in Illinois. It's where my hometown's namesake came from. He was prominent enough there that the house he lived in is now a museum. I want to find out if the historical society has any of his personal papers. I'm hoping there will be letters or a diary that will mention something about the transactions that led to the town being named after him.

I also started an email to the state historical society here. The research room is closed until next year but it's possible to view records by appointment at their storage facility. I want to see a file about the formation of the school districts. I'm hoping it will show when the first school opened and how many school buildings there were between 1871 and 1915, when the current building was constructed.

The school has been closed for a few years now. It was a forced closure. The state forced a bunch of small schools to merge with larger districts. Now the school building and land has been bought by one of the churches in town. They plan to demolish the building. Since they are busy building a new church no where near the town, I imagine this is an investment and they will hold onto the land until the town in annexed by Lincoln and then will sell it to developers who will no doubt sandwich six or eight houses in the space. When the school goes, the town as I love it will evaporate. Once Lincoln annexes it, whenever that is, that will be it. Most will say it's no loss, but I loved growing up there and will miss it.

I'm about to go over to Tammy's. She invited me for pizza and some DVD watching.

Forget what I said about March/seasonable/not too bad. Winter has returned with a vengeance. It's hard not to hate 12 degree mornings after a bunch of 40 degree ones.

I took Tuesday afternoon off to take care of a couple of things that can only be accomplished during a weekday. Both appointments were after three, and since the first was closer to Tammy's house than mine, I spent a couple extra hours there with Cooper. Neither of us fared well.

He has entered a bitey stage where he wants to put my hands and arms in his mouth. He doesn't bite but his teeth are pointy and they can hurt anyway. Worse, when he isn't getting enough attention, he'll nip at my arms or legs or whatever body part is nearest his mouth. It's the only thing he's done up to this point that requires correction/discipline and so far nothing works with him. After an hour of it I was close to velcro-ing him to the ceiling.

I took him for a walk instead, and it helped burn off some of the extra energy. He was in a mood though. He was even aggressive about getting treats when we worked on sit, lay and stay. I wasn't at all sorry to leave him that day.

I finished my last appointment a little after 4:00. It occurred to me that I had time to make it to a matinee, so I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. I think it's the first movie I've seen in the theater this year.

Going to the movies has always been my greatest treat, but the theater companies have completely sucked the pleasure from it as far as I'm concerned. Every time I walk through the door, I feel like I've been fleeced. Just being in the presence of $4, 20 oz pop changes my voice to a bleat. I don't buy concessions anymore, and considering that I was in my late twenties before I knew what it was to have popcorn at a movie, I shouldn't miss it as much as I do. And then there's the 15 minutes (I checked my watch) of commercials before the trailers before the start of the movie.

And all the freakin' people who talk like they're in their living rooms. 

I miss the way it used to be; I don't miss the way it is at all.

I'm glad I saw Slumdog Millionaire finally, though. It was worth the rest of the aggravation.

Dog tales

The weather this week has been sublime. Mild and even warm today with a high of 75. The weekend and next week will be more seasonable but it's March and seasonable isn't too bad.

Now that I take Cooper on walks over my lunch hour, I really appreciate the sunny, warmer days. This week he does too.

Tammy took him to the groomer on Sunday for a shampoo and trim, and he came out shaved. That day it was 25 degrees and there was four inches of snow on the ground so he was in a near constant state of shiver.

I guess he had some matted fur on his legs so the groomer, responsibly, shaved them. But then she decided he looked funny with only his legs shaved so she shaved the rest of him. And charged Tammy twice the price because of the extra work. And questioned Tammy about Cooper's history because while one person held him down and the other shaved him, he behaved as if he had been abused at some point.

That's where my heart breaks every time. He was a timid, shy thing the day Tammy adopted him. If he'd been a kid I'd say he had very low self-esteem. That lasted about 8 hours. Once she got him home and he found his bed and toys and food bowl, he changed into a happy, friendly, curious dog. It bothers me to know he got so scared that he became timid and shy again.

Adding insult to the experience, he had to wear his hated sweater for a few days, until it warmed up.

All of this seemed to result in a regression of behavior. "Sit" and "lay down," commands he followed easily were mostly forgotten, and "roll over," which I taught him last weekend was completely forgotten. The first two have come back for the most part, but it will be awhile before he's ready again for "roll over."

In other dog news, Jax adopted a black lab puppy that he's calling Benny (keeping with the old time radio comedian theme he's got going (his previous labs were George and Gracie)). 

Since Tammy had good luck locating a shelter puppy through Petfinder, Jax started there. He found a lab/shepard mix in North Carolina, and unlike Tammy who had to fill out a three-page application, provide references and wait to be invited to drive down and meet the puppy, Jax arranged the adoption in one phone call. Not only that, they delivered the puppy to him three (or whatever) states away.

As soon as he saw the puppy he knew it wasn't a lab/shepard mix. Reluctantly, the people admitted it was a lab/rotweiller. Jax wasn't comfortable with the combination. He has a young godson who visits often so he wanted a dog he could trust to be gentle with a roughhousing little boy. The puppy went back to North Carolina and Jax called a friend of a friend who knows some people and ended up with Benny, a 100 percent goofy little labrador.

Man and puppy are doing fine.