March 26, 2010

• It seems most of my subscriptions are as carried away with life as I've been lately, because few of them are posting.  (Either that or Xanga's not notifying me, which has happened before.)

  I'd gone to bed last night on a sad note, having received an email from my sister, Babs, that one of her beautiful cats had been hit by a car.  I shared the news with Mike, who had tended her brood while we were in Kauai, and he commiserated with me, as only a fellow cat lover can.

  But today was one of those days where I could only marvel at the joy of life.  Almost every day has a preponderance of good stuff, but today was nothing but the best.

  First off, I slipped into my Farmer John outfit and went out to the garden to plant the little beauties I'd bought at Home Depot yesterday.  I picked up two hybrid tomato plants (teeny, tiny, wee things for 98 cents apiece) but couldn't bring myself to pay $4. for the more mature heirloom plants.  I did spring for two slightly larger eggplants at three bucks apiece.  Considering that the spider mites had enveloped the ones I planted last year faster than they could put on new growth, that was quite a leap of faith on my part.

  I chatted with Mom for a bit and then dashed inside to get dressed for work.  Yes, you read that correctly, WORK.  The little temp job looks like it's a permanent little job and, surprisingly, I'm ecstatic about having a reason to get dressed in the morning.  You might want to start a pool to bet on how long this enthusiasm will last considering my affliction of dilettantism

  This was my tenth day at work and I had already told the boss that I needed to leave early to host the Veterans History Project meeting at the senior center.  He was cool with it which is one of the things I like about this job.

  I was feeling that I had let my guys down because I hadn't prepared any kind of a program for the meeting and had sort of decided to resign my position as I don't see much hope of having any more time in the future to devote to this project.  Imagine my relief when I walked in and one of the regular guys, a gravely voiced, stringy Viet Nam vet, told me he had invited eighteen of his buddies to join us.   We normally have a group of 12 - 15 men and two or three women, all of whom have shared their stories at previous meetings.  I happily set my minions to setting up more chairs. 

  We had so much fun, introducing ourselves, sharing new stories and old, and the guys were so effusive in their appreciation of my efforts that, of course, I decided to continue to make time to work on this immensely interesting project.

  One of my favorite vets invited me to join him and his friend, Ginny (who helps me transcribe the interviews), for a beer at the local watering hole after the meeting.  By the time I got there, Ginny, who is about 5 feet tall and weighs about 98 pounds, had downed the better part of a pint, and was even more ebullient than her normal self.  Her buzz was infectious and Bill and I enjoyed it vicariously.

  I excused myself earlier than I would have liked because I'm dogsitting for my friend, Gloria, again and I was looking forward to introducing Grace (my neighbor's terrier) to Layla.  I hadn't eaten all day so I crammed down a granola bar and ran next door to collect Grace.  She didn't care too much for the ride over but regained her normal enthusiasm as soon as she met Layla.

  Layla is a standard poodle and towers over little Grace but they took an instant liking to each other.  Layla welcomed Grace into her huge back yard and soon they were romping around with the wild abandon that only youngsters can.  When they had taken the edge off their pent up energy I snapped on their leashes and put into practice the lessons I'd learned about pack leadership from The Dog Whisperer, Caesar Milan. 

  If you've ever watched The Dog Whisperer you know how easily Caesar manages a half dozen dogs at a time while confidently roller blading down city streets.  I decided to forego the rollerblades for the time being.  The first couple of blocks were challenging as I sorted out who was going to walk where but soon we were trotting along like a well organized team.  Initially, both dogs were excited by the company of another dog but by the time we had gone less than a mile, they had accepted each other as part of the pack. 

  Back at the house they chased each other around until they collapsed, panting companionably in the cool grass with contentment written all over their grinning faces. 

  We all agreed, life is good.

   

  • 12:43 am
  • 12 Comments