VftSW: Is That Cute or What?

I don’t know if this is the sweetest thing or the saddest. 

I stepped into my darkened garage this morning.  My Black Labrador wasn’t waiting at the door for me.  Sitting on the doorstep apparently makes Derby feel closer to us.  When she came to greet me, sleep still hung about her like a warm blanket, until her squinting eyes and fluttering lashes chased it away. 

 Only she hadn’t come from the direction of her bed.  Over the weekend, I’d been clearly as friends’s property of invading alders.  When I got home sweat and rain ran through all my clothes and wood chips snuck in everywhere.  My wife brought my robe and I stripped in the garage.  Derby had been sleeping on my piled clothes.

Is that cute or what?

VftSW: Big Gruff Co-Worker

My wife and I walked the dogs Saturday morning before heading out the road for breakfast.  The sky was blue, the grass tall and green, the breeze blew just enough to keep off the bugs.  We approached the end of the road where it turns towards the ferry terminal, when the big gruff dog that guards the corner came out.  His barks were solitary, loud and mean.  Neither my wife's salt ‘n’ pepper Miniature Schnauzer, nor my Black Labrador paid any attention.  The barrel-chested guardian of the bend in the road stared at them authoritatively, all four paws at the ready and tail held still.  But he never leaves the yard. 

I commented to my wife.  “It’s kind of sad.  Sometime after he is done barking at Derby.  He whines a little in hopes she’ll come play.” 

As Derby burrowed through the salmonberry bushes for fresh fruit I got to thinking about a co-worker of mind.  Someone called me at work one day with an issue that was marginally my responsibility.  I said, I’d handle it.  I could do so without involving my co-worker, but it would get back to him.  He’d be hurt that I hadn’t involved him upfront.  Plus it actually was his responsibility.  He really is looking out of the safety of the field going employees.  On the other hand his conversational pauses are suspiciously  long.  He is quick to explode.  Talking to him is just a pain, but his heart is in the right place.  So, I called and explained the issue. 

“Why don’t people call me about this stuff?”  he whined. 

I thought about playing dumb, but didn’t see the sense.  “Because you intimidate people.” 

After the usual overly-long pause he sighed. “I’ll take care of this.  Thanks for calling.”

Then the guardian of the field going employees’ safety wished me a good day and hung up.

VftSW; What’s Gone and Past

   My black labrador - hound mix and I strolled towards our usual destination this fine morning.  Derby moved along doggedly.  When not distracted she moves along like a man with a mission.  The big black dog that guards the corner of the road saw us coming and began to protest.  But, suddenly behind us, quite a ways behind became an unfamiliar yap.  Derby turned, mission and mutt ahead forgotten.  The new distraction was out of sight, at least a block and a half away.  Again, a few barks, Derby would not move forward, so eagerly did she peer behind.  So obsessed with what lay behind us, so unaware of the big threat near us and so oblivious as to why she wanted to “go for a walk” in the first place; I had to drag her away.  I wonder how often I get so wrapped up in what’s gone and past, that Somebody has to pick me up and once again, put me on the right path.