2021 Life Logs, Day 36: Shadow’s Special Day
Date: Friday, February 5, 2021
Weather: Overcast with Some Light Rain; High 45, Low 30 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Once every six to eight weeks, Shadow gets to go to the groomer to get a fancy hair cut. He has a cross between a curly wool coat like a poodle which needs to be groomed and a fleece textured coat that is soft like an Angora goat with a spiraling curly look.
I have not been able to convince Shadow that he should let me comb out the tangles in his curls, so I take him to a groomer who does so. On days like today when he is not home, I am constantly looking around to check on him. The house feels so very empty without him. In just a couple of hours, I begin to feel so alone. But when he is here, we have our battles. Shadow will sit and stay for me with very stern insistence, but that is about all that he will for me. He delights in snitching a sock or a glove that I have not ‘secured’ properly and it is almost impossible to get him to let loose. But his worst behaviors are jumping on up on other people and not coming when he is called. I love to take him outside to play fetch, but more and more he refuses to come when it is time to go inside. I feel like a parent who just can’t control the bad behaviors of their child and it makes me feel totally incompetent. And it is not that I haven’t tried. This dog just seems to be particularly energetic and strong willed. He doesn’t just run, he runs faster than any dog I have ever seen. And when any of the Goldstones are around, he is constantly bounding and jumping. They keep waiting for him to get older and calmer, but that is not happening. I failed my People Training for Good Dogs course and now I wonder if I am going to have to resort to a shock collar to control the bounding and jumping on others. But I hate to punish him for what I have not been able to train him to do. Still, I wouldn’t know what to do without him. So, exhausting as it is, I shall persist.
I got up early and walked Shadow before taking him to the groomer. On the way home, I went by Heather and Jed’s and put in what is becoming my weekly Friday laundry load and then I came home and wrote and edited, wrote and edited, and wrote some more. I hope to finish Chapter 4 tomorrow morning and move on to Chapter 5 which tells the story of finally leaving Norfolk and heading to the Caribbean. Chapter 4 is entitled A Rough Start. Chapter 5 is the sequel and should be called A Rough Start II. But I will try to be more creative and think of a different title.
At 3 pm I had to stop writing, go pick up Ollie and take him home, put my washer load in the dryer, drive the 25 minutes north to pick up Shadow, and then come back to pick up my laundry. I continued writing when I got home and finally quit at 8 pm to fix dinner. I get so immersed in the story I am telling that I just don’t want to stop writing.
This afternoon I asked Jed if they are going to have a Super Bowl party on Sunday. They are not football fans and Heather has suggested having an anti-Super Bowl party where you only watch the commercials and the halftime show. I smiled as I know the boys won’t allow that. And I have to watch this game just to see the battle of the quarterbacks. Like many New Englanders, it is going to be painful to watch ‘our’ Tom Brady play for another team. It felt almost treasonous when he left the Patriots. But even if he did desert us, I can’t help but cheer him on. He is almost old enough to be the father of the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, but he still is at the top of his game. He just stays there. I loved the Kate McKinnon skit on SNL last week. She was posing the question “What Still Works” in American society. Government? No. Stock Market? No. Social Media? No. Vaccine Roll-out? No. Tom Brady? Well, yes. But unfortunately, he is a “weird Trump guy.” I guess I must forgive him for that as well.
