gone

*I held her all the way in the car--wet dog smelling, limp, rolled up in a dark blue fluffy towel. It seemed that I could feel her ribs through the towel. He couldn't find a vein until the third leg. I never knew she had freckles there. I knew she could not see well and hardly could hear but that her sense of smell was still keen so I kept my hands and as much of my body as possible near her nose. Her muzzle rested on my palm. A bit of pink liquid and I felt her gone before he even placed his 'scope on her chest. My cheek nuzzled her as I kissed her good-bye. Blindly I found the door knob and stumbled out toward the car, pieces of her fur in my pocket. Through it all I kept my sunglasses pinched onto my spectacles to hide my swollen eyes, the tears dripping down my cheeks.The gem of this day is the remembrance of the pure joy she gave for seventeen years.

back, musings, head cold

*Arriving at my home airport. Riding the fast moving train. Finding my check in intact. Then out into the cold:precipitation action obsecures parts of the mountains and dances over the plains. The ride home in the car, the last integral of a happy trip.

*The day after, I muse about people I met.

*And now a head cold. An excuse to wrap myself in shawls, drink hot tea, not eat, and watch old movies.

ring, spark, water bowl

* I am early. The guest of honor has not arrived nor any guests. I snag women who look like they are here for the party as they walk by, coming in from the cold. They continue to come even as we settle at a table downstairs (the g of h arrives from the dentist) and we pull over tables and tables and tables until the room is at a bursting point and filled with ladies ooing and admiring THE RING.

*"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person." How many times I have borrowed a spark!

*A water bowl sloshes with a brown cocker spaniel ear.

29th, road, square

*T e-mails to ask if this is his sister's birthday and I plunge into memories of 29 October 1972--the wet red and yellow leaves on the early morning sidewalk on the way to the hospital, the amazement of delivery after succumbing to imaging I would be pregnant for the rest of my life, bliss.

*We drive a favorite road which runs (funny, a road running) parallel to the mountains, far out on the prairie past enormous grain silos, dodging tumble weeds.

*I master a mitered square!

Mma, reservoir, ears

*Mma Ramotswe

*I drove to the reservoir road and paused to view the autumn hued city. On my right is the city, on my left is the brimming reservoir with late season boaters slicing through the cold blue water.

*The ears of Wilson the basset hound flap in the gale-like wind.

sage, hole up, petals

*I drive by our former house and see the Russian sage blooming purple flowing over the fence that I built.

*We hole up in the cool of the apartment all day, reading. At dusk we go out to sit on the patio following the setting sun and breathing in the cool shadows.

*I peel away the dried red rose petals daily to keep the roses on the table for as long as possible.

instant, fresh, ask

*That enchanting instant when from a hodge-podge of letters comes a word. Ahhh! Scrabble.

*Fresh unused mini colored pencils ready to glide over paper.

*Having someone to ask where something is that we just drug from one apartment to another.