Rhyming Did

I laid my laptop in a box
And shut the lid
I smiled and felt as
Giddy as a kid.

A few days away
And off the grid
With only a few
Knowing where I hid.

Time to seek and
Hide as was bid
With perhaps a few
Heavy burdens rid.

Diving with No Water

My most critical decision before eight was which mug to use for coffee.  I opted for "No. 1 Dad" because it was the largest (and because I will never have a mug like this of my own).

I still feel like I need more coffee.

After a bit more work than I had planned to do on vacation, I am finally moving to the sofa to finish Do No Harm and maybe have a nap.

I think there should be decompression chambers to move from 60 hour weeks to vacation.

If I come down too fast, I feel like there's no air, only pressure.

A Short

The last week was a blur
Avoided frenemies with fur.
Seems the highlight so far
Though twas a nice rental car.

The Truth About Mats and Dogs

It was an innocent request:  keep Lucy for 24 hours.  We both laughed nervously.  I had been able to successfully keep her kids alive for that length of time and now I was being entrusted with their dog.

I've been around Lucy numerous times.  "No problem," I said. "I'm glad to help."

It was around 1:30 Friday afternoon when I got the text:  "We're off.  The leash is on your doorknob and I had to use one of your pretty bowls for water since I forgot hers."

No problem.

When the clock neared 6:00, I started thinking about heading home and was glad for a solid reason to pull me out of work "early".  I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home for dinner and ended up with a smorgasboard of food that only assures the data analysts that I must be with child.  (I'm not but I had to fire someone and it was hard.  Ergo, I went for ALL the comfort food.)

Arriving home around 6:30, I had to go in search of Lucy in the house.  During those prolonged seconds, I thought of all the non dog-proofing and child-proofing in my house and had a moment of panic thinking "she's gone and I've only had her five hours".  [Foreshadowing.]

She was tucked away on my orange leather sofa (that I had lovingly covered with a spare white sheet*).  She barely looked up but when I said "outside" for the third time in the exaggerated way we Americans do when we think someone can't understand and is hard of hearing, she moved from the sofa to the backdoor and had a little jaunt around my tiny backyard.

Lucy takes a bee-line for the break in the fencing and I'm jogging to replace the board having, at my only other time of dog-sitting, let the dog out only to end up chasing her around a neighborhood in North Nashville.  (Chase = panicked sweaty run before the sun came up.)

I corralled her inside and she quickly pattered by the water (Emile Henry bowl?) to head straight for the nearest room I wasn't.

When I entered a room, she went into another.  When I entered that room, she left.  I had a flashback to dating, but mentally noted that nearly everyone would stay in the same room...most of the time.

Lucy and I were off to a cool start.

I was able to bribe her with bits of chicken but she wasn't interested in samosas.  She was however staying in the same room as I was while eating.  Progress?  I wasn't sure.

She wouldn't go outside before bed, instead staying on the sofa like a ten-year husband.  I went to bed.  "Fine," I thought.  I can't make you move.

Fast forward to morning.  At 5:30, she was interested to go out but she still hadn't entered my room by 7:30 and only raised her head slightly when I walked through the living room headed upstairs for clean clothes....and a PRESENT!  Friends, don't pick up anything with your bare hands until you're sure you know what it is or at a minimum, have your contacts in.  This was not the gift that brings good tidings.

I'll fast forward past the awkward call from her "mom" after I had to text her that I found blood on the white sheet but I wasn't sure of the origin.  (There's really no good way to say "Don't Panic, but I think your dog is bleeding from an unknown source but she won't let me near her so I'm not sure if it's serious.  Hope you're having a great time! Love you!")

So that's the story of how you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  I'm pretty sure she'll never ever ask me to keep Lucy again and if she does, I'm pretty sure I would say "no".

*Mistake

primum non nocere

I keep a list of notes on my phones with books I want to read.  Most are recommendations from friends but a few are tapped out at traffic lights after listening to a compelling story on NPR.  Do No Harm by Henry Marsh caught by attention last May and at 6:30 a.m. in Atlanta concourse B on Thanksgiving, I downloaded the title while others were having their holiday reading water.

I knew I liked the book but it wasn't until I was describing it to a colleague that I realized just how much I liked it.  Don't get me wrong, there are parts that really gross me out when Dr. Marsh describes the actual brain surgery, but there is a compassion and introspection that only comes with age that emerges through the stories.  The reader is faced head on with death, and in the lucky cases, a shot at a few more years. The chapter headings are medical terms with a story that illustrates a case.  Dr. Marsh wrestles at times with the decision to prolong life for a short while at the expense of a surgery and at the request of the family or to firmly take the cold role of surgeon and say "it's time to let go."  The stories are personal and I found myself taking a small break after reading about those that didn't make it.

Dr. Marsh has challenged my stereotype of a surgeon and made me appreciate just how precious a few more minutes can be.  It's best not to waste any of it.

Lime-light

In the category of odd and unusual, A Lion Was Learning to Ski by Ranjit Bolt was published earlier this month.  This book of limericks was reviewed by the Guardian here.

No matter what reviewers say
If you're having an occasional off day
This verse does draw a smile,
Only seldom reviles
And leaves you with a jingle to stay.

A Week in Review (Poem from the car I*)

Fried plantains and Lima beans
Fourteen hours in the car and airplane crash dreams.

Two fires but there wasn't any heat
After all this work, my spirit's just beat.

A meeting about happiness and strangers wept
I wondered if my story had any depth

Sadness instead hangs in the air.
It's a little overwhelming when you can go anywhere.

*Recorded on voice note while driving, Friday the 20th of November.

A Pause

This week has been one longJames Joyce sentence.  It's missed more than a few "," at least one "." and left me instead with a few "?!".

So tonight after my thrice interrupted dinner of meatloaf and cake, I had a little reading water and reveled that I have nearly gone a full year without taking down my two metallic red Christmas trees.

Pause?  Sometimes.

Full Stop?  Unlikely.

Beginning (Again)

Once upon a time I used to write over here, and I did that for about six years until I thought I was done.

I'm not done.  I was just a little distracted with life and the pursuit of happiness.

Somewhere between May and November, I found liberty.

And so here I am.

Writing again.