March 22, 2010. Monday.
Situation: Work this afternoon, get home about 4, ready to take Mway for a walk. Moi is outside, having just swept up pine cones and other debris from the spruce tree into little piles, the chickens all around now scratching the piles apart. Moi decides to come along with me for a walk.
State of the Path: Earlier today I had noticed a robin from the kitchen window, and a couple daffodils in bloom along the side of our house. And, also I’ve noticed small purple flowers in the weed area next to my car. I take Moi over to see if she can tell me what the flowers are – at first she doesn’t know, but later on on the walk, she concludes that they are creeping myrtle – not a wildflower, but something that has grown there from debris she has tossed there. The lilac bushes around our house are now in bud, as is the red maple beside the swimming pool, and also, all along the path, the wild olive shrubs. By the old orchard, Moi comments on a packed thicket of shrubs that looks like a bee hive or a crown. “Looks like a wigwam,” I say, “what do you think it is?” “Maybe it’s multiflora shrub that collapsed under the snow,” she speculates. Near the cedar tree by the back hedgerow, she spots some tiny white flowers growing in the dead weeds – but she doesn’t know what they are. The starlings are out chattering, and a few crows caw in the distance, but I don’t really see any birds today, except the chickens, of course, who start to follow us down the path, but get no further than Moi’s garden pond, Mway having sprinted back to them to stand in their way. Down by her wigwams, Moi says that she’s sorry she hasn’t had the time to work on her new wigwam.
State of the Creek: There has been a little rain today, so the creek is a little higher, but not much. I point out to Moi that I see some sedges growing in the creek. As we come to where the path narrows, Moi again wants to stomp on the ground to show me how the ground is going to fall through soon, but I dissuade her from doing so. We come up to the feed channel on the way to the skating pond, but the mud is so gooey, neither of us wants to cross it. I see that the animal skull I put in the tree has fallen down and broken into two. I fit the pieces together and put them back in the tree. As we’ve been walking along we’ve been hearing spring peepers, and their squeaking is coming from the pond between the ridges, the first time this year I heard them coming from there. We walk over to the pond, and Moi stomps on the ground, expecting the peepers to quiet down, but they do not fall completely silent until Mway comes around. Bug land at its bottom end is quite soggy, even on the path along the ridge going toward the pine trees. A couple little ponds in bug land are still visible, and probably all the brown grass there is saturated with water. The other side of the ridge is still very soggy, and you can see how the water drains down here from the field and ends up in the pond where we heard the peepers. Moi ends up walking way ahead of me, and she is already on her way to the back yard by the time I get to the clearing.
The Fetch: Mway goes after her stick with as much enthusiasm as any other day, her paws kicking up clods of mud as she runs. 4 fetches.
4 comments:
The Development of Literacy in the Family Dog
You know, in the time you took saying you weren’t going to mention something, you could’ve mentioned it. M.
Why don’t you tell the world what it was you chased yourself?
Following is an abstract of a recurring event of most of 2010, which I refer to on January 22 but did not have or take the time to mention much in my journal. I include the abstract here, as a framing device, because the event has some sort of relation to the journal’s central action.
Court of Common Pleas
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Sisyphus A. Gregor
Conditions of Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program
Condition #8 “The defendant will report regularly to his Probation Officer, as directed. Your reporting date is the [22nd of the month].
Each month you will phone the CALL-TRACK number. When you call the automated system, you will be asked to enter your social security number, then state your name. The questions are answered by pressing the appropriate key to respond “yes” or “no.” If your answer requires clarification, you will be prompted to respond.
1. “Has your home address changed in the last 30 days? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
2. “Has your phone number changed in the last 30 days? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
3. “Has your employment status changed in the last 30 days? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
4. “Have you had any contact or been arrested by any law enforcement agency since your last call? If your answer to this question is “no,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
5. “Have you made your required payment toward fines, costs of restitution since your last call? If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “no,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
6. “Are you in compliance with your recommended counseling? If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “no,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 2.]
“You have answered “no” to this question. At the tone, please state your current status within the program.” [“I have not yet taken the DUI – the driving class – the DUI driving class I’m required to take – but I am in the process of keeping in touch with, uh, Jolene, the officer in charge, who schedules this class – Jolene Bowersox -- and expect to schedule the DUI driving class in the near future.”]
7. “Please be advised that any information provided by you which is found to be false will be considered a violation of your Conditions of Supervision and may result in your return to this Court for this violation. Do you understand this requirement? If your answer to this question is “yes,” press 1! If your answer to this question is “no,” press 2!” [Defendant presses 1.]
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