It's the Dog Days of Winter

 

02252023 MIE It’s the Dog Days of Winter

 

Jeff––Saturday

 

It’s been an exhausting but beautiful week.  My soon-to-be-ten granddaughter and her mother (aka my daughter) spent the week with us at our farm.   We were prepared for very bad weather here in the US Northeast, but aside from one rainy day, we missed the bad weather… though a few harsh bursts of wind brought down a large spruce tree along the driveway. But I have a new chainsaw and got to use it to the delight of my granddaughter. She liked it so much that if I didn’t know better, I’d have thought she willed the tree to fall just so that we could get to remove it!

 

Happily, we didn’t catch extremely cold weather, but unhappily my granddaughter did catch a bad cold that kept us indoors on otherwise perfect hiking days.  A couple of days of bed rest, reading, painting, chicken soup, and marathon Monopoly games, had her back to normal. 

 

Is this a Unicorn!

And pining to resume her avowed mission for the week of finding the perfect puppy; a journey that began on our first full day together.

 

Puppy searches are complicated explorations. Especially when one family member adores Golden Retrievers, Jack Russell terriers are a second’s favorite, and another adores the Yorkie size.  It’s not just a matter of the size or temperament of the grown-up pup, but of the lifestyle changes each choice will bring to the family.

 

And yes, it’s been suggested, “Grandpa has a farm, so why don’t we get all three!”

 

With Barbara being the dog-portrait artist and lover of all breeds that she is, I shouldn’t have been surprised at that suggestion getting as much traction as it did. Indeed, the jury is still out on that proposal.

 

There is another proposal circulating, one that I find particularly appealing.  My granddaughter will head off with her parents to their hometown rescue shelter in search of the perfect puppy possessing the traits of all the breeds the family favors. Barbara has volunteered to go with them…for purposes I dare not venture to presume.

 

After all, barking up the wrong tree—chainsaw in hand or not––can be hazardous to one’s bliss.

 

––Jeff

 

Jeff’s Appearance Schedule

 

Friday, March 17 @ 9:00AM

Left Coast Crime

Tucson, AZ – El Conquistador, Turquoise 1

Participating in Panel moderated by Alice Volpe titled, “Crimes Around the World,” with co-panelists Connie Berry, Juliet Grames, Carlene O’Connor.

 

Saturday, March 18 @ 9:00AM

Left Coast Crime

Tucson, AZ –  El Conquistador, Presidio 1-2

Moderating Panel titled, “Both Sides of the Law,” with panelists Curtis Ippolito, Margaret Morse, Karen Odden, Michael Sears