Let me make this clear: my dog’s name is Merlin. He is an Australian Shepherd and I love him dearly. Unreservedly. We’ve lived together for 5 years, and we get along great. No arguments.
He has his quirks, I must admit. He is a fly-killer extraordinaire, with a hunting technique that would rival any tyrannosaurus. And yes, he is overly committed to sharing my milky coffee in the morning. He also goes ape-shit crazy when he catches sight of his arch-enemy, the neighbor’s Belgian Tervuren (clearly a canine bastard), and prefers to vomit in the middle of the night right outside the bathroom door– much to my surprise and dismay.
But as with any serious relationship, you compromise.
A few months ago, a young woman moved into the neighborhood with her Border Collie. A handsome dog, clearly adored by her significant other. Clearly well mannered and thus completely ignored by Merlin. Because Merlin has such an over-the-top negative reaction to his nemesis (the Tervuren), I rarely approach other dogs when I have Merlin with me.
One day, as I was getting out of my car (sans Merlin) they walked by, and I greeted the woman, introduced myself, and asked her for permission to say hello to her dog (as we do). She smiled and said of course.
And in that moment, the world shifted.
I don’t know what it was. As soon as I touched her, the dog went from friendly acceptance to a reaction that could only be described as two lost lovers reunited after a long separation. The dog moaned. She fell to the ground and pawed at me to put my hands on her. When I knelt down, she frantically tried to crawl into my lap. The dog’s owner and I exchanged WTF looks. We both kind of laughed it off, but I confess I fell in love (a little bit) with that dog. I was like she knew me. Deja vu, fate, whatever you want to call it, that dog recognized me. Knew me. Loved me.
Awkward. Her owner literally had to drag her away, and the dog cried and struggled to return to me until they were out of sight.
I have seen them again (from across the street) when I am walking Merlin, and the Border Collie does not react. Merlin pays no attention to them (and I am secretly relieved, which is weird).
But twice now, I have encountered them without Merlin in tow and this dog repeats the same behaviors to me. It’s kind of embarrassing. The woman told me she has never seen her dog behave this way before.
Yesterday, I passed them in my car while driving home. I waved and remember thinking that the woman’s dog was undoubtedly the sweetest Border Collie I have ever met. I even thought about telling the woman so. I mean, what if she couldn’t keep the dog any more for some reason? I would take that dog in a skinny minute. And then I thought about Merlin; I don’t think he would want to share my affections. I felt a twinge of guilt.
The two of them reached me as I was getting out of the car. The dog again greeted me effusively, with much moaning and obvious yearning. Absolutely irresistible. I melted. The woman said, “As soon as she saw you, she started dragging me up the hill.” She didn’t sound too pleased.
The dog knows my car.
Is it wrong if you like (well, maybe love a little) someone else’s dog? And what if they like (or love) you back?
I keep thinking about that dog and I feel guilty. Is it cheating?
We had plenty of warning for this monster storm, but that doesn’t make it any less “chilling”. Oregon and much of the Pacific Northwest is hunkered down at home (as we expect to do this time of year) just waiting on/enduring the big blast of frigid air that has come thundering down from the north. Temps tumbled from the upper 30s (degrees Fahrenheit)) at noon yesterday to about 20 in less than 3 hours. Cold, but dry; too dry for snow. The +45mph winds kicked up around 10pm last night (as Merlin and I went for our last walk of the day), and even though I was wearing two parkas, it cut right through all that down. Eye-watering cold. This morning, the thermometer on my balcony (rimmed by pink lights) registered at 20 degrees (with wind chill, we have a ‘feels like’ temperature of 0 degrees (that’s -17 Celsius for my friends in Australia and the UK)), and that is the expected high temperature for today. 
What little snow we’ve seen thus far is just powdered sugar, whipped up by the winds. It’s too cold and dry to be worrisome, but sometime later today, the bitter winds and sub-freezing temps will collide with an atmospheric river of rain driving up from the south and sit right over the Portland area for a couple days. Actually, based on the weather warnings, the heart of the ‘weather event’ is expected to be right over me and several of my writer-peep friends here in Beaverton. I’m keeping an eye on the bird bath and hummingbird feeder, and thawing out both every hour for the birds. I’m also keeping the porch and deck lights on so the birds have a somewhat warmer place to seek shelter fro the wind and cold. Not worried about snow or rain; it’s the ice that will keep me & the dog inside. It’s not a sure thing, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
A few years ago, I gave up the madness of the Christmas season (when people celebrate Chris) for a quieter, nontheistic celebration of the first day of Winter, and the return of the light. I no longer have to face the herds of desperate migrating travelers as we all attempt to reach the lands of our clans. Instead, I spend the ‘me’ day working on my goals and deliverables for the coming year and updating/honing my 5-year strategic plan. I ponder things and think thoughts. 
The past three years have been tough on all of us. The pandemic, the insurrection on January 6th, the horror of mass shootings and senseless murders at the hands of police officers, and an incomprehensible war in Ukraine represented but a few of the headlines in the global news. Add to that our uniquely individual silent traumas, and I think the word tough might actually be an understatement. But wait, this blog post is not going to be about wallowing in negativity. This is a 
It all started a couple of months ago with Amazon Prime. I got a recommendation (as we do) based on my shopping history (which, best as I could tell, was prompted by recent purchases of Ray LaMontaigne’s Trouble and Ouroboros CDs as well as a new The HU, 
With a few exceptions (Robin Williams, Steve Martin) I don’t normally enjoy stand-up comedians; they mostly seem angry and shouty to me. But I watched the 
After this glutting myself on laughter and inspiration, I also reread what I consider to be the best book on writing ever written: 
Another year gone by.
In that vein, I changed up my reading genres this year. Thanks to Roku, I enjoyed the televised milieus of Michael Connelly’s LAPD Detective Harry Bosch (on Bosch) and Ann Cleeve’s DCI Jimmy Perez (Shetland). Connelly’s books already take up a good portion of real estate in my bookshelves, but I hadn’t discovered Cleeve’s work.
After reading a dozen or more of her novels, I can say her her Jimmy Perez series, starting with Raven Black was my FAVORITE READ BY NEW-TO-ME AUTHOR this year. While I think the television series for both authors is better (in a different way) than the books, the Shetland series doesn’t capture the island culture and politics of the series quite like the books do, and Connelly’s Bosch series has better characterizations/relationships in secondary characters and builds a stronger sense of immediate danger better than the novels. Honorable mention goes to N. K. Jemison’s The Fifth Season, which (to me) wasn’t exactly enjoyable as much as admirable.
FAVORITE READ BY FAVORITE AUTHOR: Hands down, Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series, particularly the third book, The Golden Enclaves was the best ending to a series I’ve ever read (a place previously held in my heart by Robin Hobb’s Blood of Dragons). Having just finished rereading all about Hogwarts, I was wary that this was just another magic school trope, but it is/isn’t in the most acerbic/stunning way. In fact, Novik’s three-volume Scholomance series got better with each book, and I sobbed (for lack of a better word) with both joy and horror the entire last third of the book, an emotion I have never experienced before. Utter cruelty and brutality in a single thought. The pinnacle of heroism in a single word. Novik’s Temeraire series made her an auto-buy author for me, but this one is just…Wow.
With it, a ‘storm in a generation’ has begun a thorough tour of most of North America, just to remind us all that in the timeline of eternity, the Ice Age was mere moments ago. Oregon isn’t known for harsh winters, but it was 18 degrees this morning, with sustained winds of 40mph.
Be well. Be warm. Dream of the sun to come.
Until this weekend, I had not been to a shopping mall for more than 3 years.
Gotta say, it’s a big mall, and I hadn’t been there in a long time. There was a lot of traffic. The Nordstroms wasn’t where it was in my memory. Neither was Macys. In fact the place I thought was Macys was closed up and dark, and there’s now a big foodie court in the parking lot where the cars used to park. I figured Macys must have been a pandemic casualty. Such a shame.
And the noise. Somehow, after three years of online shopping, I’d forgotten how loud everything is at the mall. Virtually everyone on their phone or calling to their kids or significant other from the escalator. Children screaming incessant bloody murder louder than a car alarm at 4am. And I must confess, stepping onto an escalator for the first time in three years was a bit intimidating.
But not where I thought it was. I must’ve driven in from a different direction. Apparently, Nordstrom is on the opposite side of the mall from Macys. I tried to tell myself that maybe Macys had moved to the other side of the mall during the pandemic. But that didn’t seem likely. The Cheesecake Factory was still right next door, where it always had been.
