Neanderpundit

Dad loved dogs. He liked having them around the house, and while he would have loved to had a home full of bird dogs, we ended up with Lucky.

Lucky was the “inside dog”. A small pekingese/toy manchester mix. Slept at the foor of Gramma’s bed for years, and when Gramma died, slept at the foot of my bed.

Anyway: We went to visit a friend of dad’s. This happened a lot. Dad would go to drop some cash or food or heating oil off to someone who had fallen on hard luck, or talk to a guy who was cheating on his wife about the error of his ways. Sometimes there were.. interesting things that happened. Dad goes into a house, and a few minutes later, a guy comes flying out the bay window, followed by a couch. Dad comes out the door, dusts himself off and gets in the car.

So we go out to this farm. It’s right after mass, so we know it’s not going to be a “tuneup” visit, more like a ” bud needs $120 to send his kid so she can get out of jail in poughkeepsie” visit. We sit in the car- a 72 Olds 98 Dad bought from the local bank president. Dad goes in, the cold winter air blasting into the car for a minute, and then comes back out. My sister and i sit in the backseat blowing breath on the window and playing tic-tac-toe,mom in ther front doing the Hammond Times crossword. Dad puts the Olds in reverse, backs down the long driveway, and pulls back out on to SR2. We are about five miles away when we hear a muffled whine.

Dad reaches into the breast pocket of his big black wool overcoat, and pulled out a puppy. It couldn’t have been more than the size of his fist, and it never got more than five pounds. My sister and I were immediately in love, and we called it Lucky. We should maybe have called her Licky, because she would lick anything, anywhere, anytime.

Lucky was the primary dog of my youth. She lived a long time, finally succumbing to heart attacks caused by heartworms- in those days, worming wasn’t something anyone paid any attention to. I remember watching her have a heart attack, straining and keeling over.. I picked her up and held her, panting and drooling, as her tiny heart raced. I looked in her eyes and saw the pain there, wanted so desperately to stop it, to make it go away. I had no idea what to do so I gave her an aspirin, sat with her on the livingroom floor. She made it through, lived a couple years beyond that, even.

There are a lot of Lucky stories, I’ll post more later.

it would be Hannibal Lecter.

No, not because he eats people. Because he has had the benefits of wealth, early on. Because he learned from the best teachers. Because he himself is brilliant, erudite, well read, genteel. A gentleman in the oldest tradition. A great man. A man who prefers not to countenance the rude.

His cannibalistic tendencies aside, I have enjoyed the way Hannibal was depicted from the very first book- (red dragon) and now Harris, god love him, is about to publish the “prequel“, if you will, the life of Dr Lecter from his beginnings. I can barely wait.

Watching Cirque du soleil as I type. I am always amazed at what dedicated individials can do to/with their bodies. Midget contortionists and tall women sticking their legs behind their ears. Now it’s raining stuffed animals. Remote control monkeys and guys dancing on ladders.

My fist is black and blue because I punched a bulldozer yesterday. You think that’s something, you should see the dozer.

Not a scratch.

An old colleague, and brilliant machine repairman I worked with a million years ago, who now has his own thriving business, has a sick little boy. I sometimes look at his new truck, his new hummer, his big house, harleys, tools, etc. and think, Man, I’d like to have all that stuff. Stuff don’t mean anything if you’re kid is sick, that drives everything else from your life. Keep Tyler in your prayers.

I didn’t get into the field yesterday because of the action of a couple of asstards, but it ended up being a good day despite them. And I intend to get afield on friday- maybe even thanksgiving morning.

Snow this morning. Sleety wet snow. None ever hit the ground, but it was there regardless. Days like today I tend to bemoan the unfairness of having to have a conventional life instead of spending most of the fall outdoors. Not too much, mind you.