Dog Days

This time of year is known as the “dog days”. I have heard that phrase all my life. Recently as we were talking, my Dad even mentioned the "dog days". I don’t recall it ever being officially defined by those who used the phrase in my presence. I did come to understand how it more specifically meant the long hot days of summer such as a body can experience in July and August in the deep South. I imagine this particular use of the phrase came about when some folks who lived a harder life than I ever have looked up from working in such heat only to see a dog stretched out on the dirt as if it had given up, maybe even died from the scorching, unrelenting heat. That experience was enough to declare how the summer’s dog days had arrived.

Now, if you go to the National Geographic web site you will read how the Greeks and Romans watched the stars. This was probably more reliable than a phone app or the five o’clock forecast from the local TV station. Specifically, they watched the dog star, Sirius and how it was positioned in the sky. When Sirius rose before the sun, the Greeks and Romans referred to the time as the “dog days”. It coincided with the hottest days of the year, which just happened to begin in late July.

We don’t often look at the stars at our house. It’s not because it is not an interesting activity. It is just more an issue of time and opportunity. For the last nine months though, we have lived through some dog days.

Despite having Kayla the cat as a pet, Hannah wanted a puppy. After talking it over, Jennifer and I felt like we were ready to add another pet to our household. Of course, Hannah wanted a golden retriever or a black lab or German shepherd. We felt any of those were just too big for all of us, especially considering whatever dog we welcomed would have to spend a good deal of time indoors. It’s already hard enough to get a good seat on the couch with the three of us and the cat.

So, Jennifer began searching. One day in November, she sent me an email with a picture of a dog. She said she thought this was the one. The dog though was about 75 miles north of us in Tullahoma. She made inquiry about adopting the pup. The stars aligned and soon, she was on her way to locate this dog.

I picked Hannah up from school and we headed home. Once home, a snack and homework awaited. More was waiting for Hannah, she just did not know yet. As time slipped by and Jennifer was still not home, I had to keep Hannah occupied enough so that she would not ask too many questions about the change in routine. Since it was November, darkness came quickly that evening. Soon enough though, my phone lit up with a message. Jennifer and the dog were close.

The garage door opened. I told Hannah we needed to see if Jennifer needed any help carrying anything in from her car. As we walked down our basement stairs, Hannah began repeating “Please let it be a puppy, please let it be a puppy!” I am not sure what led her to say that but understanding what she was about to discover I captured on video the moment she laid eyes on the puppy. She began crying standing frozen in the moment unsure what to do. Jennifer told her to hold the puppy so Hannah did. She stopped a time or two though to hand her off so she could hug Jennifer or me.

As the excitement waned a bit, Hannah and I learned that the dog had been adopted briefly then returned when the adopter realized they could not care adequately for the puppy. Before they returned her though, they named her Josie and painted her toenails red. Undaunted, Hannah declared the dog had a new name, Sadie, and, then, Sadie, red toenails and all, had a new home.

Since that November evening, Sadie has become part of who we are. She desperately wants Kayla the cat to play with her but Kayla just growls at her, takes an occasional swat at her and I am sure if cats have any type of memory longs for the good ol’ days before the dog came to live at our house.

Sadie was a few months old when we adopted her. We are still in the puppy phase at this moment. We have already endured chewed up shoes, pens, tennis balls and stuffed animals. Somehow, she also has chewed through a couple of leashes and at least one harness. While we try to keep her away from Kayla’s food bowl, she is a sneaky one that will seemingly eat anything if given the opportunity.

Jennifer and I both sometimes call the dog Kayla and we sometimes call the cat Sadie. Sadie though has adapted because we also call her “dog”, “Josie” and my favorite, “Tullahoma Tina”. I called her this right after we got her then told her she should always remember where she came from. I not sure she understands but we do.

I hope I never forget that night Sadie came to our home. I hope I always remember the happy tears Hannah cried standing beside her Mom’s car on a November evening. Thinking about it all now, I remember then how I took a moment to drift into the future imagining Hannah coming home ten years from then to be greeted by this dog that she wanted so much.

Hopefully, there will be a lot of good moments for us all between those two memories. For now, we try to put things we don’t want destroyed by Sadie’s teeth out of reach. We have learned Sadie likes her tummy rubbed. We laugh when her ears flop backward. We smile when she lays on the couch and snores. We chuckle when she barks at a passing car. We are amazed at how happy she is when we come home after being gone even for a very short time.

So, in these dog days of summer, we walk Sadie through our yard. She stretches the limits of the leash we use to keep her away from the street. She sniffs every inch of the yard like a detective looking for clues to a crime. She stops now and then to furiously dig away at the ground with her two front paws. Almost every time she walks the yard though she plops down on the ground stretching her body out as far as she can from one end to the other. She lays there, flips over to her back, rolls from side to side a bit before stopping to lay still while soaking in as much sunshine as she can. Are these the dog days? You know it...just don't tell Kayla the cat.

Slow

I have rarely been one to rush things. I am content to be the one heading up the end of the line. I suppose if I were cast in some movie role, I would be the slow-talking, slow-moving, aw-shucks guy who would always be a bit late being clued in on the rest of the scene.

That does not mean that I don’t recognize how quickly life moves. I have my own obligations that nip away at time. Family obligations add to that mix as well. Throw in how the world operates today and soon enough life seems too full and too fast. There is always something to do. There is always someone that needs attention. There is always something for which to be anxious. Not all those things are bad but adding each together can wear a body down.

Sometimes it takes a deep breath to make it all better. Other times, someone reminds you to just slow down. Maybe a nap will provide a brief respite. Recently, for me, it was a chance to sit down for a moment while waiting to pick up Hannah from school.

I left my workplace making a short drive to Hannah’s school. Typical bumper-to-bumper traffic on multiple lanes of highway greeted me. Changing lanes while navigating the route needed to go occupied my thoughts. Quietly, the radio played an outdated traffic report. I approached a few red lights silently praying the light in my lane stayed green until I passed under. Soon enough, I was at the school searching for a parking space.

The sun was bright on this day. The weather had not yet yielded to summer, so the low humidity made this day in the month of May still feel like spring. The skies were as blue as blue can get. I made school officials know why I was there. They made me aware they would send Hannah soon.

On this day, Hannah had a strings lesson. I knew my wait would be a bit longer than any other day. I sat down on a bench to live out the wait. Of course, this meant I could pull out my phone to see what I had missed in the twenty minutes since I had last looked. Quickly, I noticed my phone battery was low. Playing it safe, I put my phone back in my pocket. I told myself how a body never knows I might need that extra battery life on the ride home. I sat on the bench determined to pass the time away without the assistance of modern technology.

Without warning, I sensed a breeze. It was slight but enough to tousle the very ends of my hair. In the distance, I could hear traffic, maybe even a siren from an emergency vehicle. It became hard to recall exactly each moment then. I could feel myself slipping away. I looked at the blue sky lost in its deepness. I realized then how the leaves in the trees were being brushed back by the wind. For a moment, I felt as if I were in some three dimensional event. Everything around me felt as if it kept moving forward while I stayed still, left behind while everything kept going. I tried to breathe it all in and hold as long as possible.

Soon enough, Hannah emerged from the building ready to go home. I stepped back into that well-worn, comfortable place that sometimes can become overgrown with stress. It was better now though. It was as if things had been reset. It felt more like the place where I belong.

When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
~Psalm 94:19

Road Trip: Washington, DC

One of the more important road trips I ever made in my life was to Washington, DC. Yes, our nation's capital city. Of course, it is the home for the President, Vice-President and Congress. It is the seat of power for our country. It is where partnerships come together for a cause. That was why I was there.

It was the end of May 2003 and into the first few days of June when I was there. This was about a year and a half after the terror attacks on our country from September 11, 2001. The city was recovering from that brutal day still trying to locate some sense of normalcy. This meant some places were still inaccessible and other places still cautious. I was there for a cause though.

People go to Washington for causes all the time. Frankly, I don't see how anyone anymore can look at the various causes that take place there and not think how trite and unoriginal it all has become. Since it happens so much how can any of them have any true meaning anymore? Still, people create signs, work themselves into a fever, march through the streets spouting catchy phrases in a sing-song manner then gather in locations around the city for their cause.

On this trip, I had a cause. It was nothing political. It was nothing I had to lobby members of Congress to do something about. It was nothing I would attempt to meet with the President or any of his Cabinet about either. I packed sensible shoes. I did not make a sign. I did not have a catchy jingle to repeat. I probably said a few prayers though.

My cause on this trip was to get to know Jennifer's family better. It was still another ten months before we would marry. We weren't even engaged at the time. Jennifer and I had known each other for several years though. In this time I had grown to know her family some. This trip was in large part for the benefit of Jennifer's young nephew and niece. It was an opportunity for them to see where our nation's government worked and a chance to visit museums housing fascinating and important artifacts about our country. We visited memorials that were moving to visit and even more moving when watching others moved by the experience as it related to a loved one. It was also an opportunity for her family to check me out, and, an opportunity for me to check them out.

I remember the drive, both ways, was a long one. It wasn't because there were long awkward silences between any of us. It was just a long trip, close to six hundred miles. I can recall hoping I did not say something that would make Jennifer's family wonder what rock I crawled out from. I remember a couple of uncomfortable questions from her nephew and niece, which I look back on now as a foreshadowing of similar questions from my own child. There were enough of us traveling together that we had to take two vehicles. I marveled early on how the two drivers used walkie-talkies to communicate when bathroom breaks were needed or when a stop was necessary for refueling. Jennifer and her sister told me how no matter where they go their father will meet someone he knows. Low and behold on the steps of the Capitol Building, I looked over to see their Dad talking to someone who was also visiting Washington from Tennessee, but who lived about 45 minutes away from where we all lived.

As I write this post, it has been eighteen years since that trip to Washington. I guess if there was any test I had to pass on that trip that I passed it. Jennifer and I were married the following March. Since then, she and I have made many road trips of our own, including some with the same folks we traveled with on the trip to Washington. Things have changed. The nephew and niece are both grown now. We added Hannah to the mix a decade ago. When we travel in different vehicles now, we use text messages to communicate instead of walkie-talkies. Other things stay the same. Her dad never fails to meet someone he can't make some connection with on some level.

Through the years I heard some people say how when you marry you also marry your spouse's family. I think that is true. In my case, just how when I married Jennifer I married beyond any expectations, I did the same with her family. They have welcomed me into their circle as one of their own. My own family lives miles away and I only see them a few times each year, so Jennifer's family often fills some of that void. They don't replace my own flesh and blood but they do fill that void enough so that I never feel on the outside when we are together. While I have come to truly understand and appreciate this over time I recognize this truly began on a long road trip to Washington, DC. It was one cause that was truly worth it.

Playlist for Road Trip: Washington, DC:

Darryl Worley "Have You Forgotten?"
Fleetwood Mac "Silver Springs"
The Highwaymen "Highwayman"
Van Morrison "Bright Side of the Road"
Neil Diamond "America"
Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way"
Jimmy Buffett "Cheeseburger in Paradise"
Elvis Presley "Treat Me Nice"
REM "Don't Go Back To Rockville" (live)
Natalie Merchant "Kind and Generous"
Roy Orbison "Dream Baby"
Randy Newman "She Chose Me"