The Promise of the Day

The first look out the bedroom this morning was hopeful. Blue skies as far as we could see, but one must never believe the promise offered up by forecasters or sky Gods/Dogs (depending on you perspective). I, for one, was skeptical.

“Have faith,” Gretchen whispered to me. “We deserve a break and this just may be it.”

“I don’t mean to be grumpy,” was my response, “but I could do with more than a break.” And with that, we headed out for a walk together, down through Frink Park, along the lake, and up through the tunnel. By the time we reached home, I was panting.

“Good,” said Gretchen. “I need to work on report cards.”

“There’s another thing I could use a break from,” I mumbled under my panting breath, but Gretchen already had her head down and was typing away on her computer. So I rested up, knowing that while it wasn’t a big dog walking day, it was warm and that always takes it out of us.

The blue skies lasted through Rosie’s walk and the two of them headed up through the neighborhoods where they found Rosie’s namesake in plant form. “Do I have to pose next to this thing with thorns?” Rosie asked.

“Yes, you do,” was Gretchen’s reply, “Just don’t get too close.”

As the continued on their walk with Rosie panting and Gretchen enjoying the warm weather, the promise of the day was holding.

But not for long…soon the high, flat clouds pushed their way across the sky. “Hope you don’t get any rain,” Rosie said as Gretchen dropped her off at home.

“Me, too,” Gretchen’s response, “because I left my rain gear at home.”

The best way to keep the promise of a day is to ALWAYS bring your rain gear. If you carry your raincoat on a sunny day, it’s guaranteed not to rain so Gretchen decided to come back home to fetch her rain gear and me. How lucky am I?

We drove over to Zoe’s house  and all she could say as she busted out the backdoor was, “Hurry, it looks like rain!” And so off we went. But still no rain. Treats, though. We got treats though Zoe wasn’t really buying it. She’s very skeptical about the bribery.

“Sit,” Gretchen asked, and since I am fairly obedient, I sat. Zoe just smiled with an edge of playful doubt in her eye.

“Okay, don’t sit,” said Gretchen as she stuffed the treat in her pocket giving me a crumb as a reward.

Well, when Zoe saw that she flopped on the ground and said, “Look, I’m lying down like a good dog. Really, I’m a good dog. A really, really good dog, aren’t I Rubin?”

What could I say?

Zoe, too was panting by the time she got home. “No rain!” she announced when we opened her back door. “Whew, I need a rest.” And with that she flopped onto the kitchen floor to take a nap.

No nap for me! It was off to pick up Gemma and then Saber. We thought for sure there would be people at the tennis courts because Zoe was right, no rain! But the courts were empty and we got to play in the warm almost sunshine…those flat, white high clouds were still swirling around in the growing wind.

Now playing with Gemma and Saber is kind of an interesting endeavor (that’s a word Gretchen always uses in her report cards so I decided to use it here). Sometimes Gemma and Saber play together, sometimes Saber plays with me, and occasionally Gemma and I race around. But on rare occasions the two youngsters gang up on me and, as you’ll see from the sequence of photos to follow, it gets pretty hilarious!

The funny thing about that last shot is that Gretchen never intended to take the photo. She held her finger down on the shutter just a bit longer than usual snagging the one before it (where I’m getting squished, I might add) and by mistake she got the last shot. She didn’t even know she got the shot until she came home and uploaded the photos. We both hooted when we saw it because while this kind of frivolity happens all the time, it’s rare to capture it with the camera.

Well our fun times didn’t last much longer at the courts because tennis players did show up, so off we headed for a nice long walk on the ridge. And yes, everyone (including Gretchen and me) were panting by the time we were all done.

Gretchen tells me there’s no such thing as a half promise, but I kind of think that’s what today was — a half promise of sunshine and warm weather. Sure wish that were the forecast for tomorrow!

Until then,

Rubin