This Time Last Year

This time last year, it was a lot stormier. Remember?

There were torrential downpourings that caused almost-floods in my basement (thanks for helping me bail water, Nick!)—leaves and tree limbs littered the streets.

The days were cooler. There was already an acceptance of fall, an acceptance that longer, darker nights are restorative—that “rest” is allowable, that sitting on the couch under a blanket under a cat is a more-than-fine way to pass an evening, that all the “going” and “doing” you did this summer is somehow JUST NOW catching up with you and maybe that’s why you are suddenly so FUCKING EXHAUSTED every night at 6 o’clock …

My birthday weekend passed in a blur of cake and candles—candles on the cake, and candles for the darkness of a 9-hour power outage in SE Portland on the very eve of my birthday fete at Commonwealth. Remember? We all sat there in the dark, talked, drank wine.

In the early days of October, I cooked a big soup out of tomatoes and potatoes and sage. I dipped toasty bread in. I thought about all the life things that needed doing before 2014 would come barreling through.

And one day, I climbed up Dog Mountain with Tricia and Lisa amidst spooky billows of fog. As we neared the top, the clouds split open and we found ourselves staring straight into the vacuum of space—dark purple faraway mountains cut by silver river waters, the promise of a golden sunset off to the west ... Remember?

I do ... but only cuz I wrote it down.

Happy Lefty Birthday

I'm not sure that a pet's birthday warrants celebration? But it's a time marker. And like all time markers, it just means the world goes ’round.

Then again, I'm not sure I'd classify Lefty as a "pet." Not like a hamster is a pet. He's more like a confidante. One who concerns himself with my doings at all times and who, best of all, sends me constant love beams without an ounce of guile. He's always on my team—sometimes he's the only one, but, it's enough, you know, sometimes.

Anyway, I've already talked at length about my thoughts on canines and the happy friendship they supply. No real need to delve further. Maybe just a salute—perhaps with a celebratory pigs ear and a handsome new collar—to 3 years in the life of Lefty.

Thursday morning scenery.

Snow bonanza this past February. Joy! 

Posing next to his exquisite portrait by Brent Wick.

Family trip to Yosemite, 2012.