I got one

and the dogs ran and hid.





You have seen them on television.
The dog and the cat sit motionless in their owner's lap while having their nails
filed. Ho hum. It looks so easy.
Yawn.
After years and years and years of clipping dog nails and having every single dog act as if I don't see very well, I have been wanting the simple and easy to use dog-battery-operated-fingernail-file.
At the Rite-Aid in my town, my small town, they have a shelf of "sold only on T.V."
items ... they are heavily discounted. The discount should be the clue.
I bought the dog fingernail battery operated file with the heavy discount.
I also bought super-sized not discounted batteries to make it work.
I have used it four times.
You have to cut their nails first. No lie.
The dogs you see on T.V. are comatose because they have a separate major artery connected to each toe nail and each one was probably a little bit nicked in the making of that commercial.
My dogs said so.
When I gasped about the arteries they said dogs have an automatic lever that can be turned in case of emergency ... and that is probably what happened.
They sometimes say disturbing things. Not all the time or anything like that.
Just sometimes.
And.
They still run and hide.
The instruction sheet encourages that in awhile your dogs will give up and no longer run and hide.
Oh joy.

walking in the morning

Every morning when I am about town, walking my dogs or headed to the co-op, I see a woman walking beside a man who is pushing a small cart. She is very short. Very short. And he is very tall. I am not much interested in him although I have looked to see that his demeanor is polite to her. They do not talk. They don't smile. They walk.

She is probably only 3 and a half feet tall. Just small with age. Her hair is long and red. It hangs well below her knit cap worn for the cold Maine mornings they walk. Her hand holds on the cart, so close to him that for a time I thought they walked holding hands. It would make balancing difficult because they walk all day. Her hand in his would not have physical support walking all day demands, although I understand the emotional support it would offer. The support they offer to each other is clear. Their walk is slow and determined.

I have watched her for weeks now. I want to ask for a photograph. I want to ask folks in town what they know of her .... she is so strong. Her legs, her back her mind in the determination to not stop. Walking.

to be naughty

The Naughty North is absolutely fabulous.
They are thinking on the edge and organizing actions ... just fantastic!
For the longest time I think we have been somewhat stuck in a no-response mode when it comes to objecting to discrimination, to the selfishness of capitalism .... the free-speech allowance which I often find disturbing .. the naughty have taken on a number of situations .... like the folks opposing women's right to choice that gather on the highway outside the Common Ground Fair. For a long time this group of anti-choice, really anti-woman people have been expected and ignored for the most part ... not an organized objection ... no one on the highway taking on the banners showing bloody fetuses. This group has and last year met them on the highway with antics that drew the attention away from the posters. Excellent. They also took on Southern Maine gay pride ... for their corporate mirroring. Amazing group.

The sun is out ... seems like any topic might be good for writing on a day like today.
Brightness. After a day of snow and sleet and rain is like the gift on Route One that the crows and the seagulls enjoyed yesterday .... vitamin D for the taking, a reference point in the mind radically different than the point that originates from grey.

The Gift Worth Grabbing

The dogs and I took a walk on Sears Island today. It was warm in the morning despite the snow you see. And I want to note that on Route 1 for about ten miles there was an orange substance on the road that the birds just loved. They would dive and dart around the cars, which worried me. I wanted to have the bird's perspective of a fine
unexpected treat ... but I focused instead on the danger. I wanted to call the highway department and have them remove it to the side of the road ... and I wanted to see it as the birds saw it ... just a gift worth grabbing.

Creativity's Return

I am having great difficulty keeping up with my intention to write here daily. And I don't want it be a journal, but an exploration of a particular idea or notion ... maybe. And I am in the middle of this move and the writing, the creative thinking is just not happening. I am going to have to do more to encourage creativity's return.
I miss seeing the world the way I used to .... always abit of a twist or a turn, good humor abounding.

One thing I am wanting to explore is small, middle and big. The terms that define so many interactions, from our towns and cities, to our cars and bodies ... the experience of size and how it affects our many communications, an influence on our perception of need and want. And maybe it is not the small the middle and the big that influences us at all, but what it is inside us that responds to sizing ... what we have been taught and to whom and to what we are responding .... maybe and more. Later.

more snow

What else is there to write about when on March 6th there is snow falling where you live. And so okay, I live in Maine, but still.
I have to say I am on a com uter that is missing a few letters ... you guess which ones and maybe later in the day or the week or the month I will come back and fix the missing letters. I think letters and maybe more, words, become unha y at omission. Certainly they do. And rightfully so.
So it is snowing, the dogs are slee ing and I am writing without a few letters that are robably issed at their omission. Good Day!