Me and My Shadow

Blog soundtrack (pump up the volume, k?!):



One of my good friends lost his Mom last year. When he was cleaning out her house, he saw a few things there that reminded him of me; thus, he brought back a few old records for me. <3 I think these reminded him of me, because I had previously told him that I thought it might be fun to be like these DJ gals I read about who dress in vintage clothes, use old phonographs that have been updated to project better sound, and play only “oldies” from vintage records.

So, I inherited three 78s and one 45. The 45 is Frank Sinatra; and on it, there is “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Little Girl Blue,” “A Foggy Day,” and “Like Someone in Love.” The three 78s featured: Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, the Comedians (Van and Schenck), and Jack Smith, the Whispering Baritone.

Of course, who was I most intrigued by? Yes, you’re right if you guessed “The Whispering Baritone”, the one and the only Jack Smith.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whispering_Jack_Smith

I love the feel of the 78s; they are weighty yet delicate, and when I first held one, I felt like I was holding a porcelain tea cup.

Anyway, today, just as with the cars a week or so ago, two of my 78s, one of which was Whispering Jack’s, were dropped and broken needlessly.



Are you sorry? I don't think so.

It wasn’t so much that I wouldn't be able to play Whispering Jack's record anytime soon; I had already downloaded a Whispering Jack CD from iTunes when I first got the records. It was that a lovely and heartfelt gift from a dear friend was ruined.

Given the cars and the records, I felt that today could have been a lipstick day. Err, see http://goddessofallthingslovely.blogspot.com/2009/07/picking-up-lipsticks-of-my-life.html if you want to know all about that. But, instead of buying a lipstick, a More Reasonable Voice, one that I’ve only heard the last few months, said, “Hey, take Monty for a l-o-n-g walk at Groton Place!” I answered, “But, I have a 10% off coupon at Sephora!” The More Reasonable Voice said, “Walk, now!” I said, “You’re right; that sounds good, though can I go to Sephora this weekend?” The More Reasonable Voice said, “Upset women do not live by lipstick alone...anymore. You just go and get your ass to Groton Place now!” Of course, this answered the age-old question, “Can an old dog learn new tricks?”

So, I put my sneakers on, went down to the kitchen, and I asked Monty if he wanted to go for a walk. Actually, it’s really silly of me to ask him that question, because he always wants to go for a walk. I opened the front door of the house, and he went flying out. I called him over to the car, and I told him to jump in.

Here’s Monty pre-walk and excited. Ah, to smell the breeze and the anticipation…it’s making him wait, SO cue Carly Simon now!

After a 10-minute ride, we ended up here.

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Once the car stoppped, Monty started barking madly. Um, so do you want him?!?!? I let him out of the car, and the first thing he did was, err, something; however, there was no sand involved, in case you were wondering!

I got out of the car, and I followed Monty as he made his way along the path. As usual, he’s way ahead of me at the get go. The path is approximately two miles total, and he begins to fade, well, after the first half a mile.



After he begins to lag behind, he starts to eat grass and chase toads. Then, I have to wait for him to catch up.

And, I’ll have you know, there was tons of fungus among us!

Unfortunately, I forgot bug spray. And, I spent a good deal of the time swatting away hummingbird-sized mosquitoes and B52 bomber-sized horse flies from the two of us.

A rolling stone gathers no moss; yeah, well, this was a tree trunk, so that actually makes sense!



After about a mile, we reached the dock on the Nashua River that the Groton School crew uses. Monty looked like he was about to have a heart attack, and I was drenched in sweat, so I thought it would be a good time to regroup. Once we rounded the boat house, I saw a can of “Off”, and I thought, “Thank God!”; however, it was empty thus why it had long been discarded.

I went over to the water fountain, and even though I saw cob webs over the spout, I still pressed the button on the fountain (hey, I was with Monty the Optimist!) to see if it would work; it didn’t. I figured that I could last without a drink of water, but I knew Monty couldn’t.

We headed down to the dock, and I said to Monty, “Hey, we’re chillaxin’ here for a while, Dude.” To which he said, “Hey, really, I could go the next mile; I don’t need to rest at all! But , err, okay, if YOU want to rest, I’m cool with that.” He lapped water out of the river and sat down and started to pant.

I sat down on the dock and felt the sweat running down my forehead and my back. I looked around, and he and I were the only ones around. I could hear the fish jumping out of the water, the hum of a dragonfly’s wings two feet away, and then there was Monty panting.



As we were sitting there on the dock, I felt this huge sense of, well, relaxation like being on the S.S. Brenda and Steve, but without the shark factor! Today, a lipstick would have made me feel nice on the outside for a bit, but as I was sitting there with my dog, looking and listening to all around us, well, I felt totally nice on the inside despite the fact that I would never listen to The Whispering Baritone’s 78. Sometimes you just need to walk away from a bad situation so you can come back to it again.

So, here we are on the dock.



And, here we are resting. Well, I am; most of the time, Monty was pacing the Groton School dock wondering if and when Lawrence Academy would invade!



We then heard lots of splashing; Monty barked. Yes, what else would he do? Are you sure you still don’t want him?!?!? I told Monty, “Don’t worry; it’s the fish jumping in the water.” He said, “Hey, I wouldn’t bark if it were just fish.” I said, “What do you think it is?” He answered, “Another dog.” Just then, I heard huge splashing noises, and I thought, “Maybe he’s right, because I don’t think the Nashua River is home to 150-pound Blue Fin Tuna.” We headed back up to the trail, and then we encountered the 150-pound Blue Fin Tuna in the form of a lovely German Shepherd.

So, after our rest, Monty surely got his second wind, He was actually waiting for me now, but in my defense, I was stopping to take pictures of all the interesting fungus! So here he is doing his best “I’m not waiting on a lady, oh yeah, I’m just waiting on a friend” impression.



Here’s the walk in an acorn shell.



As we headed back, we passed by this headstone. And, what would be a blog from me without a headstone?! And if this guy can be buried here WITH HIS HORSE, then I should be able to be buried with Gray Tiger Kitty (http://goddessofallthingslovely.blogspot.com/2009/03/lost-and-found.html) in my yard!



We passed a mushroom, and I wanted to take a picture of it. Once Monty saw me point my camera at it, he asked, “Oh, you want a piccie of that?” I told him I did. He then moved his doggie beak against the cap, and then it promptly fell off, leaving only the ‘shroom stem. I said, “Thanks, Monty.” He said, “Oh, sorry. I was just trying to be, well, err, never mind!”

And, here’s me and my shadow.



Strut with a mutt? Yeah, been there and done that!



So, here’s my exhausted dog on the way home; the egress trip is a far cry from the ingress trip!

On a day-to-day basis, I often feel a bit lonely (present company of wonderful friends excluded), but at least, I always know I have dog as my co-pilot.