cold, cold, cold

I can’t believe it’s december.  No, I can.  Life is so surprising and then really not at all. 

The days have been busy and they last forever.  It’s like this and that.  Everything and then nothing. Moments of full fledged joy bursting from within and then despair, our spirits dragging behind.  

Perseverance and gumption.

Almost daily we go for a walk in Priest Point Park.  Dog parks are scarce in this town and this is the new meeting place. Hank is bananas for a romp in the woods.  He gallops like a horse up and down the trail and deep belly laughs fly over my shoulder from Sawyer on my back.  He pretty much thinks Hank is the funniest guy around. Hank is his Tig Notaro.  A little kiss behind the ear? Forget it. Cackling like he's never heard a better joke. 

Once while we were walking in the woods we ran into a dog Hank used to play with at the dog park across from our old house. They hadn't met for a couple of years and I swear they remembered each other.  They frolicked up a storm and were, what I perceived to be as, smiling.

This week I braved our weekly grocery shop alone with baby. Something I’ve only done a handful of times and it’s always a little hairy. He melts down, I get flustered, accidentally go when I’m hungry, or decide not to get a cart and wind up looking like a total nut. This week, I put him in the kids seat in the cart and gave him a carrot to gnaw on.  He was so content. Sure, I got distracted and poured out a few extra pounds of sunflower seeds, but we did it.  I was triumphant and felt like clapping and laughing. Plus the citrus is making its debut and that is worthy of applause.