A Dog in the House, Again

Weekend before last, we decided we were ready to get another dog.  We followed up with a couple of Lab rescue groups and before we heard back from the second one, Atlanta Lab Rescue had already lined up a volunteer who was fostering a dog to bring him by our house.  He had spent months in a shelter, but someone there thought he was adoptable and he ended up with Atlanta Lab Rescue.  He'd just been neutered and the person who was fostering him had only had him about 24 hours.  So there were lots of unknowns about this dog.  We'd asked for a lab mix -- Tom thought that without knowing anything about ancestry, we were better off not getting a purebred lab -- and that's probably why ALR thought this dog would be a good match for us.

We said yes.

He's a good-looking dog, who appears to me to be mostly but not exclusively Labrador retriever.  His ears are covered with longer fur, not the short velvety coat that was on Bullwinkle's ears.  He has a white patch on his chest, that doesn't really show on this photo.  His tail -- which also doesn't show -- is muscular and seems to wag uncontrollably most of the time.  When he wakes up and before he exits his crate in the morning it makes a really loud thump-thump-thump.  At the tip of it is a tuft of long, stiff white hair; it looks like a paint brush.

Given his recent history, it's not surprising that it's taking a little while for him to settle in.  He still seems to be afraid of Tom, although less so than when we got him.  He is not afraid of Caroline or me, but still is scared when we walk in carrying things.  He doesn't do too badly on the leash but gets very upset when we lead him by his collar.  He's not really comfortable yet in the back yard.  But he's good at retrieving a ball and unlike either Bullwinkle or Lorenzo will usually drop it at my feet and wait for me to throw it again, his tail wagging wildly.  I think someone taught him to do that, at some time.

Saturday night Mark invited us to go to Steve's Live Music.  Yoshi's band was playing Crosby, Stills and Nash covers, and they were great.  As I told Caroline, the place was packed full of people who were Tom's and my age, who all knew all words to all the songs.  It was really fun.  But I'd started the dishwasher just before we left, and it was making an Unusual Sound.  I'd thought about stopping it and letting it finish up after we got home, but I didn't.  We have a history with dishwashers at our house which is not a happy one.  I am thinking about Thanksgiving 2009, when our old dishwasher tried to burn the house down.  So even though the music was great and we got to catch up with Mark, who no longer lives on the street and we haven't seen in a while, I had this image in my head of the house burning down.  I didn't really think this was going to happen, and I didn't call Kathy to check on it, which I could have.  Would the firefighters would know to get Leonard out of his crate?  Would he bark and get their attention?  Would he be too afraid to move?  I was not worried about the house, in this particular mental loop; I was just worried about the dog.

We came home to an intact house (well, it was as intact as it was when we'd left), clean dishes, and a happy dog with a tail that wouldn't stop wagging.  But I left my sweater at Steve's.  I guess we'll just have to go back.

Another One Down

Angela's house is gone now and so are most of the trees.

I still think of the yellow house that used to be on the other side of Kathy and Steve's house as Angela's house, because Angela is person I knew best who lived there.  But it was vacant for a long time before the tree removal sign appeared in front of the house in February.

I went in the backyard in February and took pictures of the five trees that were marked with the fluorescent orange X's.

Last week, the house was demolished.  This was done while I was at work, so I didn't get any pictures of it, but I did get some pictures afterwards.  Here's one of them.

Later in the week, once the debris was mostly removed, the tree removal team came in and started taking out the trees.

I guess they didn't get done, on Friday; they left ropes on this one.  I assume it will come down today.

In other news, I heard from our neighbor Lee Anne that she and her husband had bought a house in Buckhead; they needed more space for a growing family, but were keeping their house on Wessyngton and were renting it out to a family that would be moving in soon.  I told her I had heard that, and wished them the best in their new neighborhood.  I'd seen the moving truck at their house a couple of weeks ago and asked her husband what was going on.  He told me they needed more space and were moving, and I asked if they had sold their house.  No, they were renting it out.  So find us some good neighbors, I told him.  He assured me that they had.

Here's hoping for the same for the house that will replace Angela's house.

Addendum:  Kathy shared some pictures of the demolition with me.

Not My Neighborhood

When Caroline was in kindergarten, she (and we) were asked to participate in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.  This study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, followed a group of kindergartners from the class of 1998-1999 through 8th grade.  Study staff met with Caroline several times at school and they probably got input from her teachers as well (although I don't remember that for sure).  What I do remember were the long telephone interviews, asking about who was in the household and who took care of her.  There were questions over the years about how many children's books we had in the house.  As all three kids got older, there were more and more, and I remember one interviewer seemed incredulous in one of the later interviews when I estimated it at 2,000.  That probably was a low number, in retrospect, given how many boxes and bags full of books we've given away to pretty much anyone we could get to take them over the years.  We've given some to neighbors and boxes and boxes of them have gone to Morningside Elementary.  Some have gone to one of the green Better World Books bins around town.

One day last week someone on Noble Drive posted a note on the Morningside-Lenox Park email list requesting book donations for an elementary school in West Atlanta.  Last year the PTA at that school had sponsored a reading event and there was lots of interest from the students; in the course of this, it became apparent that there was a big unmet need in many children's homes for books.  So someone in my neighborhood sent out an email, asking us all to check our bookshelves, and so Iain and I did that on Saturday.    

I delivered the books on Sunday.  That overfilled box in the front are the books that I brought, but clearly we weren't the only family with books to donate.  I'm glad there was such a good response to this very worthwhile effort.

On the way home I was thinking about all the things we do with books that we're through with -- pretty much anything but throw them away (although I've done that too).  And then I drove past the Little Free Library that one of our neighbors has placed between the sidewalk and the curb in front of their house at Cumberland and Reeder.  We've left books there, too, as well as in the one on North Pelham.  Of course a Little Free Library is no substitute for a public library, but it's not intended to be; it's a way to pass along a book you don't want to keep to a neighbor who would enjoy it -- which certainly is a good thing to do.

Except in Leawood, Kansas, where a family had built a Little Free Library in their front yard, and then were informed by the city that the structure was in violation of a city ordinance prohibiting structures in front yards.  (I can only assume that bird houses are prohibited as well.)  According to the city, there had been complaints from neighbors.  One can only wonder what kind of neighborhood results in complaints like these, which blogger Scott Doyon cited from news reports. 

"Why do we pay taxes for libraries and have those boxes on our streets? In a blighted area? Sure, put them everywhere. We’re not a poor area. We don’t need them."

"First, there was just a library. Then, a bench was placed next to it. I think people were concerned there would be more and more stuff at their front yard."

The Kansas City Star editorial got it just right. "Neighbors who might be worried about them should wander over and borrow a book."

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article590071.html#storylink=cpy

Last week the Leawood City Council unanimously approved a temporary exemption from the ordinance for Little Free Libraries.  So the Collins family's little library is legal in Leawood until October 20.  I'm not sure what happens then.

Thankfully, that's not my neighborhood.  Need something to read?  Lots of books to choose from, just around the corner.  And when you're done with it, you can pass it along to another neighbor.

A Dog in the House

At my house, I am almost always the first one up in the morning.  For years, the morning routine was when I come downstairs, the first thing I would do was feed the dog -- our gentle, loving, loopy Labrador retriever.  So now, when I come downstairs in the dark, I still expect to hear his feet on the hardwood floor, his demands for food or water or being let outside or for attention, but it's quiet.  A few weeks ago, while Iain and I were both out of the country, Bullwinkle died.  He had cancer, and we all knew the time was coming.  Iain had a chance to say goodbye via Skype.  Since then we've talked a little about getting another dog, but it seems like it's too soon, like getting married again right after a divorce.

A couple weeks ago we had invited over some neighbors for dinner.  Scott was out of town, but Robyn came and Pawel and Carolina came too.  When Carolina emailed me to ask what they could bring, I cc:d Tom on my response, which was that they didn't need to bring anything, but if they wanted to bring something they could bring a bottle of wine.  To which Tom replied, "Also bring your dog.  Ours died this week and it will be nice to have a canine guest."  We'd gotten to know Lorenzo, Pawel and Carolina's golden retriever, at a recent block party.  So, fine.

That night we cooked pizza in the backyard pizza oven and traded stories.  It was a nice evening, and at some point Tom said to Pawel and Carolina, if you ever need someone to look after Lorenzo, let us know.  They looked surprised and replied, well, if you're serious about that, we're going to Savannah for the 4th of July.  Tom said he absolutely meant it and we'd be happy to look after Lorenzo.  I actually was a little annoyed that he made this offer with no consultation, given that I figured I would end up doing a good deal of the work over the holiday weekend, but it wasn't that big of a deal.  It couldn't be that much work to have Lorenzo underfoot, and as it turned out we were also feeding Karen and Elise's turtle while they were away, too.

Lorenzo came over on July 3, with his food (in single serving ziplock bags, since he's on a diet), his leash, his emergency contact information, and the essential commands in Spanish that we needed to use before entering the street, since Lorenzo has been trained to not enter the street except on command.  And sometime after that, something unexpected happened.  Everyone in the house -- everyone -- was happier, and we all fell totally in love with Lorenzo.

It wasn't just that he got excited when we returned home, greeting us with an unexpected display of joy (and once he even did it when he woke up and we hadn't gone anywhere; perhaps he dreamed that we'd gone away, so he was happy we were back), or that he'd knock things over to get a tennis ball that the kids would throw for him in the back yard or that he'd snooze at our feet; it was a reminder of what wonderful companions dogs are, how they can read our minds and give us what we need and just be there even when no one else is.

We took pictures.  Caroline's were the best; she posted lots of photos to Facebook and we sent some to Carolina and Pawel, who were having a good time on their vacation.  Here's one of mine:

Caroline's are better.  Here are a few:

This one had a caption, "an educated dog is never without a well-stocked library."

On Monday, Iain asked "when we have to give Lorenzo up."   I told him that Carolina and Pawel would be back on Wednesday.

Wednesday evening I was going out to dinner with an out-of-town colleague who was in Atlanta for a meeting.  I had promised long before that I would take her to my favorite Mexican restaurant that night.  I picked her up from the meeting and we stopped by the house on the way to Caramba (it really wasn't out of the way) so obstensibly so I could make sure Tom remembered I wouldn't be home for dinner but really because I wanted to say goodbye to Lorenzo.  No one but Lorenzo was home and we were greeted with his trademark happy dance.  I told him goodbye and that we'd enjoyed having him with us.  I know that he's a dog and he might not have understood a word I said (and anyway, I'm not sure he knows English) but I needed to say it anyway.

By the time I got back from dinner, Lorenzo had been picked up.  Iain said he put on an extraordinary display of joy when Pawel and Carolina arrived.  They brought us pralines and toffee from Savannah, and a very nice thank you note.  But really, the thanks should be to them.  It's great to have neighbors who -- when you really need one -- will loan you their dog.  

And also neighbors who will bring you your sweater that you left at Caramba.  Later that evening, there was a knock at the door.  It was our neighbor Marian, returning my sweater.

Games, Sports, and Illuminations

John Adams thought we would celebrate our nation's independence on July 2.  On July 3, 1776, he wrote his wife:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

 Although we were short on Pomp and Parade and Guns and Bells and Bonfires yesterday, we did manage Games and Sports (if watching the World Cup counts) and Illuminations.  We were cheering for Germany in the first game (although Iain didn't think of blowing the vuvuzela until after they scored their first and only goal) and Colombia in the second (Lorenzo, our neighbors' golden retriever, is currently a house guest and he is from Colombia so we thought it only polite).

Then Kathy and Steve and Tom's friend Edgar came over for ribs, slaw, jalapeno mac and cheese, and peach cobbler.  After dinner the kids took Lorenzo for a walk and tried to guess the Spanish words for what they wanted him to do.  (Lorenzo is well trained, but in Spanish.  So we probably confuse him quite a bit.)

By then it was dark and it was time for fireworks.  We had quite a few left over from some previous purchase (New Years?  A previous 4th of July?) and Tom really wanted them out of the house.  So after it was dark we headed up to the church parking lot with a laundry basket half-full of highly flammable devices.  They were the kind that are legal to buy in Georgia, so nothing very big and not even anything that made all that much noise, but once lit there were fountains of sparks in different colors and colored smoke.  Our neighbors Sarah and Ben strolled up and joined us; it probably took a good half-an-hour to set everything off, including Iain elaborately combining the fuses of some of the smaller fireworks so they would go off more or less simultaneously.  In the distance, it sounded like the city was under attack, with the noises from the professional fireworks shows and closer ones from front yards nearer by.  Occasionally we would see a shower of sparks from someone else's fireworks, through the trees.

A nice enough 4th of July. For next year, we'll need more fireworks.