Haunted Streets

Lately when I take Puppyman (aka Wyatt) for a night walk he has been stopping at the beginning of the Greenway to stare across the street in the direction of Brommel Park. I never see anything moving or hear any noises. It takes a few tugs to get him moving. It takes a few more psychic tugs for me to shake the feelings his studious gaze to the north inspire.

Last night I took him out and he did not stop in his tracks however I was spooked by something else. Three darkly dressed children, the youngest was probably no more than six years old, walking, slowly rather aimlessly at 9:30 at night on a weeknight. They might be the kids who are often running after a dog that has escaped and they probably live on Wyoming. But tonight there was no dogs with them, nor were they calling for a lost pooch. There was something rather dangerous in a haunted aura sort of way about them. Their slow movement and dark clothes reminded me of a movie I could not remember but something along the lines of The Riches television which I opted out of following because the desperately dark story lines, the edge of total disaster caused me too much anxiety to watch it. It also recalled the episode of CSI where a house is surrounded by homeless people.

Tonight we reached the spot where he often stops but tonight he was paralyzed. No amount of tugging, coaxing would get him to move. He was smelling something that was absolutely compelling. Giving up I went to turn around and go home but then I thought I would try to distract him a bit and try looping around on the grass rather than trying to get him to walk on the path. Nope he wasn't having any of that either. He headed to cross the street and went to the infamous (in this house) white house and we walked to it's back yard which leads to the alley and back to our house.

My imagination tends to run rampant anyway so as Wyatt sniffed suspiciously my mind became a swirl of activity thinking of wild animals leaving scents (the cemetery one block south has been known to have fox); pheromones of fear left during a mugging (which almost never happens in this neighborhood); to obscure twisted tales that couldn't even fully form in the time I was standing there in the damp, chilled air at the same time I was trying to fathom how to get the dog to move.

Are there energies there that only beings like dogs and babies can sense? Are there deep dramas going on there? Scandalous rendezvouses? Or simple some new animal who we just keep missing who is giving off compelling scents. No way to know but it casts a whole different light on my neighborhood after dark.

It's the small things

We went to the tavern and came home to a huge mess compliments of Puppyman. I am so furious I can hardly talk. The dumping of the cat food bowls is nothing new, annoying and messy but nothing meaningful. He moved my bag to get to a tupperware container located inside that had some chicken and noodles. I decided to be responsible and take it home rather than let it sit around in the office fridge over the weekend. However I was not responsible enough, or perhaps too tired, to remember to take it out of my bag when I got home. Now we have one less awesome piece of rock 'n serve, which sucks.

But the worst of it is that he ripped my bag, which he didn't need to do because the zipper was open. It was a big canvas duffel with a flower print in mauves, pinks, and browns with nice handles that allowed me to carry it on my shoulder. The bag was good for short overnight trips, it held a number of knitting projects along with whatever else I might need for any given day.

Most importantly of all it came from my grandmother's home. I no longer remember whether I snagged from her enormous collection soon before she died, or whether I took after her death when we were doing some cleaning of her hoarder's apartment where the walls were suffocating with her endless piles. It was one of the most tasteful things she owned. Honestly. She had a lot of a lot of things but most of it was cheap and tacky. I called it my Mary Poppin's bag because it could hold an amazing array of things for all occasions if I cared to stock it that way; because it was the closest thing I have ever had to a carpet bag, an item that holds romantic, bohemian imagery and longing in my heart. Yes it had it's faults and I confess to looking here and there for something that better suited for the purposes I needed, but my attachment to this item went far beyond practical needs.

Tomorrow I will look at it again to see if a repair is possible. I will also look for a new bag. If I can do both I will hold both realities - the one that truly suits my needs and the one is attached to my heart.

Anyone want a dog?

I know, I know! My blogging was on a great roll and then I fell silent. What can I say, being at work from 8am - 5pm has been kicking my butt. There are a ton of things rolling around in this brain of mine to write about but absolutely no energy to do so.

Then last night I was out walking Wyatt, and let's just say that it did not go well. When TGF started her blog she took my nickname for him, Puppyman, as part of her title (read her December 5th entry, cracks me up). Last night I had my own "adventure with puppyman". It was the last walk of the night and we had just left RedLady's porch where TBG (The Big Guy) had loved on Wyatt. As had Lisa F and Amy W (who thinks Wbaby smells good - he does. Usually).

Strolling back down the green, I notice someone walking small dogs and begin to bear to the right onto the grass to avoid them. Nice try Dharma. Wyatt went barking and lunging at the dogs and/or possibly the cats that were walking with them as well. I absolutely could not hold him and I went down. Hard. Stupidly I did not immediately let go of the leash either. As fast as possible I got up, probably yelling at him to back off the other beasts before standing up again.

I was able to grab Wyatt fairly quickly and the other animal owner had not freaked at my dog's terribly unfriendly greeting. Actually the only thing she said was something like, "he pulled ya right down!". Yep he sure as hell did. With a VERY tight grip on him my body was a mass of pain. I knew I had the equivalent of road rash on my left inner forearm, felt like I had it on my left breast as well. My left knee felt banged up. I was furious at the dog.

In the end I do have a very nasty scraped bruise on my inner forearm and pulled muscles in both arms but my left is really bad. Feels like I messed up the rotator cuff. Basically the majority of my body hurts from mildly to pretty badly.

This morning I woke up to raw chicken skin and paper towels used to pat dry chicken thighs on his dog bed. Not my favorite thing. We will just leave it that. I then headed to a meeting for the Funding Committee for HSPI's AIA projects. When I returned Wyatt had broken into my special treat of potato chips and finished them off, knocked the bread warmer filled with biscuits from last night dinner all over the kitchen, and had knocked my basket of yarn all over the place. Needless to say he was put into time out.

I repeat. Anyone want a dog? He's cheap to purchase. As in free.

First time in awhile

Since I last saw this, snow on my car. Yesterday morning was a quiet time in the house, TGF was reading the paper, the animals were calm, and there was a light flurry outside. Sipping on coffee I watched the tiny flakes falling and just had to go out in the freezing temperature, not even bothering to put shoes on and snapped a shot before it all disappeared.



Later the snow was gone from the cars and the rooftops. Wyatt and I took a great walk around the neighborhood. Speaking of the puppyman, I have to share this photo of him. He has been loving driving in the car and taking in all the smells. See for yourselves.



There are still leaves on a lot of trees but many more on the ground, with colours strong and faded. The crunch of leaves under my feet delight me everyday, like a cacophony of cracking, shushing, and softly folding under pressure.

A tour of the neighborhood , part I (more photos!)

Since I have found my camera cable (finally!), and I finally remembered to take my camera while I walked Wyatt y'all will get a glimpse of where we are. Wyatt and I walked for at least an half hour today wondering this way and that. Found some houses I hadn't seen before - this neighborhood is so interesting architecturally speaking.

Here is an example of the signs we saw everywhere as we drove towards the Oak Street house that first Saturday on the 29th of September.


These signs intrigued us and led us to believe (rightfully so) that this was good community that was working hard.

This is a shot of the house that brought us to the neighborhood. It is also the place we put a bid on to no avail. Located on Oak Street, there are a lot of houses that are being saved by Team South Park.


Here is the beautiful home that had TGF, Jer and I oogling, which lead to meeting Maureen, which led us to Holly, who led our to our landlady KM. When I went by it today the "for sale" sign was gone so perhaps it's been sold to some lucky person. It is known as the Balcony House.


Here is a shot of part of the Greenway that I love for it's curvy paths, it's beautiful crunch of leaves, and the space of nature half a block away.


The other thing that enchants me are the alleys that allow one to cut through and sneak all sorts of ways around the neighborhood. Yes cars can drive through them, garages are usually located on the alley behind the house. This is the one next to our place and where I take amusing short evening walks with Wyatt and Atticus cautioning Wyatt not to hunt "easter eggs" and beckoning Atty to catch up. Our place is just to the right of this shot.


Finally here is a shot of our place. We live on the left hand side. The old house was easy to find a nickname for (casa de Cedar) but I have been stuck so far with this one so if something strikes you let me know.

More shots later, maybe tomorrow, or not. {grin}

Gosh it's sunny out!

Reading the comment that my buddy Bitter Betty wrote on the last entry was the final prod I needed to post again to update for y'all. (BTW you should visit Miss Betty - she's freaking funny!)

First, thank you to those who wrote.

Two, if I were truly self aware (for the two people in this world who think I am) I would have just kept my frigging mouth shut the other night.

Three, even in the midst of all that (which did continue quite a bit the next day thank you so much brain!) I was aware of some of the causes of the grand descending of my mood.
3a. biochemical (guess what appeared today!)
3b. my new semester started yesterday
3c. cellular memory - it's two years since I ended my longest relationship
3d. my loan check has not appeared which adds to my financial stress
3e. my mother is coming to visit which is great but still stressful (you should see the list of projects I want done before she appears in, oh, less than 3 weeks)
There is probably more but I think you get the idea.

And really it has been exceptionally beautiful out. And warm. I mean really really warm!

In other news, you may have read on TGF's very dusty blog about some of the difficulties we have been having with Wyatt. This "issue" of his has resulted on him being on leash a lot while at the dog parks we frequent. Yesterday the "Easy Walk Harness" (for the dog! not that kind of harness - that's another post all together!) arrived, so I walked him to the BART station to met TGF after phase frigging FOUR for this damn potential job (but I digress). It was so easy I almost cried. TGF didn't even think I had him with me when she caught sight of me, thought I was holding a bag or something. Today I tested at the Albany bulb - again great, fabulous. Truly some of the best money EVER spent. Highly recommended. Of course I would still like to know what else we could do to bring back our happy, social pup. Any suggestions happily taken into consideration. He is fine with people, it's other dogs, aside from BFF Piccolo, that are the problem. Actually he is the problem - he has gotten aggressive and cranky with 90% of other dogs including ones he formally played with. It really has been quite distressing not to mention creating a lot more work rather than play for us humans. We are considering a muzzle so that we can be a little more relaxed and also to return to Point Isabel on occasion.

Okay, I'm off to start the blizzard of cleaning or school work that awaits.