What a Way to Start The Day

And I missed it all. Well not all maybe but the exciting part, the part with all the action, the part where the car went flying and spinning. But Jim sure didn't, though I bet he wishes he did. On his way to work he had a fender bender. Right outside the office right in full view of my window if I had been looking out at that moment but no, I had my nose in my work. I didn't even hear anything.

My buddy Jim was on his way to work. He was slowing down to make the turn into the parking lot fortunately, when an idiot ran a stop sign right in front of him. The idiot almost made it. Jim couldn't stop and hit the back end of his car. The idiot spun around twice and ended up crosswise across the road. I didn't see it but a young girl in a car right behind Jim did. We only saw the aftermath, that's Dave Z and me, and he was just as upset at missing it as I was probably more because he would have had a better view.

Now its not that we want a big accident but in the years we have been in the new office, we have seen the traffic increase on the road over 100 percent. We have watched the city police set up a regular radar trap at the bottom of the hill and nab speeders at will until they had more than enough donut money for the whole squad. We regularly hear squealing tires as we have yet another near miss. And when we finally have an accident involving one of our own no less we missed it.


So that was how Jim started the day with a bang not a whimper. And it caused a good deal of excitement for a while this morning. No injuries or gore, hell the idiot didn't even spill his coffee. Totaled his car most likely but kept the extra large double double. Now Jim gets to try and get his car fixed. It is drivable but all the plastic on the front, and these days that's a lot, and with insurance rates and accidents and shortages of help, etc. etc. Its going to be December before they can get Jim's car in.


And whatever good came out of it, Jim owes to his witness. Jim really didn't see the Idiot till it was too late but his witness saw him, she saw Jim hit his brakes, she saw the guy run the stop sign and more importantly she told the police and kept the Idiot on the straight and narrow when his story started to change to the police. It seems she though that it could have as easily been her rather than Jim and the Idiot was not going to get away with it. She saw to that.


So all and all it was an exciting morning. And I missed it.


Keeping a better eye out ...



Randy

Pet Tricks

It was a "Dog Disneyland" weekend. Dog Disneyland is the off leash area where we take the girls for extra special long walks. They can go off leash because they would take off at the first scent but the other dogs come over to them so they still get socialized. This weekend was Indian Summer and the park was wall to wall dogs and people. The girls loved it. Two laps on Saturday and a quick lap on Sunday. It must have been Take a Beagle to the park day on Saturday because it looked like a beagle family reunion. There were Tricolors galore and even a black and white that could have been Dixie's brother. But he didn't have her speckled ears.

So we walked the girls in the sun for what may have been the last good weekend of the fall. The forecast is for colder weather so we took advantage of the sun and the colors.

Belle was her usual self. Happy go lucky. Just having fun. She had a good day but then that's Belle she always has good days.

Dixie had a bad day. She found a treasure. Well a treasure for her anyway. To you and I it was a stick. But to her it was a treasure. Still green about a half an inch thick and a foot long, just right for chewing. Laying there by the side of the path and no other dog had picked it up. So by all the rules of the dog park it was hers. She picked it up and was walking down the path carrying the treasure. She made it nearly three quarters of the way around as the proud owner of a stick. Tail up a big grin and a treasure. You could see it made her happy.

Now I know you are not supposed to attribute human characteristics to animals but you could just see it made her happy. And what happened next proved it. Just as we were coming along the river a golden lab cam galumphing along. The brute up and took her treasure without so much as a by your leave. Well Dixie was crest fallen. Her ears dropped, tail went down and she looked like she might cry. She was visibly disappointed. Fortunately the Lab's master made the cad give her treasure back. I think she could see how it had affected Dixie too. It put the spring right back in step to get her treasure back. But its a sad tale, she started playing with a pair of beagles dropped the treasure and forgot to bring it with her.

She found another chunk of wood but it was big and ungainly and it didn't have the cachet of the original treasure so she dropped it. But she can't wait till we go to dog Disneyland where she can find a another treasure.

Hoping for another Indian Summer weekend

Randy