Who knew starting a blog was so easy? I am absolutely technologically challenged and yet here I am.
Fall came this week. The reason I know this is because my dog (a perpetually-irritated Westie) has decided that I may hold her on my lap. She does this every fall and winter, and only during the fall and winter months. When the weather is right, and when she's darned good and ready, she will allow me to pick her up and put her on my lap while I'm reading the paper. She has to initiate this little dance. First she approaches my chair and puts her feet up and looks at me. And looks. And looks, until I suddenly recognize what she's trying to tell me. "Yes, yes, it's fall! Yes, the weather is cooling off! You may hold me now." Most of the time I'm much slower to arrive at this conclusion than she thinks I should be. I'm slower because the dance I'm waiting for is the one where she sits, looking at me while I do my regular table-setting routine. She's already been out and been fed. She's waiting for me to sit down and pick up the paper. Then, and only then, she MUST be let outside, immediately. She has things out there she needs to do. But only after I sit down and pick up the paper. That's the critical part. It's no good trying to wait her out. She knows the order of these things. There is a reason why it must be after I sit. I don't know the why of it. And, to give her full credit, apparently, it's not important that I know the "why." My job is to sit, pick up the paper and then get back up and let her out. It's just the way it is. We each have our assigned tasks and mine is to do her bidding. But only after I sit. Every single morning.
Any other time of the year is simply out of the question for early-morning lap-sitting. I don't care what the calendar says; this year fall fell on October 18th. Forget the solstice and the alignment of the stars, the turning of the leaves or ducks flying in v-formations. At our house, when Belle desires early morning lap time, the weather is changing. She'll sit there every morning until the temperature starts to rise in the spring. It's sad when that day comes because it signals the onset of hot temperatures and I know they'll last from about mid-April until October rolls around again.
