Friday, January 25, 2008

Monsterdog in the driver’s seat

So I am driving G to her gymnastics class, which starts at five. My watch says I have ten minutes, and even with the icy roads, we have ample time. Turn onto a narrow road a block away from our house and see a huge Toyota Tundra work truck coming our way. No problem, because he inches over to the side to let us through. As he inches, his back end fishtails, and I feel that ‘getting to be familiar’ thud as he hits my car. GRRRRRR… We get out, and I am amazed to see that he hit me EXACTLY where the last gentleman hit my four-runner- no harm. Well, it broke his taillight, but I think he could care less about that, in the grand scheme of things. We wave, I turn to go back, and see a tail wagging from my driver’s seat. A big bushy tail. A big bushy tail attached to this monster wolf-shepherd hybrid dog that has decided to jump in my car. I try to shoo him out, and he looks at me like I am a flea. Mister Tundra comes over to get him out, and he jumps over into the passenger seat- his huge muddy hairy body sitting squarely on my no-longer cute new purse and schoolbag. Eventually he jumps in the back, and lays his head against G, who is LOVING this.
Long story short, I now know that it takes three people working together to get a wolf-shepherd out of a four-runner, that dog saliva can end up slung all over a car, that some stories are better than “the dog ate my homework”, and that I should allow way more time to get to gymnastics on time.
Posted by everydayjill in 04:01:54 | Permalink | Comments (2)

So much fun stuff to write and so little time…. On a serious note, though, I am very aware again of how precious and short life can be. Aware of how important it is to tell and show the ones we love how much they matter.
The Gifted and Talented teacher from G’s school committed suicide sometime last week. He was actually the G&T teacher last year, and his position had changed this year. I don’t know details, don’t want to, but I saw him constantly in our little bitty town. At the post office, library, out walking, at the gas station, buying a paper, I saw him at least a couple of times a week. I always smiled and sometimes said hello, but nothing more. Not that it would have changed anything, but I wish that I had said more- had really seen him. I look back and think about when I would smile as I passed him, and it was one of those “How are you?” sort of greetings where had he answered anything, I probably would have said “good, good…” and not really heard whatever he said. I hope he found peace from whatever must have been hurting so, and I hope I remember to truly make an effort to see people when I see them.
Posted by everydayjill in 03:47:28 | Permalink | Comments (1) »