Thoughts on Walks

Long lunch walk today. Sniffed and marked the low hanging wisteria. Met up with the small maltese, Pal, on Guinda Street. He is as shy as I am! Love to play chase and sniff with him. We walked along for several blocks together.

Alice's sister told her a long time ago the point of walks is not just exercise. It's to sniff and see. Check the past. See the now. Not worry about the future.
Late last year right after Christmas, a big oak tree fell down a few blocks from home. It was very windy that day. There was a power outage at Sta Rita right after Pika's and my food had been microwaved. So many trees crashing down on the power lines. Lucky for us, the big oak missed the high power lines and just took out the cable and phone lines, pulled askew two telephone poles, and smashed one vehicle. No one hurt. The tree was already in its final suffering. A fungus had chewed out almost all of its insides. The evening it fell, Alice took me to see the telephone and power workers. At least a half dozen neighbors were also there watching including our pilot friend and neighbor, Art. All thinking about the oak. The end of the year. The cold. The new empty space.

A few weeks later, Alice took this picture of me with the stump. It makes her think of a newspaper article her sister blogged about today. Joshua Bell playing a real Stadivarius violin in the Washington DC Metro L'Enfant Plaza station around 8AM. How all the little children wanted to stop and listen but all were dragged away by adults. Alice has been at that station around that time of day several times. Most people are frantically trying to get to work on time. Thoughts not on or able to be what is in front of their ears and noses. Human adult time.

Kid and dog time. We just look at life differently.
I'm glad Alice and Pal's lady didn't drag us away today, instead letting us pick where to walk and sniff for at least three blocks. They enjoyed seeing us becoming bolder. Getting past our normal shyness around other dogs.

And, sometimes, I like to stop and give a special sniff to the old oak tree stump and remember how deep its shade was. Thinking about all the other dogs who have sniffed it. And loved it. And sometimes I just blast right by it.