Horses on Main Street

'Tother week, Alice and I saw the horse carriage on Main Street. So exciting to smell the horse!! Hear them clop-clopping. Such big animals. Their scent goes far like the lights in Alice's pix.

Rain Waka

Eager to walk now
Racing to the door prancing
Get the leash Alice!

Out I go, but oh no, no!
Quick dash back to blue blanket

Rain, Rain Go Away

Why, oh why, Alice, must we cut walks short when it rains hard? See, even the daffs like being OUT in the rain.
And that new neighborhood beagle, too! He blasted across the street to meet me. And left some paw prints on your jeans, but I know you didn't mind because those are your gardening jeans already a mess from planting more daffs at Sta. Rita yesterday.
The beagle person was very nice and worried that I might be scared of her beagle, but I wasn't. Just always amused with how much energy they use. She said they are bred to bay in a pack chasing prey for up to 20 mintues.
No wonder the other beagle neighbor, Stella, can bay and bay. Never heard her do 20 minutes. Just a minute or two at most. She needs to get out more. In a beagle pack, no?!

Skating Meccas

Alice was severely disppointed when Pika's person went to Über-Skating-Mecca Davos recently and neither ice skated nor curled. I mean REALLY! Why go there and not do at least one Winter Sport! Life is long. He will have some other chances.
The first time Alice skated outdoors was at Rockefeller Center during a Christmas season long ago. She remembers skating fast there on a cloudy day with her sister. Watching the Rockettes kick their feet high at Radio Center in Mrs. Santa Claus costumes. Window shopping nearby and taking the train back out to "The Island".
Last month, Alice went over to see the rink again. She hopes she'll skate there with her sister many more times in this lifetime.
On Super Bowl Sunday, she took another train and met a friend at their favorite Washington DC rink by the National Archives. Hot chocolate and chilli at the restaurant and a long talk about the joys of skating.
I think Alice may like skating as much as I like walking. She says there is something wonderful about freshly-Zamboni'd ice and an empty ice surface. Reflections like a lake. Smooth and fast. Spinning in center ice perfectly on one spot. Light twills around. Pull in the arms and free leg and - Oh! So fast. The world blurs.

Buffy's and Kitty Dukakis' People

Alice went over to the Cantor Museum last Sunday to see the American tourism exhibit. Buffy's person, Karen, and Kitty D's person, Ann went, too. No dogs or cats allowed inside. But I have been outside to see the Rodin sculptures - or rather - to sniff their plinths. Have to admit, I've not done merely air-peeing there.....
A favorite in the exhibit was Francis Hopkinson Smith's charcoal of Echo Lake in New Hampshire. A small lake in ski country near Conway, NH. Karen has ice skated on that lake. Seeing it brought back all her memories of time there and made Alice think of her favorite outdoor skating places, too.
Whiplash outside - a big bicycle race complete with yellow jerseys, VIP tents and crowd barriers. And.... I see some doggies. Hmmmm.

Happy Valentine's Day

Walked with Alice last night and this morning distributing Valentines. All my doggie friends: Holly,Fluffy, Tuffy, Sasha, Violet, Penny.....and even some cats and one bird. More to go out by the snail mail. I hope everyone has a great V-Day! Lots of love, sun spots and daffodils to all.

Looking for Dogs and Adele

On trips, Alice always looks for dogs. Saw the most on Madison Avenue in New York City. Cold and rainy there. Los of dogs with coats and cold feet. One very sad pair were being dragged along near E. 70th St - no time for sniff stops! - by two guys who talked between themselves, one eating something out of a plastic container. The big yellow lab wearing a mussle gave Alice a "Save me!" stare as he was dragged across Madison Avenue.
Alice said I would not like where she was going. I believe her now.
But, she said some places I would have liked, but dogs are not allowed there. Best place was at a museum's Viennese cafe with wood floors, upholstered seating, nice fire, and lots and lots of sausages!!! Sehr gemütlich.
Down in the museum basement were picture drawn by Viennese schoolchildren to commemorate the trip to America of Adele's golden painting. Here are two dogs supporting her choices in American food - complete with a golden Golden Arches logo! She also puts on American clothes and drives modern vehicles! One child put her in jeans and a t-shirt standing on a meadow, placing her heavy gold dress to the side with a photo of the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. Alice's favorite was one with Adele in a spacesuit on a planet like St. Exupery's Petit Prince. Black stars and hot sun behind.
The story of how Adele's gold painting came to American, I think, really has to do with music. In Vienna before WWII, opera singer Fritz Altmann and composer Erich Zeisl were good friends. Years later, Fritz's widow Maria and Erich's grandson Randy Schoenberg met in Los Angeles. Randy is a lawyer. Maria is a niece of Adele. Alice is sure Randy and Maria both have heard many times Erich's Requiem Ebraico which Alice has sung in San Francisco and at Stanford. How right that Erich did so many "technicolor" film scores in the 1950's while Adele's gold portrait is beyond technicolor.
Art lives. And, real friendship lives forever.

Surgery + 2 Weeks

Almost back to normal. Tail does not feel so exposed and naked. I am sooooo glad to be back to long walks after the enforced short-walks to recover from the surgery.
Not sure which was worse: the incisions and stitches or the shavings or the.... ick! ... Clavamox antibiotic. I didn't have pain thanks to the painkillers, but oh how some of the incisions and stiches itched! I scratched one on my neck as much as I could which only made it worse. Like a skinned kid's knee at a playground, said Alice. I shuddered everytime Alice gave me the Clavamox. Made me never want to eat or drink again. Very glad that is all over now.
All that trouble over a bunch of ingrown hairs which created cysts. And some harmless skin tags. Alice says never again will I have these surgeries unless one gets infected. She agrees -- too much needless suffering. Go with the inner ESP on whether something is cancer or not.
Well, on to Spring! First daff is up in the front yard. Tulip trees blooming all over. One big cherry tree nearby is in full bloom. Life always goes on.

Alice Came Back... Smelling of Pika

Alice came back to me. I was so happy, I shivered in her lap in the car from the airport. But. But... She smelled like Pika. I could tell that minky chica had been in her lap. What was Alice doing with Pika? She tells me she only saw Pika for a few hours. Hmmmmm. Must be calm.