Month: September 2012

Hooray for Autumn!

Happy Friday all! I know I’m hijacking Kira’s day (sorry Kira), but I didn’t want you to think I forgot about you yesterday.

Ok, I confess. I forgot about you yesterday. Whoops! I can’t help it! This wonderful fall weather (minus the rain) has got me in a tizzy! All I can think of is colored leaves, pumpkin flavored everything and apple cider. And HAYRIDES!! I love those! Someone better take me on a hayride this year! I also can’t wait to carve my third annual pumpkin and make “bacon” seeds. So many fun and exciting things to do around this time of year. To get myself into the holiday swing, I recently saw two scary movies, Possessed and The House at the end of the Street. Both movies were excellent and seriously creepy. If you’re into scary stuff, check them out. You won’t be disappointed. I love this season!

Time for me to get back to work now. I’m so looking forward to going home so I can burn something pumpkin scented. Hurry up 6pm! See you next week! 🙂

Post-op!

Monah, the Bernese Mountain Dog we rehomed two months ago, had surgery today…for a hematoma on her ear. It had been a nasty situation and obviously needed to be dealt with. So we did what responsible pet-owners do and took her to the vet.
She has quite a comprehensive vocabulary, and perhaps she had believed me when we casually climbed into the car this morning and I told her she would feel so much better soon. She loves going for rides. But, as we pulled into the parking lot at the vet’s office, her eyes mournfully revealed that she knew no good would come of this trip. Her last look at me as they walked her into the surgery was pleading. She thought I was abandoning her.
Now, here we are, ten hours later, and I couldn’t feel guiltier. I had picked her up about an hour ago, paid the $$$ bill, and was instructed as to medications and procedures. The two of us wobbled to the car, struggled into it and then out of it, staggered down the steps from the road and then up the steps to the first floor.
  I’d hoped that she’d feel reassured about her homecoming, being back in familiar spaces with those who love her and bring her comfort. Hugs all around. Well, looking at her, I know this is not going to be an easy night. Her ear has been shaved, giving her a wounded look. And what was elegantly called an Elizabethan collar…more like a lampshade…has accompanied her. So far I’ve refused to add to her indignity and put it on her. Her bloodshot eyes droop over her cheekbones. Her nose is dry. Her tail drags. The dog whose favorite spot used to be at my feet now wants to be a room away. For added measure…a real Sarah Bernhardt…when I go to stroke her and talk to her, she has begun to moan, whimper, and…believe it or not…yodel.
  Pets…like babies…instinctively know how to be in control of our emotions. It’s never easy to deal with one who is telling you that you let them down. I’ve gone through it before with other pets: seven dogs and 13 cats who have all resented trips to the vet that had some painful results…like neutering and spaying. Not true of our goats. Yeah, it must have hurt when they put rubber bands around their little testicles until they fell off, but they went on frolicking about, oblivious to the injustice, and easier to domesticate because of it.

  Our Monah will come out of her stupor tomorrow. Her ear may hurt even more when the anesthesia is out of her systerm, and we have pills to coax into her for that. But we’ll be able to go for a walk, she’ll want a belly-rub, and there are treats to get through any peckish moods. Return of rapport, hopefully. Meanwhile I’ll have a glass of sherry to get me through the night, and perhaps I’ll try yodeling in harmony.

Fall is Almost Here!

I live my life around the changing of the seasons.  At the end of every Winter, I think Spring is my favorite season.  At the end of every Summer, I think Fall is.  Because I live for the middle-ground.  Not too hot, not too cold.  That’s my motto.  This past Winter, after weeks of half-cold and little snow, I was desperate for Spring.  Of course it was barely a few weeks before the stifling heat of Summer rolled around again — and this Fall, as with every Fall, I’m So. Very. Ready. for the weather to change again (and boy, has it.  I had slippers and a hoodie on this morning!)

I love Fall because of the flavors; the scents.  Spring has flowers, sure, and iced tea maybe, and warm breezes.  But Fall has pumpkin and cinnamon, nutmeg and leaves.  Hot cider, roasted nuts, apple pie, hay bales, mums, the sharp cold tang of the air changing.  It’s the season where soup becomes an acceptable meal again.  Where we pull scarves and jackets out of storage and snuggle under down comforters at night.  The nights get longer and the days get shorter.  Breezes turn to chilly gusts.  It’s the King of the seasons.

It’s the easiest season to own a bookstore in, I think, because there’s something so naturally simpatico about books and Autumn.  Maybe it’s the desire to “curl up and read” with big thick socks on and an afghan over your legs, with a big steaming mug of tea by your elbow.  Maybe it’s the smell of books, so compatible with the smell of leaves and the natural decaying of things that happens every year.  Maybe it’s all in my head.  Whatever it is, I’ll stick by it.  Books and Fall are a lovely team, and I look forward to the Fall-themed events we’ll be hosting at The Wise Owl this year.

I encourage you to check out www.wiseowlbookstore.com for more information about our Contemporary Book Club discussion of Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” on October 9th, or our 2nd Annual Dark and Stormy Night here at the store, at the end of October, where local actors will read chilling ghost tales from centuries past!

Bring it on, Fall!