Month: August 2017

The Soul Of A Dog

I’m sitting here at the end our our vacation contemplating for very practical purposes the Soul of a Dog.

My husband and I have been vacationing at Happy Nook, his family’s cottage in Maine, for about 30 years. 15 or so of those years has been with our beloved dog Paco. Paco was a rescue Sato (Street Dog) from Puerto Rico. 1/2 Beagle 1/2 Terrier 1/2 Corgie 100% best dog that ever lived. We said goodby to Paco the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend 2017. It was the hardest most intensely emotional thing we have done thus far as a couple.

So here we are again on vacation at Happy Nook with Paco one last time. My husband has been referring to the small cedar box that contain his ashes as actually being Paco. Is it? Maybe in a sense but here is where we get metaphysical I guess.

Our intent was to end this vacation with a ceremonial a scattering of his ashes in a place we knew with absolute certainty Paco loved.

When he was first brought up here he would run around the cottage with breathtaking speed. I swear his paws hitting the lawn sounded like a race horse. He could not do that at home in our tiny backyard and never really ran like that in a dog park. He was truly unleashed! He would ride proudly displaying his doggie life jacket while the three is us paddled the Cove in the canoe. Well two of us paddle while he watched for dangers from sea and shore. He would bark hysterically as we dove off the rocks at high tide. Only once if I remember correctly did he actually jump in to “Save” us and was totally dumbfounded when we dove in AGAIN! He always took the lead on hikes and long walks at Sagadahoc Bay at low tide. He would not be pleased that the people in the house at the access point the Bay have recently claimed it as private property. He would also enjoy an impromptu ride in the wheelbarrow while helping to move piles of mulch.

When we would pack up the car to leave he would (when he still could) jump into his place in the back seat as if to say you guys ain’t leaving me here are? For 15 years we were a trio. This last part I believe is what has given my husband second thoughts about scattering Paco’s ashes at Happy Nook in Maine rather than our small backyard in Boston. Would we essentially be leaving him behind? Would he think we were?

So here we sit contemplating the Soul of a Dog or any Soul for that matter. Now I know there are a gazillion interpretations of The Afterlife or The Rainbow Bridge. I grew up Catholic and have had a long long time to eschew most of THAT but it did, it’s fair to say, give me a sort of spiritual foundation. I also believe in Magic, String Theory, Alternate Dimensions, and of course some sort of Energy Transference when we die. I would also very much like to believe in fairies and elves. My husband on the other hand came to spirituality, or dogma thereof anyway, later in life and that may be why this is harder for him. I don’t really know, read his blog! All joking aside we both know deep down inside that the rituals around death and burial are more for the living than for the ones we have lost. The Soul, The Spirit, The Energy of that Lifee has gone on to new adventures. That makes me feel the most comforted so that is what I choose to believe till I get to find out for myself.

SO IF we scatter Paco’s ashes here in Maine rather than our tiny backyard in Boston I’d like to think of Paco again charging around the cottage like a race horse. Roaming free and smelling the smells. Perhaps greeting his old friend Bear from up The Lane. Free to explore the wonderful, peaceful, serene place Happy Nook is. Maybe he will jump in the car one last time. Maybe he will ride back home with us. Maybe he will look up from playing at see us ride off and remember us as the two guys who loved him very very much. Then he’ll catch a smell and run off into the wild blueberry bushes and underbrush gleefully no longer, if he ever really was, worried about Ticks!

A Spec Of Dust

So it has been awhile since I have blogged anything. I have also realized my website, where the Blog lives, is also in need of updating. I am a person who loves the latest gadgets and tech but at the same time totally filled with anxiety when it comes to upgrading, protecting and generally messing around with anything once it has been set up. I also don’t do it enough to remember what exactly I did to simply upload a pic the next time I need to do it. So I decided the best way tackle updating my website was to indeed buy the latest gadget. I bought the new iPad Pro 10.5 so I could work from the latest platform. Also I wanted a new toy and I had just been paid from my latest gig and it is also my 56th birthday and also I wanted it.

The older gentleman at the Apple Store (my age, is that allowed) who sold it to me was very informative and agreed on my choice of model and why I wanted it. I had my last one 7 years and he knew I wanted the same if not more out of this model. The apathetic Young man who helped me set it up, I thought answered my questions and was actually talking to me until I realized he was having a conversation with his coworker who was helping a woman with an Apple Watch. He also yawned when introduced to me. Well kudos to Apple for Age Diversity in their hiring practices.

My big question was about Screen Protectors. Yay or Nay. I read many threads online that said definitely Yay till more research produced threads saying definitively Nay. The old guy thought since I was getting AppleCare+ (I know but it has saved me $$ in the past) I would not need a Screen Protector since it would be covered for scratches and cracks done by the user as well as everything else. Now I could have waited the 2 years and right at the end of the warranty get the glass replaced (actually whole iPad for $49) and then got the screen protector after that, but that is not how I roll. I could also have gone to the guys in the Prudential Center and have them put one on for $55. I could also buy an Anker screen protector from Amazon for $9 and do it myself. After telling that all to the older guy at Apple he agreed sure why not, $9.

I got the $9 one and spent the night tossing and turning in anticipation of putting the damn thing on. Not really but it was on my mind. I got one with a unique hinge application system that I thought I could handle. This morning I set out to apply it. It was aligned and set up. I used the alcohol wipes then the dust wipes then the dust remover sticker. I do this like 6 times. OK now time to place the screen down on the iPad. Maybe just one more pass with the dust sticker. I catches the hinge thing (included) and knocks the whole thing out of alignment. I realign and repeat steps 2-4. This time hinge thingie (included) was not tight enough so it knocks the screen protector askew. Align and repeat steps 2-4.

Finally I am ready to peel off the back of the Screen Protector. OK so steps 1-4 a couple more times, but it falls into place on the iPad screen and does this magic adhering thing. Then I see it. A Spec Of Dust! One tiny spec of dust right in the middle of the screen. HOW? WHYYY? I had repeated the steps I followed the directions. Do I lift it up to get to it. A lot of people on various threads said Yay while others said a definite Nay. Who do you believe? Better still who could I blame?

Now I am the type of guy who checks to see if he locked the car at least twice before leaving it. I know well how you can ruin a trip with the sentence “Is the Iron unplugged?” I know in my very being when a picture is crooked and where the defect is on any new anything I buy or am given. So this tiny spec of dust sat in my very soul like a flaming hot coal. Are you gonna let that spec of dust just sit there like that. Don’t you want to risk more dust, bubbles and possible cracks by prying off a corner of a GLASS Screen Protector and repeating steps 1-4? That Spec of Dust will still be mocking you when you sit down and blog about this!!

Well after looking at my now old iPad 2 I realize even with all the OCD swirling around I hardly ever seem to clean the screen. Go figure right. I can also ignore a fair amount of housecleaning too, but the door is always locked when I leave my dirty house. I check. I’m pretty confident that spec of dust will blend in soon enough. Of course I could show it to a sane person, like my husband, who will ask “What Spec of Dust?” Ya that route never ends well.

So I have decided to live with the Spec of Dust. Why with everything going on in the world now or actually since humans has become cognizant of their interactions with it, why is it always the little things that seem bring us to out knees? Next I am hopefully going to update my resume page with my last play and post new pics from it. Right now I’m going to see how to post this using the new Beta editing program I guess I allowed when re-logging into WordPresss.

Oh and I also bought a New Military Standard Drop Tested IPad Pro 10.5 case…..with a cover. You can never be too careful.