Life in My World—A Few for Friday

We’re on the countdown with Ty. In his e-mail this week he said that his mission president said it is time to choose an exit date. We’re still waiting to hear from the Air Force Academy on the date he needs to report, so that will play a factor, but still . . . it’s exciting to start thinking of him returning home. It is a mixed bag though, because it is an incredibly thrilling opportunity to have your child serve a mission and I will miss that.

Seemore is the sweetest dog. Along with fetching, he now sits . . . except for when he first comes in the house after he’s been gone with Calvin all day to work. Calvin loves to bring him in to tell me hello and Seemore gets so excited. If I’m sitting in a chair he charges and nearly jumps in my lap. Yesterday I heard them coming through the garage and I didn’t want to be attacked so I hid behind the couch. Calvin came in, looked around and said, “Come on Seemore, she’s not here. Let’s go find her.” Too late. Seemore had already sensed where I was and had run around the couch and tackled me in my crouched position.
He goes on a walk with me every night, which has made me more consistent and walk faster. After our walk he is wasted. He gladly crawls back in his kennel and falls sound asleep, complete with snore. He does not like his shiny, stainless steel bowl that Cali and Ray bought him for Christmas. When he gets near the bottom of his food he thinks he sees another dog in his reflection and growls and backs away from the bowl.
In the evenings and on Saturdays he loves to lay by the fire out in the shop while Calvin is working on his gun. We remind me of an old couple with only a dog for company. All we need is a checkerboard and a pantry full of canned dog food and we’re there.

We’re headed to bigger town tonight with some friends. They said there’s a new rib restaurant there and since we need to pick up supplies for a young single adult ward party, we might as well try it. I’m hoping we can stop for a minute at the scrapbook store for supplies—I’ve got a mission book to start and finish in a couple of months.

Seldom do I find the symbolism in novels. No, seldom isn’t even accurate, let me restate that: almost never do I see the subtle symbolism in novels. Anybody that has ever been in a bookclub discussion with me will vouch for that sentence. I console myself that though I don’t find the deeper meanings I do find some working knowledge—something I can apply. In The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the character Juliet writes to an associate,

“Since you should know something about me, I have asked the Reverend to write to you . . . (because he) is fond of me. I have asked Lady Bella to provide a reference for me, too . . . she wholeheartedly dislikes me. Between the two of them, you may get a fair picture of my character.”

That sentence has made me pause with cause to think. Identifying who thinks the lowliest and who thinks the highest of me, along with the sum total of their assessments, kept me and Seemore busy one whole walk. Can you identify the two people you’d choose for references with those stipulations?