Monday, November 9, 2009. Nobody Wants To Go Out With Me. Hurricane Ida is heading this way, but expected to veer east before reaching the coast. Its winds have backed off. Still, I can't help looking at the satellite imagery every hours or so. Something nostalgic about that activity. We didn't have to do it even once this year. I'm kidding, but Mary Leigh wouldn't be about this subject. She finds hurricanes exciting, largely because it gets her off school. An evacuation is her favorite, because it results in a multi-week trip somewhere new. Like last year's Gustav-inspired run to Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon, and Los Angeles. And, after all, it's been a whole 24-hour day since she got back from her last trip!
The dog Mac is still missing. Mary Ann called the pound to see if he'd been picked up. They had a black Lab, but it wasn't Mac. Then she went up the street to talk to the man who had adopted Mac from a friend. Months ago, Mac began wandering over to our house, struck up a relationship with our dog and family, and more or less moved in full-time. Which is why when he was hit by a car we paid for the surgery that saved his life. As far as we were concerned, he was our dog now; the guy up the street didn't seem to care where Mac was, and made no offer to share the veterinary bill.
She came back flabbergasted. The man who gave Mac to our neighbor decided he wanted him back. So he came by and just took him away. The neighbor would not disclose the man's name to us, saying that he couldn't afford to reimburse us even partially for the surgery. Now Mary Ann's afraid that these careless people would get tired of Mac again, and send him to the pound or something.
I still refuse to believe the old saying "No good deed goes unpunished." But this turn of events certainly exemplifies it. Poor Mac!
I was hoping that the Marys would want to have dinner with me after the radio show, but Mary Leigh was too hungry to wait and made a pot of her spicy, garlicky good pasta sauce and ate that. What ML eats, I eat, if I'm at home. I will miss these days when they end next September. But I look forward to a time when, if we cook at home, it can be something we haven't eaten a million previous times.
