“On Sunday mornings, as the dawn burned into day, swarms of gulls descended on the uncollected trash, hovering and dropping in the cold clear light.”
Today isn’t pretty. It’s cloudy, and rain is expected in the afternoon, but for some unknown reason I like today. I slept late then read the papers. My Kona coffee was delicious. When Henry went out, I stood on the deck a while and watched him. The air was warm. It was filled with birds sounds. The mourning doves were the loudest. At the feeders, the bright yellow goldfinches flew in and out as did the chickadees. A gray spawn of Satan jumped from branch to branch. Henry went inside without me. I followed him. It was time to feed him and Maddie. When that was done, I asked Alexa (the x doesn’t work either-I copied and pasted) to play traditional folk. As I read my e-mail, Peter, Paul and Mary was her first choice. That was perfect.
Today is dump day. Henry doesn’t yet know the joy of a dump run, one of Gracie’s favorite trips. When she’d see trash go outside, she could barely contain herself. Henry sits on the couch and watches. I need to get him car happy before we do rides together.
My father loved his dump. It was a different time back then, no recycling. The dump was just huge piles of trash you drove around while looking for a spot to empty your barrels. Seagulls flew in circles around the piles and squawked and wailed. Others walked all over the trash looking for food. My dad always dumped his trash on the weekend. If I were home from school, he’d invite me to go with him. If I had a friend with me for the weekend, I was second fiddle, and my friend got the invite. My father thought the invite was special, a sharing of one of his favorite places.
Having a puppy is a whole difference experience. Henry doesn’t walk. He runs and sounds like a thundering herd. He jumps on the couch. He bolts up the outside backstairs so fast he skips steps. He is a vacuum when he eats. I doubt he even chews. My whole bed shakes when he does his running leap from the hall to get on the bed. His tail whips back and forth when he is happy. Henry is the first dog I’ve ever had with a long tail. I got face whacked the other day. I learned a lesson.
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April 27, 2018 at 3:02 pm
Mixed weather here today, much like yesterday but without the hail. The wind felt a bit too cold though but that is to be expected since we’ll have Walpurgis night here on Monday and I can actually not remember even one Walpurgis night when the weather has been nice 🙂 🙂 So now I have a long weekend 🙂
I was pretty old when I went to the dump for the first time so it was already a recycling place but I’ve always been fascinated in what other people toss away, some things look more or less unused but it could just mean that the previous owner was careful, nothing tossed away from my home looks unused 🙂 🙂
I think that gulping down the food is a male dog thing, none of my girls have ever done that. Albin just opens his mouth and gone is the food 🙂 🙂 and he still get more than twice what the other two get together 🙂 🙂
Ah the joy of getting face whacked 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just wait till he wakes You up that way 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
April 27, 2018 at 7:02 pm
Christer,
Right now it is pouring and has been on and off all afternoon. It is supposed to get warm, maybe even hot, next week. We will be cooler than the Boston area but still warm.
I just noticed the floor in front of the dog door is soaked. I put the cover of the door on so I’ll have to let Henry out.
When I was a kid, we never went to the dump. The town had trash pickup. Here on the cape you have to pay for trash pickup so it is cheaper to go to the dump.
This is my first male dog. I just figured he was a gulper because he is a puppy.
The whack when I was awake was bad enough. I am not looking forward to being woken up by a wack. It hurt!
Have a wonderful morning!
April 27, 2018 at 6:26 pm
Of course youth is wasted on the young. Henry is in a big hurry because he is young and every odor is new. When we get old our bodies slow down automatically so that we can enjoy the world around us because we know that life is short. 🙂
I never had the privilege of going to a dump. I used to drive by a land fill when taking my daughter to horse back riding class. The front of the landfill was beautifuly landscaped with a beautiful cast iron gate and lots of flowers in the beds. Most of the trucks that drove in and out were garbage trucks from the local towns. I found it interesting that developers were building a nd selling new homes around the landfill. I wonder if the developers had to disclose the proximity to the dump to prospective buyers.
Sunny and warm with a high this afternoon in the low 80s.
April 27, 2018 at 7:14 pm
Bob,
I watched him run around the yard then do a u-turn and run back here and up the stairs. He looked like a greyhound. I always think puppies are far more curious than when they are older. Everything is new to them. He stops and sniffs. He seems to have so much fun!
The old dump my father went to is now a golf course. It also has a soccer field and tennis courts. The current dump has no open trash. My dump too has bins and no open trash.
It was in the low 50’s today. By Sunday it is supposed to hit the 70’s and next week Boston may hit 80˚.
April 27, 2018 at 6:40 pm
Hi Kat,
Yet another advantage of short dogs; no face whacking. Shin beating is common though and that can be quite painful when you have sensitive shins. Rocky and Piki Dog’s tails are usually vertical when they’re wagging anyway so not usually an issue here.
Rocky tap dances around the house. Piki Dog flings himself everywhere. He ricochets off the back of the couch in order to get to his favorite spot before Rocky or I can.
The town dump was close to my house. If I went as the crow flies, through the woods and over the river (a very, very small river), I could get there easily. I liked picking through the junk. Once I found a silver-plate Revere-style bowl. It was tarnished. I took it home and cleaned it up as best I could but it had lost the plating here and there. I kept it anyway. Some years ago I found a product that would chemically re-plate those lost areas. It looks great now.
Yeah, I still have a bowl that I dump picked sixty years ago. Let us not get into my finds from Big Trash Days. 😀
The day started out nicely but then it clouded over and rained.
Enjoy the evening.
April 27, 2018 at 7:34 pm
Hi Caryn,
Henry was sitting on my bed greeting me when I woke up. He gets excited to know I’m awake, and that tail whips around back and forth. It is long and skinny in places. Gracie and Fern too used to greet me. I always liked that.
Gracie used to dance as well. Henry is restless and takes a while to relax on the couch in the evening. He loves running the yard. I watch him and he is the flash. The cat sleeps on the table on a small blanket or on the chair on a towel.
Stoneham has a dump, but when I lived there I saw it only once. My sister said it is still there. I think her husband dump picks. He brings home all sorts of stuff.
I like to go to the church thrift shops which are cousins to dump picking. I sometimes find treasures.
It rained here longer than anywhere else according to the weather. Sometimes it was a downpour. It came in through the dog door and wet the floor. It as since stopped.
Have a great evening!
April 27, 2018 at 11:31 pm
Put your breakables out of tail range
April 27, 2018 at 11:35 pm
Spaceman,
This is a whole new thing to me. My boxers had docked tails. Henry’s just looks so long and it covers a lot of air space when he waves it. I’m also amazed by how long his snout is.
The other part is the dog hairs. They are white and on everything. I don’t know why Henry isn’t bald. I brush, and he does like it.
April 30, 2018 at 12:08 am
I am SOOOOO happy about Henry in your life!!
April 30, 2018 at 10:43 am
Thank you, John.
I haven’t ever had other than boxers and females before Henry so this is a fun experience, especially because he is a puppy. I find myself scratching his head automatically as I sit and read. He knows I’m his and he is mine. It is easy to love him.