The snow has been disappearing and the grass and flowers reappearing. Dark clouds have taken over what had been a blue sky. We even had sun for a bit. It’s a little warmer than yesterday and will be even warmer, but rainy, tomorrow. Gracie and I are going out later to do a couple of errands. Right now, though, she’s sleeping, taking her usual morning nap on the couch.

When I was a kid, Duke, our boxer, wasn’t allowed on beds or the couch, but most mornings as we were walking down the stairs, we could hear him getting off the couch. Duke was into creature comforts and was a smart dog who knew how to get around the couch restriction. We never caught him on it. We were too loud coming down the stairs, and he was too quick.

My dogs have always slept on my bed at night and on the couch whenever. At night Gracie makes herself quite comfortable. She lies across the bottom of the bed, falls deeply asleep then starts snoring far too loudly. I push her with my foot and the snoring stops for a couple of minutes but then she starts snoring again so I push her again. She sometimes gets a bit annoyed so she moves up the bed, circles several times then lies down right beside me. She usually pushes the other pillow off the bed to give herself more room. I don’t love her beside me, but she doesn’t snore when she’s there so I put up with it and get as comfortable as I can despite the bed hog.

I used to love saddle shoes, and I still have a pair I bought about twenty or twenty-five years ago from a hole in the wall tiny shoe store filled with boxes up to the ceiling and piled on the floor. The owner was a whiz at finding anything. He was an old guy and the only one who ever worked there. I loved his store. It was like a trip back in time. He sat on a little stool in front of me, used his shoe horn to slide my feet into the shoes, checked to see how far up my toes were and then had me walk around his store. I bought a few pairs of shoes there, some I probably didn’t need, like the saddle shoes, but the little man was hard to resist. I think I’ve worn those saddle shoes twice in all these years, but they were well-worth the price just for the experience of shopping in that little store with all the boxes.