Things Are Getting Better!

“She didn’t bark at you!” Her shriveled face beams at me as she points to the 3-legged cancer dog squatting on the dead lawn. And, she’s right. Usually, the decrepit dog barks and barks and barks as I walk up 32^nd Street on my morning walk. But today, she doesn’t. It’s a miracle!

            “Things are getting better!” Shriveled Woman calls out to me as I march past.

            “Yes!” I agree, but actually, I think the dog was just distracted by the cat, Smokey, that I’d  been petting. Smokey is a handsome devil. Gray and sleek with a dazzling purrsonality. I’d been petting him when a car pulled up into the driveway in front of me. I tall, middled aged white guy emerged, “Hey, Smokey! C’mere!”

            “Is he your cat?” I’d asked.

            He shook his head; I could feel the disdain oozing off of him. “No, he’s everyone’s cat!”

            “Ah, he’s his own man!”

            “Yes, exactly…..Smokey, c’mere!” he commanded, acting like Smokey was his cat. Yet, Smoky began a slow saunter toward him, then sat down and started to lick his butt, proving once and for all that he was indeed his own man.  

            As I continue up the street, leaving the neighbors to continue the pet party, I wonder to myself if Shriveled Woman might, in fact, be right. That everything was getting better!

            Such as?

            For one—my sleep! This entire week the heinous insomnia had not attacked. And without this chronic sleep deprivation, I felt so much better! I had energy to go on these morning walks without dragging myself out of the house; I had energy to swim without feeling like my limbs were tree trunks; I had energy to write stories and proof my novel and answer email and work with students and play the piano and read, read read! So, yes, things were much better this week because of being able to sleep.

            What could be better than this?

            The weather! The sun came out today. And the wind has died down. This is better! After all, it is summer! In the past, I always believed that summer was the pinnacle of all the other seasons. Part of me still feels this way. I like being warm! But now, with climate change, the summers are tinged with a darker energy. Wildfires. Drought. And the anxiety that comes with these summertime ills.  I don’t feel as buoyant in the summer as I used to. However, today, since it’s been so foggy, windy, and cold for weeks, the sun’s warm and the mild temperatures do seem better!

            Finally, what could be better than going for a walk without dogs barking at you? I get so tired of jumping out of my skin when a nasty cascade of barking startles me from behind a fence. I know where all these potential bark hazards are on my neighborhood walk, and I give these fences a wide berth. But today as I walk past the usual bark-a-thon at the corner of Downer and 28^th Street, no barking! What? Do I have on an anti-barking cloaking device today? These dogs always snarl and bark at me in a most dastardly way, their big wet black noses and sharp teeth digging under the fence as they voice their intent to eat me. And, while I usually walk across the street, today it was so lovely to just walk by and smell the sweet flowers of the lemon tree blooming outside their fence, without their usual menace.

            I come up to my final turn at 32^nd Street. Here’s the last test. Will these dogs bark?

            “WOOOOFFF WOOOOFFF GGRRRRRROOOOWLLL!” And then a woman’s voice:    “NO! Stop it. That is our neighbor. She’s nice!”

            I can’t help but laugh. The anti-barking cloak isn’t foolproof.         

            As I hurry past this last dog hurdle, stepping down my street, I hear Murry, my effervescent mockingbird singing to me.

            He doesn’t stop as I put the key in the front door, pausing for a moment to gaze up to the telephone pole where he’s perched. Yup, he’s right. Time for a song. Always! Things are getting better!