It must have been close to Christmas, but on which side, I don't quite remember. I suspect it was sometime in the January doldrums when all was frozen and gray. My friend Walter decided it was a good day for a dog. To get one, that is. "I know I'm me, because my little dog knows me," Walter once quoted Gertrude Stein. With his boyfriend Joseph away in the hospital, the house had an unaccustomed empty feeling. And it had been without a dog for too long. The shelter was in Ann Arbor . We piled festively into the car for the outing. It didn't take long to find her, a black and white ragamuffin puppy, so excited to see us that her tail seemed to wag her whole body. "This one?" I said, my inner ten year old going can we get her? Huh? Can we? Can we? On the way home in the car Walter chuckled, "I don't know whose eyes were more pleading - hers or yours." Walter named her Agatha, in honor of Miss Christie, the doyenne of our mi...
Love them both.
ReplyDeleteWell, now that I think about it, I'd say that little pang of guilt makes it alright. And if I knew Val or Sigourney, which I don't, just sayin, if I did, I'm sure they'd both giggle at the thought.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so what's the story behind your blog's monicker? Reminds me of that hat on the invisible man's head. But that's just me. Is there a story that comes before? Or is it all coming to be, post nom de wutchamacallit?
"Reminds me of that hat on the invisible man's head."
ReplyDeleteHey, that's pretty good. And is exactly what I had in mind for the subtext. Being truant from the 9 to 5 life was first. I also liked the word's origin in French: bum, vagabond, beggar. Roads down here are sometimes called "Trace", as in track, or trail. So there you have it. I was also considering "Absentee Ballad" but, well, did you ever have to finally decide...?
Sigourney or Val?
ReplyDeleteOne is rather masculine, one rather feminine.
And not in the order you would think.
Androgynous tastes? Dear Joe!