Rain and Wet Dogs

Every time I drag our dog Noodle out in the rain, I think about how many things probably confuse her. Noah, my almost 17 year old, mentioned how difficult it must be to have all these legs around you, expecting you to understand commands, and ever since, I've been thinking about the inexplicable from a dog's point of view. Thunder, rain, the random car ride: all without explanation. I'm not so focused on how all of this forces you (or the dog) to live in the moment, but the fear and unexpectedness factor. This is because we have a very, very shy dog and being fairly shy myself -- and having learned to cover it up with years and years of practice -- I guess I relate. Or, as my cousin Jan said early in her own dog ownership -- When do they stop being little human beings in hair suits?

On the plus side of course, with all this rain comes an unlimited supply of delicious grubs which the dog paws out and snorts up. A schnauzer thing, I believe.

Updike

Back Again

Writing about work and money: having it, not having it, what it means in both senses, woman who buys to fill space but finds things still empty. What is the third act? If it isn't love, then it has to be some other sort of fulfillment. Find the third act and work backwards...

Grey day.

Back from D.C.

Spent the past two days in D.C. at a Science Writers Symposium hearing about new approaches to flu vaccines, salmonella, heparin, heart devices and pet food scares.

The group was pretty high powered, from Time to Bloomberg, and the questions intelligent and incisive. I didn't get the sense that the FDA was particularly trying to hide anything, but they didn't really make anyone feel safer about the state of the global food or medicine supply, particularly since save for the salmonella, some of these fiascos were intentionally started by people wanting to make a quick buck using cheaper materials.

The scientists played up the CSI aspects of the searches, but I was more impressed by the connections made by the doctors -- how they bore down and used everything they knew to think and re-think the problem before them. And, how far the search took them from where they had started....

Spent an hour in the part with Noodle, letting her dash around and wear herself out in piles of leaves among animal dens. Such peace watching her sniff and snort and such pleasure as she barrels towards me, hanging onto my every footstep and shrug.

We Did It!!

The election of Barack Obama means so much to me. Eight years of despondency can't be written off easily, but getting up this morning and finding that yes, the news of the night before was true, that he was (as my husband said) still President-elect, was joyous beyond words. Four years ago, waking up to find that despite our hard work in MoveOn, Kerry had lost (although he did take PA), I wrote my children a note of heartfelt apology for our nation, who had gone so very wrong in re-electing a man who should never have been elected (and was not elected) in the first place. I assured them that the promise of democracy would continue and that next time we would work even harder to make certain there was no fraud, no Supreme Court decisions, no mistakes.

SO instead of tears we had neighbors filling the family room, hunched over electoral scoreboards, drinking, smiling, cheering and finally popping champagne courts for Barack Obama. It is, as we all know, going to be a terrifically tough time for America and for Obama, but the vision of his little girls on the front lawn of the White House and the promise that he will represent for all the other diverse children throughout the country is going to be overwhelming and inspiring. We can't repair the damage of the past years easily, but the hope this election offers is an elixir to the worlds' troubled soul.

As Tim Russert's Dad said -- What a country!!

Obama-rama

That Obama spoke outside of Widener University in Chester, PA yesterday in the pouring rain in decidedly unstylish blue jeans, windbreaker and sneakers really moved me yesterday. I went to school until fourth grade in Chester, a black city that has been a model for urban deterioration and financial depression for years, and it has long appeared to me as one of the most neglected spots in Southeast Pennsylvania. To find it on Obama's radar at all was revitalizing and uplifting to me; a sign that he is willing to speak to lower class people who do not have financial or political clout.

Idealistic, yes. Hopeful, yes. Still a bit fearful of the outcome in Pennsylvania (no complacency), but happy about the possibilities...

Citation Nation

Got a citation today from California for S. -- he had been riding on a train and forgot his ticket or couldn't locate it. Struck again how very far he is from us and conducting his own life where he is traveling (all the way to Africa soon!)on his own path and even getting cited...

It made me want to go downstairs and bake fresh bread and chicken cacciatore and apple tarts -- all of which I did with an extra loaf for Dan for good measure. Anything to hold them at the table with me for the moment before they flew away...