Dotty Parker

democracy now!

The radio show Democracy Now! comes on at 9 am on weekdays here in hippie town. I do like listening to Ms. Amy Goodman. Her news gets me down a bit, but I believe her more often than I believe the rest of the news, so there's the balance.

I do wonder, though, who picked their opening music? It's this funky, wacky, oddly inappropriate guitar riff. If you go here and you click on "headlines" under "Today's Show" and then tell it you want to listen to the show, you will be immediately overwhelmed with the delights of seventies/eighties jazzy, icky, after-school special kind of music. You'll hear in the back of your mind the hint that this might be the same music that those kids driving drunk were listening to. Right away you'll hear what I'm talking about.

So I wonder every time I hear it, "Why did they choose this music?" For any interlude or break they play something very sad or ironic or something by Nina Simone so she can tell you why she still isn't free but will be one day when she dies. There are many variations on that theme. I like the music, though I can't tell you why.

I totally need a drink

I took the dogs for another walk today. This time I thought I'd try the huge open field by the observatory. I'd done a recon check earlier and it looked like the snow wouldn't be too deep.

I hustled the dogs into my little car (BrilliantEditor has absconded with the sensible vehicle). We drove up to the field. Having learned my lesson from the last time, when I had to chase Sprocket around the road, I got out first to make a path and show the pups exactly where they were supposed to walk. I went to blaze a trail!

Apparently I'm not fiery enough, however. Rather than blazing anything, my first step on the way to the field was into a snow-obscured drainage ditch. I didn't actually touch the bottom of the ditch, but when I was literally up to my ass in snow, I thought it might not be the place to try to make a path in the snow.

The other side of the road looked better. The snow there was only up to me knees. I let the dogs out of the car after I'd walked in and out of the field once. Sprocket plowed her way through, but Spring didn't want to use my path. She wanted to go her own way. I completely respect that. I will point out, however, that she's only a little bit taller than my knee.

She didn't like sinking that low. (And who does?)

Eventually I got her into the field using the path I had so graciously created. Spring and Sprock had a pretty good time running around, smelling deer and rabbit tracks. Spring likes that she can see a long way--no interfering foliage.

Spring was in a mood to do her own thing. Usually she's pretty compliant. Not today. I had Sprocket in my arms while running after Spring who decided that she'd try blazing a new path to the road. She picked a spot that had less deep snow. She went across the road and started sniffing around over there.

My panicked yells of, "Spring! No! Come here!" only led to her turning toward me, seeing that I was following her, and her trotting away assuming that I was following right after her.

And I was. But not because I wanted to go for a walk.

We played this little game for a while. The added excitement is that I'm wearing the ThaiPrincess's coat these days and I'm not used to the fabric noise it makes when I move. I was constantly convinced that cars were coming.

In the end, a truck with a plow on the front (!) drove by. Spring watched it go by and then ran after it for a few feet. I think once she smelled the exhaust she didn't want to chase it anymore.

So she came back to me.

I wanted to take them home now. I wanted to take ME home now. I had to get the dogs to the car. The leashes are in BrilliantEditor's car in Philadelphia. I tried carrying them all together, but, combined, they're forty pounds or so and they don't stack well.

So I ended up walking around like a sad old granny. I think I have a hump. I was hanging on to Spring's collar and Sprocket's harness and trying to walk with them, but it's surprisingly hard to walk that way. I was going to fall over if they kept pulling me so hard and I also might've passed out because being hunched over like that makes it hard to completely fill your lungs.

All in all I have to say this: Fuck snow. And I need a drink.

Posted by dotty at December 8, 2003 11:34 PM