The First Day Of....

The first day of the rest of my life began at seis y media en punto, six thirty on the dot. Raffi and Matti were making noisy appeals for freedom from their kennel that couldn't be ignored. I rolled out of bed, dressed and set about my morning chores. I made a pot of coffee, put away last night's dishes and unlocked the front and back doors. I then turned the now seriously crazed puppies loose and they bee-lined to the yard. While they sniffed about for the just right spot to deposit the remains of their last night's dinner, I carried the patio furniture outside. We bring it in at night to assure we will still have it in the morning. I then walked the dogs completely around our house twice which is an exercise that further stimulates their ability to place doggie land mines in random, but somehow carefully selected spots. Why else all that sniffing and circling about before the squat? When I was reasonably sure they had nothing left to donate to the yard work, I brought out their bowls of kibble. The dogs eat their morning meal, separated by our glass patio door. This keeps Raffi the stronger of the two from bogarting all the food. Up to this point my day had not differed a whit from all the days that had gone before since the puppies moved in. Now though, instead of bringing out my guitar and brutalizing the morning stillness with discordant chords, I leashed up the mutts and said "Alrighty then, let's hit the trail." The dogs were all for it.

We walked down our unpaved driveway to the unpaved servidumbre (access road) that ultimately leads to a paved road that takes you to downtown Boquete or up a hill to parts unknown. I've been up the hill to where the pavement ends, a kilometer or so, but no further. My goal as we trekked over the rocks and rubble of our servidumbre that is a now barely passable by car disaster since November's flood, was simply to walk out for half an hour and then walk back; exercise for mutts and man alike. We passed several indian men carrying baskets and bags on their way to pick coffee beans and small herds of noisy indian children on their way to...somewhere. I think school is out now as December starts Panama's summer. Apart from these people, all encountered on the servidumbre, we had the hike to ourselves. I opted to go up the paved road to see how far we would get in our allotted half hour, ten minutes of which had already expired. Progress when walking two puppies is slow as a lot of time is spent separating entwined leashes and encouraging the noses with dogs attached to not stop at every interesting scent. We made it almost to pavement's end before my watch said it was time to turn around. The dogs didn't protest when I headed them home. The small flaw in my plan to make this walk a morning hour was that the trip back took less than twenty minutes, the result of going downhill and puppies in a seeming hurry to get home. We will go further out on the morrow.

When we got back to the house we found RTGFKAR up and about and Woowoo Charly stirring. I put the pups on the bed with her to further the wake up process and then headed here to the office and my computer. Somewhere along the way I found a cup of coffee.

As a follow up to the line "The first day of the rest of my life began" one would reasonably expect something with a more dramatic tone than a dog walk. I shaved my head and entered the monastery might be good or perhaps I told my boss to shove it and drove to Vegas. The dog walk, though,works for me. I consider it a damn good start.