How Much Is That..?

I week ago I went to work as always. It had been a cold night. I wasn't looking forward to this day. The car wash would be icy. The wind would be at my face the entire day. Monday was a clean up day at the wash. After a busy weekend, things had to be made right again for the coming week. I get there to find the place cleaner then usual. Too cold for folks to come and throw their garbage around. Wait...what's that? A dog? Running loose at a car wash? Must belong to a guy that searches through my dumpster for cans... Wait he's not here. Who does this dog belong too? I ask the few customers there. He doesn't belong to them. I ask the dog, he growls at me. Has he spent the night here? Later I see him laying in the sun. It's cold. I mean, it's cold. Looks to be a Pomeranian. They don't mind the cold so much. But I've got to get him out of here. More customers are coming in and he's growling at them...barking at them.

I call the dog catcher.

The dog catcher comes. Says: "Oh...he's in a bad way. Not an easy grab. You catch him and I'll take him. Otherwise..."

Wait...isn't that his job? To catch the dog? I mean...he's the dog catcher...right?

I go to the corner store and buy a box of small dog treats. I go back and temp the little dog with them. He's starving. Eating them if I give him distance. I try to coax him into a storage room... He's too smart for that. Doesn't like storage rooms. How about my car? (there go my clean car seats) He jumps in to get a treat...I close the door...I've got him. I get in. He gives me a look. An almost grateful look. I pet him. He's not so bad, just cold and scared.

I take him to the CT Humane Society. This dog is not abandoned...he's missing. I tell them the owner will probably be here by nightfall. The humane society won't take a stray dog. "Since when?"

A waitress and a dog lover at a diner up the street says she'll take the dog for a couple of nights until an owner comes.

She has two other dogs.

This little guy goes nuts in her house...bites her husband.

He's out. Back in my car.

I take him to my mother's house where I'm staying for a few days...the dog is an angel at my mother's house... He loves my mother. He loves my brother. He loves my aunt. He loves me.

I put up a sign--"dog found, ask for details..." Nobody asks. Nobody is coming to his rescue. This is the smartest dog I've ever seen. Nobody cares. I decide to keep him...name him Runi... He'll be with me...unless a teary-eyed family comes and asks this dog for his forgiveness...

Where's George Costanza When You Need Him?

I heard someone say the other day: "If everything you do is turning out wrong, then don't do that anymore." I guess it's like the old doctor joke: "Doc, it hurts when I do this..." And the doc replies: "Then don't do that..." It sounds simple enough. Basically if you don't like your life, chance it. Hmmm. It's true that my favorite Seinfeld episode is the one where George Costanza is so fed up with his life that he decides to do the opposite. And it worked!

To do the opposite to what we are used to actually takes work. It feels uncomfortable. I know I want to change for the better. I just have to break through the wall of uncertainty. Like the story of the two unborn babies in the womb. One says: "I can't wait to get out of here..." the other says: "Why? I like it here...three squares and a cot..." the other says: "But there must be a better place than this, I feel so cramped!!! and the other: "But what if in this other place...it's hell...and life is hard and there's less room then this..?" his brother says: "I'll take my chances...I have to grow..."

I have a lot of stories today. But stories are just stories. It's time to make the necessary changes for greater happiness and awareness. I mean, that's why we are here in the first place, isn't it? I should hope so. But I come from a long line of "womb dwellers," so it won't be as easy as I hope it will be. Or maybe it will...I mean, once I take away the excuses. Happy 2010 to all.