Fourth Day in SB: Hello, We Must Be Going
Today’s the day we return to Oakland, but it’s been a slow and sleepy morning so far. I got up late, while Mama Dog and Gran were taking Baby Dog and Doggy Dog for a stroll around the neighbourhood. I lazed around, catching up on TV that I’d taped in the weeks before we left for this trip. The others returned as I was finishing breakfast and we decided to go out for a but before hitting the road. We took Baby Dog for a look at the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge. She had already been there the other day with Mama Dog and Gran, but I wanted to see her reaction to the ducks myself. The ducks are very tame and inured to people, so we were able to get very close to them. I squatted down with Baby Dog on my knee and pointed her to the ducks. When they quacked, Baby Dog waved her arms in excitement and squealed “Duck! Duck!” As C observed, it’s quite amazing that she’s able to make the connection between the stuffed or cartoon ducks in her toy collection and the real thing in the feather – the resemblance is really not that close. I guess it’s the “quack quack” sound that does it.
After, we went to Our Daily Bread, where Mama Dog had an early lunch and I tried a piece of some kind of strawberry cake. I was, alas, instantly repugged, and declined to finish it. Mama Dog and Gran who, despite representing two different generations were apparently raised during the same Depression, can’t abide wasted food. They ate the cake for me and from all indications quite enjoyed it. No accounting.
After that, I stopped off at the bookstore a few doors down while the ladies visited a bead store. I got a rather random selection of paperbacks from dead white males…Hemingway, Dickens, Hardy, Greene, and one or two others that don’t spring immediately to mind. As she was recording the purchase, the bookstore lady chatted with me about each and every selection, having apparently read something by each author recently. She started talking about how much she’d enjoyed Hard Times. I said I’d always meant to read it but never had and that I hadn’t read any Dickens since I read Great Expectations in college. “Oh,” she said, “that’s the one I read. It wasn’t Hard Times, it was Great Expectations.” When she was done totting up the sale, she told me she’d given me a discount that offset the tax. I suppose it was because I didn’t ridicule her for not knowing Hard Times from Great Expectations.
Oh…yesterday, Mama Dog did pick out a new case for me. I know you’re all on tenterhooks waiting to find out about it, but I don’t have it in front of me right now and will have to wait ‘til we get home before I do the grand unveiling.
Time for us to pack now. Then we leave.
After, we went to Our Daily Bread, where Mama Dog had an early lunch and I tried a piece of some kind of strawberry cake. I was, alas, instantly repugged, and declined to finish it. Mama Dog and Gran who, despite representing two different generations were apparently raised during the same Depression, can’t abide wasted food. They ate the cake for me and from all indications quite enjoyed it. No accounting.
After that, I stopped off at the bookstore a few doors down while the ladies visited a bead store. I got a rather random selection of paperbacks from dead white males…Hemingway, Dickens, Hardy, Greene, and one or two others that don’t spring immediately to mind. As she was recording the purchase, the bookstore lady chatted with me about each and every selection, having apparently read something by each author recently. She started talking about how much she’d enjoyed Hard Times. I said I’d always meant to read it but never had and that I hadn’t read any Dickens since I read Great Expectations in college. “Oh,” she said, “that’s the one I read. It wasn’t Hard Times, it was Great Expectations.” When she was done totting up the sale, she told me she’d given me a discount that offset the tax. I suppose it was because I didn’t ridicule her for not knowing Hard Times from Great Expectations.
Oh…yesterday, Mama Dog did pick out a new case for me. I know you’re all on tenterhooks waiting to find out about it, but I don’t have it in front of me right now and will have to wait ‘til we get home before I do the grand unveiling.
Time for us to pack now. Then we leave.
posted by PapaDogDuvalier | 1:17 PM
1 Comments:
Safe travels!!!
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