A Dog, A Pool and a Bouquet

I house sat for the Kutners the beginning of this week and both they and I needed it. They took off for Napa Valley and I took off for their pool. I haven't layed out and rotisseried myself in over two years. It didn't take long. Above is a fun sculpture of a cocker spaniel, the image of their beloved Sophie. Sophie and I make for good roommates (even though one roommate ocassionally has "accidents") and we both love the pool. Below is the raft I floated around on while basting. While I was doing that, Sophie would bring her ball up to the edge of the pool, drop it in, watch it float a foot or two out, wait anxiously for it, and then snatch it suddenly out of the pool when it got back close enough to the edge - over and over and over again.




I'd forgotten how much I loved and missed and found tanning relaxing. It's restorative - for me, anyway. I know all the crap about it being bad for my skin and yada, yada, yada...but it's just so stinkin' good for my soul. I think that's in part to the way it transports me back to my childhood and spending summers in my grandparent's pool in Tempe. Those weeks each summer were wonderful. My sister and I would spend countless hours and ever deepening shades of tan floating and playing in the water. We would each drift on our rafts around the pool and I would lay and listen to the mourning doves, the sparrows, the wind in the plam and oleander trees nearby and the planes flying low overhead. It was pure bliss. Laying out helps me recapture a small portion of that peace and contentment that I used to feel then. I miss those days.

And I love my times at the Kutners. It's great having something/someone be so excited to see me when I walk through the door. She literally spins around, little stump of a tale wiggling like a 6.4 on the richter scale - and even sometimes peeing herself in excitement (she doesn't do that for them, by the way ;-) It's also great to see the food that awaits me in the fridge, freezer and pantry. It's a bachelor's delight! Not to mention the four or more pounds of chocolate chips (literally) that sit in a big glass jar on Pam's baking shelf. And then there is their backyard. I always wake up earlier at their house...not cause of the dog, but because of all the singing birds. I love, then, to go out into the front yard, grab the paper, make a small pot of coffee, and then sit out on the back patio with the pool and all the amazing flowers Pam grows. Sophie comes out with her ball and starts her drop-it-in-the-pool game while I sit and listen to the cardinals and read the morning funnies.

Below is a pretty fair bouquet of the Kutner's backyard.