Just taking a moment to say hello

   It’s 9:30 on Saturday night and I’m sitting on the couch working in my journal. Quite a few days have passed since my last post. I find myself meaning to write more often, but succumb most times to the other menial tasks that occupy human life.

 

The last few weeks have been full of adventure, some of which you might find worth knowing. Last week Amy took her staff to Snowshoe to enjoy a few days of skiing. As the bosses significant other, I was brought along on this journey, though post-incident recollection confirms my suspicions that I was brought as the entertainment, maybe even the jester. Whereas the typical jester amuses his court with feats of acrobatics leaning towards occasional incident, I chose to perform my duties via feats of incident interspersed with occasional acrobatics, usually as a result of a failing attempt to avoid a catastrophic accident in the midst of aforementioned incident.

The times I fell, foundered, bounced, rolled, and gracelessly skidded down the mountain in a variety of amusing poses was thankfully not recorded too often on camera, though Amy did get one apropos image during the trip as you can see. At the exact moment of this photo, I was stuck, tail down, in a soft pile of snow surrounding a light pole. According to my betters, these bright yellow barriers are actually NOT points at which one should aim oneself unless you have the skill to turn prior to actual contact. I do not.

 

In addition to this barrier, I took out one small child, hit a giant rock dead on, and skied thru a "Slow” sign while attempting to snow-brake my descent to something below 40 miles per hour as I approached the ski lift at the bottom of the hill.

In a much less action packed, though no less enjoyable event, Caroline treated the group to dinner on Wednesday night at the Ember, the restaurant located in the bottom of the Soaring Eagle lodge. Dinner was a wonderful myriad of well-prepared courses that might have been orchestrated as an ensemble, so perfect was the progression of the meal. We began with a lobster-stuffed ravioli and a course of Kobe skewers followed by the main course during which I enjoyed a steak. Anyone familiar with me knows that I have no other options available to me if the menu contains any option for a large amount of fine-cut bovine sacrifice. Dessert was a three course crème brulee titles Menage ah Trois, accompanied with Port. I enjoyed the company of these three wonderful women with my usual coffee, but the wines were all spectacular if the amount of empty bottles were to be any indication.

 

The weekend was full of more skiing, tubing, more falling, and eventually we returned on Thursday upon which Angie pronounced me the recipient of the “Good Sport Award” which I took to mean that while apparently sucking so bad, I still retained my humor throughout the repeated and often-increasingly-painful tumbles. To say I merely sucked is an award-meriting understatement, but i had a truly wonderful time and as soon as the doctors release me from intensive care and the required six months of at-home traction is completed, I will be eagerly awaiting my return to the slopes.

 

Bonnie

 

 

Upon our return to Albemarle, I was given a wonderful present the next day by Amy. This little ball of irrefutably-adorable fluff you see on the left is Bonnie. It occurs to me now that while I was raised with dogs all my life, bred them, trained them, loved and raised them, Bonnie is in fact “my” first dog. That is to say the first dog that hasn’t been a family pet, but one that belongs to me.

 

I’ve been waiting for 14 years, since I moved to Greenville, to acquire a dog of my own because I personally think it’s cruel to have a large animal in a small apartment or condo. My own tastes were leaning towards Labrador or Sheppard, but both breeds are large animals and I wanted more space first. It was Amy who convinced me to try something new and so we have spent six months waiting to find an Australian Sheppard.

 

Bonnie, shown left, was born on December 11th, 2009. I picked her up to take her home on Friday the 22nd of January, barely seven weeks old. She has shown remarkable aptitude for learning, something her breed is known for, as after only three days she had semi-mastered verbal commands for Sit, Stay and Come. 

 

I brought Bonnie home to the family (Amy and Josh) tonight. After three hours of unrelenting attention Joshua fell and busted his lip against the stone kitchen floor and Amy busted her bottom lip open. Thus far the puppy remains unharmed, though possibly psychologically scarred.

 

It seems the predictions have been proven accurate as we are just this moment enjoying our first snow of the year. As I write this about two inches of soft powder coat the grass outside the house, promising tomorrow to be a day full of fun and sledding. Sadly we do NOT live on a hill, but Josh remains undaunted in his desires, fully confident in my skills as a draft-horse for his sledding enjoyment. When faced with the dilemma of having no hill upon which to plunge during dinner, he reached over and patted my arm without a moment’s hesitation and said “That’s ok, mister Tommy can pull me, right mister Tommy?”

 

I’d love write more but I’m merely taking a moment while Amy reads Joshua a book before bed to communicate with those of you who choose to follow my life through my blog. Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope all your lives' are blessed and going well. I’m home with the woman I love and with the exception of having my beautiful daughter here to share this time with me, this time of my life is perfect. Until next time.