and a Spaniel riding shot-gun

The clubhouse manager of my apartment complex told me Christmas Eve that I could come back in the morning and commandeer The New York Times, which would otherwise sit all day or be wasted. Because I don’t actually live in my apartment –long story — I woke up on December 25, 2012 and loaded my dear friend Frida (the cocker spaniel) into the car and zipped back to Oak Creek, about three miles. I thought: what a perfect Christmas present for this non-Christian! But I was slightly meshuganah in that out of the 700 residents of my complex someone else got up earlier and beat me to the prize.

I then realized that my gift that morning was my friendship with or moment with Frida. (My girlfriend had to work that day and had left a couple hours earlier).

Better to travel hopefully especially with a cocker spaniel than to arrive…

Foreshadowing my Steinbeck project….

Or did I make all this up?