My House Shakes At Night
I remember the rain. I also remember these unending stretches of days where the sun hibernates in the deep pockets of the thick gray overcoat this city wears so well. But, I do not remember this wind – these heavy tempests that roll in around dusk and beat my evergreens throughout the night. Each morning, after I look out over the estate, I assess damages and then patiently roam the grounds, collecting the anemic limbs that didn’t make it to see the morning. I drag them all to the expanding brush pile in the Southwest corner of the lot, next to the holly trees.
Last night as the winds began to kick up and drive the rain horizontal, I noticed a soaked kid and his grumpy yellow dog struggling on my front stoop. I was directly below in the driveway and from my vantage point it looked like the kid was trying to choke the dog. I yelled up to him through the rain. He yelled back that his dog, this dog, had run away. He had found it on my stoop trying to break in. Smart dog. I walked up the front steps to find the kid yanking with everything he had on the collar of his stubborn hound. The dog clearly had no intention of budging one inch. I was hesitant to help the kid in his efforts as I have a healthy respect for dogs that I do not know. And this one already looked massively irritated. Eventually, after I presented my case and made it clear to the mutt that I had no intention of letting him into my abode, it relented a bit and presented an unconvincing happy face. But it took the arrival of the kid’s parents in minivan to satisfy the dog’s misgivings and assuage the dread of walking home in this weather. The inertia it displayed earlier was replaced by blinding speed as it leapt like a gazelle from my front porch through the open side door of the minivan. Crisis averted but something tells me this isn’t the last I’ll see of that hound.
Currently enjoying…
Music: The often overlooked Duke Pearson and his album The Phantom. The cuts written by Airto are massive toe-tappers.
Movies: Any documentary with the word ‘Grizzly’ in the title. Grizzly Man and Project Grizzly. And, oh yeah, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.
Books: The works of Helene Hanff. 84, Charing Cross Road and Q Legacy.
Television: The fact that at any hour of the day there’s bound to be some James Bond movie playing on some channel. Speaking of…The Guardian has a good piece about Sir Ken Adams, the production designer who is responsible for bringing to the screen all the those great sets from the early films.