Last Sunday the weather was sunny and so Gary and Coconut and I took a short road trip to the northwest suburbs of Chicago to see my sister-in-law.
I was once married to her brother. For a time after the divorce talking to him was done primarily through our lawyers which is an expensive way to communicate. We moved on to letters in the kid’s backpacks or terse voice mail messages.
Despite that I never stopped loving his family. I’m happy to say that I am once again my son’s father and I are friends and I still call his family my family. It’s tricky, but it happens.
There was no specific reason to drive down to Illinois except that it’s always fun to hang out with someone you love and respect.
Mary is such a gracious hostess and she loves Coconut. She doesn’t have a dog now. Still, she always welcomes Coconut and is genuinely pleased whenever he wags his tail and tries to give her one of his signature kisses.
On this sunny day Coconut greeted Mary and her husband and then roamed through the house with her approval, sniffing every corner of each room as if to give the house his stamp of approval.
Coconut is used to sitting on the middle cushion when Gary and I are on our sofa. As long as Gary was alone on Mary’s sofa, Coconut was content to lounge on the floor. When I moved over Coconut sat up. He walked slowly to the edge of the sofa and stopped. It was as if he knew this was different than when he jumped up back home.
Coconut slowly turned to look at Mary as if asking permission to join us on the sofa.
“Of course he can get on the sofa,” Mary said.
“Up, up, up,” I said to my dog who is just about a perfect match to the fabric. This is a good thing because he is quite the shed monster for a short haired pooch.
He jumped up and inched his way toward me with a big sigh. All was right in his world.
Mary lives on a corner lot in a neighborhood peopled by dog lovers. On this beautiful day there was a parade of leashed canines and their owners. From his vantage point on the sofa Coconut couldn’t see the dogs. He knew they were there, dogs are like that with their sense of smell and hearing, but all he could do was to make these little noises like he wanted to go out and play with the other four-legged pooches.
Mary suggested the window seat and, with her permission, he leapt up and had a grand time seeing everyone who went by.
Coconut stayed at home while we went to lunch. I’m sure quite a bit of the time spent on this window seat where he could bask in the sun and enjoy the view.
It’s raining today and there’s more on the horizon. We need it because it was an incredibly dry summer and fall. I’m glad we went on our little road trip last week.
It’s gloomy in our house today. There’s that it is this time of year. I know from past years that Coconut will spend the majority of his time till spring chasing patches of sun around the house.
