Remembering...

(note: I"m starting a new thing today. I'll post a YouTube song that you can open in another window and listen to while you read the post...I thought it would add just another dimension to your OliveKnitting experience...ok, that's not true. I just like finding old songs that I like on YouTube. If you find this added dimension annoying, you can blame The Fun Couple...it's Wayne's fault, or you can just read without music. Please send me links to songs you think would be fun to listen to while reading the posts because, I assure you, you will get sick of my music selections very quickly. Tonight's post's music companion is here

July 23, 8.30pm. I'm sitting at my computer with blood boiling wishing I had a cigarette hidden somewhere in the house. Another altercation with the neighbors about the dogs.

The dogs.

Pals Mary and Earle (aka: Earle in Denver) gifted us the book Marley and Me last time they came to visit. Being dog people themselves, they had read it and thought we'd find it funny.

Yeah, we found it funny.

When they gave it to us, we had just lost our "Saint Sparky". Mary and Earle knew us when we were Sparky people. When they came to visit we were getting used to a very young Ruffino.

Ruffino.

While David and I did laugh aloud reading the book, we were laughing in irony or perhaps self pity. I think Mary and Earle found it funny that a dog could be so naughty. David and I found it funny that chronicling a dog's escapades as timid as Marley's would make a NYTs Best seller (and then a movie).

The world hasn't met Ruffino...nor his very keen apprentice, Q.

The neighbors have met Ruffino and Q. Let me tell you, ... they remind me every chance they get. Like tonight prompting my need for a smoke.

I had to take Q in today for a routine thingy. We went to a different vet than the 'weeds in the eyes' incidents of last month. When both the doggies were young and had a propensity for puking in the car so we took them to this place which is really nice AND a short drive. But as soon as they could handle it we started taking them to the 24 hours joint (I'll admit it. I liked going to this other vet just because it is open 24/7. That's pretty much unheard of Italy - for anything. Sometimes you just need that rush of being the only person in the Home Depot at 2.45am.).

It's been over a year since either of our pair have been to this clinic Q and I went to today. There are 4 people on staff at this place. We got the new girl, the only of the four who didn't know either of our dogs. Hmm? 25% chance that we would get the new girl...and we did, weird...I should go to Vegas...

The facility is a small one. I can't quite explain how this is possible but every room is connected to the other resulting in everyone (2 and 4 legged) passing through everyone else's examination.

Today, as each other member of the staff passed Q they said, "hello, Ruffino." Each time I said, "Ah..yes, almost...this is Q. The daughter of Ruffino."

"Ah, si si, certo. La figlia nera" Of course, the black daughter. "Ruffino e' biondo e un po'..."

"Yes, Ruffino is blond...and, yes, a little..." None of them finished the sentence. Neither did I.

Thousands of animals pass through this little operation in a year. Thousands. And all the staff remembered our dogs.

I felt really special. Then...

I got to thinking - wow. That's really amazing that they remember the names of all the animals. I've seen fewer than 100 English students in my time teaching and I couldn't tell you the names of even a quarter of them if they came back to the school for a visit.

The quarter I do remember fall into one of two camps 1) the students I got on really well with or 2) the pain in the asses. I always remember the P in the As, even better than the really nice students.

So I got to remembering the last time I brought Ruff to see these people when they had to put a muzzle on him...a muzzle is not, in my definition, "getting on really well". Thus, we can only deduce that Ruff falls into the second camp - he's one of the P in the As.

But wait...

They didn't remember Ruff. They confused Q for Ruff. Small, black female - big, blond male. Hmm....that's a tough confusion. It was then it occurred to me.

They didn't remember the pain in the ass dogs....they remembered me. Hmmm?

So this evening I'll do a little remembering. The P in the As of my life as well as the ones I've really got on with. As I think about it, the people I remember the most fall into both camps.

I'm sure that's what happened today at the vets' with the dogs. Yeah, I'm sure.

I'm sure that's the way it is for neighbor Franco, too.

I probably don't need that cigarette after all.

Ps. For those of you looking for photos of David, I don't have any. You can go to YouTube and search "Duvine Tuscany" or "Duvine Piedmont" or "Duvine Ireland" or "Duvine Puglia" and you'll find the slide shows he does for his clients. Usually there's a photo or two of him hidden in there somewhere.

Pss. I did eat the black peppers. I didn't die. Thank you, Carrie. The tomato was, as Earle said, not edible. Wood. It was shrivelled, orange wood.