Jaci Dawn

I am waiting for the lasagna to bake and while I am waiting, I am writing a blog post. Outside, it is raining. Rain-rain-rain with very little let up. Warm rain, not that nasty cold wintry rain: we are catching part of what is known as a “pineapple express”: a large, warm, wet air mass that is streaming directly from Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean onto the western shores.

Today I decided I needed just two items for my little studio to help me work on some current projects. I need a little saw and I really wanted to find some air-dry clay. I have some stuff I bought at a flea market that I love, but it is nearly gone, it is blue, and I want something white.

As I dressed to go out, my husband suggested I take Harvey along to the ride. I was disinclined to do so: what would Harvey do? Just sit in the car in his dog carrier while I run into the store? Wow, exciting.

Then I reminded myself that I don’t understand dogs and Harvey would probably think like a toddler thinks: a ride to the store is exciting, even if he never got out of his dog carrier. He’s not a cat. A cat could not care – not more, not less – about a ride to the store. A cat doesn’t need anyone. That’s why I’ve always liked cats. They’re not very needy.

A dog is very needy and a dog needs constant reassurance. A dog needs attention. A dog needs a ride in the car.

So I took Harvey with me.

We went to JoAnn fabrics first, but they did not have what I was looking for in their large collection of Xacto™ blades and the clay they had was more than the change in my wallet.And there was this little girl who stood in front of the clay the entire time I was shopping. Just stood there. She was probably 4-5 years old and her mother was nowhere in sight. I had to shop around the kid.

I like little kids, but I dislike having one stand in the way like that and where was her mother? She was there a full five minutes and no mother. Maybe I was too overprotective, but I would never have allowed my child to wander off like that in a store. I wanted to see where my children were and who was near them.

When I got back to the car, Harvey was bark-bark-barking non-stop. This is typical Harvey. He needs to bark. I told him to be quiet, that the ride would go much better if he was a good dog and did not bark. He quieted and we drove to our second destination: the grocery store. I needed one tiny item for tomorrow’s dinner. In-and-out.

Harvey was a good boy and did not bark once. I told him so.

Then we drove the 3.5 miles down the hill to Michael’s Arts & Crafts. Again, I asked Harvey to be good while I ran into the store.

This trip took me longer. I didn’t have to contend with some little kid, but I did have to work around other shoppers. I found the Xacto™ blades but Michael’s had half of what JoAnn’s had. Or so I thought: I discovered they had more on the end of the aisle. Why not put them all in one place? Oh, that would be too logical, I guess.

They did have the saw I wanted. A perfect saw. $8.99.

They had the same clay as JoAnn’s did, but for $5 less. Cool.

I wanted one more item: a little sanding board for sharpening pencils. You can remove the sandpaper as you wear it out, but it’s really handy for sharpening pencils when you’re drawing. The sales clerk didn’t know what I was talking about. <Sigh> I did find one, but it was in a prepackaged mess of other items: pencils, eraser, compass. I only wanted the sandpaper board. But I showed it to the clerk so he would know if anyone should ever request one again.

Not that I think he even cared or will remember.

Back to the car & Harvey was still being very good. So on the way home, I decided we’d stop and take a quick walk along the promenade. The rain was warm and light by that time, so I thought we’d probably manage quite well.

When I opened up the back to let Harvey out, I discovered he’d been car sick. Really, really, really car sick. All over his rug & the inside of his dog carrier and on one paw. UGH.

I walked him through several mud puddles to wash the yuck off of his paw.

And I regretted not having my camera: Willamette Falls was spectacular: muddy, swift, and the river is very high. I could peer down onto the viewpoint: every parking space was taken by people wanting to photograph the falls. I had a much better view, but no camera.

<sigh> At least it was very warm and light rain.

I let Harvey ride home in the back seat rather than trying to put him back in the dog carrier with the yellow yuck. Fortunately, I had a rag in the car to cover the seat and he was a very good boy, curling up on the seat and not trying to run around the car.

The dog carrier wasn’t too hard to clean up, thankfully.

Pretty cool saw, isn’t it?

It was a pretty good walk with Harvey, too. He was such a good boy on the leash. He may yet train me how to be a dog person!