It’s pretty nice to have nada on the books for a while, even if a while is a mere few weeks.  To let the calendar fill up naturally, day by day with the necessities of catch up and catch all that we can get.  Impromptu get-togethers scheduled on Friday afternoons, overdue oil changes and dreaded Christmas returns.  A new partner to revive a lackluster running routine while rekindling an adored relationship that was never really gone. A time to regain sanity, find an enduring home for the piles we shift hastily from spot to spot when friends come over to play, and a time to delight in simple pleasures that in the peak of the fury can be regarded as tasks.

Things such as…a little more time for the rats.  Our secret little park with its winding path through palmettos and pines that reaps the glory as it ends into the vast openness of the ocean.  It’s not really supposed to be for dogs, but we make it that way.

And the dunes aren’t really supposed to be for humans, but apparently others make up their own rules, too.

Dakota likes to run wild as a boar, barreling through the water’s break, pausing only for a quick jowl shake as drool flies into a halo ring around her head.  She’ll wait for her bestie, Monty, to catch up only slightly before she’s off again.  Dakota always seems to get a new and fitting name on our outings, even walks.  This day, I called her Trixie.  Monty, well, she’s usually just Monty unless she’s being scrappy.  Then, donning our best redneck twang, we call her Jacksonville.

And when they’re really lucky, they get to bring their pal Georgia (aka George, Georgie, Horsie).  She’s pretty chill, but sometimes (like when she’s downwind of the Chick Fil’A), her mama has to rein her curiosity in.

A little more time is made for family.  For celebrating birthdays and taking the time to ponder for a gift most fitting for one of the clan.  Mermaid fins for our niece, Aubrey.  Seriously, how perfect is that?  Okay, so maybe she already had a pair, but whatevs, they’re still cool.

A little more time for each other.

The end of these days are in sight as future calendar pages are already being flecked with the various ink colors of the current pen in hand.  Birthdays and weddings and conferences and all of the other accoutrement of life that we embrace.  For now we will do our best to fill these days cautiously, and some even carelessly.

Either way, it seems they always fill up just as they should have been written.

Suggested Listening: Dog Days Are Over / Florence & The Machine