Vocabulary Lesson

It rained today.  Actually, it rained ALL day long.  Since we are not yet natives, that means we were trapped inside the house. 

No telling how long a guy needs to live here before he gets used to the fact that human beings will not melt if they venture out in the middle of a downpour, but I'm sure it happens eventually.  I'm fairly sure of this 'cause I saw the neighbors walk to the corner mailbox and back to their houses with wet mail in their wet little hands. 

My mail is still in the box.  One or two examples of people not melting does not necessarily mean that I will not melt in the rain, and I'm not taking any chances.  Not in this crazy world.  You just never know - they may be using some special greasy coating, available in a few select stores that only natives know about, that makes them rainproof.  Next time it sprinkles I might poke my head out from under the eaves and take the first trial step but don't count on it.  I look rugged as they come but deep inside I like to be warm. And dry.   My bark is much more menacing than my yelp - don't have any bite at all. 

Speaking of barks and yelps, since we were trapped inside, it was the mutts turn to entertain us.  Our living room has a bay window which overlooks the front sidewalk. Thirty some odd years ago I converted several old wooden wine boxes into CD storage racks and we have arranged these on the floor in front of the bay window.  Sounds pretty terrible, but I thought they looked kinda cool thirty years ago and now I would not be home if they were missing.  Funny how that works.  It takes a strange collection of stuff to make a home.  And, everybody has their own idea of just what that is.     

 Muffy, the mutt, likes them too, and his hind end fits comfortably on the board that runs along the top.  When he sits up there he has a commanding view of All That Occurs in front of our place.  Like a Captain on his bridge, or the nosey neighbor who lived across the street in our old home town,  he knows what's happening in his small world. 

He waited and watched.  Sure enough, a cat walked by and he made some kind of high pitched whinny noise as he jumped off his perch and ran for the door.  Fat chance I was gonna let him out.  Non-native dogs may also be subject to the Melt.  He continued to make the noise for a while, but then lost interest, or maybe the scent, and returned to his station.  A little later, he let out an honest to goodness growl and ran for the door.  I looked up and noticed a horse sized dog in our front yard.  I'm betting this is one of the animals that have been nice enough to leave presents out there.  The size seems about right. 

We played ball with him for a while and then tug-of-war.  After that it was time for his nap.  I'm betting he gets paid a whole bunch and has better retirement benefits than the Wisconsin new hires because when he woke up he went back on watch.  It didn't take long before he started barking and kept on barking until I came to investigate.  This time there were some kids, probably on the way home from school, walking by.   

The Lord kept us inside all day so Muffy could teach us how to interpret his various sounds.  But about the time it started to get dark, the rain stopped.  I started to head down the street for the mail but thought better of the idea.  Ya know, the sidewalk was still wet.  Maybe the natives have this special non-skid greasy stuff they put on the soles of their shoes to keep their toes from melting.

The mail will be there in the morning.