Ten-Finger Exercises

Today's whiner is Seamus.

Seamus is spending the morning standing either inside the back door or outside, with a little whine to tell me he wants to try the other place again. Now, what he really wants is for me to come out too, to take him out the front door for a walk, but I'm waiting on the repairman who is supposed to be here any time now.

Ever since Seamus lost his bark, however that happened, he has attracted our attention by loud breathing. My granddaughter calls him Dog Vader. His panting, actually louder than the under-his-breath whine, sounds as if he's saying "Grampa, Grampa, Grampa."

Do you suppose dogs become senile? Seamus goes racing into the kitchen a couple times each night with all the enthusiasm of a puppy, hunting for some delicious tidbits. Or, minutes after eating a can of food, he'll look at his dog dish and whine.

***Hey, hey, hey! My washer runneth! And it wasn't very difficult to cancel my service agreement and appointment with Sears. When I tried it last week, just to cancel the agreement, they wouldn't let me do it without canceling the appointment first, at a different number of course. Interestingly enough, the repair scheduler tried to make me cancel the contract first today, but recanted when I refused. Mighty suspicious, if you ask me! I suppose it's based on the theory that, if there's another hoop in the way, maybe you'll give up and won't jump through it.

Cheers, Tides, Bravos, and all those other detergents to you! (Can you tell I'm feeling an eentsy bit better?)