Doggy Wonderland

When our waitress discovered how much we enjoyed this poem, she told us that there were more doggy Christmas things underneath some of the other tabletops. And a little while later, she pointed out this one to us (sung to the tune of “Winter Wonderland"):

DOGGY WONDERLAND (unknown songwriter)

Dog tags ring, are you listenin'?

In the lane, snow is glistenin'.

It’s yellow, NOT white - I’ve been there tonight,

Marking up my winter wonderland.

-

Smell that tree? That’s my fragrance.

It’s a sign for wand’ring vagrants;

"Avoid where I pee, it’s MY pro-per-ty!

Marked up as my winter wonderland."

-

In the meadow dad will build a snowman,

following the classical design.

Then I’ll lift my leg and let it go Man,

So all the world will know it’s mine-mine-mine!

-

Straight from me to the fencepost,

flows my natural incense boast;

"Stay off of my TURF, this small piece of earth,

I mark it as my winter wonderland.

Christmas Dog

Debbie and I went out for dinner tonight, to the Descanso Junction restaurant — one of our favorite local spots. One of its charms (in addition, of course, to the fine food and cheerful help) is the collection of paper “stuff” they have under the clear tops of all the tables. These usually range from nostalgic pictures to magazine articles to granma’s recipes — entertaining reading, always. Tonight they had the joint decked out for Christmas, right down to thematic materials under those clear table tops. On our table there was this delightful poem (especially if you’re a dog person), a take-off on “'Twas the Night Before Christmas":

CHRISTMAS DOG (by Shel Silverstein)

Tonight’s my first night as a watchdog,

And here it is Christmas Eve.

The children are sleeping all cozy upstairs,

While I’m guardin' the stockin’s and tree.

What’s that now — footsteps on the rooftop?

Could it be a cat or a mouse?

Who’s this down the chimney?

A thief with a beard — And a big sack for robbin' the house?

What’s going on here?

I’m barkin', I’m growlin', I’m bitin' his butt.

He howls and jumps back in his sleigh.

I scare his strange horses, they leap in the air.

I’ve frightened the whole bunch away.

Now the house is all peaceful and quiet again.

The stockin’s are safe as can be.

Won’t the kiddies be glad when they wake up tomorrow

And see how I’ve guarded the tree!

And there’s more!

Lawson Valley Sunrise

This was the view from our patio, around 6:20 yesterday morning. The sky was full of unusually saturated color in a wide range of subtle hues and shades. A gorgeous display of Mother Nature’s art!

For those of you interested in the technical part: all of these were handheld at 1/60th, 100ASA setting. The panorama is composed of four shots, just by rotating myself in place on the patio. There actually is a hillside there causing things to move up on the right, that wasn’t me rotating oddly <smile>. I did minimal digital post-processing on these; it’s a pretty good representation of what we actually perceived.

As usual, click on the small photos for a larger view…