One of the more unnerving developments in my recent life has been the fact that every time I leave the house, my next-door neighbor is leaving his house at the exact same time. He’s always walking a big poodle that despite my general love of all animals I’m not fond of because it lunged at me the first time we met. I was surprised because I thought poodles were supposed to be intelligent and calm. To be fair to the dog, its lunging is a reflection on the owner. Still, I’m never excited to see the dog, especially on a daily basis. We look at each other with suspicion: ‘I would bite you if I could,’ the dog says with its dull, angry eyes, to which I respond, ‘Leave me alone, dog.’ Meanwhile, I’m trying to politely engage in small-talk with the owner. Weather, or the hawk that ate a pigeon in the backyard a few weeks ago. But how long can you talk about one event, when I really want to say, ‘Umm, have you trained your dog yet? Because it looks like it wants to KILL me.’
Anyway, after disengaging from the neighbor, I ran to the park, which is showing signs of early spring. The groundhog was wrong this year. We’ve had a few cold days, but mostly forties and fifties, which is too warm for February. There’s a rule of thumb for New York City weather, which is that July is 100 degrees warmer than February. #trouble
The gardeners had installed wind and snow fences to protect the heather, which was in bloom.
For a moment, I was transported away from 2023 and its many problems. This is also how I feel watching television, FWIW.
What could be better than blooming heather and American elm trees?
I can tell you one thing that’s not better: seeing my neighbor and his big, aggressive poodle every day.
But it’s almost spring, which means we can be hopeful.
It will be a relief to take down the fences, even though in retrospect they were unnecessary.
