Dog and man share different ideas on a gray Sunday morning. (Photo by Karen Miller Bialczak)
A gray Sunday morning in Syracuse, N.Y., but Ellie B still longs for a walk.
Oh, she’s had her time romping in her fenced-in backyard, but she knows that out that front window awaits the big, real world to sniff.
I have other ideas.
It’s a great time to get in some pages of “The Panther,” my latest fiction interest. It’s a spell-binder from one of my favorite writers, Nelson DeMille. DeMille, like me, was born in New York City and moved to Long Island as a child. I relate to his humor and sensibilities. This one is his sixth novel featuring New York City detective John Corey. He and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, are sent to Yemen to participate in a team hunt for the No. 1 terrorist. “The Panther” came out last year. DeMille already has another I need to read to keep pace with his works, “The Quest,” released this year. Time for me to catch up. There’s some added pressure: “The Panther” is due back to the library on Wednesday, and I’m 450 pages into the 625-page novel.
Dog wants out.
Man wants in.
We reach a peaceful compromise.
What are you reading right now?
Does your dog passive-aggressively try to get you to go for a walk?
Mark Bialczak 
Reading Eva Luna by Isabelle Allende and the dog has a bark which translates to I want to walk and I want to do it now. Twice a day he uses that bark unless we get out a little earlier than his built in clock says “it’s time to go”. I love the photo of you and your dog.
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Our Ellie B has a certain bark for “gotta go out now,” too. She can be very bossy. Thanks, Irene.
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So you jinxed the Jets yesterday wearing that shirt….
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It wasn’t my shirt. The good-week, bad-week rotation this season was on bad-week. Good catch, though, DJ!
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Currently finishing up The Book Thief (my option for the book club that I am a part of), which has been amazing so far. After this, I am going to re-read And Then There Were None for the nth time. Then, who knows.
I always keep some poetry nearby to for variety and to fill voids: Kerouac, Bukowski, and Cohen (yes, Leonard).
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Thanks, Chris. Read on! I hope you do not have a pet who makes the process a wee bit harder for you.
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“I have” a cat, but he is technically my parents’. He likes to lap it, which can be a pain when I am writing on laptop and he likes to swat at books. It also doesn’t help that I antagonize/play with him.
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Yeah, Ellie B wiggles into the chair with me as I am writing on my iPad. I can take the dog there to watch TV, but not to write my blog!
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I like that name for a dog. It’s funny, too, that I just met a girl named Ellie. Not that she looks like a dog or anything (far from it). A sign perhaps? Wishful thinking. Haha.
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Just finished “Let the Great World Spin,” by Colum McCann. A powerful and insightful work of art. One of those books where you put little slips of paper into certain pages so you can go back and re-read passages, either to yourself or to others.
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I will check it out, Jim. If the dog lets me, that is.
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