It’s Thursday night and I finally arrive home to watch the Seahawks game – tape delayed. I planned to be home for the start at 520pm but at 515pm I was still in the office so it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. In the days leading up to the game I even invited others to join us which now looks hopelessly ambitious but as I drive home after the game has already started I am thankful no one agreed to come.
I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home to buy ingredients for a big Shepherd’s Pie. In a separate fit of great expectations for what I was going to accomplish this Thursday, I had promised my boys I would make them one of their favourite dinners. Having left the office in haste I found myself sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store firing off the last few emails I had not sent earlier, but all the while actually wishing I was at home watching the game. With the emails complete I was finally out of the car striding across the parking lot trying to remember if I had actually set the recording for this Thursday night game. That did not help my state of mind but could not be helped so instead of worrying about that I ran through the ingredients I needed to buy for this partially memorized but fully made-up recipe.
With ingredients purchased and work behind me I pulled in at the house with keen anticipation for a big meal and of course, the game. However, I was not at all prepared for the greeting I got from the dog when I opened the door. Somehow, the dog knows Tracy’s car – hears it coming at the bottom of the hill even before any of us do – so when I arrived in her car he thinks she is home so he is hopping around doing circles like an over-wound puppy. When I open the door he bolts past me in a streak. I’d like to think he actually saw me but the truth surely is he blew past me without a thought beyond TRACY’S HOME!
His commitment was so complete he refused to come back inside the house until I actually proved to him Tracy was not home. He did laps back and forth from the driver’s side of the car to the house repeatedly, pleading with me to open the car door so he could see Tracy. Eventually, I actually had to go around and open the car door so he could hop up into the car. He got even more excited when he could see I was going to do this. And when I opened the door he sprang up into the car like a puppy frantically hopping around examining every space convinced Tracy was hiding under one of the seats. Eventually he accepts she is not there, stops and looks back at me standing outside the car with a look like “Seriously? She’s really not here?” Then he slinks out of the car, drained of all his youthful energy and slowly walks back into the house.
I got a few wags but we all know who he was looking for. To his credit the dog did sit with me during the game, and when Seattle pulled off a 4th Quarter victory it was all worthwhile…
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