These pictures were side by side on my phone.
I didn’t take them in this order, I think they ended up getting shuffled when I was organizing my new shots.
In any case, there’s a little story here.
I wonder what it is?
We.Are. Here.
For Angie
My friend Angie is out from work for a bit.
I’m dedicating this post to her because this is what she will see from the floor when she works on when she gets back to work.
I love this mural because there is something to see everytime you look at it- I wasn’t sure which part of the story to focus on. So like any Forensic Science Geek I have learned to take it all.
To be sure, I’m not positive I got it all though.
amm
Pioneer Square
Seattle, Washington
USA
August 18th, 2017
Be Right There
I’m getting ready to start back in on my my blog-
and of course with my writing.
Stay tuned!
amm
The Best Dog In The World
By A.M. Moscoso
I think my dog, Hamish Macbeth is pretty darn amazing.
He can open and close doors, he can work the deadbolt, he knows the names for his toys, ” ball, treat toy, toy, frisbee”- so he’ll bring you the one you ask for.
He does great off leash work and he is that perfect mix of sweet and willful.
I think if he could, he’d walk around whistling or singing.
He has that kind of personality.
Somebody asked for a frisbee?
Recently, we learned to use the slide at our neighborhood playfield to launch his tennis balls from- he thinks it’s great. I have to wait for him to roll them down and I get to fetch them.
It took me awhile to get him used to going up there and not launching himself off after a minute or two. He decided it was a cool place to be because if he didn’t feel like coming down there was no way for me to make him.
When he learned he could send things rolling down the slide, it was a good day to be Hamish Macbeth.
A.M.Moscoso
Recently Hamish turned three years old and I’m not sure what happened but all of the sudden I started to feel like I had shorted Hamish.
I don’t show Hamish- he comes from a line of show dogs and it shows in ways- he’s bright, focused and a bit of a comedian- he also reads people with his Ninja like radar.
All of the sudden I wanted Hamish to have ribbons and titles. I wanted to stand in a ring with him and have everyone know what a great dog he is.
The thing of it is, I don’t have the time to show him and I like our approach to learning new skills- it’s all for fun and if he doesn’t get it right away I honestly don’t mind.
He always learns in the end and he gets to do it at his own pace.
I told a friend that I was going to buy him a blue collar and leash and retire his pink leash and collar that he’s been wearing for most of his life.
Pink is my favorite color and he’s a chocolate lab with just a tinge of gold to his coat that I can’t seem to capture on camera, so the pink looks really stunning on him.
My friend pointed out that Pink is Hamish’s trademark and why am I giving that up?
Because I can’t help him win ribbons or titles and that’s as close as we’ll ever get to it I said.
” But he’s a great dog Anita.”
I know that.
But is that enough I wondered?
That evening I was in bed reading a book and Hamish jumped up beside me and laid down next to me.
Hamish put his head on my should and looked at me with the most adoring puppy dog eyes I have ever seen in my life.
Hamish sighed and then he snuggled into my shoulder.
Then he lifted his head up and tried with determination and his version of laughing, to stick his tongue up my nose.
Bound To The Dark
A match
a spark
a flame
and then ashes
dust
gone in a breath, a whisper, was it ever here?
The flame
the spark
the match
Left to the cold
bound to the dark.
Daily Prompt: Tether
Now You See Her, Now You Don’t
Last Monday I went into my favorite little coffee shop to pick up my favorites breakfast food: Quiche and Lemon Flavored ( on a good day there’s Mango flavored ) Greek Style Yogurt.
Something pretty interesting was happening.
They were filming a commercial- at least I think it was a commercial.
They had the equipment set up around a table and in the middle of the table was a coffee cup.
The table top had been polished and shined- it was beautiful, like something out of a picture.
I went up to the counter and as I waited my turn in line ( because the normal staff wasn’t there and the people working behind the counter, though competent and pleasant they fumbled around a bit ) I had time to look around the crowded room.
I noticed that not only had the table under the lights been shined and made beautiful ( it wasn’t the regular table ) so had the customers.
Each table had a very earnest looking millennial wearing white or gray with a lap top opened in front of them. Need I mention they were attractive too?
One young woman in a knee length gray dress stood at a table in a classic model’s pose- slightly bent arm, hip out, chin up. She didn’t move a muscle the entire time.
None of the people I would normally see were there that morning, it was like they had all been replaced with perfect versions of what a person on their way to work in the morning looks like.
Gone were the bus drivers, the street cleaners, the office workers, the warehouse workers ( ahem ) the dog walkers- in our places were for the most part the vision what a Seattle resident on their way to work looks like- under 30, white and perfectly groomed.
I get it, this film was telling a story- but I think the real story didn’t need repair. For the most part it’s a nice blue collar place. That’s why I like it so much.
After a minute of looking around I got nervous. I didn’t care when the cashier mangled my quiche a bit because he didn’t seem to be comfortable with handling the tongs when he tried to pick it up from the tray.
I was busy being creeped out because I knew, in that exact moment that imperfect people like me, the ones who participate everyday in life are consider poor ‘representations’ when the story, no matter how small of a story is being told.
I felt like the young woman in the Twilight Zone Episode ” Number 12 Looks Just Like You.” In her world, everyone looks the same and everyone thinks the same and they are all beautiful.
It’s a shame that I didn’t stick around to see how they filmed their story, because it’s an interesting process.
I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I had been been plucked out of existence, that the people I know had been erased because in the story being told that morning- a story about energetic people starting their morning with a coffee and their laptops and their beautiful clothes and nicely styled hair- we did not exist.
Daily Post Prompt: Pluck
He Was So Debonair
Over 10 years ago, my cat Wolfgang died and left behind a broken hearted Mom, two dogs who were his sisters and three younger cats- the kittens we called them then and still call them now.
Without Wolfgang his little pack sort of got lost- the Kittens refused to go into the front yard and my dogs- or The Girls as I called them lost the bounce in their step and spent a lot of time in the backyard sleeping.
I figured I’d let them sort it out and a new pack leader would emerge, you’d think that was me but let’s face it. I belonged to Wolfie the same way they did so that didn’t happen.
We were in trouble, when you think about it.
One day a friend of mine brought a stray cat into work- the cat was headed for the humane society and I could tell my friend was not happy about that decision but apparently Kolchak ( as I would name him ) was digging up a flower bed and had made the homeowner mad so Kolchak was caught in a trap.
When I met Kolchak he was in the trap, on his back playing with the handled which he had somehow worked into the cage. He was on his back when he looked up at me with the most devastatingly beautiful yellow eyes and he meowed as if he was saying, ‘ well there you are.’
I named him Carl Kolchak because my warehouse is part of the Seattle Underground system and my favorite TV hero- Carl Kolchak had the first of his adventures in Seattle’s Underground.
Kolchak was calm, cool and quite the gentleman cat. He never jumped on anyone looking for attention and he always seemed to know when to be there and when to give you your space.
When I took him to the vets for his checkup he walked around the office and on the counter with confidence- nothing rattled Kolchak.
When I took him home, it was like he had always lived there.
The Girls watched him walk around the house and then they followed him- like they used to do with Wolfie.
The holdout was Domino, she didn’t want Kolchak around her. But he persisted in his quiet way and after that he was always at her side- even when she started to suffer from heart failure.
He was there with her the night she died, by her side.
Of course.
Kolchak and his Domino.
The Kittens- who were actually about 5 years old at the time took to Kolchak right away- he tried to get them to go into the front yard with him and they would if me and Domino went too, but their confidence in that area never came back.
Kolchak and Baby Hamish
2014
Almost 3 years ago I brought home a little puppy I named Hamish Macbeth and Kolchak did what he did for Domino- when Hamish was little and I was only walking him around the yard and in front of the house Kolchak followed us the entire time.
Sometimes he was more insistent then others that we head back to the house and I always followed his lead- I figured he was picking up on something that wasn’t ” Hamish Friendly”.
That was Kolchak, the big brother, the confident cat that came into a broken little family and put it back together again.
As I said about Carl with love and admiration when I would see him sunning himself, or grooming Hamish or one of his brothers, when he stayed by Domino’s side as her health failed and when he would sit in the back yard wither Cerbie and go after planes and birds-
He was suave and so debonair.
Goodnight Carl Kolchak, we love you so much.
amm
