Since my week is going to be tied up with some treatments for pain that lay me low for several days, I’m going to let Slim Randles entertain you today and Wednesday, then there will be a book review on Saturday. My plan is to be feeling much better after my last treatment next Monday, so I can be bright and chipper for the panel I’m on at Bouchercon 2020
First, I just want to respond to a couple of polling questions that popped up in my e-mail today. Perhaps because I’ve been active on some political sites like Vote Save America and Powered by People, as well as making a few campaign contributions, I get inundated with requests to answer surveys and polls. Or maybe everybody gets all these messages. I don’t know, and usually I delete them all, but the two I saw today deserve an answer:
Do I think Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize?
No.
Do I think the remaining Presidential Debates should be canceled?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Okay, now here’s Slim. Enjoy…
There really wasn’t anything going on at the school crossing, much to the consternation of Billy … our town dog. It was one of Billy’s duties to escort kids across the street to the school. He’d been doing it ever since Sally, the former town dog, passed away on Doc’s porch.
Billy spent each morning curled up next to the dog house the high school woodshop kids built for him, waiting to do his job. He wasn’t nuts about the inside of the dog house, but there was some instinct deep inside our large brown dog that let him know the house was his and had been created in love.
But Billy certainly didn’t understand why the kids weren’t coming, and he certainly didn’t know the words “quarantine” or “virus” or “remote online learning.”
Martin, the crossing guard, wasn’t there either.
It was a dog-thinking dilemma, taken all in all.
Should Billy leave his post and go sponge some food over at Delbert Chin’s Chinese restaurant? He’s not supposed to do that until all the kids are at school. And none of them have come again today.
Fortunately, this day his dilemma didn’t go unnoticed. There were two boys over on the school playground, horsing around and enjoying the morning, and they noticed Billy just lying there by his house. So, they walked over, petted the dog, and waited until there were no cars. Then they crossed the street.
So did Billy, of course, wagging his tail.
Several street crossings later, the boys went back to the playground, and Billy headed for the backdoor of the Chinese restaurant.
Having an official town dog requires love as well as dedication…on everyone’s part.
Brought to you to honor those masked folks who wait on us in the coffee shops and take our temperature at the doctor’s office. Thank you for your courage.
Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books at his Goodreads Page and in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I am always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here.
Slim Randles is a veteran newspaperman, hunting guide, cowboy and dog musher. He was a feature writer and columnist for The Anchorage Daily News for 10 years and guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains. A resident of New Mexico now for more than 30 years, Randles is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, and is host of two podcasts and a television program.
That’s all from me for today, folks. Whatever you have on your agenda this week, I hope you are safe and well. And I do want to add a final note that I hope Trump and Melania recover from the COVID-19 virus quickly.