The routine has been established: Elmer and I are walking the neighborhood down to the park at 6:00 am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is interesting walking the city this time of the morning. Everything is pretty much still. We did see a coyote the other morning and the trickster didn’t bolt on us. Rather he kept ahead about 50 yards until a jogger appeared and spooked him. Did I try to make any meaning of the coyote, as I have done other times in my life when they showed up? No. It was just a thrill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most times Elmer and I don’t encounter anyone. Maybe a jogger or dog walker here and there. Once, a homeless person sitting on a park bench with a tarp over his\/her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do I think about on these walks in the darkness? Everything. I do specifically remember thinking about a Flannery O’Connor novel I am reading, Wise Blood<\/em>, and trying to make sense of its total weirdness, black humor, depravity and lack of anyone who has any decency or kindness or intelligence. I can’t tell if I despise this book or think it’s genius. I do know that so far there is a powerful theme of homelessness and according to the introduction of this omnibus of O’Connor’s work, the editors said that homelessness and hopelessness were the two main themes of her fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do Elmer and discuss on our walks? Mostly the state of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rain doesn’t bother Elmer at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We sometimes parallel Highway 99 and I watch the commuters driving downtown to their jobs. That feels so depressing to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve got to get the pea coat’s buttons sowed on tighter. It’s great to wear that ancient coat of mine with a dog again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I may try running with Elmer. I’ve taken a few short jogs and he does very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many Christmas lights are still shining. I see many Christmas trees still twinkling inside people’s houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve lost five pounds since adopting Elmer. I’m sleeping better. My mind seems more acute. And here I am writing about dogs again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The routine has been established: Elmer and I are walking the neighborhood down to the park at 6:00 am. It is interesting walking the city this time of the morning. Everything is pretty much still. We did see a coyote the other morning and the trickster didn’t bolt on us. Rather he kept ahead about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8724,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions\/8724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}