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Dog Walking in the Dark

It's dark and cold here in western New York.

(illumiNITE is based in Fall River, but life carried this author back to where I grew up. Wherever there's a computer, I can work.)

Just this week, my dental hygienist and I were reflecting upon the fact that we don't get poisonous spiders or snakes in this part of the Great Lakes, or hurricanes, or crocodiles, or even really Nor'easters. We get very few tornadoes or earthquakes. It's a pretty safe place to be. Except we do get winter, and we're one of the places with the fewest sunny days in the whole country. Our grey, cold, blustery days have started and it's only going to get darker and snowier. We had a brief respite when the clocks fell back, but darkness is arriving earlier and earlier no matter what.

So last night, when I closed my laptop, said goodbye to my conference call, and said it was time to make dinner, my dog thought I meant "it's time for a walk." If you've met Sushi, you know only the worst person in the world could say no to her when she gets super excited about a walk.

It had been cold and a little drizzly all day, and even though it was only 6:00, it was DARK. Time for my reflective dog walking gear! So I threw my old Tahoe jacket with the bonded fleece over my sweater, put a Glow Dog jacket on Sushi, and off we went. We said hello to the neighborhood dogs and made sure there were no delinquent chipmunks out past curfew. My street does not have sidewalks, and I was pleased to see my neighbors slow down when they saw us. So I got my son to snap a picture of us as we crossed the lawn. Other than cropping it to fit, there's no Photoshop involved!

My Tahoe jacket is an old color, but we have plenty in Graphite, White, and Salmon. Sushi was wearing one of our dog jackets.