Attribution: Photo by Andrey Lear on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be following the keeper’s example and napping through the big snow predicted for the weekend. Fortified by one of Mike’s extravagant Thanksgiving feasts, the keeper and Phyllis will abandon their concerns and complaints about getting old. They will instead fixate on the fact that their Vista West lifestyle means they can look out through the windows and know they do not have to go out and do battle with whatever the snowfall.
Phyllis will obviously express concern about traveling family members. The keeper, not so much. He is more likely to position his recliner with a view of the nearby street and parking lot, fortify himself with brandy-tainted coffee and feel no guilt whatsoever at a thought pattern dominated by “Shovel and plow and get stuck in the driveway, you poor shivering bastards, and realize that it is almost a month until the official start of winter!”
Th keeper does not see such thinking as a character flaw but simply one of the few advantages of getting old enough to be suspicious of talk about “snow angels” unless, of course, they are named Phyllis and are inside where it is nice and warm.
