Unaka Mountain
“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”
Steven Wright, b. 1955
Monthly Archives: October 2010
Predictability
“No matter what I do,
no matter how predictable I try to make my life,
it will not be any more predictable
than the rest of the world.
Which is chaotic.”
Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark, 2003
Until
“Until you make peace with who you are,
you’ll never be content with what you have.”
Doris Mortman
Divide It
Road to top of Pinnacle Mountain. I drove to the top and walked the last 3/4 mile uphill, where I ran into a 78-year-old man who had hiked all the way to the top from Unicoi. It was nice to share the view.
“Grief can take care of itself,
but to get the full value of a joy
you must have somebody to divide it with.”
Mark Twain, 1835-1910
Moving Ends
View of Roan Mountain and Unaka Mountain over town of Unicoi
About the time we think we can make ends meet,
somebody moves the ends.
Herbert Hoover, 1874-1964
Mosaic
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor,
summer an oil painting and
autumn a mosaic of them all.”
Stanley Horowitz
Wedded To It
Roan Mountain
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns.”
George Eliot
Prosaic Days
“Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.”
Emily Dickinson
Goodbye, buddy
“I talk to him when I’m lonesome like;
and I’m sure he understands.
When he looks at me so attentively, and gently licks my hands;
then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes,
but I never say naught thereat.
For the good Lord knows I can buy more clothes,
but never a friend like that.”
W. Dayton Wedgefarth
MEMORIES OF DUKE, 1998-2010
I remember the first time I realized I might actually care for this dog. Before that moment, I’d had about 4 years of grudgingly tolerating this hyperactive beast everytime I’d visit my parents in Ohio. The moment of realization came a few days after a trip to Ohio, during which I noticed that Duke might be calming down some in his maturity and may even have a sweet side to him…when he wasn’t barking, running, jumping, or slobbering. I might have even petted him once or twice during that visit.
Then came the call from my dad that Duke was missing. He’d disappeared the day before and they’d been all over the countryside looking for him and asking neighbors and local farmers. I felt sad for my Dad, but figured Duke would show up. He’d occasionally run off before to frolic with local farm dogs (and by frolic, I mean he probably fathered puppies all over that county) and he always came home. But then came day two, and still no Duke. By day four, I was calling my parents morning and evening asking if he’d been found. That was the moment — the moment I realized I cared about the dumb dog. I was elated when on day five, Duke was found four miles away, where he had wandered up to a strange house, lost and hungry. (Fortunately the UPS man delivered a package to that house that day and recognized Duke — after all, he’d been greeting him with full barking vigor in our driveway for four years.)
A few years after that, my parents decided to move and go back to college. Surprisingly, the hardest part of that entire life-changing decision was deciding what to do with the dog. They couldn’t take Duke with them to college. Perhaps they’d have to give him away. That’s when my heart nudged my head and I called Dad and said, Bring him here. I’ve had a plethora of pets in my life — cats galore, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, rabbits, and even a rat at one point. But never had a family dog been mine. Dogs were the enemies — they chewed on my hamster (and a few Barbie dolls), chased my cats (at the encouragement of my brothers), snored under my bed at night, and left foul odors and slobber everywhere they went.
But I called Dad and made the offer. And soon after, Duke came to live with me. All 102 pounds of him. The rule was that he wasn’t allowed in the house. That rule lasted about a week. That’s all it took for me to go from caring about the dog to loving the beast. Even though he was big and clumsy and drooled and snored, he was such a lovable guy. Until his dying breath, he was fun loving and happy-go-lucky, even in the old arthritic pain that consumed him for the last three years.
And surprisingly to me, he was loyal in a way that no other pet had ever been loyal to me. The way he looked at me with complete trust, admiration, and love was amazing, especially since it was so undeserved. (I’ve jokingly said to friends that the day I find a man to look at me the way Duke does/did is the day I’ll know I’ve found the right one.) It’s been five years — much to the chagrin of Sadie, the cocker spaniel who really owns and runs my house and the neighborhood — and I’ve never regretted the day Duke worked his way into my heart.
I thank my Dad for sharing him with me — we’ve both had the joy of Duke following at our heels on long hikes through the woods, looking down into those trusting eyes, evening rituals of sharing our popcorn, and being loved unconditionally and passionately every time we come home from a sometimes unloving day in the world. Yes, it’s true — Duke was a true friend. And he is already sorely missed.
Thank you to my friend, Mark, for his nice tribute to Duke on his blog, Appalachian Treks.
Perfect Pause
“Bittersweet October.
The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause
between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.”
Carol Bishop Hipps
Autumnal Day
Moses Cone Manor seen from Bass Lake, Blowing Rock, NC
“It was one of those perfect English autumnal days
which occur more frequently in memory than in life.”
P.D. James
Second Spring
Grandfather Mountain viewed from MacRae Meadows
“Autumn is a second spring
when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus
Locks of Beauty
Virginia Creeper Trail
“The foliage has been losing its freshness
through the month of August,
and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself
like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty
who has seen one season too many.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Listen
Price Lake on Blue Ridge Parkway
“Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to.”
Harriet Lerner, b. 1944
Future Generations
Grandfather Mountain
“Because we don’t think about future generations,
they will never forget us.”
Henrik Tikkanen
No Moderation
Near Hot Springs, NC
“It’s a sign of mediocrity
when you demonstrate gratitude
with moderation.”
Roberto Benigni, b. 1952
Actor
Common
“The two most common elements in the universe
are Hydrogen and stupidity.”
Harlan Ellison, b. 1934
Struggling Scholar
Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain, NC
“No one who cannot rejoice
in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar.”
Donald Foster
No Reason
“The first question I ask myself
when something doesn’t seem to be beautiful
is why do I think it’s not beautiful.
And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.”
John Cage, 1912-1992
For Granted
“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity
for taking things for granted.”
Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963
