FEBRUARY 17, 2016

February 17, 2016


Hello, everyone!

Finally, the weather seems to start following a normal pattern, at least according to what I know. Today, it was warmer during the day and it got colder and colder nearing to the dusk. That’s something I can understand. 

However, that also meant that the snow melt during the day and now, with temperatures under zero, everything started to turn into ice. 

My balcony boasts a nice skating-rink which didn’t make Rex too happy and he has ways to express dissatisfaction, sometimes quite radical ones.

I can understand him, though. How could anyone be happy when rushing out only to find himself sliding towards a concrete wall? 

Like it wasn’t enough that he was taunted by the huge moon he could see above his little wrinkled head and the stars that lately have seemed to get closer and bigger! He does have reasons to complain.

Anyway, after two failed attempts of rushing out on the balcony, he learnt his lesson: now he’s going out in a more demure manner and only once he got to the edge of the balcony, he stands on two paws and bellows at the moon and the stars. 

I am pretty sure that all this performance of his produces a real delight in the hearts of the people around, first of all because it is night and especially because an entire chorus starts.

As I said before, almost every house has a dog at least, and I know of two small ones that are noisy anyway, and they don’t really need someone to cue them into barking. Eh, well, what can you do? They stop after a while. 

What bemuses me is the fact that once the others start barking, Rex suddenly stops. He becomes this very well-behaved little dog, just wandering around with no worries in the world.

Of course, once we get inside, he also expects to be rewarded for his nice behavior. He jumps onto the bed and sits waiting patiently to get his treats. It wasn’t like he had made any noise at all. There were others making the noise, weren’t there?

It seems the weather also attacked the traffic lights in front of the complex this morning. 

It wasn’t such a bad surprise, after all. Usually, you have to wait for a while for the lights to turn green for pedestrians and that leads to missing a bus and waiting for another one to come, which isn’t a very pleasant endeavor especially when it is very windy and cold. 

Today, though, there was a policeman stationed there and any time a pedestrian wanted to cross the street, he’d see the person to the other side without waiting. So, no missed buses, no waiting in the wind (which was quite absent till evening, by the way) and no frustration waiting for a light to turn green for more than five or even ten minutes.

It seems the respective policeman was also quite handsome – that is what I heard, I didn’t see for myself, as I didn’t go out at that time. 

Nevertheless, I heard a few ladies talking next to my window. It seems they had found a reason to cross the street in both senses twice, only to benefit from his help and his presence.

That should have pleased the drivers of the cars that had to stop for the ladies’ leisure crossing. After all, they only wanted to be in the presence of such an accomplished male. Their conversation aimed to devising new reasons to cross the street again. 

Do you remember Lydia from “Pride and Prejudice” with her reply: “Officers!”? I did remember her hearing the conversation beneath my balcony. And who said that the clothes don’t make the man? I am pretty sure I said it in the past but it seems now that I might not be entirely right. A uniform is a uniform, in the end.

I remember there were a few saying in some regions of my natal country referring to men in uniform, especially when it came to very feisty women. For instance, in the east side of the country, they were invited to visit the fire station. 

​Anyway, I am pretty sure you’re not so interested in all those things and it is already over midnight and I do have a couple of other things to do. 
So, see you tomorrow.