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Taking Ani for a Walk
January 2005 Raleigh, NC
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This weekend was also a big weekend for walks with Ani.  She and I took daily walks about 2 years ago until a car in the road in front of our house scared her off of them.  After over a year she slowly started asking to go on them again.  (Asking entails standing on the washing machine by the back door and meowing incessantly until I get her leash and take her out)  Walks involve her sniffing out the bushes along the side of the house (where her nemisis, The Cat Next Door, likes to hang around), sniffing around the bushes in the front of the house and then walking down our neighbor's back yard to the creek that runs behind our houses. 

Of all the cats, Ani is the one that most misses the old farmhouse and being able to wander the fields and woods in search of Adventure.  Our walks are a sad revision of those days, especially with me clumping and stomping along behind her, but she seems content to have some special time outside that none of the other cats get.

So, about mid-week The Boy wrote from college saying that he thought he would stop by over the weekend.  Bonn wrote back that he should stay where he was for a while and get back into school instead.  My thoughts exactly.  Besides, we hadn't had a weekend with just the two of us in a long time and it was about time for that to happen again.

So we started on Friday evening, going out.  We went to see a matinee of Finding Neverland, a movie that I ended up being very impressed with.  In an age of movie special effect, sex and violence it's good to see a film that remembers what is really important is a good story and good actors.  Johnny Depp plays James Barre, the author of Peter Pan.  The movie tells the story of James at the time he befriends the children who become the major characters in his play, as well as their mother.  Depp's acting is really spot-on and the young child who plays Peter (Freddie Highmore) is fantastic.

We went from there to a local bookstore where I spent most of my time reading Phil Keoghan's book "No Opportunity Wasted".  While I didn't buy it, I did buy a journal and spent some time that night writing up a list of things I want to do before I die -- as well as a few "major accomplishments" I've already done.

That, however, is the stuff future entries are made of.

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