January, my least favorite month, is done. January; a cold, dark, barren toothache of a month. What does January have to offer?
Oh sure it marks the start of a new year, and it…it… Well I’m not sure what else it brings to the feast. Just a dismal placeholder. Something has to take up that space on the calendar so it might just as well be January. Among the twelve siblings of the year, January is the pariah.
January. The holidays are done, if you don’t count New Year’s Day and what’s New Year’s but a day to loll about the house wearing pajamas and a post New Year’s Eve grimace. It’s great if you’re into football, aspirin, coffee and hangover remedies.
January. It doesn’t even mark the mid of “the bleak midwinter,” as the poetess Christina Rossetti termed it long ago,
The only promise that it holds is that its days are numbered.
February 1st, 2022. It’s starting out cold, very cold for the San Francisco Bay Area. Car windshields are painted with sheets of ice, the ground is frosted and breaths come in puffs that hang visibly in the early morning cold.
Out on the recreation path with Lexi, small patches of ice lay in slick wait, hiding in those sheltered spots never touched by the wintertime sunlight.
Lexi and I are walking along the San Pablo Bay Shoreline. My stocking cap is pulled low to cover my ears and my hood is pulled tight to warm any random centimeter that the cap won’t cover.
A woman approaches from a distance. She resembles someone I’ve often seen on this path. I know that sweatshirt and she does look familiar yet she appears strange to me. Even as we’re almost upon each other I still can’t place her.
She glances down at Lexi and then looks back up at me, “What a beautiful dog,” she says in a Boston clam chowdah accent.
It is her.
We used to pass each other almost daily but I hadn’t seen her since, when? Spring? At least.
This morning her cheeks are shrunken and overall she looks almost consumptive. The sweatshirt that once fit her full form now hangs loosely like a potato sack on a gaunt frame. Her gait is slower than I remember.
But for the sweatshirt, the accent and the customary comment, I know nothing about this woman.
I don’t know her name or where she lives. I don’t know if she’s married or if she has children. I don’t know where she came from, what she does or what she did. I don’t know her age but I would guess that she’s about my age, that is to say, somewhere in her sixties. We’re strangers who used to pass each other along the shoreline, bonded only by a customary exchange. “Fellow travelers,” as the old saying goes.
“What a beautiful dog.”
“Thank you.”
Only once did we break custom.
“What a beautiful dog.”
“Do you want to say hi?” I said.
She bent down and Lexi sat and looked up at the woman with those soft caramel eyes that would melt the heart of a Republican senator. The woman was delighted, as she stroked the smooth hair on Lexi’s head.
When we parted she said to me, “You take good care of that beautiful dog.”
She’s a stranger, though not a perfect one, and I’m glad to see her, as if she’s a long lost friend. I’m saddened to see the change in her appearance and my guess turns naturally to COVID.
This morning, as we press on, going our separate ways, I wish that I’d stopped and offered to let her say “hi” to Lexi. Maybe next time. Maybe I’ll introduce myself. In some way I guess you could say that we’re friends though our only commonality is Lexi; the only known commonality that is.
I hope that I see her again, and often, if for no other reason than I know that she’s well.
We’ve flipped the calendar from the doldrums of January. The sun is getting higher in the sky. Five in the afternoon is no longer dark and this morning is brighter than the previous 31.
The dawn of February brings with it the Year of the Tiger.
What will the tigers bring us?
The zodiac tells us that tigers are enthusiastic and optimistic. We could use some of that. Hell we could use a lot of that.
Tigers possess traits that have been noticeably absent during the last five or six years; a sense of justice, honesty, judiciousness, responsibility and a fundamental belief that their word is their bond.
You wanna talk supply chain shortage? Screw the empty shelves, the dearth of honesty and responsibility is about as critical a supply shortage as we can get.
After what we’ve been through over the past six years, we can only hope for a preponderance of tigers.
A month ago, on New Year’s Day, Lexi and I took our morning walk in the pitch black. Today we started our walk in the gloaming to return facing a glorious, rainbow sherbet sunrise.
Nice reflection
Thank you so much Kathy.
Paul
Many things we may not agree on, but morning walks, neighbors, and friendly hellos warm hearts and start the day off right. I walk every morning. I’m happy to now see the sun peak over the mountain halfway through my trek around the neighborhood. I hope you see your friend again and she’s able to say hello to Lexi. Dogs melt our hearts and bring smiles 😊
Hello Lisa,
I’m fortunate enough to have access to many trails that stretch along the bayfront and the weather has been wonderful this month. I’ve been able to remove some of the layers. It should be raining and I guess in some respects I’m a bad person for enjoying the sun and mild temps.
Dogs and babies are probably the best icebreakers ever invented.
Paul
A beautiful tiger! Yes, let’s hope for those tiger-like traits to prevail, along with the longer days. And I hope you see your walking acquaintance again 😀
So far the tiger, with its traits, seems to be in hiding. It’s a long year. We can only hope.
Paul
What a beautiful post. 🙂 Made me smile. I walk the dog too and meet so few people that I don’t even need a mask (it’s obligatory over here even outdoors). I just love it, the way she loves Lexi.
Thank you for commenting and my apologies for the late response.
There’s nothing like a dog to break the ice and make new friends.
Paul
Hi Paul,
So this is what you’re doing at 5AM? It sounds like a great way to start the day.
I do notice people are friendlier when I go out – a bit chattier behind the masks. Perhaps that extra layer offers more than just Covid protection. It also makes them feel less inhibited. I think humans are itching to return to carefree days, random conversations, and just not being ‘so on guard’ all the time. It’s been a long haul.
Like you, I’m loving the longer days. I’ve been checking the sundown times, and each day brings an extra minute or two of daylight. Yay!
The visual of your rainbow sherbet sunrise made me smile – BIG. 😀
e
Eden,
Here I am with the uber late response again.
Yep, that’s what I’m doing at 5 in the morning. They’ve been very pleasant lately.
“I think humans are itching to return to carefree days, random conversations, and just not being ‘so on guard’ all the time.”
Usually it’s still just a wave at familiar strangers. Many still go out with their masks on. Some still cross the street to avoid being close. I’m hoping that those days are close to ending.
“It’s been a long haul.”
I remember that it was about a year ago that you commented on a photo that I’d taken pre-pandemic of a line of alfresco tables in front of an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. You posed the question, “Will we ever return to that again?
Maybe it was rhetorical. Maybe not. Either way, I think we’re almost there.
Paul
I REALLY REALLY hope you’re right about that. 🙂
I’ll bet a pizza and a glass of Chianti on it
The weather here in the bay area (I’m in the Berkeley hills) has been so wacky. I used to wave to a elderly lady walking to church every morning. It gave me such a good feeling to know there was someone in the world so faithful and constant and always cheerful. That was years ago and now I am that lady, waving to strangers. (though I’m generally on my way to the Farmer’s Market which is my church) Nice to meet you!
Hello, and nice to meet you. It’s always nice to find Bay Area bloggers.
The weather has indeed been wacky. I have to admit that I am enjoying the warm weather. It brings on a bit of a guilt.
Lexi and I are out early, before dawn. We don’t see many people but they’re usually the same cast of characters; same elderly Filipina ladies, same woman with the two dogs she can’t control, the woman who walks about 50 paces in front of her(I don’t know) friend/husband/significant other.
There’s a line in the movie Hoosiers, that goes to the effect that it’s comforting to know that some things remain constant.
Thank you again for visiting. Hope to see you again soon.
Paul