March, 2001.

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We'd just driven most of the way across the country -- in the car for eight hours a day for almost an entire week.  In nine states, we sampled parks and rest areas religiously, once at breakfast, once at lunch, and once at dinner time.  Some of the parks were grand and made me excited for the journey ahead; others were not so grand and made me long for home in Colorado.

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TC had no idea what was to be our life for the next year.  I think he found it amusing, if not exhausting, how we'd drive all day just to visit a park that seemed hardly better than the one we'd visited the day before.  But he never once complained.  And he never once forgot to sign the guestbook anywhere we'd stop.

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When we arrived at our new apartment outside of Boston, both TC and I were finally glad to be free from motel and convenience store life.

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"Hey Rich, what's in the package?", TC asked curiously one day as I came up the steps.

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"Poop bags.", I replied somewhat matter-of-factly; such was life in the big city.

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TC jumped with excitement!  "Thank you, FedEx!!!", and then, nearly grabbing the box from my hand, added, "How many are there?"

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"A thousand", I responded, wondering if he even knew what that meant...

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"Holy squirrel!!!  Where did you get that much poop?", TC asked, totally in awe of some heretofore unknown talent he'd just attributed to me...

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"The bags are still empty, TC", I explained.  "When you fill them all, we can go back home to Colorado!"

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TC did a quick calculation...  "Let's see...  Fill them all...  That would be...  A thousand poops, divided by three poops a day...", and then he hesitated...  "Three days???"

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Then something flashed in the room...  Or maybe it was from a car outside...  "Hey, I'm a dog!  I don't have any concept of time.  I just sit on the couch until you get home, and then I get off the couch again!"

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Then he summed up his whole view of life in just five words, "So, when do we start???"

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For all his simplicity, I knew there was a lesson to be learned here, but somehow it eluded me...

 

We started that very day.