How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?”  ― Plato, The Allegory of the Cave An old friend of dad's found my story last night, and like most, her initial response was, "how sad!". Then she dug farther into the posts and began to see that the beginning of the story only serves to highlight my current status. I sometimes forget that there are newcomers to…

Miss Ellie here; dad and I left Charlie, mom, and the rest of the inmates at the Casa, and went on a little "date night". The local multiplex had a one night showing of "Rush: Time Stand Still", a documentary featuring the forty year career and retirement of the iconic Canadian rock band. As he was going solo, Dad started to take the bike, but I was having none of that nonsense; what could be…

Life at the Casa is strange; last night I had exhausted myself by barking at the trick or treaters and had crashed on the living room floor. Mia sauntered into the room and I awoke to find a red dog casually hunching on my head as if this is perfectly acceptable behavior, which it is not. I arose with alacrity to return the favor, while Max looked on from the relative safety of the couch,…

Psst! Max! You awake? (From underneath the covers)I am now, you hyperactive doofus! What do you want now? As soon as dad wakes up, let's begin bombarding him with guilt so he will feel obligated to take us for a ride! But what if he has other things he would rather do? Wait a minute, I think I just had a twinge of conscience(shudder)... your Honor, please strike that last comment from the record. That's…

Last Saturday, Miss Ellie took dad and I waaaaay up into the Ozarks to an ADV motorcycle rally; I'm pretty sure that this was the first time that dad went to a motorcycle event in a 31 year old car with a rowdy dog in attendance, but such is the powers of guilt that I wield. We decided to test Miss Ellie's 4WD capabilities by camping atop Pilot Knob, the site of an old firetower,…

Good morning from base camp Subaru! We're camped at the base of a deserted watchtower in the most remote reaches of the Ozarks mountains. The sun and the moon are fighting for supremacy in the sky; even though the moon mantains her high point in the west, the sun is beginning to establish her supremacy to the east, setting the treetops aflame and chasing the last tendrils of fog back down into the valleys. Or…