Today is National Weatherperson’s Day and I say we don’t nominate Phil the Groundhog as our spokesman because it sure didn’t feel Spring-like at all this morning. In fact, the weather has been a little crazy all this week.  Wednesday it rained steadily from noon on, and yesterday it hit 56 degrees and we broke still another record in this El Nino Winter.  This morning it was nearly thirty degrees colder than yesterday – I heard that early morning weather report before I suited up, so I had to grab more woolen layers and a hooded scarf to add to my repertoire of warm-weather gear before setting out on a walk.

I like that hooded scarf as it keeps me warm, but it terrifies the neighborhood dogs. They see me coming, this hulking figure in a puffy salmon-colored coat and head sheathed in a dark hooded scarf and they start carrying on.  First, it’s a low growl, then the barking begins, and pretty soon they are baring their teeth or laying back their ears.  Yikes!  Saying “nice doggie” doesn’t help much either.  Especially to the Doberman who moved to the ‘hood last Fall.  He didn’t like me when I was bareheaded in Autumn before I donned the hat, and he doesn’t like me any more now.  He bounds off the wooden deck with that sleek, streamlined body and those long, coltish-looking legs, and arrives at the cyclone fence in about ten seconds flat.  Then, just to reinforce his resentment of my presence, he runs the fence of the entire corner lot while I pass by.  In a heartbeat, my heart is in my mouth and I am uneasy.  My big emergency whistle is embedded under layers of clothes and far out of reach.  Most of the time I resort to walking in the street until I’ve passed him.

After barely recovering from that episode, in the next block lives a large and very mean German Shepherd who is always outside. He’ll come charging at me, barking his head off as well, and that gets the two pit bulls across the street a tad riled up too. They stay silent, but their flopped-over ears twitch a little and they just give me “the stare”, and, believe me, I get the message loud and clear how they feel about me.

I’m a morning person – I guess they don’t do mornings well.

So, going forward I will take an alternate route to avoid them because the only shiny white choppers I like to see that early in the morning are my own as I glance into the mirror.

[Image by photographer Matthew Wiebe at Unsplash]