By Eve W. Engle

The dogs rule in our house. They are fed first, allowed in our bed, have their own bed in the guest room and sneak up onto the sofas when we aren't looking. Maxie, short for Maximus, is a Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenes mix, Sammy is a Black Lab/Border Collie mix. His full name is Samuel L. Jackson after one of my favorite actors. Both were abused and rescued from their former owners. They get cookies every morning.







Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Back to Writing

No one really read this blog when I was writing it. I know that. But things happen in everyone's lives that stop them from feeling the need to share. That's what happened to me. For the past three years I haven't written anything. First it was two of my children leaving home back to back, then a nasty divorce, then the loss of a promotion, and finally, news that I had endometrial cancer. Yeah. For real. Shitty news. However, I'm here still, and it's time to start back again.

I wanted to write. Ideas have bounced around in my head. My computer died right after my divorce and I was without one for six months. I think of 2011 as my personal 12th century dark ages. No computer, no writing. At least that was my excuse. I could have used a pen and paper. I could have used ANYTHING. I just didn't. I just wasn't feeling creative. I just wasn't a lot of things. And I was grieving.

My eldest son left home the beginning of his freshman year of college and never came back. He just went down the street to Auburn University so it felt like he was still here, and besides I had two spares so it didn't seem a big shock. From the time my middle son was 15 months old I knew he was going to leave home someday. He was my adventurous son. The one who would have gone to California to pan for gold, or sailed with Commodore Perry to the "Orient". He left for a year to teach in Seoul, SK. Even that wasn't a shock since I had expected it. But when my youngest, my little buddy, my baby boy, dropped out of college and signed up for the Navy I was thrown off kilter. And when he left for Naval boot camp one week after his brother left for Korea, I was devastated.

It took another year to get the husband out of the house and out of my life. By that time both sons were ready to come back home. And thankfully they did. The contract for the teaching job in Seoul ended, and son #2 was ready to go back to grad school. The Navy wasn't keeping up it's end of the deal and son #3 received an honorable discharge a few months after his brother came home. Then I started feeling sick. Thank goodness for a dedicated doctor and the high tech world of robotic surgical procedures. One year later I was pronounced cancer free and sent packing by my oncologist at UAB hospital. I left gladly.

So now here I sit, New Year's Eve, 2014, writing on this long neglected blog. Sammy and Maxie are fine. Still sleeping, eating, and behaving like normal big dogs. Maxie has discovered how to bark and joins into the neighborhood "discussions" now. He had been choked by a prior owner before I rescued him. He's looking old with a dignified white face, bony spine, and crooked toenails. We think he is either nine or ten. We cherish every day with him knowing we are lucky to have him here. Sammy still runs the yard to clear it of birds, squirrels and chipmunks. He's a bit slower at age six but determined to keep his territory clear of "vermin".

Come on my new creative writing journey with me. I'm ready to ride the writer's wagon again. Or come back soon. I promise there will be something here you haven't seen before.

Best,
Eve