Daisy and the Fish

Mount Shasta, July 7th, 2005: Daisy, our little white border collie is one year old. From the basement today Adrienne brought the plastic swimming pool. It's just a Toys 'R Us special, about four feet across and perhaps eight inches deep. She'd bought it for the dogs, for the hot weather.

On the back deck, she filled it up with cool, clear water.

Tonight after supper, with the sun aslant from beyond the mountains to the west, and the mountain beyond our back yard glowing peach-colored, we sat out back drinking iced tea after supper.

Daisy noticed, for the first time, the little fish printed on the bottom of the plastic pool.

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The Terrid Rash

Mill Valley, July 2 2005: Adrienne's athletic daughter Layla is an attractive young woman, both strong and swift, and so she was quite alarmed early this morning when a wild rash broke out, arms and body glowing red suddenly.

This weekend, her fiance Greg had just finished a big job after a couple of exhausting weeks of early, early mornings, long drives, long days, and late, late nights. Perhaps he was not at his best, and was looking forward to a quiet weekend for recovery.

Layla called Adrienne. "What should I do? What should I do?"

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