Passing Time

To pass some of the time while J* is busy during the weekdays I took Gus down to the beach to help me collect sea glass. Eventually I want to make something crafty out of the glass. Anytime we go anywhere with Gus people compliment him on what a great looking dog he is, and today was no different. Although it was early morning, and a weekday there were still some men fishing off the shore and some older people taking a stroll along the beach. Gus happened to catch one of the fisherman’s eyes and coincidentally there was a big pile of glass washed up on shore behind where he was fishing.
He wanted to pet Gus, and we struck up conversation as I picked up the glass. I asked him about fishing and he gave me some pointers for J* and his fishing buddy when I told him they haven’t had any luck catching anything yet. It was an unexpected encounter, and as I walked along the beach I thought about how easy it is to strike up conversation with people now that we are dog owners. How often do people pass by, not even making eye contact with one another? This made me very thankful that I have a dog. Obviously there are other reasons I enjoy having a dog, but there are so many times that I have had unexpected encounters with people because he is with me. It is nice to have an excuse to be friendly in such an unfriendly world. I know my day was positively impacted by my short conversation with that man, and I like to think that his day was made a little bit better as well.

Beach Bum

Sea Lion