This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. It has been said that there is no smell like a wet dog. Well, la de dah. Laaadeeedahhh.
If you had been caught in a storm like we had yesterday in this Florida place, you would know that there was no choice other than to smell like a wet dog. Unless you smelled like a baked potato.
Every day has its struggles. Every day has its challenges. Sometimes, you can meet those challenges. Sometimes you totally rise to the occasion and end up the better for it.
But some days? You at first try to meet the challenges. You say that you don’t care about walking in the rain or in the wind. And you figure that it can’t last too long. But as the day goes on, whatever challenge it was that you thought you could face? You get dern tired of trying. You get dern tired of the rain. And you end up getting all wet. And you get mad at the rain.
Yes. I am just going to say it. Sometimes, we can’t meet every day with a smile like Digby’s and beat the stuff that gets us down. And we may choose to be positive and walk in the rain. But some days, it can be too much. And that is when you come inside and you make a baked potato. You bake that potato right up. So instead of being better, you get out the butter.
So that is what Girl Person decided to do. She said that as long as we were trapped like sardines in the Big Blue Treat Wagon RV and we were cold and wet, we would at least eat good. And so she put some potatoes in our easy bake oven up in here. And in an hour, they were ready. But then, she forgot that she baked them, she kept trying to meet more challenges in the day, and we went for another walk. In the rain. Again. And I was quite irritated about it. Again. But not as irritated as I was about to be.
You see, as we came back inside after Girl Person tried to clean us up for the millionth time, she smelled it. Those forgotten baked potatoes. And she thought we smelled like baked potatoes. And she said to us that we sure smelled bad when it rained. She said we smelled so bad we almost smelled like an old baked potato. And then, she remembered her old baked potatoes in that easy bake oven that makes everything taste bad anyway.
She told us she was sorry, but that she supposed there were worse things to smell like. And I agreed. Like a wet person with mud and dog hair all over them.
And as we settled in, and listened to more rain falling, Girl Person cleaned herself up, put her attitude in check, and ate her potato. She shared some with us, we all took a few minutes to appreciate that the earth was doing its thing, and we knew that the only challenge we had met that day was keeping our sanity and smelling bad. Because if there was ever a contest about that, we would have won. And I suppose that you have to appreciate that.
Some days, you just want to start over. And the good thing is, if we are able to, isn’t that a gift? If we were perfect every day, the perfect days wouldn’t be so special. If there was only sunshiney, would we recognize how good it felt?
If there were only good times, the good times wouldn’t seem so special. It’s about give and take, baked potatoes and dogs and rain. What more do you need?
-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle
