Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.

When most of us talk to our dogs, we tend to forget that they're not people.

Thanks to Granna, Werner and Walter had grown up to be highly functioning, productive citizens - but if you were to ask Walter, Werner had a far easier time of it and lived his life with the sanctified nonchalance of those who will do anything to avoid dissecting their souls.

Nothing teaches great writing like the very best books do. Yet, good teachers often help students cross that bridge, and I have to say that I had a few extraordinary English teachers in high school whom I still credit for their guidance.

Knowing and understanding the people we love most is a process that continues well beyond their deaths... and is never complete.

Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.

I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than fatally disappointed.