DOG YEARS


DOG YEARS

~Dynamite! Three blasts

  • Shocked from sleep, the dogs yelp, then woof and howl
  • The Fire Department’s traditional 4th of July salutation at crack of dawn, a custom from the hardrock mining days,  is continued in part to torment the softer citizens of the present distressed moment –
  • Sarah rolls her old bones out of bed and winces as her feet hit the cold floor.  She aches all over from yesterday’s Events.  “This job is going to kill me “she says out loud to herself, not for the first time.
  • He snorts and shakes off the blankets, “what?”
  • “Nothing, go back to sleep, it’s still early.”
  • The timbers of the great old house shudder, and the glass panes tremble in the windows .
  • Routine, set up, feed, water, the big kitchen is steamy, crowded and loud for breakfast.
  • >Dogs, kids, assorted mysterious cousins. Skiers and boarders. Artists and indigenous citizens 
  • . River runners, ice climbers, roustabouts, along with their highwire academic skills….exes and guests who never left
  • >Old lovers, old husbands, as her sight clouded Sarah could hardly tell them apart anymore, just more faces around the table.
  • >Still excited, wise dog, fast dog, silly dog.  
  • >This is the situation:
  • >Given the Era of Existential Threats to Humanity that emerged from the ashes of the post plague years, it was determined by the technocrat leaders of Public Health and Homeland Security that the population was in imminent danger of rending itself to pieces.  “It’s like a mother fox in a trap, gnawing her foot off to free herself,” the leaders famously memed as they organized the Tourism and Hospitality Sector, now the dominant part of the economy, to manage the expectations and disappointments of a fretful population.
  • Thus the Accelerated Year, during which the most popular holidays and events were repeated many times to meet the demands of the crowds.  
  • >This phenomenon was particularly exaggerated in designated Tourist Destination zones like these small towns high in the Rockies.  Stolen from the Utes and other Indigenous, plundered for gold and silver, they became ski meccas and rich Texans’ paradise. 
  • >Today is the seventh and final Fourth of July of the summer.
  • .
  • >Meanwhile….