This morning I read Don DeLillo's short story, "Sine Cosine Tangent", in newyorker.com. As surprising as it may be, I have never read any of DeLillo’s fiction, but this story intrigued me as it is about a teenager coming to grips with his parents' divorce.

The story takes place in New York City and covers the boy from age thirteen, when his parents divorced—in a very telling scene as he is doing his math homework, his father informs him of the fact—until the boy grows into adulthood. Therefore, most of the story covers the time the boy lived with just his mother in an apartment in Queens. His father, obviously rather wealthy, is involved in global finance, while his mother works full-time for a lawyer who deals with real estate transactions. His life with his mother is full of the angst of a teen boy coming to terms with his social environment and dealing with the break-up of the family unit.

So, do I read more of DeLillo? Probably not, though I may buy his collection of stories, The Angel Esmeralda: nine stories.

On the home front, I’ve been suffering through excruciating muscle spasms on the right side of my back since Saturday afternoon. It makes working at the computer next too impossible, but I am still able to read stories, so it can’t be too serious.

I went to Guitar Center on Saturday (maybe it was the long drive in my son’s Expedition that sprung the back) and got the deal of the day. They were having their President’s Day sale and had an Epiphone Les Paul Limited Edition Traditional PRO electric guitar for $399.00. It had been marked down from a sale price that had expired on 2/3, but as it was still advertised at $399, I got it for that price. My other Epiphone turned out to be a piece of cheap shit so I upgraded and can now get back to learning how to play the guitar, for no other reason than to give myself something to do.

Tomorrow morning we’re taking Rambo into the vet for a testosterone reduction operation that is long overdue. Hopefully, he won’t be too cranky over the weekend.

Sometime between now and whenever, but definitely this year, we’ll be getting a new puppy for the house. I’ve been saying we should get a Chihuahua because, well, I think they’re cute, but my son says that is a definite NO. He wanted to get a Pit Bull, either a Staffie or an Amstaff, but I’m not in favor of either of those mostly because I have to take the dogs out during the day and don’t want to have to watch out for some stupid dog jumping over the fence to get at the neighbor’s cats. Luckily, Rambo hasn’t learned that the fence is only 4 feet high and he could quite easily jump over the silly thing.

So, we’re going for intelligence. I wanted a Miniature Poodle, but my so is definitely against that. “NO SMALL DOGS!” So, that leaves a Border Collie, smartest of all. German Shepherds are supposed to be the third smartest dog, but sometimes Rambo impresses me as being only slightly more intelligent than a Chihuahua (No. 67).

With two local Border Collie breeders, we should have a fairly good chance of getting a puppy this year. We’re going for a female and would like a traditional black/white one. We’ll have to see what we get. In the meantime, we have my son’s ’72 Cadillac to get running, the cherry tree to be trimmed, and the back porch to be redone. (My son insists that since I’m “old” it’s time we put in a ramp so I don’t trip on the steps, again!) Only after those three things are accomplished can we even think about getting a new dog.