Right now the neighbors have gone and left their GSD out on their back deck (enclosed). It is crying and howling because of their absence. Although Rambo nipped me this morning because I touched his food bag, I still love him and I suppose that’s the difference between them and us. Rambo’s crate is right here in the house and he can get to it whenever he needs to go to his “place”, while the neighbor’s GSD has its crate on the back deck, so its “place” is on the other side of a normally close door and isn’t actually in a dog’s eye a place of comfort. There are two kinds of pet owners, those who love and those who neglect. I’m proud to say we love Rambo even though my flannel has holes in it from the numerous times he’s decided I’m encroaching on his territory. He gets the rebuke he deserves and is sent to his “place” for a little timeout. That works for us and I wish the neighbors could be the kind of dog owners who appreciate what they have in that sad, lonely dog.

Over last Saturday night and Sunday morning, Chakira von Dacon, IPO (Schutzhund) 1, KKL1a, gave birth to seven GSD puppies, six males and one female. We’re, or rather I’m getting the female. I don’t know what name the breeder will demand for the registered name (All of their litters are designated by letters of the alphabet, in Rambo’s case he was in an “L” litter and his registered name would have been Lorenz von Waldberg if we had submitted the $35 and paperwork to the AKC.), but I’m naming her Nana, after Rambo’s mother. It was a never-ending struggle to come up with a name that interested me, but all I could come up with were cutesy names that don’t fit my personality and probably wouldn’t have fit the dog. GSD’s are a regal breed and deserve to be called something other than Sissy, Missy, Bouncy, Cuddles, or Miss Fuzzy.

I’ve been working on “319” a little every day. I’ve changed the time period for the story, bumping it forward thirty years to today to change the sexual dynamic from outright lust to more of a reminiscence of times past, of all the boyfriends, acquaintances, and deaths. Uncommon to the way I usually write a story, each chapter will be from the POV of a different character.

The main characters will be those living in the house. At the present time they include: Geoff, a man in his mid-sixties at the end of a long career of teaching at a fictional four-year college in Upstate New York; Jer, an eighteen-year-old entering the house as a first-year student at Warnton College and living there as the houseboy; and, just appearing this week, Erik, a fourteen-year-old who was abandoned outside the Mickey D’s in Lyons, NY, and will be Geoff’s foster child and ultimately adopted son.

Secondary characters now introduced are: Dave, an eighteen-year-old first-year student at Warnton College who makes a mean kosher Reuben and is Jer’s main love interest; Gerry, a Warnton local and senior at Warnton Middle/Senior High School and probable friend to Jer or something more; and, creepy Mr. Alexander, the band teacher at the Middle/Senior High School who has the wandering eye for teenage boys and who will meet his doom somewhere in the story.

Erik for his part plays the clarinet, but will refuse to play in band, so I’ll have to come up with a victim for Mr. Alexander. Of course, it will have to be handled delicately. I’m thinking the victim could be a possibly boyfriend of Erik, whether the abuse occurs before, during, or after the relationship will have to be determined.

I thought by adding Erik and Gerry to the story would give it a more depth and help (or hinder) Geoff in his early years of retirement by having a never-ending array of cute young and older teen and young adult males in his home. He’s had a horrible life of having steady relationships always ending in untimely separation or death. He’s never had a chance to find that one special person to be with him to the very end and now he finds himself surrounded by untouchable youth, who in some cases seem more than willing to be closer than is proper. Will Geoff find Mr. Right or will he have to accept looking forward to a lonely end in the big Queen Anne style house at 319 Winesap Lane.

In any case, 319 Winesap Lane is a developing story that is starting out with a bang and all I have to do is keep the banging in tune. As with any story involving Geoff there is the very real possibility of characters coming on stage, singing their aria, and dying a horrible death, much to the horror of Geoff and the other characters.