He stepped out into the forty-
two degree, rainy day and said
to himself, “Why did you come
back from Arizona so soon?”
Himself answered, “Because
you had things to do, such as
sign tax forms because you
didn’t have a printer/scanner
in Arizona to print the forms,
sign them and scan them back
into the computer and send them
off to the tax preparer and get
the travel trailer out of the barn
at the county fair ground by a
certain date.” He said to him-
self, “Yeah, you’re right, as
usual, and I did miss the rain,
so I guess I had better be mind-
ful, grateful, live in the moment,
get in the car, start the engine,
turn on the heat and buy new
wiper blades.” Himself con-
cluded the conversation with,
“Right.” The Chocolate Lab just
stared at “he and himself “
who appeared to the dog
as his master talking out
loud. The dog wondered
to whom the man was
speaking because the man
never said, “Good boy or
Buddy, Buddy, Buddy or
Come on, Buddy Baloosy,
want to go for a ride?” But
the dog wagged his tail any-
way in anticipation that the
man would open the back
door of the car. He and him-
self did. Then the man, other-
wise known as he and him-
self for the purposes of the
perfectly understandable
conversation between a man
and himself while his con-
fused dog just wanted to get
in the car, sat in the front
seat and said to himself,
“Now don’t forget to buy
those wiper blades.” Himself,
who usually got the last
word, said, “Well, alrighty
then,” and put the car in re-
verse. The dog stopped listen-
ing and was content to look
out the window.