Report from a morning walk: Dispatch #1

 As I try to use my client's hours wisely and I ruminate on what Chapter 8 should bring to the potential fourth book of my series, I went for a walk this morning. No, I wasn't avoiding that chilled bottle of champagne in the fridge. I'm strong. It'll be uncorked when the Captain gets home.

For sure.

This is Dispatch #1 in what will likely be a semi-occasional report from a modest neighborhood near the center of Indianapolis where dogs outnumber cats, the squirrels run rampant and the birds are chirping as if it's spring.

I stayed to the northern streets this morning, encountered no other pedestrians, but learned the following:

• Aurora is in Big Trouble.
• The squirrels are out of control.
• The Little Free Library is missing at least one important volume.

I don't know Aurora, but I almost suggest that her mother call her Rory when she's yelling at her to Come in. Right. Now! Aurora just doesn't have the right zing for a little girl who was just trying out her cute little raincoat. That little explorer is definitely a Rory. She can be Aurora when she's a grandmother...

The squirrels remain a menace. They're skinny this time of year, but I can't find it in my heart to worry for them. They'll fatten up on my flowers soon enough. I don't celebrate when I find one flattened on the roadway, but neither do I mourn. When they stick to a diet of acorns and sweet gum balls and I might change my mind.

I keep thinking I need to stock the neighborhood library with my book. Maybe there's a publisher in the neighborhood. The weatherati say it's going to get cold again soon, so I may not make this a daily ritual. I'm hoping the birds are right and that spring is not far off.

Then again, I don't speak bird and they might have just been trash-talking the squirrels. I bet they hate them, too.