Alaskan Malamute – One Big Dog

The phone rang at 6:15 AM this morning. I was in the shower, so Anne answered it. Normally, these early morning calls are for Anne anyway. Melissa, the sub-scheduler calls Anne at this time with last minute substitute teaching assignments. School is out for the summer, but there is still summer school, besides the central office works all year round. Anne has worked as the office receptionist already once this summer. She even worked there on the school district’s last snow day. The call was for me though. My boss called to tell me that the plant was closed. It had lost all power after Friday’s violent storms. The airport had been hit by a tornado, which had downed critical power lines.

Faced with an unexpected day off, I first went back to bed, but after my shower, I wasn’t feeling particularly sleepy. I puttered, then did the dishes, fixed the front door, mowed the lawn, shopped and went for a bicycle ride in the park, with my spovely louse. We did our turn and a half and then went for a late lunch at the boat house. We sat on the patio, under an umbrella, overlooking Post-Dispatch Lake. Besides the ducks and paddle boats on the lake, at the table adjoining us was a woman with an Alaskan malamute named Max. Max is the biggest dog that I have ever seen. He weighs 135 pounds. Ninety pounds is considered large for a malamute. Max appears even larger, because he is a rare long hair malamute. Only one in 200 malamutes is a long hair. Max’s other recessive trait is his gigantism, giving him quite literally a big head. Most Mondays are rather blah. Today, with its unexpected holiday was a blessing.