when the things that should be infinite, aren't

one of my favorite professors died on tuesday. as a poet, De had a powerful vocal presence, and he taught an enormously popular class in reading poetry out loud. i remember reading 'the wild swans at coole' in class and after 15min of De's coaching, my final reading ended with a long silence, then audible sniffles from all over the classroom. when De took a sabbatical i lived in his house for a year and took care of his dog buford, a frothing mastiff who'd suffer small children poking fingers in his eyes but was petrified of the porch steps.

buford was warm-up for having my own dog. but they too are finite, as dr dog informed us earlier this week when we took the j-dog in for a checkup. oh he's 8? sure it's normal for him to be slowing down, but this breed lives until 10 or 12.

10 or 12, like that's a good thing? is it useful, this melloncollie? perhaps not, but this loo seat that lets you calculate the weight of your poo surely is.