Ghost ship

Lily: Missing the eye on your right.

I'm staying with my family here Steilacoom, Washington along the Puget Sound. Visiting at the same time as me is a pug named Lily. Lily has one eye and a tongue that is often not in her mouth. She snorts, wheezes and flatuates. Particularly due to the farting, she does not live into the name Lily.  I took her for a walk last night. The trains (Amtrak and freight) go along the coast and I wanted to go down to the water to see if I could see any go by. So I leashed Lily and I proceeded to walk down to the sound. 

Puget Sound, Sept. 27, 2010

I have attempted to take pictures of the wonderful dogs I've stayed with. In Austin last week, I took several pictures of my friend Bill's dog Midas would "smile" to greet me when I came through the door. By smile, I mean that he would bare his teeth at me while wagging his tail and jumping. I tried a few times to capture his talent. The past day or two, I've tried to catch Lily at her most bizarre. Turns out to be harder than it might seem. Posing is not one of her tricks.


While down by the sound, I noticed the fog as it hung just over one of the islands. "What a great image," I thought. I pulled out my phone to take a picture when Lily saw someone down on the shore and started barking. She tugged at the leash and the only picture I took was the one above. Realizing I would not have captured the scene as I saw it, I put my phone back in my pocket. The dog and I started walking back up to the house. 


As we walked, I looked up to the north. The fog clung to the water and visible through the mist was top of a ferry. It was headed for port across the sound and it moved in a ghostly manor. I'm no stranger to fog and coastal waters, but this seemed literally fantastic. (adj. 1. b.) Picture a film like Pirates Of The Caribbean and substitute something more modern and utilitarian gliding through the water. I thought what it must've been like in another time to see a ship in the water where you seemingly had not seen one moments before. I imagined pirates or vikings drifting across the water in that same stealthy way. As I was on land, I could not hear any engines. 

Midas: Not smiling.

It occurred to me that I could pull out my phone and take a picture. (It would last longer, as the old adage goes.) I would then own a representation of it and would tell everyone how it did not live up to the otherworldly quality I saw that evening. I decided instead, to enjoy the fleeting moment and leave the phone in my pocket. Like Midas's "smile" and Lily's poking her empty eye socket with her tongue, it was a fleeting image.