Codger’s Column: Vulnerable thoughts
Codger and Crone are between dogs right now, waiting for that next Cur to fill the place of Rudy and Milo and Apollo and Tess.
Each of them arrived in some quirky, fateful way, rescuing the humans from something they didn’t even fully understand was missing, but becomes obvious these days when the visiting hound, Lottie, drops by, needing and offering reassurance and hugs.
Reassurance and hugs. Sometimes that’s all you need, sometimes that’s all you get. Consider this Codger’s unmoored meditations in a fraught giving season, thoughts set in motion by last week’s fifth edition of the Reporter Forum, called “Shelter Island Vulnerabilities,” an excellent discussion of preparing for the malicious side of Mother Nature’s whimsy — wind, fire and flood — as well as cyber-catastrophe. The news was generally positive and well received, although one resident complained that he couldn’t seem to make officialdom understand that he needed a fire hydrant near his Ram Island home to reduce his insurance by 5%.
Wildfires have their own lore on the Island. According to John Cronin, the erudite former Town engineer, they are statistically only ninth among probabilities of the ten greatest threats. However, potentially they could cause the greatest damage.
The forum also made clear that beyond the encouraging official reports from Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams and Police Chief Jim Read was the need and willingness to depend on friends and neighbors and in turn be ready to support them. People were more important than machinery.
Dogs were not even on the forum’s list, but they came to Codger’s mind as he thought about the intricate web of relationships that support us all, from close family and friends to companion animals to the casual conversationalists at the post office offering some snippet of advice.
As usual, of course, the connection that starts the season for Codger is Thanksgiving, his favorite holiday. Although this year’s version missed the two Oregonians, Layton and Gene, understandably held home by their first grandchild, there were 10 at table for the typical four-day feasting. It was one of the warmest, with a singalong led by Sylvia, the fresh collegian, lately moving on from her thrall to Taylor Swift.
Codger thought that was progress, others less so.
The reassurance and hugs of close family and friends is the first line of defense against what the forum described as “liabilities in the face of disaster” which included such Shelter Island specifics as a limited medical presence for an aging population with no local pharmacy.
On the other hand, the vigorous senior services, ambulance corps, and Fire Department along with the Lions Club and the various churches offering their free Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are certainly on the front lines of public service.
Codger thinks the role of animal companions is too often over-looked. You don’t have to be as addicted as he is to sentimental German shepherd stories on Facebook to appreciate the importance of furry friends. One of the cruelest of this year’s scams was the $69 robot dog, awaited in vain by a Codger friend living in a skilled nursing facility that allowed no pets.
On these days between dogs, Codger has been pretending that his best friend is Rollie, a four-wheeled burgundy metal pushcart recommended by his doctor as a way to relieve stress on his sad old spine.
If it hadn’t been for Crone’s insistence, Codger might not have bought the rollator. He thought it had the look of a walker, the mark of an old man. Then he remembered, he was an old man. Also, who cares what anyone younger, less-lived thinks?
Rollie turned out to be a wonderful new friend. It has a seat which is especially useful at parties when standing becomes a chore. Codger likes to be able to eat, drink and gesticulate simultaneously without falling down.
The first time he took it on the road, to a dinner date at Peconic Landing, he was cruising along an endless corridor when he sensed a presence at his elbow. A woman striding behind a blue rollator said, “Wanna race, big boy?”
Rollie was also a big hit at Thanksgiving when family members vied to walk Codger. It made him feel like a comfort dog.
So, counting Thanksgiving, Rollie, the state of Shelter Island vulnerabilities, even with the lack of a pet, Codger thinks this giving season is shaping up as a good one. If there’s a negative it’s in the potential lack of national support in the teeth of a heavy-duty liability like a major hurricane. Ken Lewis Jr. is ready, but is FEMA?
And then there’s ICE, a threat to many Island workers. Somehow, masked federal gunmen coming ashore as raiders not rescuers sounds like the definition of a vulnerability.
