Convenient Dog, Ownerless Bowl

It was sunny, cool and windy when I went to the Viewpoint just now. The crane I reported seeing a week or two ago, a little east of Foster Island, alongside the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, is still there. Up at the Viewpoint, sitting on the wooden encasement that surrounds the laurel tree, there was a little Asian-style glazed cream-colored ceramic bowl with a cobalt-blue image of a goldfish on the side. There was water in the bowl, and the wind made the surface of the water quiver. It's been there for about three days. It survived a terrible thunder storm last night. All but the very last leaves are down from the Sentinel. The few that remain are all brown--mere vestiges of the glorious, golden, autumnal foliage that bedecked the tree just a week ago. A man came walking along with a tiny dog that looked to me like a miniature terrier of some sort. I asked what breed it was, and he said the name. I've forgotten it, but it was something Japanese. "It's a nice dog," I said. "Yes," he answered, and then added, "They're convenient."