This afternoon the dogs stayed home away from the heat and I ran alone. One hundred degrees today.

When I peeked in the window I saw HersheyBanditOzzyLily draped around the basement like melted heaps of fur.

They heard me at the fence and at once the four bodies rushed toward the doggy door. There was some arguing about who would go first and I saw Ozzy's glassy little eyes disappear from among the taller dogs' legs as he retreated before they trampled him. He is a practical little guy who will wait his turn.

I think of Ed all day. Between sentences as I write a story I see him at a swap meet in Keane New Hampshire. I see him removing a cover from his motorcycle to poke a screw driver inside I hear him say nice things mean things funny things. I see him as he pulls out scissors and asks that I cut his hair make his coffee find his shoes.

Ed liked vans and I remember the day we went to pick up his Econoline from the seller in Watertown. I watched him pull on layers of clothes before work in the cold, snowy winter. He loved the blue recliner in my Shelton apartment and pitched it sideways near a window where he could see the TV.

Joni Mitchell sang from the player in my kitchen with its high ceilings and pink painted trim. He told me, I like your music. But later he would spew insults and call people peace creeps.

Late one afternoon he fell off a ladder.

Don't hurt me, I am just an old man, he whined, pretending to be helpless when he came home with a leg brace.

He raved about this beautiful long dress jacket he wanted to wear one New Year's Eve. I peered around the front door expecting to see something spectacular. God, that coat was awful. It was not alone. It's like he had a color blind sense of fashion. He had grey cowboy boots that hurt his feet before he got out the door and black slacks with wide, white stitching.

I remember a meteor shower that forecasters said would shred the darkness with trails of pink and white after 5 am. I got up with him and we walked to an open field downtown, turned our runny freezing noses toward the sky, and waited. I don't remember if I ever saw a shooting star with Ed.