Pleased to greet you! And then the other shoe drops...

Merrell, size 10, plenty of miles--cheap!

Right into the pond. It's just my Tucker-y way of saying hello. Actually, it's my Tucker-y way of saying: "Where have you been? I am so annoyed that you did not take me with you that I, perforce,* will have to take one of your shoes, run outside with it (perhaps through the screen door you left carelessly closed), and drop it in an inconvenient location."

If I am very annoyed, I will drop said shoe right into our little pond, where I had my Eureka! moment. No, it was not in a bath,** not by any stretch of the imagination. You know how I am with baths. No, the moment came when, after I dropped Dad's size 10 wide Merrell, I discovered that not only is it waterproof--that I knew, having dragged Dad hundreds, nay thousands (7,117 at three miles per day, 365 days per year, 6.5 years), of miles through all kinds of weather in those shoes--but that also it is buoyant.

As am I, whenever my folks come home.

*Perforce: used to express necessity or inevitability. I think this word works perfectly here. It's from the Old French, "by force." And you know I have a French connection. Plus, doing things by force is kind of my M.O.

**The reference is to Archimedes, who supposedly came up with the theory of water displacement after soaking in a tub. He then ran around shouting "Eureka," meaning "I have found it!" That's what Dad said after finally discovering his shoe in the pond.