I have a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, one of a number of “loose-lipped” breeds. No, he isn’t the author of my blog “Loosely Speaking.” My blog isn’t even named after him.

When you have a loose-lipped canine, that means you have slobber spraying everywhere. I mean everywhere. Sometimes you forget that you haven’t hosed your walls down in a long time and then comes a lovely early spring February day (like today!) when the light shines just right and there it is. Evidence of the loose-lipped pooch on the walls, the mirrors, windows, framed art… little dried splatters everywhere.

Today I dragged out the paint bucket and walked all around the house touching up the marks created where we tried to clean up the slobber last time. And the other little dings and scuffs – a kind of wall detailing, as it were. Or pre-spring cleaning.

Now everything feels just a little more tidy and I can focus on the work in the office, the end of the month, or the day-to-day, not ruminating on just when I’ll get around to cleaning up those walls. Maybe I can sink my teeth a little deeper into that novel I started writing in January.