Clooney’s Favorite Destination

From the feedback I received from some readers I’ve realized that one of the favorite posts on this blog was “My Name is Clooney”. While it would seem to be a slight to my writing ability that a guest post, the only one not written by me, is the post that I hear the most positive feedback about; there’s no offense taken. In fact, I’ve taken the hint and decided to give a little insight into Clooney’s absolutely favorite place to visit in Portsmouth. Since Clooney lacks in finger dexterity and is still complaining about soreness from painstakingly typing out his last post, I’ll take dictation on this one! Now, just imagine the following description from a slightly taller than yours’ truly, grey haired gentleman with a fading Georgian accent recounting the following:

While I can’t remember the first time that I was lucky enough to walk through that wooden door on Congress street, one thing is for sure; regardless of how my day’s going, after a quick hello at Runner’s Alley, I feel as happy and loved as any pup in town! Jim and I have been living here in Portsmouth since soon after I arrived from Georgia, where I was born, in 2012. It sure has been good to live here on the Seacoast and meet so many nice people. I take Jim out at least 4 or 5 times a day. He thinks it’s just so I can relieve myself, but really I mostly like to get over to Runner’s Alley as much as possible.

At the store where they sell running gear including sneakers, or as I like to call them expensive chew toys, I always encounter at least two staff members who know me by name. Come to think of it, I wonder if Jim minds that everyone greets me by name before he gets even an acknowledgement? Not only that, but any customers always pat me on the head, but never him, not even a “What a good boy!”…

I obviously love the attention and head pats, but the thing that really keeps me returning to Congress street day after day is David, the friendly associate behind the counter. I am a little confused when Jim and David fist bump upon seeing each other and share a “Hi bro!” I mean, I was under the impression that Uncle Andy was Jim’s only brother, but now that I think about it, David and Jim kind of look alike and are about the same height?

While there’s usually a few customers that David needs to attend to, he seems to always make time to greet me! While I really think David must live at the store based upon how often I see him there, every now and then I’m shocked to find him away, or even worse, the store closed. I have begun to see a pattern; if it’s dark out, the store’s often closed. I even remember one cold winter night that I had to go out late and decided to drag Jim to Congress St so we could visit David. Jim kept saying, “Clooney, let’s go home. They’re closed.” However, I persisted and we ended up in front of the stores’ locked door where I refused to budge for 5 full minutes.

But don’t fret dear reader, after going home and back to bed, it wasn’t more than 10 hours later that we were visiting David once again!