Clyde the Wonder Dog is adjusting to the absence of the Dog Man. But when I was all set to go in the car this morning, he knew he was going to Day! Care!! -- and I swear, he bounced around in tiny circles in the kitchen, such was the joy of the moment! More bouncing when he got there!
Things will be busier, work-wise, for some months. That's actually good.
Weather is glorious right now!
And, how are you?
31 comments:
AW: springtime has arrived!! When we left on Friday, the front lawn was mostly covered in snow, and when we returned, it was all gone. There's still a tiny pile on the north side of the house, but it's rapidly shrinking, and the water that was standing on our patio (at the bottom of the backyard has drained, and now the patio is almost completely dry.
Yes, the grass is still brown (as it always is in the early spring), and the melted snow revealed all the leaves we didn't get a chance to clean up before the snow started falling on November 1st. But: SPRING!
W: this cold really has hit in earnest. I have NO voice, which is really annoying when I'm trying to parent a stubborn kid. She spent the morning ignoring everything I asked her to do, pretending she couldn't hear me.
AW: my sister came over, forced E to get dressed, and is now taking her to the playground.
Go, sister! And, so long snow!
Oh, I forgot to talk about something that happened yesterday. I was running an errand at a local store, and this very sad, obviously ill woman was sitting on the sidewalk outside this line of little local stores. She asked if I would buy her a cookie -- and, I have a lot of Big City experience ignoring and walking on by panhandlers, but this poor woman looked to be in bad shape mentally, probably physically ill as well. So I said, sure, I can do that.
There was a large choc chip cookie that claimed to be nutritional in the store, so I got that. And, talked with the nice young store owner about this poor woman outside. He was debating calling 911, and I thought maybe wait and see? But then I went back out and gave her the cookie and a five. She wanted to give me the tiny bag she had with her -- it had a diet coke and something -- which I declined. But by then, she had peed herself, and she said, "Oh, I see you're pregnant!" Pixies, I am 60 years old. So, I wished her well, and scooted back in to tell the owner that yes, she was very ill and needs help; tell them it's a medical problem; our local responders are trained and kind.
Anyway, I called the store today to see what happened. She wasn't happy when the police and ambulance arrived after a while, but the ambulance guys talked her in -- go, EMS -- so my fingers are crossed that she does get help. She was not very intact, even for a street person with problems; there were obvious sores on her face, and I do not know what to make of that; but she was extremely sweet, not pushy, really like a sad little kid asking for just a tiny something.
Oh, I hope that she was able to get the help she needs. I'm glad that you specified that it was a medical problem.
W: parenting is very hard without a voice. Child spent the morning ignoring my instructions, and the afternoon demanding that I read her a story, in spite of my protestations that it hurt for me to talk.
AW: Mr. Q is home and dealing with her, and she has apologized for making the day far worse.
Sue, do I remember correctly that one of your sons lives in the Big City? I hope he and his loved ones there are safe, after today's scary event.
Oy, that scary event! xoxox
W: Could. Not. Get. Going. this morning. Mr. E's low energy, and my low energy, were reinforcing each other.
AW: Once I got going, I've been productive
W: But here it is, 10:00 at night, and I'm being productive. This is my natural schedule, but it doesn't fit with the rest of my life. Bah.
Thanks for taking care of that ill woman, kathy a. QWP, hope you feel better soon.
I understand that natural schedule, and also its poor fit with the rest of life, esperanza.
So, you know how I said that it's hard to manage a kid while I have laryngitis? I just volunteered to babysit tomorrow. I sure hope my theory is right, that it'll be easier to manage E with a friend over.
Confession: I just ordered a stuffed penguin, to replace the one that went missing months ago. Mr. Q deep cleaned the whole house on the weekend, and nothing showed up. When we got home and saw the house clean, E immediately asked if he found Pinga, and then was pretty melancholy. But I found an exact match online today! (I was just trying to find ANY stuffed penguin, because she loves penguins, and found one like her missing one.)
W: E woke up three times in the night. Begged for it to be daytime at 5 am. Thankfully went back to sleep. I had trouble getting back to sleep between wakeup.
AW: caffeine
Bleah, this cold. Never totally got back to a good sleep after 2 a.m., although there was some fairly entertaining barely-asleep dreaming, off and on. Passing the tissues, advil, chicken soup...
The coastal fog rolled in last night, and it has not yet broken up. (Usually, it burns off by late morning.)
Query: If some guy you barely know decided to brush at your shoulders in front of cameras capturing the event for the entire world, and announced he was just fixing your "dandruff," wouldn't you be mortified? I am, vicariously. Ick.
There is one kind of barking, like that loud noise the dog was making because I was cruel enough to make him stay outside in the decent weather for a while after dinner.
Then there's the other kind, involving undigested cat kibble, which I just found in the hall. One suspects that senior cat is having some issues again.
Anyway, that's the news from the last 20-30 minutes....
Oh, that's a lot of bark for one day, Kathy!
I'm tempted to skip swimming lessons today. I'm coughing nonstop, and E was crying from stomach pain at breakfast (I presume that last one will soon be relieved in the bathroom, but after her 45-minute exhausted meltdown at bedtime last night, I'm not ruling out the possibility that she's coming down with something). The zillions of parents with babies will appreciate me not coughing all over the pool, right? We won't miss anything major by missing a single week, right?
Okay, that's decided. And I just won't mention swimming today. We're having a home rest day.
AW: I told E that I ordered a new Baby Pinga, who is currently on a mail adventure across North America. After an initial "I miss my old Pinga!" she's now really excited, as I show her the map, and we discuss all the American cities that Pinga has now visited, as she slowly travels here. I'm glad I decided to do this, rather than pretend that it's the same penguin as before.
I think E is old enough that the switcheroo wouldn't work, so I think this adventure of new Pinga is a good idea, QWP, genius in fact.
AW: I had a good lunch with the author of a book about talking about racism in church, which I'm hoping to use in my congregation. She gave me ideas about using it, and then I gave her ideas about her next book, about preaching about racism. So that was good and fun and worth fighting the traffic in Weird City (should've taken the bus).
W: That's all I've accomplished today.
Esperanza, that sounds like a lot! Go, team.
And I agree, QWP -- introducing Pinga 2.0 instead of trying to substitute the new one was a good idea.
Esperanza, that's a pretty amazing "all I've accomplished today"!
It's been a quiet week around here! I'm in my room right now, hiding from children (who are behaving well, and so I'd rather stay out of their way, and get a break). My cold is improving (by which I mean that I feel like I did on Tuesday afternoon, before I got way worse on Wednesday), and we finally have spring weather, and so things are pretty good here.
My cold's better, but I used the lingering cough convincingly to gracefully bow out of a conversation with strangers who dropped by to talk about how to find happiness in life. They left me literature about their religion.
Clyde's back at Day! Care! He was a man on a mission this morning, nearly pulling me cartoon-style behind him, such was his excitement to get on through the gate and go play with his pals. (Honest, he loves me; just didn't get enough exercise yesterday, and had a superior amount of energy today.
My sweetie's coming home sometime today! Then he'll be here for a couple weeks -- still working, but home at night, anyway.
Oh, that's wonderful that your sweetie will be home for the next few weeks!
W: everything went wrong after lunch! E was a giant pain when it was time to get ready for preschool, and then we were running late, and then she fell on the sidewalk, and tore up her pants and knee! And then it was the biggest ordeal to get her (and her friend, whom I was babysitting) the rest of the way to school, and to have her left me change her pants and put a bandaid on her. (But I love the blue pants! Not the orange pants! But that's a boring bandaid! But that one fun bandaid you begged from my teacher is the WRONG cartoon character!) I finally got her cleaned up and calmed down enough to leave her there, but I'm supposed to keep my phone on, in case she is too much to handle this afternoon.
And THEN, when I got home, the package that was "out for delivery" all morning, arrived during the half hour I was away, and now I have a notice card that says I can pick it up from the post office tomorrow afternoon, an hour after the birthday lunch starts (this is a birthday present).
Fine. At least we're doing cake and presents at my parents' house after the lunch, and so I'll stop by the post office on the way to Mom and Dad's, and my sister will get a present that is wrapped in making labels.
Ouchy!
So, those wonderful Parkland kids? Time magazine names them among the world's most influential 100 people, and our most recent former president wrote the tribute. This makes up for some other news of the day. http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217568/parkland-students/
Oh wow! I'm going to have to work myself up to read it, because I'm certain it'll make me cry.
AW: I got a text from E's preschool teacher, with a picture of E happily showing off the butter she made today. She ate four crackers, slathered in butter she made herself, and said, "I'm glad I decided to try preschool today."
Excellent cough usage, kathy a
I’m glad that preschool improved the afternoon outlook, QWP
W: I rushed home from a work lunch in order to meet the bus, only to find that Mr E had decided to work from home today. We need to work on our communication procedures
Esperanza on the phone.
QWP, I admit some eye leakage. But the good kind!
For the amusement of those who live in warm places (but especially for esperanza): it's currently 15/59F. Every person who has walked past my house recently has been wearing shorts. It's been such a long, cold winter that this feels like summer, in comparison. (I'm wearing long pants and a light sweater, by the way.)
ha! I would be wearing long pants and a light sweater, depending on sunshine/cloudy. If cloudy and/or windy, probably a fleece.
It was windy today, and a fleece would have made me die from the heat! It's funny how we adjust to temperatures.
True confessions. Current temp is 79F/26C. I was sitting on the back porch, in the shade, with a breeze. Long yoga pants, tshirt, sandals. I got "cold," and came inside to put on a long sleeve tshirt on top of the short sleeve one. Perfect.
It is funny how our bodies adapt.
Long sleeves at 26C! That is a summer temperature here. (It does get hotter, but we're in short sleeves and shorts at that temperature. On the other hand, we're not as bad as the coastal city where I used to live, where it never gets hotter than 25C, and where they freaked out every time it got that hot).
In the sun, walking the puppy, just the short sleeve shirt was fine. I save shorts until it gets to 90!
79F is pretty darned hot for me. If it gets to the 90F range, I'm dyin', and looking at excuses to go find AC someplace. On the other hand, I don't do snow well, either. Because I'm a wimp.
Story that will not be told elsewhere: there were a couple of dead. slightly mauled possum babies found inside our yard yesterday. There is but one suspect. That suspect tried to kiss me on the mouth this afternoon, which the dog person thought was cute as heck, but it made me go sanitize myself, brush my teeth, use mouthwash, take an extra low-grade antibiotic, and change clothes. I know possums are not germ or rabies carrying critters. And that the suspect adores me. But ickety ick ick. The end.
ACK ick Kathy! I would also be fumigating myself after those canine kisses.
W: I'm sicker again, and have a fever and nausea. E got a bit sick to her stomach yesterday (and was incredibly sensitive to motion sickness), but is better after sleeping for fourteen hours. I'm thinking whatever sickness we have is affecting our ears, considering that it's hard for me to get around without dizziness.
AW: cancelled tomorrow's piano lesson, and now we have nowhere to be tomorrow. (If I get worse, I'll go to a clinic and see if it's an ear infection.)
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