Sources of information

Cook and I both had encyclopedia sets as children.* I remember picking up random volumes and just leafing through them, marveling at How Very Much Information There Is In the World. My kids, of course, can just leaf through the internet any time they please, but they also have fingertip access to an extraordinary variety of information concierges who tell them what information is important to know.  Skipper has been watching not only Stephen Colbert, but also a lot of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which means that she is constantly surprising me with her knowledge about things like SLAPP suits and biased jury selection. (This knowledge has been relevant because of the presidential election and the fact that we've been watching The West Wing.**) She listens to podcasts when she runs, and she often sits on the porch for a little while afterward, cooling down, staring off into space while listening to a podcast about volcanoes or what it's like to be the organist at a baseball game. So much information, so many potential guides to point us to what's important and what's not. I don't know how any of us can organize it all,  but I guess I'm glad that John Oliver is one of Skipper's teachers in her remote schooling life. 

*Cook's family's encyclopedia set was procured by Mrs. Big Cook from a stranger in a parking lot. Cook doesn't know any more details than that, and I have secretly built it out in my head into an elaborate adventure during which she wears a fedora.

** Skipper started watching it, and then Duchess discovered that it's leaving Netflix at the end of December, so now Skipper is watching a LOT of it. She calculated she'd have to watch more than 5 episodes a day in order to finish the series, and I don't think she's going to make it, even though she skips an occasional boring-looking episode. The West Wing is also prompting her to consider all kinds of questions. What's "Don't Ask Don't Tell?" What's Kashmir, and why are India and Pakistan fighting over it? Why should a president do fundraising calls inside the residence instead of the office? Why doesn't C.J. get more respect?

Thanks

We're still here! Been snuggling Dog#1.

And we had Thanksgiving! I cooked turkey, which is weird because we almost never cook meat in the house (though most of us eat meat at restaurants and other people's houses when that used to be a thing) and because I've actually never cooked meat at all. (And I overcooked it because I'm afraid of salmonella.) It was good; we ate a lot. The poor dog, smelling food cooking all day, drooled giant puddles all over the house. (We gave him a little turkey in the end.)

 

This week

This week, Duchess turned 16. That means you are very old. (It also means I've been posting in this blog for nearly 14 years. AND YOU ARE OLD.)

Dog #8 has moved on to another foster home. We will miss her; we liked her a lot. As she got less and less fearful, she got sillier and more loving. However, the reason she moved is that Dog #9 was moving in and he doesn't like living with other dogs. The reason Dog #9 came to our house and not another foster home is that Dog #9 is actually Dog #1. His adopters returned him because a) they had to move in with another family that had two dogs, and Dog #1 is what dog people describe as "resource-guarding" and was fighting with the other dogs when they tried to take his toys/food/bed/etc and b) he has cancer and they can't afford to treat him. So this is pretty sad - his adopters cried when they dropped him off tonight, and he's sad and confused about what's going on. He is, however, still his charming, confident old self, and we're happy to see him. We'll take him to the vet this week and get some more info about whether this is going to turn into hospice care, or if treatment is likely to be effective.

Also, it's rainy and dark. So rainy and so dark!

Heading into winter

Hiya! It's November, it rains all the time, covid cases are skyrocketing, and it gets dark by 5pm. We're trying to hold onto some kind of hopefulness.  

Dog #7 got adopted, miraculously, in spite of being a weird, exuberant and bitey giant. 

Dog #8 has been in the house two days. She's a nice but fearful elderly lady. She smells very, very bad, but we're waiting on a bath until her terror eases up. So far she's afraid of going in the house, going out of the house, brooms, baskets, jackets hung on chairs, noises, movement behind her when she's eating or drinking, and the mudroom. She has big patches of scabby bare skin on her back, similar to Dog #4, but she seems to be healthy otherwise, and without obvious major behavioral issues (SO FAR)...

I enjoyed working on the porch a few golden afternoons in October, and now we do our socializing out there, too, even though it's cold and dark and rainy. We have a lot of blankets. We drink a lot of tea.

We may already have cabin fever. We got a big box recently, and everybody in the house has spent some time sitting in it, as a kind of den. The other day I came downstairs and found the girls sitting in it together, playing Mario Kart. 

We still have jobs and school. The girls seem to be in the rhythm of remote schooling, in so far as that's possible. Weird covid traditions and routines are getting us through. We order takeout or delivery for dinner every Thursday night. We watch The Great British Baking Show every Friday night. Skipper in particular finds great consolation in her routines, mostly around screentime - running every other morning, watching Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah videos over her breakfast (everything bagel with cream cheese), watching her TV show of the moment after dinner (she's been through Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, MASH, Brooklyn 99 and 30 Rock - currently seeking a new one, so let us know if you have suggestions). Duchess has been reading more lately, thanks to librarians at her school and the county library who will put together book bundles if you give them a little information about yourself.  She's really enjoying working on the school newspaper, and being pretty impressively tenacious in finding bits of joy here and there. Cook and I mostly watch the news unspooling on our phones and, like Dog #8, try to not be paralyzed by terror. (And fine, we read some fiction, too.) We both felt an unexpectedly deep sense of relief after the election, and are trying to eke that out as we look ahead...