Ooh! A Blog Post!

It’s been a spell, hasn’t it? Life has been busy, up until March 2020 when every-damn-thing came to a screeching halt.

To be honest…I’m kind of liking this, but then I have a distinct advantage over a lot of folks caught up in this maelstrom of toilet paper panic. I am an only child, so being somewhat isolated is pretty familiar territory for me.

When the shelter-in-place/lockdown started, I felt this thrill of OH BOY! OH BOY! OH BOY! I’LL FINALLY GET MY MANUSCRIPT DONE!

Yeah. Shut up.

Instead, we did a very hurried clear-out of the master bedroom where my folks had stayed, and got it ready for Tammie’s mom to come stay with us. The day before the travel ban started, we scrambled to meet Tammie’s son (known as Beans on my old blog) at the halfway point. We chatted for a few minutes, walked the dog, and plague-hugged (wagged elbows) at each other before getting into our respective cars and heading in opposite directions.

Once again, we are on familiar ground with a dementia patient and have gotten into a routine of questions and answers, lather, rinse, repeat. Every morning, she comments that the neighbor across the street must still be in bed. “But it’s none of my business,” she’ll say. Just to change things up a bit, I’ve supplied her with information on said neighbor. Tammie laughed when I told her mom that “he only comes out at night.” See? It isn’t all bad.

She brought her dog with her, a small tank of a Chihuahua inappropriately named Teeny. That dog is NOT teeny. Well, she wasn’t, but thanks to some careful ministrations by yours truly, she’s lost about four pounds. She’s got a few more to go, but there is a definite improvement. Now she can galumph down the hallway with the other Chihuahua whereas when she first arrived, there was no galumphing. At all. It’s hard to galumph when you’re twice the weight you’re supposed to be.

Trust me, I know this.

She’s a funny little dog, with some strange quirks, and she recently fell in love with Rocky’s favorite teddy bear, much to Rocky’s dismay. She even fell asleep with it tucked under her chin. I melted, folks, mel-ted.

The cats aren’t exactly thrilled with the new addition, and Miss Bitte has been adamant about who is the alpha critter on campus. Despite Teeny’s weight issues, Miss Bitte still has size, agility, speed, and weight on Teeny and has not hesitated to prove it. It can get a little noisy.

Freya FishWhore has taken up semi-permanent residence in the bedroom, except at night when we finally wrangle the dogs (and lately, Teeny has been sleeping with us because long story that I’m not putting here) so Miss FishWhore retreats to the living room for most of the night, then around 4:00 in the morning, she thinks we’ve been in her space long enough and begins yeowling her displeasure with our reluctance to abandon our warm and comfy (and slightly crowded) bed.

The other night I was staying up late to finish a batch of bread when Frey began bellowing at the bedroom door. Occasionally she changes things up a bit and words come out of her face, and even though I know she’s not doing it on purpose, it sounds so intentional. That night she stood outside that door and said, “Ah, mama!”

Ah, mama, this is gonna be a wild ride.