Well, not entirely. I went to the Dentist, Doctor, and had dinner with friends, on Wednesday.
It was a long day but not a bad one.
We had snow on Wednesday too, Winter seems to be trying to arrive early.
I’m still loving my new phone. Unlike previous iPhones this one has amazing battery life. Seriously I’m getting 2 days on a charge, the best I ever got out of my android was less than a day.
The rest of the week has flown by and I don’t really know what if anything I’ve managed to accomplish.
The government shutdown has fueled a fire that I’m not entirely sure that our politicians will be able to quell. The next elections should be interesting!
I know that I plan not to cast any votes for incumbents.
Like many people I’ve become increasingly disgusted with our government. In particular the pettiness that appears to be coming directly from the White House.
Closing open air monuments, and National Parks is beyond petty and vindictive, it’s just plain WRONG.
Even more astounding to me was the incident where the Capital police told a man who was volunteering to mow the lawn around the Lincoln memorial that he had to leave. Imprisoning a group of elderly tourists in their hotel near old faithful was shocking.
This is not who we as Americans are.
We’re supposed to be charitable, kind, good natured, and respectful, especially of places that are, for want of a better word “Sacred” to our nation.
That we have citizens willing to volunteer their time to maintain monuments, or man parks for the benefit of their countrymen says that as a people our core beliefs are still intact.
It also highlights that the ethics, and morals of those in power are suspect.
Another concern is that we apparently have Police officers in New York, Washington DC and National Park Rangers who, when given a choice about basic right and wrong, choose wrong.
These LEO officials were given a choice between following orders and choosing the ethical , moral path. Like some of the Nazi officers in Hitler’s Germany they chose to follow orders and effectively squelched what their conscience must have been screaming for them to do.
How long then until we have citizens appearing in court saying “I was only following orders…” Really? Roughing up old people? Terrorizing tourists? Mistreating veterans… This passes for correct behavior in my country today?
In funnier news it’s been a big week for the “R” dog.
In addition to him encountering snow for the first time he’s also started noticing electronics in the house.
He decided that the DVD player needed to be barked at when it stuck out the disc tray one night.
Today, while I was printing something out on the printer the paper sounded like hissing and that caught his attention.
We didn’t get to the level of barking at the printer but he’s decided that the “Evil Printer” must be watched.
He looks at the machine every time he walks by and any little sound it makes is immediately investigated.
His end of week antics were certainly more benign than his antics earlier in the week.
This week he’s demonstrated that he can reach onto the kitchen counter and has no qualms about snagging a complete sandwich from a plate and trotting off with it. He has a grasp of physics and does the math to determine if he can snag the sandwich before you can traverse the distance to interdict.
He also has decided that items on my desk are worthy of his drooling attention. Pens, pencils, and other items have been retrieved, from the retriever throughout the week.
This seems to be our lot in life. The dogs we raise, or even just take in, develop very distinctive personalities.
People are amazed when I tell the “S” dog to go potty… and he trots out the slider down the stairs and does exactly that. They’re equally amazed that he will come get me if he’s not feeling well or lead me to either the sliding door or the treat cupboard depending on his need or whim.
The “R” dog is developing in the same way. He’s willful, and beginning to understand that a certain amount of that will be tolerated instead of punished(I still suspect there was a lot of punishment where he came from). As the weeks have sped by he’s coming to his own conclusions about what works and what doesn’t.
For example The “R” dog may wish to go into the underbrush, the “S” dog and I would prefer not to.
The “R” dog keeps 90lbs of tension on the retracto leash but doesn’t get his way. While we’re waiting for him to decide that he needs to stay with the pack, the “S” dog and I chat and the “S” dog gets ear scratches and attention.
On one particularly “willful” day “S” and I simply sat on the side of the road enjoying each others company until the “R” dog decided that he’d met an immovable object regardless of the limitless force he applied.
Truth to tell I think he was just plain tired. After 45 minutes he decided to take what dignity he had left and lead us home. “S” laughed all the way back to the house in the way that retrievers do.
He stayed by my side occasionally looking up at me as we walked, as if to say “He’s really stubborn isn’t he?”
I reminded the “S” dog that he tried the same things, as did Butch and Etta. He nuzzled me at the mention of their names.
We miss them to be sure.
Before we had the opportunity to get too maudlin the “R” dog came across a rabbit and in his excitement tangled himself up and then tripped, falling squarely on his stubborn pride.
After untangling him, he seems to have concluded that there was just no way he could be anything but embarrassed.
The “S” dog led us the remainder of the way home. While the “R” dog simply looked at the dirt road we were walking along. He was obviously upset albeit unhurt. The rabbit in the front yard erased the black cloud over his head and this time he didn’t do a spin he just tried to catch the wrascally wabbit.
They’re funny companions.
I know they only keep me around because of my opposable thumb. After all who’s going to run the can opener?