The Week That Was... Featuring Donut Dog

Well it has been the week from hell- make no mistake! ( And I had just remarked how happy I was and how "things" seemed to be humming along. Dangerous, that!) Maybe it's drawing to a close and I can soon cease to suspect that some bad juju had come to call. It was hot as hell, too, thereby making all the misery all the more miserable.

I'm not going to dwell on all the stupid bad stuff that happened except to give a quick update: I got COVID, Bob got COVIDand Robin the Good had major emergency surgery. Lordy.

Hence the guest appearance by Robin as Donut Dog. I bought her this attractive, plush (suitable for the princess she is!) plastic cone-of-shame alternative as I could not imagine her struggling through the house in that crazy plastic Elizabethan collar. She got used to it pretty quick, although I'm sure she'll be glad to be rid of it!

Anyway, I think I'm over my COVID bout, despite a couple of small residual reminders. I feel pretty good. Bob is in early stage but he seems to have missed the worst of the headache/dizziness aspects that I endured. But he's got the cough! Our first episode... a friend blithely informed me that he's had COVID like 3 times. Yowzah! I don't want that! Once was enough.

So we're on the mend but running out- masked- to do some errands, my car's maintenance light came on (automotive COVID?! No just wants an oil change). Anything else? How about I got a summons to jury duty!! Stop!! I need a vacation.

It Finally Got Me!!

 I have been lucky. WE have been lucky. Neither one of use had contracted COVID... until now. It's so weird that so many people have had it- (most of our friends and some of them several times!!) and it was now, when you don't hear much about it that I succumb. 

I thought I was getting a cold, as I was just a bit light-headed and my nose was a little stuffy. And my throat a tiny bit scratchy. I also considered allergies as my phone kept telling me pollen was high. But last Thursday night, there was no denying I was sick and I thought I had the flu.

I am well aware that despite being vaxxed, you can still contract COVID or the flu. Ironically Bob and I just inquired two weeks or so ago whether an updated vaccine was available. We were told a new one was coming. Ha! Bad timing.

So, here I am, three days laying a-bed. The first two days were pretty rough. I had every symptom: dizziness, chills, headache, sore throat, stuffed up nose. (Fortunately, I missed out on stomach involvement except when I attempted to take some of that night-time cold medicine and my body rebelled immediately and up it came! I threw up so quickly it was laughable; similar to my experience with natto.)

Anyway, I believe I'm on the mend even though I'm still in bed because I'm bored. That's  a good sign.

And as an aside, keep getting booster shots because my experience proves COVID is still very much out there! I suppose I'm fatalistic enough to assume that at some point- no matter how careful you are- you'll get COVID. I think it's interesting that we flew to Italy last year on a crowded plane with only a couple of people wearing masks and we didn't get it then. And we've been to NYC, traveling on subways and trains and never got it. Just plain old bad luck!

Another Mystery

 

Life is full of mysteries, is it not? Here's one for the books.

As we all know, our beloved doggo Robin the Good loves her rawhide chew bones. She doesn't really eat them so much as deconstruct them carefully. She chews off the knobby ends and sometimes walks around with the central shaft portion sticking out of her mouth like a cigar. Entertaining!

The knobby ends are then presented throughout the house in an intricate and highly personal manner. It is entirely possible to step on one or more of these knobs. I attempt to gather them in a box in the living room but this presents an alternative game that Robin and I play. I collect the bone leavings- several dozen! and complain (kiddingly) as I gather them, that "someone has made a big mess!" Once the box is filled it is Robin's delight to grab the box and hurl it mightily through the air, bones flying in every direction. Then I repeat the bone collection phase. It's pretty funny and Robin is very good at tossing them around!

Robin's other pleasure is to take a carefully curated bone and bring it outside. She scatters them around the yard where it is entirely possible to run over one (or more) with the lawn mower. We do check the yard to prevent this.

On one particular occasion, I gathered all of Robin's bone ends into a section of the lawn right off our terrace and remarked as how it looked like a bone yard as there were at least ten or eleven of them. It did look funny.

However, the next morning when we went to feed Neko, there were no bones to be found. None! I imagined that Bob had picked them up and either brought them inside or deposited them in a pile somewhere. But Bob suggested he had done no such thing.

Therein lies the mystery: who took Robin's bones? Either there was a single very industrious thief that precured them one at a time, or there were several robbers working in tandem to remove all the bones. We may never know.

But we now have an empty box until Robin gets to work on her new collection!!