His Master's Voice

Inspirational song: How Soon Is Now (The Smiths)

I aged several years last week. It was all too much. By the time we returned from the mountain last night, I wasn't faking it saying I needed to go straight home, even though it fed into our ruse for the surprise party. I was wiped out. I tried to be cheerful, but I could see on my face how worn out I was. My cheeks were flushed, my face was puffy, and I looked used up.

I intended to sleep late, but I kept waking myself up coughing. It was a combination of sawdust and road dust and dust dust, I'm sure. The man didn't let me sleep past 730, saying if I didn't get up I'd miss one of my favorite kinds of mornings, where it was chilly and overcast and somewhat damp outside. The house was freezing, or at least as close as it ever ought to be. We still hadn't turned on the heater, although by mid-day I went ahead and turned it on low, so there would be a better baseline. This way I can still walk around barefoot and not regret it. I felt rough all day, and slept off and on in my chair until after noon. It helped somewhat, but I still needed the comfort of wearing fleece pajama pants when I went next door for the actual birthday gathering, the one our neighbor had planned. We watched football and ate bratwurst and played Mario Kart. It was the best sort of Sunday.

The dogs had to stay outside while guests were over. Barley got to be in for a while, but Hops was stuck in the backyard the whole day, until everyone except us left. Barley pouted at me like I was responsible for him being outside, and Hops was happy that his substitute food-bringers were around. While we watched the end of the night game, the boys sacked out on the couch. Then an ad came on with a little dog getting a yard for the first time, and barking as he got to run into it. Hops perked his ears up and gave the tiniest of growl/barks. He stared at the TV for several seconds, until his daddy teased him for putting up such a brave front to protect the household. Hops is still finding his place around here, but he sure is cute while he's learning.