brenda - [link]

Night #2 in the basement to decrease the stairs my dog Bailey goes up and down due to a partially torn CCL. I've got a new air mattress, a nightlight, new dog bed for Bailey, now my computer, radio alarm clock, and a box fan blocking the stairs.

The dogs seem calmer than last night but they are both still, CHANGE!! WHY FOR!?!?!

I feel that, dogs.

That link looks good, msbelle! Hope it is helpful

I am home, with half a salad for tomorrow. Other than a wistful feeling that I need to take a hard look at my budgeting soon, I’m pretty pleased with myself.

I really appreciate the swords into plowshares mentality. I’ll have to figure out the right way to manage it.

Note: I am not being all healthy and going to yoga (in part because I don’t feel like I have the right clothes. Treadmill@6 am and yoga@7pm require different outfits), I am drinking kombucha, beer, cider, and wine (oh no, the mixing!) and having some lamb stew, and then crashing, but I am doing it all within a few blocks of home so getting some steps in and enjoying my neighborhood.

That is totally a win!

I am home, with half a salad for tomorrow. Other than a wistful feeling that I need to take a hard look at my budgeting soon, I’m pretty pleased with myself.

As you should be!

Skipping and not skimming to say I’m down in Nashville for the weekend with my college roommates, one of whom woke up this morning to a text from her husband saying he tested positive for Covid, so she’s out getting a rapid test and we’re trying to figure out what to do next. She said even if she tests negative she’s going to go get a hotel room and not stay in our AirBnB. And also not do stuff with us.

Oh no, Steph! What a huge bummer for her -- and also, I hope none of the rest of you get it. If I can help in any way while you're here, just let me know.

Bummer, indeed!

I've also done a lot of skimming. Last week's trip to Florida and back here has just added a bunch of stuff to my already too crowded schedule.

~ma and love to all.

Wow, David. I'm glad some of the blanks were filled in for you. We never really know all that our parents are going through, although many of them do try and do the best they can with the skill set they have, no matter how deficient.

Brendon had major issues with his mother and was an adult before he had a clue how ill-prepared she was for being a parent. The woman's birth parents were divorced in 1945 and dad got custody because mom was an alcoholic. Then she was adopted at 2 and her dad was a horrible person, and her mom an emotionally abusive alcoholic. Then at 18 she escaped by marrying, and he went to Vietnam and came home an alcoholic. She raised the 4 kids with zero role models and no help at all from her husband. He is much more understanding of her burdens now. I believe part of the reason he was such an extraordinary father to our boys was he never wanted to be so completely incompetent as his parents. They didn't even realize he hadn't graduated HS when they moved to Florida from Nebraska. He took the bus himself and enrolled. Parents!

She’s positive and got a rental car to drive home to Colorado. I think I’m going to head home today, dang it.

Aw, Steph. Having been in that situation pretty recently, it sucks. I was lucky that I was in a big house where it was easy for me to isolate.