Monday

Monday was quite a day.  We had sent away for a free at home Covid test and today was the day we took it.  It’s a spit in the tube test.  You have zoom with someone before you start your test and start spitting.  I assume this is so you don’t try and use someone else’s spit.  Gross!  The thought of testing in front of someone was already causing me spit anxiety.  While waiting in the zoom waiting room, my mouth became even more dry.  The woman popped on, verified it was me and my test and told me to start spitting.  Oh my god!  I got a couple of little spittles out and then, thank god she said she’d be back in a minute to check on me.  Dodged a spit bullet there, I wasn’t going to have to do all my spitting in front of her.  She came back and I wasn’t halfway done.  AGAIN, WITH THE BUBBLY SPIT!  WTF?  She gave me some more time and I was finally able to finish.

Brenda kept walking by me as I was spit-concentrating-gathering just shaking her head.  We had started at the same time.  She had been done for ten minutes. It felt a little judgy.  The whole thing did get me wondering how one gets an at- home- zoom- watching- people- spit- for- their- Covid- test job?  Could this be a potential side hustle?  Huh.  I wonder.

We had to drop our tests off at a UPS place.  An outing!  We hopped on the scooter and rode to one close to us in Uptown.  I waited outside and Brenda dropped it off.  My expectation for me is still a positive test.  My Doctor explained that even after quarantine and all symptoms are gone or very minimal, there can still be a positive test, but I won’t be contagious.

We went back home, did some biking to nowhere on the deck and some training with Roo.  

Here’s the thing with Lady Roo Toastcrumb.  Our two-year-old German Shepheard.  She is a fantastic dog, she’s a love, silly as hell, and really smart.  However, she is very reactive when she sees another dog and sometimes another person.  She loves people and dogs, it’s just when she’s out on the deck or on a walk, she sounds and looks like she will murder anyone in her path.  If she can meet you, she’s fine.  She goes to the dog park and plays really well and appropriately with other dogs.  We have been working very hard with her and there is progress, it’s slow going. 

What I’ve learned with training dogs, is that often times it’s the person that needs more training than the dog.  And as Brenda pointed out to me, I am a terrible dog trainer.  I cannot necessarily disagree.  My problem is, if she has one small success, I immediately make it more difficult, thinking, well, she got it so make it harder.  WRONG!!  I think even Roo knows this and takes advantage of me.

Brenda reminded me of a few times with Grace.  Grace Athena Fig Newton, our Akita whom we lost just over a year ago.  She was extremely shy and scared of many things.  I worked really hard with her and after about two years, she had more friends than me.  True.  Well, one time I got it in my head that I’d like to make her a sled dog.  She loved snow and romping around in it, so make sense right?  I went down to the lake with my little sled, configured an elaborate system of rope that I tied to Grace’s harness.  I sat in the sled and told Grace to go!  I mean, she loved running in the snow, right? 

Grace, slowly turned and looked at me as if to literally say, “Are you actually fucking serious?”  Grace usually only swore when we were on vacation, saying things like, “These woods are fucking awesome!” Stuff like that, but looking back, this sled swearing was completely warranted.  Oh Grace, so much smarter than I.  I love you.

Back to Roo, I’m learning to slow down, be patient, repetition and succuss is my friend.  I guess it just confirms to me that it’s good I never wanted children.  I’d probable do shit like, well, she has fun in a bath and toss the kid in the ocean off of a whale watching boat.

For dinner that night, Brenda was going to get some meat out of the freezer downstairs.  Last time I put something in it, it was super full.  She came up and said this was the last steak.  She doesn’t eat red meat, but I do every once in a while.  She was having chicken.  I’m like, “Bu the freezer is full, and this is the only stteak?”

As it turns out, the freezer is apparently mostly filled with those big ice block things you use in a cooler and an over abundance of bread and hot dog buns?  What the hell?  Oh, and the steak I was going to eat was dated sometime in 2019.  Brenda said, “It’s wrapped up pretty good, so it should be ok.”

Vicki would appreciate the irony of me having only two days left of Covid Quarantine and ending up in the hospital with food poisoning from Brenda.  So would I.  And probably, so would Brenda.

Turns out, the steak was fine, and I was too.