captainsblog | Still here.

I had all my photos from last Sunday's dog walk ready to post since that afternoon, and then the week just got away. We've both been working on financial planning things involving government websites, which are all designed in an unregistered circle of hell, so that took up time. I didn't watch any of the DNC Convention, but news of that, and of the other usual weekly craziness coming from the Regime, was a lot to process. Throw in one very early and stressful workday, and some fun times out in the yard, and here we are almost two weeks after the last time I had anything to say here.

So anyway,.... the main highlight of last Sunday's park visit was running into these guys:

We just watched each other for close to five minutes, Pepper knowing all too well that if she started anything it would not go well....

One consequence of that woods-traipsing was that she spent a lot of Sunday into Monday morning scratching and licking at herself. She was due for vaccines and a heartworm test anyway, so I brought her to the vet Monday afternoon. No evidence of fleas, worms or gland problems but just some nasty bites. She's been on Benadryl and occasional cortisone cream since then, and it seems to have settled down. Also settling down, far more slowly, is her weight: Pepper picked up pounds since her last visit a year ago, going from 53 to 64. I'm not surprised, given us cutting out free running in the COVIDiot-infested dog park and the hot summer making our morning walks shorter. I've cut back her food a bit and gone back to our original morning walk lengths. Lord knows if I've gained more than she has, but gyms are finally being allowed to reopen here this week and I have my first class in almost six months booked for this Thursday.

Not that there aren't other forms of exercise around here.

----

The gate to the fence on the garage side of our house has been tipsy for well over a year, owing to one of the fenceposts on the house side rusting out below ground. Getting the replacement for the post and cap at Lowes was easy enough, but yesterday morning, we tackled the Damn Quality 1950s Workmanship of the concrete it was anchored to. We spent a couple of hours flooding around the concrete to loosen the soil, and then dug a good two feet down to no avail. Then I remembered we used to have a tow chain, back when Eleanor had a truck to tie it to. She wound up giving it to a couple a few doors away from us, who moved here from Maine but have roots elsewhere (she from near here, he in Texas). He came over, sized up the problem and we determined we were gonna need a bigger chain.

Within minutes of Eleanor coming home with it, Glenn had attached it to the original tow chain, connected one end to his Jeep and the other around the concrete, and before we even knew he'd been here, this was lying alongside our driveway:

From the top down, it looked like a Borg cube, but once completely out, the thing's more cylindrical with a square top, so more like the Doomsday Machine from the original Star Trek. Two feet of concrete and a foot square around. There will be less of it anchoring the replacement, although if we decide to bury Evil Cat in there, it will take more # foundthesquishy.

(We celebrated National Black Cat Appreciation Day last week- as usual, with the two of them fighting and Zoey stealing Evil Cat's food while leaving her own- FROM THE SAME CAN- on the counter.)

----

The one stressful early day for me wound up okay for now. I found out right before last weekend that a client had gone and done some things that, at a minimum, should have been discussed with me and, beyond that, quite likely needed advance court approval. Although I'd tipped off various people to the problem on Monday, I went into Thursday's 9:00 hearing completely blind on how it would be reacted to. In the end, it worked out okay: I got a little over two months to try putting the toothpaste back in the tube, as it were.

----

We also got word since last postings here that Emily and Cameron have decided against making immediate efforts to move back here. This is mainly because of her artwork: she belongs to an artist group in VA, and they've invited her to do a one-woman show in their gallery next summer. Hopefully we'll be over this this COVID thing by then so we can safely travel to it. She's also launched a website that will feature this and other things she's doing and selling.

------

Entertainment news since last posting: I've binged the second season of Umbrella Academy on Netflix, which I found much better than the first, a lot funnier, and with the introduction of some new characters and storylines which really helped. Also back on the big N: the fifth and probably final season of Rita, the Danish series about school and family that's brought back the best of their prior seasons' casts for the sendoff.

-----

Much shorter and less buggy walk this morning. I only got one picture, but what more than this do you need?