We begin the week with Saturday

All day long on Saturday the 21st, I kept thinking it was Sunday.  Friday the 20th, I kept thinking it was Saturday.  I'm still a day off on my calendar awareness!  I shall blame the snow.

The Mythical Son had arranged for Nebraska Men's basketball tickets, and the plan was for all to meet at a local pizza joint across the street from the arena where the games are played, but between Ember dealing with an ear infection, and the five hours I would have to be away, I opted out.  We spent Saturday quietly, with the Olympics on in the background.  Perhaps it was good luck... Nebraska won their basketball game!

I can admit I really needed that cave day.  I took another one on Sunday.  The snow will probably start melting on Monday or Tuesday, and in the meantime, I remained in "hunker down" mode.  On Saturday I ventured out to the grocery store, and the side streets reminded me of the bobsled runs on the Olympics TV screen.  Sunday morning, it was down to just random patches of ice, dry pavement between them.

Monday was the coldest morning of the week.  But it still produced sunny skies.  Ember and I made do with a couple of car rides and playing with toys.  She did play by herself in the yard a few times, taking care of business in the process.  I managed to get three loads of human laundry and a nap squeezed in.

Tuesday brought us a high over 50℉!  I was out in just my sweatshirt doing "poo patrol" Tuesday afternoon.  The snowfall from the previous Thursday and Friday melted fast, which of course means muddy paws.  It had not yet thawed until afternoon.  I dropped Ember at day care, went for my workout with the trainer, and vacuumed out her x-pen.  I paid bills.

Ember is getting much better at letting me do some "human things" while she's awake; but she needs that puppy play time, and I need the ability to focus on those human things.

Wednesday produced a more spring-like day.  Ember impressed her mommy with good behavior in the store.  Several stores welcome well behaved leashed dogs inside. These make for good training venues.  But you have to be at a certain performance level before you're even ready to train in such a venue.  

For instance, doors that open automatically can be spooky.  We had practiced a few times just going into the entrance at this store before.  This time we got all the way through the narrow aisles back to where her giant chew sticks are stored.  We greeted a customer with our paws on the ground.  We made it back through all the distractions of the aisles to check out.  And we stayed calm while mommy paid for our purchase.  The clerk gave Mommy a dog treat, and that made our enticement to get back in the car easier.  

It was also nice enough on Wednesday to take a leash walk through the neighborhood.  Ember found something that fascinated her on someone's yard about a block and a half from home on the way back.  She paused there licking at the grass for quite some time.  But eventually we did make it home.

Nice days also bring the Prisoner out into the sunshine.  Wednesday photo.

Thursday I was just NOT wanting to get out of bed.  Hint:  could be that I haven't been eating the way I should.  Or it could be that my age / less activeness is catching up to me.  Could even be the weather fronts coming through.

I dropped Ember at day care, then came home and pretty much wandered around the house doing next to nothing.  Oh, yeah, I printed out the tax forms for archival purposes, did due diligence poo patrol in the back yard, vacuumed out the x-pen, etc.  Somehow things get done, but no big projects, and mostly it felt like I was just going through the motions.  I did nap on the couch for a bit.  And read a few pages in my current library book.

Friday morning dawned mild!  40℉.  Kitty chose to go outside.  Ember and I went on one car ride to do a couple of human things.  

Friday noonish it was deck time.  My pup loves the sun.

Until it gets a smidge too warm for her, and then it's tile floor time!

We had a nice afternoon walk. I kept on feeding her treats while I visited with a couple of neighbor ladies.  She was well behaved, most of the way.  She did want to pull me toward the tall grass as we came back through the park and I wanted to take her to the side so a fellow human could pass by.  But I was able to jolly her back on task, and we got home.  So much better than my memory of a year ago last Fall.

I played catch up with the finale of The Traitors on Peacock streaming.  Not surprising, but the end result left me with huge mixed feelings.  

I admire the game play, I guess.  It's how you'd have to play it to win, but oh, it so brings echoes of a training game that caused my father and his best work friend to stop trusting one another at work.  Mainly it was my father who stopped trusting his "friend".  Friend viewed it as a game.  My father saw it as he had given his word.  They did not speak for six months after this episode, according to my mother.  This of course was many years ago, mom passed in 1996, and dad in 1999.

My father took honor very seriously.  All these TV psychological games are based on lying and deceit, and we've come to consider this behavior "acceptable" in the context of "the game".  But for many people, they have come to view life and policy as also a game.  My father, on the other hand, took his life values into the game.  We should ponder on this... which do we as individuals do?

I guess I kind of demonstrated my ability to persuade when I played the same game in a training class at IBM.  The game is designed to get internal groups to "compete" in such a way that they could individually win lots more if they stabbed the other groups in the back.  But if they did, the entire collective would lose the game.  The class I was in was the first to undermine the competitive nature of the scoring and "win" as a collective.  Does that make me a socialist?

On that light note, I'll close the weekly entry.  Life is good.  Keep Sparking... it provides light in the darkness!