Daily Dose of Cuddling

A puppy has joined our lives. His name is Shadow. He is adorable and if you are nice I might post some pictures. My recollection of days does not lend itself to segmenting the passage of time into seven day units, but after throwing the question into Excel I've discovered that today he will complete his 77th day of life and thus stands on the cusp of his 12th week.

Stare deep into his eyes and realize that resistance is futile. You will pet him. You will pay special attention to the tricky spot behind the ears. Puppy kisses will be your reward.
Thanks to Shadow I now know that one of my neighbors does their laundry on Thursday nights. The wafting smell of dryer sheets is unavoidable as we meander through my yard sniffing for the next spot to defile.

Havanese puppies are said to be one of the hardier breeds in the 'toy' category. Shadow took to the snow like a champ and hasn't shied away from trotting around outside even on the coldest of mornings.

Just wanted to pop in to share this news and touch base. There are several ideas that are percolating for another creative writing submission, but we'll see how things go.

Easing back in

I took a bit of a break. I loaded the new post screen a few times, but realized I needed to just be silent for a while. That last post was a bit of a brain dump and I needed to let it sit for a while. A month has passed and we are still healing. There are good days and there are bad days. We had a bad day here recently. Tempers were high and voices were raised. A kind person helped me describe the awful feeling sitting at my desk after a session like that: hollow. A gnawing, radiating emptiness. It was a stupid fight about, of all things, communication. Tone and phrasing had raised our respective hackles and both of us are pretty stubborn when we know we're right. That was the thing. I don't think there was a 'wrong' in that altercation. Only a 'could have been better.' So we vented at each other, had a few hours to stew while we sat at work, and then talked it out that evening. Marriage.

Unless a major hurdle pops up it looks like we will be bringing home a puppy this Sunday. I have been reading a book my mother bought me on that subject: The Art of Raising a Puppy (I think... EBook, so checking is more effort than I am willing to exert right now. Lots of excellent info and it is definitely instilling in me the desire to do this 'puppy' thing right. We will see. More soon, gentle readers of the future!