Wonder Pooch Reunion

One of the truly engaging aspects of taking a week off from employment is the first day, usually compounded in pain as a Monday, back behind the desk. I think somehow it was a little earlier in bygone days before the evil of email descended upon the land. I had 576 emails awaiting my loving attention yesterday when I crept behind the keyboard following my tropical escape. While the bulk of them were informational there was a healthy percentage that required action. I wonder why I even bother with the out of office assistant message since that doesn’t seem to thwart some people from sending repeated messages asking for information (I handled those last).

Yesterday coincidentally was also the day the debris from my wife’s basement cleaning project we are donating to a local charity had to be placed curbside for pick up. She felt I needed her expert opinion on performing this complicated task (it was a Monday kind of thing). I managed to keep tempers barely frayed as I mounted my own vehicle to head into work. As I took the first corner I realized my car was filled with a huge load of metal from my own garage cleaning project. The company gets reimbursed for metal it recycles so I always throw metal away there. It made for a very musical ride into work and an appropriate anthem for my reluctant return to employed status.

The Donation Pile

After work we had the much more enviable task of retrieving a certain black lab from his holiday in the pet spa known as my sister’s house. My wife and I were greeted with his usual boisterous, somewhat manic, welcome, lubricated with an unfortunately full bladder. My sister reported no gastro intestinal issues this time as my sister fought the urge to provide the Wonder Pooch with food too rich for his palate which my brother in law was extremely grateful for. There was one series of late night thunder storms which caused Buddy his usual terrors. My sister solved this by bedding down next to his cage which is where my brother in law found her in the morning (it’s how she rolls). I hope Buddy is under no illusion that he can expect similar partnership now that he’s returned to reality.

The Chaos of Buddy's Welcome Precluded a Better Picture

The visit also provided an all too brief time to catch up with my sister who I proudly congratulated on completing a recent mud run complete with Army like obstacles (she’s really fighting this elder appellation). My nephew also started a new job yesterday as a mechanic where he gets his own bay for the first time. In sadder news the zombie cat the somehow survived long years in my sister’s house after most of its internal organs ceased to function finally gave up the ghost last week. My incomparable brother in law also gifted a couple of Red Sox tickets which had my wife apoplectic since she’s missed out on my last couple forays to Fenway. The Sox made amiable radio companions for the trip home where we listened to a stirring 9^th inning walk off win.

My Sister The Mudder

R.I.P. Zombie Cat

Buddy immediately zonked out when we returned home as he always returns exhausted from his visits with my sister. It may be due to overextending himself since he’s finally had someone vulnerable to his non-stop begging sequences or the energy expended in our welcome. At any rate he slept off his happiness hangover after he was sufficiently assured the neighborhood squirrels hadn’t staged a coup in his absence.