Rambles

Today's ramble was to Lake Lansing, and I may have rambled back to FB too...

Love in the time of Corona

I couldn't completely give up on family dinners, so this is how it is now with Big A on one side and the rest of us clustered on the other side.

It was a strange day that felt like the beginning of a war. The email cancelling in-person classes after today had come in at midnight, so I knew driving in that it was the last day. Then I got stuck in a convoy of military trucks on the highway, and it felt like being in the middle of a post-apocalyptic movie. I hammered out an asynchronous schedule for next week; had Big A order At to come home asap; attended a service at the chapel for graduating seniors who are absolutely crushed that commencement is "postponed," and teared up a few times myself; met with my Friday class and let them vent about having to go home/their dashed hopes for choir-band-track/fears about the virus itself; followed the senior playing bagpipes around campus for a while; heard singers practicing "Loch Lomond" on the steps of the library; and then made my way home. I have the feeling all the sweet details of campus life are going to come back to haunt me as this disruption intensifies.

Notes on 'camp'

Quick overnight trip to Chicago. (In classic irreverent fashion, the human kids called it the great Corona Virus Vacation.) Actually, it was a birthday trip organized by Big A as I love long chatty road trips with all the lovies, having carpet room-service picnics, and falling asleep to a range of deep snores.

As I texted KB who was incredulous that I'd do this to myself--it's the closest I'll ever come to camping.

Where's At at?

First At wanted tickets for himself and a friend.

Then he decided he wasn't coming. So I gave his ticket to someone else.

Then he decided he wanted to go after all.

College kids!!

But the younger sibs miss their silly Nana... So I got an additional ticket online.

It's nicer than our original set of tickets actually, and I may just go sit in it by myself.

Where's Dada? (Where's At?)

 Just me and the babies (Nu, Scout, Huckie) at dinner today. Big A was too sick for the soup that was meant to make him feel better and At's at college, of course--but I don't know that Scout and Huckie (or I!) get that. They still go scampering to claw his door open every time I ask "Where's Nana?" (And I ask that a lot!)

And the award goes to...

Scoutie for his role as a snow rabbit!
(Sitting here watching the Oscars now.)

Friday night crew

Bluey got her 10,000 mile checkup and got all cleaned up, I got a massage, and hung out with some girlfriends at SH's birthday bash, but I headed home early, because this is where my heart was.

Monday Face

 

Teamwork makes the dream work

    

The babies are back in town, the babies are back in town...

Doodles in the wild

At is back!

As we were folding dinner napkins from the wash, the puppies wanted to wander back into the kitchen, but the glass door was closed, and while Scout glared balefully, Huck decided to claw the door down.

At started narrating as though it was a nature show ("these are golden doodles native to rural Canada, seen here in a tea garden...").

And for some reason, it made me fall about laughing. (It's possible that just having At back has improved my happiness immensely.)

Floofballs and Goofballs: growling at the snow

Hello!

Big family life

My dream of being a large multigenerational family with many puppies underfoot comes true--at least periodically.

A clear signal

I know NPR is supposed to be neutral and all...But this stayed on throughout school drop off trip, and after we dropped off Nu, Scout and Huck agreed with me that it seemed to say, "impeach him." 

In review

With Big A in Denver (conference) and then off again to Traverse City (triathlon) it's been almost a whole week of living companionably with just one human--Nu. Most of the time, it's been just us, doing school and work and schoolwork and school/work, cooking, watching baking shows, baking, reading, making tea for each other, having sleepovers in the rumpus room with scary movies--one big huddle of squeals, jump scares, and puppies. Scout and Huck randomly taking off to bark at windows and doors adds a nice touch of freakout to any scary movie experience, I must say.

I made us leave the house yesterday to go to a comedy show at JG's temple and took L, T, and C along. But even there it was just mostly us as this silly selfie demonstrates. 

Ok, last one--I swear

The walk back from class was glorious, but I'm not even sure all my pictures don't all look the same at this point. It never really looks how it feels anyway--like I'm flying into a blaze of radiance. (And now I'm thinking about the California fires and firefighters and their bravery, and the animals, and the injustice to prisoner-firefighters...)

I needed that moment. Nu didn't want to go to school after our late ER night, At had to stay in town to follow up with the hand doc today and canceled his classes, so the morning was very different from my usual quiet puppies and prep mode.

And then with Big A's early return, it turned into a completely impromptu whole fam-bam reunion. There was Chipotle and TV and teasing and arguing, and I fell asleep on a couch in the midst of all the happy noises.
_

Not according to plan

Big A is still in Denver, so I'd cobbled together some childcare for Nu on my long teaching day. Nu would take the school bus home, walk to L's, help her plant a tree and hang out, and we'd both have dinner at L's before coming home, and collapsing in pajamas for our "sleepover" in the rumpus room with Scout and Huck.

Instead I started receiving texts on family chat from At while I was on my way home telling me that the "sprained" finger I'd asked him to have looked at ten days ago, was actually a dislocated finger, and Dr. H at our family practice couldn't get it to stay in place despite a couple of times of "popping it back" (™) because his muscles and tendons had knitted wrong in the intervening days. Big A told him to go see a colleague of his at the E.R. in Lansing, so that's where we spent the rest of the evening.

It took several tries of Lidocaine and people tugging on his finger (and At making the inevitable fart jokes) before they could get the joint positioned and splinted. It was actually pretty traumatic. There was so much numbing agent that the base of his finger started to bleed, and despite his general good humor and inability to not be a sweet smartassy jokester, it was clear that the pain was getting to be too much. Not to be outdone, I somehow lost my insurance card despite putting it back in my wallet. And Nu having somehow ingested a peanut butter chip in a cupcake earlier, vomited repeatedly--but elegantly--into a plastic bag at the E.R. All in all, we made quite an impression at Big A's work.
_

A wild rumpus

 ...aptly, in the rumpus room. The mess of Pocky wrappers, dunkers crumbs, juice boxes, and karaoke poses attests to a good time.

In the afternoon, we ended up at the UAW picket line where K's dad was, and joined them for a while. Earlier, when I texted him about bringing the kids there, C said that since a tentative agreement had been reached, this week was about thanking the community for their support. "You'll get to see the best in us," he said. I almost cried a puddle-full right then and there.



_

Meanwhile, while we're still in the garage...

I have yet to start the car to take At back to college, but the ping of Big A's pic to family chat shows that the babies already miss their oldest sib.


The heart knows what it knows.






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