Simply put:

  

That's it; that's the post.

Do-over Tuesday

It was too windy to walk today (I'd set off with L, T, and R earlier and bailed on them 10 minutes in), so Big A and I chatted inside instead. Scout and Huckie joined us too, but I don't remember what we talked about, actually.

It's Tamil (and Bengali and Malayali) New Year Day! Fresh start #4 or #5 if you're nominally Hindu--haha! It felt odd wishing people in the middle of a pandemic, but 2020 could certainly use a do-over.

When you love your big brother,

the governor's stay-home order sounds like a VERY good idea (to Scout and Huckie anyway)...

Also, At won't admit it, but he kind of likes sneaking peeks at This is Us, which I'm watching with Nu. 

Rising above

I want to be like Huckie!

New Hires

My teaching assistants were great this term, but since we're all only online now and I don't see them anymore, I hired these guys (for the price of two fake-beef chewies).

Yogis/Doggies

I turned around after a yoga sesh yesterday, to find Scout and Huck had been following along (well, kinda ;) ).

And while that was a nice distraction, I'm beginning to appreciate how long this pandemic might last and how intense the health costs might be for us, for so many people. I'm prepped for all sorts of eventualities, so now's the time I begin to worry about people I don't know and things I have zero control over.

I wish I could live through this thing in a yoga trance.

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.