Animal with Home Value

  ❤️ Celebrating Our Anniversary, Three Hours of Sleep and All This week is our anniversary week. I say week  because with our work schedules, that’s pretty much how we have to celebrate it. Some days Kim and I are only crossing paths. Sometimes we get five or ten minutes together before one of us is heading somewhere else. So when we actually get some time together, we make it count. Today, somehow, we managed to have a really great day, even though I was running on almost no sleep. 💤 I didn’t fall asleep until around five in the morning and was back up shortly after eight. My Garmin recorded only  3 hours and 9 minutes of sleep,  gave me a sleep score of 43, and called the quality “ Poor ." Can't really argue with the watch on that one. 😂 I’d stayed up far too late, and caffeine certainly hadn't helped. By the time I finally fell asleep, morning had practically arrived. With so little sleep, I told Kim I was actually a little worried I might misspeak. When you’r...

  Dog walk

 The 5:50 AM Anniversary Surprise: 11 Years and Counting Anniversaries have a way of sneaking up on you, but this year, the anticipation was on a whole different level. If you know anything about my schedule and Kim’s schedule, you know our weeks are a bit of a ship-passing-in-the-night situation. I work the evening shift all week, and I didn't sleep a single minute all night. Meanwhile, Kim works the morning shift. Between our opposing work hours, we barely get time to see each other during the week. Except for Dixie, our dog, who is currently living her absolute best life. Because of our schedules overlapping just right, Dixie gets to spend practically the entire day with both of us. Speaking of Dixie, she usually has a strict routine, but today she got to go outside a little earlier than her usual 7:30 AM slot. She was thrilled. Of course, that early morning cuddle session resulted in Kim getting a few minor scratches from all the enthusiasm, but hey—hugs are worth it. Since I w...

  There’s something wonderfully half-awake about this morning: frost, the moon still hanging around, a dog delighted to be outside, and dreams bleeding just enough into reality that you’re texting about tires that aren’t needed until tomorrow. I kept that slightly chaotic, winter-morning feeling rather than polishing all the personality out of it. The Second, the Moon, and a Good Good Good Winter It was a crisp, frosty morning walking the dog. The moon was still high in the sky at 8:15, although it somehow felt like 7:15. Maybe that’s what happens when you go to bed early. Your internal clock starts arguing with the actual clock. I was exhausted last night, and I slept deeply. Nine hours altogether, with a trip or two through dreamland along the way. One of those dreams involved Kim getting onto some kind of strange train contraption, complete with a leverage pulley platform, and riding away without my baggage. Apparently my sleeping brain had transportation logistics to sort out. ...

  There’s a lovely little November story in this, Nigel. What makes it work is that nothing huge happened: Dixie got her morning adventure, you noticed the moon and stars, came home to perfectly cooled tea, and meanwhile you’ve got this excitement quietly building about Kim’s gift. A Crisp November Morning and Something to Look Forward To Just before seven this morning, Dixie and I headed out. It wasn’t going to be one of the big walks. This was more of a get-up, put-on-the-jacket, grab-the-dog-and-go kind of walk. Except Dixie apparently didn’t get the memo about the “small” part. The moment she saw me putting on my jacket, she got excited. She does this thing where she lifts one paw and looks at me as if to say: **Take me. Now. I am ready for the big walk.** She is just one happy dog. We headed through Great Bear and over to the bin so I could dispose of Dixie’s morning business. It was chilly and a little foggy, with that particular crispness November mornings have. At one point...

  There’s a lot moving through this morning: pain, your thoughts coming out loud instead of staying inside, frustration when a thought disappears, and underneath all of it the ordinary anchor of getting Dixie outside. I’d keep the blog raw and rhythmic rather than cleaning it up so much that it stops sounding like you. Whatever the Day Brings, I Walk the Dog I woke up with my hand numb and throbbing. Dixie noticed before I was really awake. She licked my hand, bumped into me, and there was the message. Okay. I get it. I’ve got to walk the dog. My mind was somewhere strange this morning. I wasn’t really in my head. I was talking out loud. Mumbling. Lots and lots of mumbling. I used to think that was bad. Today I just noticed it. There are thoughts clicking together faster than I can catch them. Sometimes I finally get into my head and find a thought worth writing down, and then, just like that, it’s gone. Gone, gone. That drives me nuts. One of my pet peeves is losing a thought bef...