Nuisance

As long-time readers will know, I count three Huskies as my babies. They make life exciting and irritating by turns. Especially when they engage stealth hunting mode. While on leash. I’m not sure whether it was a fox, or a raccoon, or some other local wildlife making do in the cracks of nature available in our neighborhood, but whatever it was inspired Santino to chase around me as if I were a tree… and fell me in similar manner. I have the road rash and bruises to prove it, and my battle scars are enough to have kept me stiff and uncomfortable for most of the week.

The super-hot, super-humid weather hasn’t been my friend in this either.

I just discovered, though, looking back at my tracking app… we still managed to walk every night. We totaled 14.92 miles over the course of the week. And my tracking app emailed me a congratulatory note that last night’s walk was the 400th workout I had logged that way.

I suppose, though, the real distraction those wounds offered was an aversion to resting my scraped, bruised wrist on the mouse pad to do much productive computing. It didn’t help, either, that hubs decided (and friends conspired to support him) to continue celebrating my birthday throughout the week.

So we’ve been watching more episodes of Sherlock. The writing and layers of storytelling in that show are provocative and smart, and the unsentimental depiction of a deep friendship that acknowledges the warts of each personality but nonetheless cherishes each partner for his strengths is instructive for any fiction writer. We’ve even been watching some of the making-of shorts, which explore the ways this series is bringing the Conan Doyle cannon into the modern day. There was one about the women in the series that I found particularly interesting, precisely because it illustrated how small, character-driven choices can make big changes in the overall flavor of a story. That this incarnation of Mrs. Hudson is an older woman exploring the misplaced mothering inclinations is a subtle departure from the “long-suffering” woman portrayed by Conan Doyle. Yet it speaks to how interpreting words on a page can vary across time and in different minds.

This week, again, I heard horrible news from both a friend and a relative about two different dogs. One who’d been killed by getting run over, and the other who was diagnosed with Histiocytosis last week. It seems fortuitous that hubs found an article outlining the steps to recover from personal trauma this week, so I’m sharing it for anyone else who’s been bowled over by emotional pain. And sending warm fuzzies (from T. A. for Tots, for those of you who are in my generation) and healing energy to those who might need it. Similarly, 33 quotes from Lao Tzu might help remind us all that life is beset with difficulties, and finding our way toward equilibrium is an ongoing challenge.

I will be looking for that equilibrium myself, this week, as we return to a more normal schedule. I’m planning on actual word production for once, and intend for next week to include progress on that front. In the meantime, check out how my ROW80 compatriots are doing with their goals.