He Has a Point

"Mom? I really, really don't want to go to school today."

"Because?"

"Because sometimes it's boring and some things are hard."

"You have just described life. But sometimes it's fun and sort of great too, right?"

"I guess."

"Without the boring and hard parts the fun and great parts wouldn't be special anymore, they'd just be regular."

"That sounds like a pretty good regular."

"Yeah, I guess it does."

"You can try again on that one, Mom."

This One

I was out of town the last five days. I missed all of my guys. All of my guys missed me too, but only this one couldn't be persuaded to go on his evening walk with Mr. Rosenberg. Levi wouldn't leave my side.

Smacksy Sunday Links

Be a better listener.

The lost Victorian mansions of downtown LA.

This Thanksgiving menu planner is pret-ty cool.

It's always the right time to listen to this song. 

And a koala joey in a basket.

Happy Sunday.

Smacksy Saturday Photo: Oakland

Look at the lovely view. Just look at it.

Provenance

I'm on board with the one in, one out approach to keeping down clutter. Replacing instead of adding belongings is especially important because all two not small adults, one giant eleven-year-old, and two medium-ish dogs of us are sharing one 864 square foot house.

And yet... and yet. How do I account for the overflowing travel mug/water bottle cabinet? These two beat-to-hell water bottles do not "spark joy." They have ceased to be useful or beautiful and they are still here.

A much younger Bob created the Harry Potter and goldfish/baseball/scratch-that-out-and-start-that-triangle-over-right-here artwork on the bottles, but we have a lot of Bob's artwork. The bottles are leaky and smell like the indoor pool at the Y.

These bottles have been carried around in a Star Wars lunch box. They have been battered inside a Little League baseball bag. They have been used to dig sand and hold weeds that are pretending to be flowers. They are not history themselves but are witnesses.

I remind myself that I am a witness too as I carefully place the bottles in the trash.

Dog Parking

Ted and Levi appear to enjoy their No Concept of Personal Space policy even at the big, wide, dog park.

Bull/China Shop

Levi was jumping up at the window to say an extremely enthusiastic hello to the UPS guy. I leaned over to close the window just in case Levi got any ideas about plowing through the screen to join him. My heavy dog pal came down hard on my bare foot then pushed off again, leaving this paw shaped bruise on my right foot. 

It makes me laugh every time I look down. And limp a little. But mostly laugh.