Wednesday, June 2 2021

Dear Journal,

Good morning, people. Happy Wednesday. I'm showered and wearing a new set of clothes. The kitchen is clean. The coffee isn't fresh, but it will definitely work for the time being.

The last time I ordered coffee from our go-to place, they accidentally sent me a whole extra six pound bag of coffee. You might think that's good news, but coffee doesn't stay good for very long. Even if you don't open the bag, I'd say you have somewhere between one to two months before it starts to taste funky. And that slow, inevitable funkification only speeds up once you open it. It takes Marissa and I a little less than a month to polish off a six pound bag.

Do you see the dilemma now? By the time we broke into that second bag, it probably had a week left. I'm too cheap to throw away free coffee, but apparently I'm too much of a snob to drink old coffee.

It will be fine. Lord knows we've gotten through bigger coffee emergencies. Broken French presses, overflowing carafes, clogged machines. And who can forget about our week long fling with that $20 Target drip coffee maker while our Moccamaster was being repaired.

Sip. How are you feeling today? What kind of day are you having? I think for today's first musing, we'll do a compare and contrast with what all the dogs in the house.

Ziggy is mellow in the morning. She wants nothing more than to eat her breakfast and head right back up to bed. Until she gets her breakfast, she's all business. But if she's really comfortable you might get a nice morning snuggle in. Today we woke up at the same time. I snoozed my first alarm and pulled her in for a big blanketed hug. She fell asleep, holstering her warm nose between the bed and the pillow. So far, that was the best three minutes of the day.

Then you have Minnie, who has been a total asshole lately. She wants to eat something when she's supposed to be sleeping, and she wants to play when she's supposed to be eating. As I was getting ready for the day, she begged for help getting onto the bed, then she'd leap off to a nearby pillow like it was a game. At the time I'm writing this, she's tearing around the living room with a toy in her mouth. I can't tell if it's a baby toy or a dog toy, but at this point what difference does it make?

Ollie takes the full brunt of Minnie's misplaced morning energy. After each lap around the room, Minnie halts next to Ollie for a vigorous cleaning session. She sinks low and sweeps her ears back. Ollie snarls. Minnie sinks lower, but keeps licking him anyway. There's just no stopping a puppy. They won't be ignored. The will be loved. They will pee on everything.

Minnie had her first puppy class yesterday. Marissa tells me that she shows promise. She acts shy and timid until she's asked to do something like jump onto a platform or chase a toy. She loses herself in the task and comes out of her shell, and after it's done she goes right back to being shy and timid.

Yesterday was an easy, quiet day. I asked Rodney the usual questions before putting him to bed. What did you make today? How did you relax? Rodney shrugged his shoulders and stared blankly. "I just watched Ryan's World," he explained.

"Which ones did you watch?" I followed up.

"Just a whole bunch of 'em," he said.

I could relate. My day may not have had as much Ryan's World as Rodney's, but I felt like I just stared at an IT ticket. A few years ago I made a slack integration for work, and it recently broke. I had to open a case with our IT department, and that turned into a consult with our security team. On one hand, it was nice to start the week slow, but on the other hand it would have been pretty sweet accomplish something yesterday. The good news is that the ticket is winding down. Security is happy. IT is happy. With these kinds of things, you just have to pretend to be patient. Answer questions promptly. Say 'hello', 'please', and 'thank you' whenever you can. No matter how hopeless things seem, maintain your cheery and helpful online persona and I promise you will emerge unscathed.

Thinking back, I'm surprised Rodney didn't mention all the puzzles he and Marissa did yesterday. Around the time of my third coffee refill, he and Marissa were set up at the dining room table. Several boxes of puzzles were open and dumped out.

"We're cleaning up the puzzle corner today," Marissa said. "We're getting rid of the ones that are missing pieces, so we just have to do all the puzzles."

She and Rodney carefully inspected a half-completed picture of dinosaurs roaming in a forest. It sounded like a fun mid-morning activity, but I had to get upstairs to stare at an IT ticket.

Pasta for dinner. Bedtime, chores, and exercise. Marissa and I reconvened in the living room for a final drink and some TV. This week we've been working through Bo Burnham's special Inside. We were silent through the first watch, and we were so spellbound that we immediately started it a second time moments after the credits rolled.

It's dark, clever, and funny - par for the course for Bo Burnham. But it's even more special of a performance when paired with the theme of quarantine. Bo Burnham is so skilled at peeling back the layers of a joke and showing you all the anger, sadness, hope, and self-awareness underneath it all.

That's what I got today. Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday.