Empty Nesters

It started today. We get to doggie set 3 dogs because we don’t have anything else to do with our lives outside of the fact that we both work full time. Our office is 100 feet in back of our house along with the maintenance garages. My wife is superintendent but spends most of her time in the office or at meetings around town. I work in the office and in the Cemetery across the street. This morning our daughter dropped off two dogs for us to dog sit. Boo a black lab pup, Randy a 2 year old Golden Doodle, and of course we have Simon the Shih tzu who is 12 and lives with us full time even though it is our daughters dog. This is Boo’s 1st time staying with us and all he wants to do is play. Randy is still a puppy but he is much to big to let him play with Boo unsupervised. Simon would love to play with them but Randy is too big and hurts him and all Boo does is bite him so most of the time they all need to be kept apart. We don’t have cages or anything to keep them in so we keep them in different parts of the house. Boo has the kitchen because he is almost trained, Randy has the Parlor/office, and Simon has the living Room.

I get to watch the dogs because I am doing map work and my computer is in the Parlor/Office and is networked to our office computers. I got the dogs to stop fighting and into their respective corners this morning and they all took a nap. Randy then woke up and threw up on my Parlor carpet. Being that I am liberated and figure it is about my turn to relieve my wife of always having to clean up, I clean it up. [good Ted…. pat, pat] I’ve noticed that one of the advantages of being old and fat is that when I bend over to clean these things up, I can’t breathe so I can’t smell anything. Put Randy out for a while and then Boo started crying, which is his signal that he wants to go out and pee, so I put him out but have to stay with him or he runs away. Randy wants in because it is only 20 degrees this morning. I get back to work and Randy is whining and walking around in circles. Don’t know what that means but I put him out again. Just in time as he throws up again. [good call Ted]. Boo Pee’s on the floor which I clean up. Everyone is down again and now Simon wants out so I oblige him and go back to work. Now it is 12:30 and time for lunch and for Simon to have a haircut and so my wife Dale goes with me. Had to go back because I forgot Simon’s special, anti-bacterial lotion. Tiny Paws is on the other side of town during the noon rush. Just make it on time [this is important because I have either been late or totally missed 3 of the last 6 appointments and this lady is good] and I have to pick him up at 3pm. Still in her office, with all the blowers running, and my cell phone goes off. “Who can that be” I wonder, as the only one that ever calls me is my wife? Ah yes, the School Nurse from Grandson Sam’s school. “Sam is sick and needs to be picked up, OK?” “Sure why not, we’ll be right there but were on the other side of town, OK”.

Picked up Sam and headed for the restaurant for lunch. At the restaurant we run into people we know from another restaurant that closed and we haven’t seen for a long time. He is in his 80’s, use to live on one of the historic streets in town and started telling great stories. Meanwhile an older couple [80’s] from our church spotted us as they were leaving and came over to talk [she use to live in our house when she was a little girl and her grandfather was cemetery superintendent. More stories]. A friend of my wife’s, from Kiwanis, stopped to talk about their meeting tonight and their upcoming auction on Sunday, urging me to make sure I bid [in the past I have purchased hot air balloon rides, truck loads of gravel and bark mulch for the cemetery, a day at the Spa for Dale, etc]. Had American Chop Suey for lunch and it was great, except it got cold? Now we are back at the office sans Simon but with Sam. Have to remember to pick Simon up at 3pm and …Oh Damn I still have his shampoo in my coat pocket and I can’t remember who’s food is who’s. Oh ya, Simon at 3 and pick up Tim at school at 3; there seems to be a problem here. “DALE!!!” I gave up working and wrote this posting instead.

I thought I was done with this posting but there is more. It is now 2:30 and I have to get a parking space to pickup Tim. Dropped Tim off with wife and picked up checkbook to pay hairdresser. Only 15 minutes late picking up the dog. The Dog Do was $28 so I wrote the check for $58 and as I was headed out the door our hair dresser said "Mr. Dickson, thank you but I think $30 is too much for a tip!" Rewrote the check for $33. Made it home and Daughter was there analyasing the contents of Randy's stomach as he has thrown up once more since I left. Results were that it was some type of green chew that is good for the dogs teeth, that she had given him on Saturday. On Sunday her ex-sister-in-law had told her to beware of them because dogs can't digest them and she threw them away. She just forgot to tell us about it. She felt sorry for me and invited me for supper because my wife has a meeting tonight and I remembered to accept the invitation before I asked what we were having [good Ted...pat, pat]. After supper I think I will go have a Scotch and water with my wife. Maybe it will just be a Scotch.

Did I ever tell you that we are empty nesters? .