“Remoted” – Workday 44 / Day 57 (Tuesday)

Work blah, blah, blah, Zoom meeting, blah, work, blah, blah, after-work Zoom meeting. Except for not being downtown in an office, the work part of the day felt pretty normal.

The dogs, however, were exceptionally abnormal extra pains in the neck. Just a couple days ago they were pictures of tranquility, nestled in their respective beds and snoring the day away and I was afraid it was too good to last. Sure enough, today, they were whiny, barky, and fussy all day. I swear I let them out at least 12,437 times. They would bark and whine to go out. Once out, they would bark to come back in. But not together, oh hell no, that would have been too easy. One would want to go out, then the other. Or, if two dogs went out, one would immediately start barking to come back in. The other one would look at me and walk away. I’d get back inside the house and sit down at the desk, and the one outside would start barking to come in.

The whole process is aggravated by an unfortunate house layout. There is no access from the house directly into the back yard. The nook off the kitchen that is now the office was some sort of porch so it’s possible there was direct access to the back yard at some point “ago.” But now, it’s a delightful little jaunt down three steps from the side porch, a hairpin turn, and then eight to ten steps to the gate (depending upon footwear, ground conditions, energy level, etc.). Moose doesn’t like to hang around outside and usually comes back in immediately after doing his business, but if I don’t close the gate behind Winston, he likes to take random walkabouts, visiting neighboring yards and at least twice has disappeared to parts unknown for extended times.

This feels suspicious.
They never sit this close to each other.

When they weren’t doing the outdoor shenanigans, “The Boys” were weird inside, too. They have never deliberately cuddled together and usually it’s a dental display with sound effects if one gets too close to the other. Today, they were nestled butt to butt in the same bed, right next to the office chair. They hung pretty close to each other most of the day, which felt like there was some sort of conspiracy in the works. Or it’s an omen. 

Elevated fire risk, then
a freeze. Sure, whatever.

It’s still not warm yet, so today I put on a down jacket. In the house. This was on top of a skiing base layer and a fleece funnel neck pullover. One would think the rage from serving the canine overlords all day or the steady stream of hot tea  would have delivered a warming effect, but that was not the case.

Late in the day, I saw the weather app had delivered two alerts. One was for an elevated fire risk until 7 p.m. due to very dry conditions and gusty winds, and the other is for 2 a.m., when, after the potential risk of burning, hell will apparently freeze over. 

Perhaps this what is foretold by the odd behavior of two dogs.