“Remoted” – Workday 157 / Day 231 (Monday)

This morning rolled in on the back of night three of the new “no dogs on the people bed” mandate. The night had a rough start. Shortly after settling into bed, while I was still trying to conquer Candy Crush and had not put the light out yet, Winston began barking next to the bed where I lay. He wouldn’t stop. I told him “go lay down in your bed.” He didn’t. Then Moose chimed in with the barking to create a full-blown stereophonic duet. I asked him, “Out?” and he responded completely on brand with his bark that sounds exactly like “out, out.”

The dynamic duo. 

I grudgingly hauled myself out of the bed I had been in for mere minutes to let them out. It was an impressive and uncommon display of teamwork with Moose chiming in to help Winston. Usually they team up only when attempting to scam me for snacks. They stare at me with their gentle and beautiful eyes and if I am standing, they will gently herd me over to the snack bin. But Moose coming to Winston’s defense to get me to understand that the poor guy needed to go out was unprecedented. It was remarkable. And I instantly felt bad for ignoring Winston and then responding when Moose piped up. 

Once outside, Winston had a good long pee, which has been the case since about ten days before the diabetes diagnosis. This gave me plenty of time to reflect on what had just happened. I imagined that Winston felt the way I have felt in a group setting while trying to present an idea, and then someone else says the same thing and is lauded, heaped with glory, and credited with the great idea. The very same idea I said out loud not two seconds earlier and that they just echoed. That feeling stinks. And I had made Winston experience that.

After another night of many sleep interruptions, it was time to get up, and with the time change it was lighter out than last week. One of the early steps in preparing for each day is checking the weather. It is important to know how many layers to pile on. The temps for today, according to Google, were a high of 39 and a low of 31. The frigging 30s. Like in the dead of winter. The leaves on the nearby trees didn’t even finish turning colors but the big winds of today blew most of them off. We had a few inches of snow on Friday back when it was still October, and now there were more winter temperatures. Any time I checked the phone, there was an alert about snow, but it never really happened. I was dressed for it, though, with CuddleDuds base layers under my pants and cashmere sweater chosen for warmth. It turns out the home-office area is chilly, much like my cubicle at the office-office.

At least work was calm today. It was the kind of calm that felt unnerving after the frenetic pace of recent work days and I kept waiting for something bad to happen. The bad didn’t happen, so it was wasted nervous energy.

Jambalaya mixed
with mac and cheese.

To top off the calm day, supper was stupendous. For years I’ve harbored annoyance over the disappearance of boxed red beans and rice with cheese from grocery store shelves and online sources. The memory of it haunts me like a delicious ghost. The kit had rice and red beans with spices and a packet of powdered cheese like in the Kraft macaroni and cheese. It was by Zatarain’s and I used to buy it in Tennessee all the time until suddenly it couldn’t be found anymore. It just disappeared without a trace, leaving me wondering if I had imagined it. 

Tonight, I made the box of Zatarain’s jambalaya with Gardein meatless crumbles, and the box of Macaroni and cheese that has been in the pantry for ages. Then, I mixed some of the mac and cheese and the jambalaya in a bowl and it was really, really good. So good. It was worth the two dirty saucepans with lids and the sink full of dishes. And there are leftovers.