A Doolittle Project

A friend of ours is working on her dissertation. She is getting close to finishing, and so to keep herself motivated, she is developing a list of things she's going to do as soon as it is signed, sealed, and defended. One of her favorite things to dream about is making a communication board for her dog, in the style of speech pathologist Christina Hunger who created just such a device for her own dog, Stella.

According to Hunger, Stella knows many words and is even demonstrating some pragmatic language skills by the way she selects and organizes the words. Some of the words are even qualitative, allowing Stella to express her opinion about the things she likes and loves and those she doesn't.

Even though I agree with our friend that it is every pet owner's dream to be able to know definitively what their animal is thinking, is it really necessary? Because really, don't we all think we know already? Who doesn't talk for their pets? To be honest, though, part of our understanding is because our pets are really good at communicating. Just today, when Lucy and I were on a long, hot walk, she pulled me insistently over to a car and stared longingly at the back door, as if to say Why don't we just drive home from here?

And when we talk about teaching our cats to use a communication board? Well, for Tibby anyway, there better be a cuss word or two, so she can tell us how she really feels.

I Miss People

A few days ago we received a text from an old friend of Heidi's:

Are you are around this weekend? We sold our house at the lake and we have to go up to pack. DB would like to visit with you. Although she has not been on formal quarantine, her activities have been limited to TikTok in her room and running outside.

DB is Heidi's 16-year-old goddaughter, and every August, we usually spend a week with her and her older sister. Her style of quarantine sounded pretty safe to us, and, so on the last weekend of our summer break, we were thrilled to at last have a real, traditional, summer activity to break up our days.

And the last 24 hours have been a pleasant diversion of cooking and eating and watching Netflix, walking the dog, swimming, painting rocks and solving our most recent murder box.

All the things we've been doing anyway, but with a fresh perspective and another voice. What a difference it makes.

A New Spin

I recently did a little research to find out why in the world military air traffic, especially helicopters, has increased so much lately in the air space directly over my house. The racket was driving me crazy and making me a little paranoid.

I found a perfectly plausible explanation which claimed that in the dramatic decline of commercial air traffic due to the pandemic, many agencies and branches of the service have opted to take advantage of the space to schedule more training. Still! As relieved as I was that it wasn't the beginning of some pre-coupe activity in advance of the election, those choppers are low and really loud, and they circle several times a day.

Finally, in an effort to turn my irritation into a plus, I decided that whenever I hear one of those cursed contraptions I will send a blessing to the universe.

May we all have the time to refine our skills and the patience to find whatever we are searching for.

But it's still tempting to add, Now go away you f-ing helicopters!

Namesake

"I think I'm going to watch the Republican Convention next week," my friend Lincoln told me today. "I don't agree with them, but I just want to see what they're going to say," he continued.

I was impressed, both by his curiosity and his open mind.

Especially since Lincoln's eight.

Change of Seasons

The weather here has taken a rare and most pleasant turn for August-- highs in the low 80s and hardly any humidity at all. The water in the pool is almost cold. Almost. But a few brisk laps will warm a swimmer up nicely. This evening we were on our way home from the pool when we ran into a neighbor and her 8 month old. Babies love Heidi, so as the little one giggled and cooed in his stroller, his mom and I caught up. "Well," she sighed after a little while, "I better get inside and check on my bread." She raised her eyebrows. "It's my first time making homemade. I've got to see how it's rising."

I nodded with complete understanding. "Is it sourdough?" I asked.

"No!" she shrugged. "It's a quick no-knead recipe. But I'm making stew tonight. This weather just makes me think of fall and stew and homemade bread."

Standing there in my wet bathing suit and towel, I found it a little early to pull the trigger on autumn comfort meals, but who am I to judge? Plus? She's from Georgia.

So That's How It's Going to Be?

I woke up at 7:30 for a virtual meeting at 9, ran downstairs, made coffee, jumped in the shower, dressed a little less casually than I have all summer, set up my extended screen monitor, and popped my airpods in, all in plenty of time to join and complete the ice breaker. (Yes, the icebreaker!) I listened, took notes, sent informational emails and texts to colleagues who were not "there", answered questions, read and commented on documents, and otherwise participated fully until almost noon, when the meeting ended, about 30 minutes late.

I sat back, away from the screens, and tried to relax for a few minutes before my next meeting at 1. Rubbing my eyes and ears, I felt a rumbling in my stomach.

It was only then that I realized I had forgotten to eat breakfast.

Madame Replicant

The day was dark and rainy yesterday, just the kind of late summer weather that would ordinarily be an invitation to the movies for us. But since that was out, we closed the curtains and turned on the TV. It took a while to find something blockbustery enough, but in the end we decided on a double feature of Bladerunner, the classic from 1982, (a movie I had seen and loved when it was new) and its sequel from last year, Bladerunner 2049.

We gasped when, after the credits rolled on the first flick (yeah, last century they did those at the beginning of the movie, remember?), it flashed Los Angeles 2019 on the screen. I think I knew we had passed the date Ridley Scott set for his story, but seeing it was something else. And although it was dark and rainy throughout the entire movie, that was really the only thing the world of Bladerunner had in common with our world.

Flying cars, video pay phones, and a huge Pan Am billboard were just the top three buzzers, and only if you accept as a premise of the story the fact that almost everyone fit and able enough had moved off the planet. And pacing? Oh my gosh! It was like all those songs from the 70s and 80s that you are sure are fast enough to add to your workout playlist, but when you actually listen all the way through they are either deleted or moved to the warm up or cool down section. The truth is Bladerunner is like an opera: a dark and slow and melodramatic exploration of humanity.

And, I still liked it.