Simon and I have been doing okay so far. We keep ourselves occupied enough I think. I try to play with him more now that I have less household stuff to do (the bills pretty much take care of themselves, there's only one person's laundry to do, etc.). It's been nice enough after dinner but before dark that we play outside. And by play, I mean: Simon grabs his toy and runs around the yard at a full sprint. I clap at him or fake-chase him once in a while when he wants to play chase.
It's hard to sleep. For me anyway. Simon doesn't seem to have a problem zonking out wherever he's laying. ha. I usually write down what I've done during the day--which is a challenge in itself, as the notepad only has so much space per page! definitely encourages me to use my vocabulary-- then play games or browse reddit until I fall asleep holding my phone.
The anchor quilt needs to be spray-basted...as much as I dislike it (it irritates my lungs hardcore), this quilt is just too big to baste with thread. And I want to be able to start hand-quilting it on the double! I'm hoping to have the quilting done by the time Ax returns. Ambitious, as it's a queen size...
I've learned that Simon is afraid of ice cubes. I tried to be a nice mommy and put a few in his water bowl, only to have him refuse to drink from it until they melted. He is also afraid of tall grass (like prairie grass) swaying in the breeze. Thunder is the enemy and must be barked at in the most vicious manner! He hated having his nails clipped at first, though we've made quite a bit of progress with it. I trim the back paws and then it's belly-rub time! Then the front two, a quick ear rub, the dew claws, and we're done.
(As I'm writing this, Simon is on the other end of the couch grumbling and grrrrr-ing in his sleep. It's so damned adorable. He often wakes himself up by "talking" in his sleep. Cracks me up every time! He also runs in his sleep and manages to hit himself in the face with his paws, due to the way he lays....)
So I figure I'll take this first deployment a day or week at a time. The weekends seem to be the worst so far, although I've read that feeling that way is common since that's when you spend the most time together as a couple. I'll just have to come up with other things to do instead! It doesn't help that almost NOTHING is open here on Sundays. Being an atheist in the south is a challenge...oy.
I have a freakin' laundry list of stuff to do while Ax is away:
- hand quilt the anchor blanket
- puzzles!
- find a breeder; we would like another dog and Ax wants a purebred Golden Retriever.
- I signed up for some Coursera courses in writing/composition. I figure if I'm not working I gotta keep my brain fresh somehow!
- Get paperwork from shelter to be a foster doggie mommy.
- File state taxes. We're filing in WI, but for whatever inane reason they won't accept the damn thing online. Why can't it "just work"??
- Find Simon an obedience class. Not only to work on his commands but to help him have some "dog time" too. Sometimes I feel bad that he's stuck with me for X amount of months and has no other dogs to play with regularly.
- Make a small curtain for the window in the garage (yeah, we have a window in the garage. Sometimes I don't even.)
- READ BOOKS! I haven't had the time in so long. ;_;
- Keep trying to find a job. TRYING.
- Bake lots of yummies and send them up to WI! :)
- Take Simon to the beach a few times
And probably other stuff I'm not even aware of right now. Ha. But there you have it...I guess? I miss Ax terribly. I know he misses me as well, although I'd bet he's excited to finally be deploying after a year of schooling. He's a pretty pasty boy by nature, I can only imagine how see-through he'll be after months on a boat! ;)
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