Weekly Round Up: The Future is Now

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. If there is one update that I did not expect to be giving you this week, it is that the future is now.  We were adopted by Future Dog!

Stepdog passed away two months ago.  As I related at the time, we knew right away that we would get another dog...someday.  Hubs started browsing a few shelter adoption pages.

One month ago we came to the conclusion that not having a dog sucks.  We formed a loose plan to adopt a dog sometime in the spring, theoretically a young-but-not-a-puppy female Shepherd mix.  Hubs continued to browse shelter adoption pages. 

As of early this week we were approaching the two month mark of Stepdog's loss and not having a dog did not suck any less.  Suddenly I found myself browsing shelter pages, which was a huge change for me.  I always avoided them because I though that it would be sad to see all of the animals out there who don't have homes.

The next day Hubs became very taken with a listing for a five month old Shepherd mix puppy.   It wasn't the spring and the dog wasn't young-but-not-a-puppy, but I told him there was no harm in meeting her.  And there wasn't since she turned out to be Future Dog.  We don't know her backstory except that she has been in shelters for the past three months, so 60% of her life.

I could write a book about our first 48 hours with a puppy, but it will be a better story if I save it until we're further along in our journey.  It's safe to say that we have bonded and we can't imagine life without her.  She wasn't housebroken and didn't know any commands, but she (and we) have made exponential progress in both areas.  We crate her at night and for the brief periods that we're away during the day, but other than that Hubs and I are trading shifts on doggie duty.  She's claimed the hearth by the fireplace in the back room as her "spot", so I have a million pictures of a black dog with a black background.  Classic camouflage!

Future Dog had a very cute shelter name, and yesterday we figured out what her "real" name is.  For blogging purposes it doesn't make sense to call her Future Dog, since the future is now, and she's not a stepdog*, so let's just call her Doggo (short for Bloggo Doggo).

*We will continue to be out of town once a month for Boy Scout camp/Rust Belt travel adventures.  For right now we will do dog boarding/doggy sitters to help socialize Doggo, but eventually her home away from home with be with Stepdog's Mom and Stepdad - yeah yeah that's my husband's ex-wife/the boys' mom.  For a variety of reasons they don't want a "full time" dog right now, but they're very interested in a "once a month" dog.

Eats and Workouts

It's all a blur.  Let's skip 'em this week.

Watching

It is not a tumor!  Last week I saw Twins and Junior, so this week I completed the trilogy with Kindergarten Cop.  It was fine, but definitely in last place.  My ranking is Twins>Junior>Kindergarten Cop.

Reading

Still lots going on with the booky books!  I finished Matthew Perry's Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.  I think this is a love it or hate it kind of deal - you're either going to be turned off by bottomless fame and drug addiction or find it sad and profound.  

Big surprise, I started another Nevil Shute book!  On the Beach is his most famous book, and I own it so I would assume that I've read it before but I remember nothing.  The book was written in 1957 and it's set in 1963 in the aftermath of a nuclear war.  Life has been wiped out on most of the globe except for parts of Australia and Africa, and estimate is that the fallout will reach all of Australia in about nine months, plus or minus three months.  The way that civilization has adapted is to keep a stiff upper lip and live as close to a normal life as possible, even though everyone knows that nothing is normal.  The story deals with the crew of a submarine who are sent to investigate a radio signal coming from Seattle, where all known life has been wiped out.

My only criticism of the book is exactly what I said about Station Eleven - there's something just a little cold about the characters that makes it hard to bond with them.  This is really unusual for Shute since his typical book revolves around a central character that you absolutely adore and are rooting for.  I'm about 2/3 of the way in, and it will be interesting to see if the story keeps the characters at arm's length or brings them closer to us.  I'm just going to take a wild guess that the story isn't going to end with the whole "end of the world" thing being a false alarm and everyone living happily ever after.  And also I think this book would make an excellent pairing with Station Eleven.

Peace out!  If anyone needs me, I'll be snuggling with Doggo.