Jungle Dog

He's cuddly, funny and persistent! He fell asleep with this toy in his mouth just like a baby with a pacifier. The slightest intimation of movement from the humans causes him to leap to attention and find somebody to harass until they take him outside and throw his pacifier toy for him. He would do it until he drops. He can't always see where it drops, but some combination of echolocation, circling and sniffing usually leads him to it eventually.

We had what seemed a busy morning with our usual visit from Dana and Jim with discussion of Christmas gifts and how we would spend The Day. They are our bubble and the only people who come inside now that the county has reinstated restrictions. I think they are getting harder and harder to enforce as this awful pandemic drags on. It is encouraging to read that a vaccine has been approved and is being distributed, but given the ineptitude of the federal administration I think it is still going to be many more months before we get it. 

As we were discussing all this, John suddenly stood up and announced that he was going to Urgent Care to have an angry red tick bite looked at.  I had removed it and feared that the head was still embedded in his arm, but he drew the line at letting me try to remove it. It took three hours because the internet told him the urgent care was closed and he went to the hospital across town only to be told that the Urgent Care just a few blocks away from us WAS open, they just couldn't get Google to remove the closed notice. So he drove back to wait for the urgent care doctor to tell him he should have come in sooner. She removed the tick parts (with a local anesthetic) and gave him a prescription for an antibiotic. Back across town he went to the pharmacy, which was closed, but Robert, the pharmacist, happened to see him at the door, let him in and fill the prescription. Saved from the dreaded/dreadful Walgreens. Robert had a television going somewhere hoping to watch the  Cal (his daughter's Alma Mater) football game. Turns out it was was cancelled because of Covid, but the network didn't get the memo and was still advertising it. 

I'm beginning to get the feeling that the internet, and perhaps society as a whole, are breaking down under the strain of this endless quarantine. ...

My friend Tobi came by with a lovely bag of cookies and homemade jam and honey from their own trees/hives. She didn't come inside but we walked around to admire the new fence and the newly planted stick fig tree. Her husband, our friend Dan, has a triple hernia and is on lockdown until Tuesday when he has it repaired. He is the man who can do anything, but is apparently now paying the price. It is hard to recognize/accept the limitations of getting older.