Just another rainy Sunday and a dog video that is only impressive if you knew Walter (Day #4)

Although people closer to the coast are continuing the feel the effects of the wind and rain from Hurricane Florence, those of us only experiencing the effects of Tropical Depression Florence are mostly doing alright. There are some downed tree limbs, and a little bit of standing water, but mostly we are okay. We keep getting texts from the electric company letting us know that they are working hard. We've had power consistently, so are just keeping our fingers crossed that they can get the lights back on for the many people who are still on flashlights/generators/sunlight.

Yesterday morning it wasn't even raining, and we played outside with the dog. For those you who knew Walter, you may recall that his version of fetch involved running about halfway toward the newly thrown ball before losing interest and eating some grass or a stick. He would then run enthusiastically alongside you while you walked to retrieve the ball and amble back toward whatever the starting point was and repeat the whole process. Fetch with Walter was profoundly aerobic exercise for the person throwing and retrieving the ball, but mostly allowed the dog time to bask in the sun and frolic in the grass a bit. Although I knew that there were Boston Terriers who did fetch things, I'd always attributed Walter's unique approach to the game to his breed. I'd laugh and casually think, "Well, he's definitely not a retriever..." Imagine my surprise, then, when it became clear that Cyril was not only enthusiastic about playing fetch, but was actually pretty good at it. Here's a video of him demonstrating his skills yesterday during the break in the rain:

In the background of the video, you can almost see the most substantial of the branches that fell in our yard, wedged into our baby pine tree such that it looks like some sort of graft/hybrid situation.

The cats have actually been weathering the storm surprisingly well, perhaps because there isn't much thunder, just rain. They have both enjoyed actively participating in our indoor fun ranging from the somewhat typical rainy day activity of board games to Lynn's decidedly unusual Saturday activity of building screens for our windows. The pre- and post- photos of the screens are for another day. 

Eli takes his turn at the board game. 

Eli is fairly certain that the scraps of screen were in fact the entire point of the screen-making enterprise. He will not give them back. Don't even try to take them. 

As I'm writing about the rain and all of the time we've been spending indoors, I am reminded that my Bike MS: Waves to Wine ride is actually next weekend. The hurricane has definitely put a little bit of a damper on my training, but I'm still planning to ride. My distance may be slightly diminished, but my enthusiasm and the need for amazing fundraising efforts to get us toward a world free of MS will not be lessened in the least. I'm a little over halfway toward my goal - can you help me get there? 

Reflections, new directions, and pet photos (!)

Tonight is the residency graduation ceremony at many OB/GYN programs across the country, and marks approximately a year since I finished residency and and we moved across the country. I've struggled a bit to get back into the swing of the blog, in part because we've gone through a tremendous number of transitions this year and I think we've hardly had time to process one before another is upon us. I posted earlier this spring about the evolution of the blog, but it was a bit of a half-hearted attempt that left me feeling even less certain about the direction going forward. Here's a short list of some of this year's transitions that I'm hopeful to share more about in the coming year.

I'm so close to being finished with medical training - That's right, folks, it's really happening. For those you who thought I had been in college for the past 17 years, you should stop lamenting my slow progress and start celebrating the fact that in that time I have earned three (3) degrees, one (1) certificate, three (3) medical licenses, four (4) DEA numbers, including a special one for prescribers of medication assisted treatment for opiate use disorder, two (2) bilingual provider certifications, and eligibility to take my general obstetrics and gynecology board exams this winter. I also have a job. I think it's okay to let you all know at this point that I'll be joining my current division of general obstetrics and gynecology as an assistant professor in August. In the coming year, you can expect more thoughts about medical education, work-life balance, and the challenges of providing health care in the prison system.

The weather here is completely different - And it turns out that biking with seasons is a whole different ballgame. It's one that I had blissfully and intentionally forgotten while living in the Bay Area. Aside from the occasional rainy day, I could count on being able to use whatever portion of my free time I desired to ride a bike. Although the fall and early winter in North Carolina were seemingly designed for cycling, the "spring" and "summer" have been nearly indistinguishable and have involved temperatures and humidity that make me hesitant to leave the house walking, much less cycling. Despite this, I have lots of cycling goals for the year to come, so you can look forward to more NC scenery views from the saddle.

We have an extremely anxious dog - Walter's entire life was chronicled on the blog, and it still makes my throat catch a bit to see his name as a label option for each post. Cyril, too, has struggled with the loss mightily. He had some significant anxiety issues when we adopted him, and they worsened appreciably after the attack. It turns out that veterinary medicine offers some of the clearest evidence that medications for anxiety change lives. Our little dog is a patient at the NC State Behavioral Medicine Clinic and in addition to the equivalent of doggie therapy, he is now on lots of anxiolytics. He is making great progress, and you can anticipate some reflections on the challenges of a totally differently high needs dog from our last one.

Eighty-five years of questionable decisions in our house - The "what were they thinking" posts will not stop. I have a back log of "before" and "in the midst of it" photos to share, including some demolition photos from what we have been calling "the forbidden bathroom" due to it's lack of non-rotted structural support. This week will also mark the start of the first professional work on the house.

Suffice it to say, there is a lot going on right now and so I'll share some photos of the pets relaxing to remind you (and me!) to do the same.

Cyril loves relaxing in a lawn chair. He tends to cycle between the sunny grass, the shady grass or pavement, and the lawn chair as his temperature needs demand. 

Eli is perhaps the most effective pet at reminding me to take a break. Here he is, seemingly saying "Now it is my turn to use the computer."

This is not some high-tech cat bed that we are using now. It is a high tech washing machine that the cat is using as a bed. I may or may not have started placing a folded bath mat in the washer for him to sleep on. In my defense, it needed to be washed anyway...

Introducing Cyril

For years, we have been discussing and debating getting another dog. We considered adding a mutt to the family in order to avoid the myriad health problems associated with a purebred dog. We thought about getting a big dog, maybe a pit mix, since we have the space and both enjoy walking with the dogs. We perused the options endlessly on PetFinder before and after it was referred to as "something that resembles Tinder for dogs" on This is Us.

As an aside, in attempting to find a link to that clip I googled "Tinder for dogs" and came up with the following:

• BarkBuddy: An app designed to help you "find fluffy singles near you," BarkBuddy connects people "with cute pups that need a home."
• Tindog: This may or may not be defunct, but looks like it was an app to help people with dogs meet dogs (and their owners). It may or may not match both the dogs and the owners.
• Dog Date Afternoon: More explicitly connects single people who want to date but want to make sure that their dogs are compatible before they invest any more energy into a potential relationship. 
• Allpaws: Another app to facilitate pet adoptions.
• Twindog: Looks suspiciously similar to Tindog, and I wonder whether there wasn't some sort of lawsuit that resulted in a name change here... 

After so much going back and forth and listing the pros and cons of getting another dog, we decided to move forward and applied to adopt another Boston Terrier. We wanted Walter to have a buddy in the autumn and winter of his years, and after we saw this little guy and realized that he had been returned multiple times due to behavior issues, we couldn't say no. We found him through the East Tennessee Boston Terrier Rescue. Having adopted Walter through the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue, we were committed to a rescue dog. 

And here he is:

Cyril is a 2.5 year old brown/brindle Boston Terrier.

From the moment he arrived, he and Walter bonded over their shared love of blankets. They are shown here in the heated throw they both adore.

 In the morning sunshine, there's no need to burrow...

 And sometimes when Cyril gets too hot under the blankets, he hops out and sprawls out on the floor to cool down.

Of the cats, only Aleks has condescended to snuggle NEAR Cyril. I know he'll eventually learn that they can snuggle just like he does with Walter, but for now he's a bit standoffish. Eli has barely condescended to come downstairs since Cyril arrived... 

Step 0: Address some small plumbing issues

One of the ongoing challenges of the house is the plumbing. Similar to other systems, (e.g. the electrical system and the decorating system) some corners had been cut over the past 85 years of rentals and repairs. Notably, before we moved in, the line between the house and the sewer was not working. This resulted in a rather unsavory situation under the porch and at another point in the crawlspace that has since been remedied.  This required digging up the front yard!

The digging was delayed by freezing weather, but fortunately was complete before Snowpocalypse (pictured here) came to Durham. 

Although that was the largest thing, we've had a few other plumbing issues come up.

1. It was clear after our home inspection that one of our bathrooms had enough water damage/rotting wood in the floor that filling the tub might result in a sort of cable-less elevator situation riding downward into the crawl space. We weren't sure whether the tub/toilet/sink in that bathroom had an ongoing leak, or whether it was old damage. We've subsequently had the toilet and sink cleared, and are deferring use of the tub until we can replace the subfloor and flooring and make sure that the walls are made of something other than mold.

2. The upstairs bathroom is just the sort of endearing space that I love and that normal height people cannot comfortably navigate. We've been somewhat uncertain as to whether water leaks from the fixtures here also, and so have limited usage in that bathroom.

Good luck peeing standing up, gentlemen over 5' tall...

3. The other downstairs bathroom, which we referred to as "the functional bathroom" prior to confirming it was safe to use the toilet and sink in the other downstairs bathroom, is also a work in progress. All of the fixtures seemed to work, which we considered a win, but there was only a tub and no shower. Eli, who likes to drink from the tub preferentially, did not mind, but it was not working well for Lynn and I. 

Although Lynn has done the lion's share of the house work, I did participate in the conversion of the tub to a shower! I learned more about plumber's putty and pipe joint sealant than I ever really wanted to know, and can now recognize "the plumbing guy" at Home Depot. Prior to completing this, I was drawing a "quick" bath each morning before work, which is not really a thing that people do... Now I've installed the shower and Lynn has hung the shower curtain, which was really the much more significant task. We removed a hideous cabinet from the wall and have learned a great deal about mounting things to plaster. 

 The faucet removed from the tub. You'll notice that part of the metal is spontaneously disintegrating because it's so old and corroded. That curved water spout piece was the closest we had to a functional "shower" for a few weeks...

Eli looks disparagingly at the disassembled faucet. 

Removing the cabinet revealed several interesting prior paint choices in the bathroom. You can also see where there was a different shape of window previously. 

The upside-down bathroom cabinet is a temporary stand-in for pantry shelves!

And the shower works!

Down dog, a meditative cat, and a mystery

I'm truly settling in to fellowship life! Leading indicators:

1. I have been able to make progress reading a novel in more than 0.5-1 page increments before I fall asleep.  I've been reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I highly recommend it.

2. I've started getting back into yoga. I'm not yet back to my Ashtanga life, but I've been using this app called Down Dog that will put together a series of poses that actually make sense for almost any time interval. The dog generally sleeps through any yoga in the morning, but the cat is very keen on joining me.

3. I completed my 50 mile bike ride, and learned of an amazing mid- or post-ride snack: a spoon full of peanut butter rolled in a mixture of M&Ms, mini peanut butter cups, and pretzel bits. This was quite possibly the highlight of a rather rainy and gray ride. The sunniest bit is shown below. I have also made a new cycling friend in the triangle, and I've got plans for more rides in the coming weeks. 

We took Walter to the ocean after my ride, even though it was a rainy and gray.

And finally, unrelated to my progress toward normalcy, there is a mystery involving Clyde. He had been thriving, and even had leaves that looked variegated in color like his old self. Then, one day last week he abruptly lost all of them. We hadn't had rain in a bit, and I'm not amazing with the watering can, but I really don't think that I would have offed him that quickly. I'm pretty sure that some creature ate the stems, because I saw one laying in all of it's green and purple glory next to the pot. I'm starting again from scratch, and hoping that he can make another comeback. 

Quick updates!

It's somehow suddenly very late on Sunday, so here are some updates on the posts from the past few weeks.

The baby barrage: The neonates have started to arrive, and my list of knitting to-dos grows. They are all so cute, and so far have come with only the expected amount of drama. The combinations and permutations of yarns and patterns is increasingly overwhelming...

The cycling craziness: Last week was a cycling failure. Abject failure. I'm back in the saddle as of this morning, and aiming to increase my mileage pretty significantly this week. I'm planning to register for both rides shortly, and you all can anticipate desperate fundraising pleas to come!

The pet prancing: It continues. Need I say more? This week's feature is Aleks, who is shown below snuggled into his cave bed, nuzzling the squirt gun that has quickly morphed from a disciplinary tool to a game, and with his head stuck in a bag of caramel corn.

Less thinking, more pets

This week was a whirlwind of driving and call, so I've done very little cycling or anything else. Here are some highlights of my week.

This is how Walter greeted me post-call yesterday. He desperately wanted me to rub his belly.

 Eli does not fit in the small box, but he is not willing to admit that he needs the larger box to accommodate him. I think he prefers the fit of the small box because it is snuggling him.

 Here I've captured Aleks climbing down off of my back where he thought he should ride after I leaned down to pick up the cat food. 

I stopped at the Lafayette Reservoir to knit for a few minutes post-call on Friday. I had a little time to sleep overnight, and an appointment in the East Bay that was just a little later than I'd expected. It was lovely. 

Post-call

This weekend feels like one long post-call day. I'm finally done with my block of nights and am trying to adjust back to living in the day. The last block was a bit of a low time both for taking and posting pictures, but back by popular demand is an Anne Geddes-inspired photo of the dog, and some flattering close-ups of the cats...

  

Gratuitous cat photos

For everyone in my life who strongly wishes to see updates about the cats, with apologies to those who don't. These are from the past week, in which I have been on a very light rotation with sufficient time to take photos of the cats while doing laundry, reading research methods, and otherwise engaging in non-residency life. 

 Laundry day means blankets on the floor!

This needs no explanation. Left to right: Aleks, Eli