Hello again! It seems like a very long time since I sent a newsletter but the internet tells me it has been 20 days.
It has been a very, very long 20 days.
My pandemic troubles have been a lot milder than many, most even. The emotional strain is brutal, of course, but we have been all right. Since the last time we talked, the weather turned; it’s now cool most days although it has been sunny, which is nice. I turned on the heat. I attended election worker training. And during all of this, I looked forward to the long weekend we’d booked in Western New York.
The puppy got kennel cough, but there was time for her to get over it before she needed to be boarded. Then we got the surprise news that she also has canine papillomavirus, meaning she is a gross warty little baby who can’t go to daycare or spend the night there until the warts go away on their own, which could be – WAIT FOR IT – one to six months.
This has…upended our lives. Yes, I know. People have no childcare, and this is a dog. I don’t need your sympathy but I do need you to know that everyone’s dismissiveness about the situation sucks. The vets don’t care and people with real problems think we are selfish idiots, so I hope that makes everyone feel a lot better!
We canceled the vacation. I lost the entire booking fee. The puppy and I are sick of each other, and her resource guarding issues have gotten worse, to the point where there have been discussions about whether or not this is the best home for her. For the time being, we have decided it is, but working through that is going to be expensive and time-consuming. Going to the vet sucks in the way everything sucks right now: you sit in the car for hours, you talk on the phone as a poor substitute for talking in person, everything is perfunctory and seat-of-the-pants.
I’m supposed to have jury duty next week and I am not sure what we will do with the dog if I have to be gone for more than a day. This is to say nothing of the election when I am supposed to be working 12+ hours helping people vote.
Being held prisoner by a dog’s face wart is a pretty on-the-nose commentary on 2020, now that I think about it.
What else? Our dishwasher broke. It came with the house and is probably at least 20 years old, and it sucks, but it did work and we didn’t plan to replace it until we did a kitchen remodel. I bought another one, and set up the installation, and all was well until the installer began to pull the old dishwasher out to discover there is no floor underneath it, and the old one is just resting on a floor joist. Furthermore, the one we bought won’t fit because our counter height isn’t standard. The dishwasher went back to the store and as of yet the purchase price has not been refunded to me, so now that’s something else I get to deal with.
On Thursday, some contractors are starting some paint and plasterwork in the house. This is going to necessitate packing up our entire library, and there will be people working on every floor of the house while we try to do our jobs and oh yeah I’ll be wrangling a dog.
Truly, I’d like to be sedated and sent to a nice clinic somewhere in Europe for a Valley of the Dolls-style sleep cure arrangement for an indeterminate period of time. Navigating this inconvenient, emotionally draining, disappointing, and stressful time while also constantly reminding myself how lucky and fortunate I am is a lose-lose proposition. Constantly cycling through “everything sucks!” and “but it could be worse so stop complaining!” to “everyone deserves a break!” and ending with “but not you though!” is beyond exhausting.
Eventually, the dog’s stupid wart will go away. We’ll get an appointment with the behavior vet and deal with that. She’ll go back to daycare, the dishwasher will get resolved and the paint and plaster will get finished. In the meantime, it sucks for air and there’s no getting around it.