Temperatures here in the DC area are projected to hit 100 degrees today and a little higher on Sunday.
We are now officially in that part of the year when it’s just too hot to mail anything chocolate (cookies, fudge, etc) unless you don’t mind it arriving as one solid (sticky) mass.
The Dog of a Thousand Names
Ever since he first came to live here, Wylie has collected a variety of new names to suit the various facets of his personality.
A lot of the names are affectionate variations of his given name: “Wye”, “Wyler”, “Dub” (short for W) and on occasion, when he’s being nutty, “Wylizenheimer”. On more formal occasions, he’s been addressed as “Mister Wylie,” though when I find myself getting frustrated with him, instead of “Mud” his name becomes “Wylie J. Dawg.”
Other names reflect his mood, for example, when he won’t stop bouncing off the walls, he’s been referred to as “Rocket Dog.” Others make less sense, I’m still not sure how he became “Chocolate Pudding Dog”, though “You Silly Dog,” when he tripped over his own leash, is a bit more obvious.
This past week though, Wylie’s been working to earn himself a new name.
A few times in the past when Wylie’s been confined to the bedroom, he’s tried to dig his way out, resulting in a shredded carpet. I really don’t want him damaging the floors (it could be bad for both Wylie’s health and my blood pressure), so as part of Sunday’s activities, I cut up a chair mat to fit in the doorway of my bedroom.
Of course, with summer approaching, I also don’t want him to get overheated. A few weeks ago, I purchased a child-safety gate to put across the bedroom door. The idea was that this would keep Wylie in the room while at the same time, letting the air circulate. Before the floors went in, it seemed to work pretty well (aside from the time I didn’t put it up correctly and he and his buddy Riley teamed up to knock it down twice in five minutes), but now that the floors are in, I may need to rethink my strategy.
Every time I’ve left the house this week, I’ve put Wylie in the bedroom and put up the gate to keep him there. And every time I’ve come home this week, Wylie has either met me at the door or come downstairs shortly after I arrived. (What I forgot is that in Wyile’s world, there’s no such thing as a fence. Instead, Wylie’s world contains nothing more substantial than obstacles made of gossamer that he can pass through any time he so chooses.)
On Tuesday I discovered that not only had Wylie escaped from the bedroom, he’d somehow managed to open the basement door (see my previous comment about gossamer barriers) and instead of eating the food in his dish, had figured out where the milkbones were hidden and had a little picnic. (Predictably, he didn’t bother with his regular food for the next several meals.)
Thursday evening I went out to my Swing Dance class down in Glen Echo. Before I left, I put Wylie in the bedroom and closed the gate. When I came home several hours later, the basement door was open and ol’ Wylie was staring down the steps. I went upstairs to change my clothes and took Wylie out for his evening walk. When we got back, I went down the stairs to get him his evening treat. That’s when I discovered what he had been staring at.
At some point in time, Wylie seems to have decided that the cushions on my sofa are his mortal enemy, and Wylie attacks the cushions at every opportunity. While I was at my dance class, Wylie had launched another attack on his enemy. What he’d been staring at when I came home was a sofa cushion, the foam stuffing of which was scattered across the basement floor.
The latest addition to Wylie’s collection of names is therefore a recognizable classic: “Dammit Wylie!“
In Which I Cannot Find My Clothes
I arrived at Relay for Life on Saturday afternoon and except for going home to check out the work on the floors and write a check to the contractor (The floors incidentally are gorgeous!), I was at the event all night. I got to sleep around 4:00 AM and awoke a few hours later, about 20 minutes before the closing ceremonies.
My plans and relative priorities for Sunday were fairly straight-forward. Having expected to be at Relay overnight, I already knew that simple was going to be my best chance.
First up was a trip to Staples to obtain a chairmat suitable for wood floors and cutting it to fit in the bedroom doorway in order to prevent Wylie from digging through the new floor. (Instead, I came home from work on Monday and found that he’d jumped over the gate and was waiting for me in the living room.)
Next up was a trip to Mike & AJ’s house to pick up Wylie, he’d been staying with them for a few days while I was preparing for the floors to be installed. (So far he’s managed to avoid putting his head through the drywall, but when he comes down the stairs, he’s halfway across the living room before he manages to slow down.)
After protecting the floor from Wylie (and thus protecting Wylie from my wrath), the next priority was to reassemble my bed. That didn’t go so well. I eventually got it put together, but first I put the mattress in the middle of the guest room floor so Wylie and I could both take a nap or two.
The final item for Sunday was to unbox enough of my clothes that I could go to work on Monday. I brought a few things up from the basement and put them in the closet. After falling asleep again, I decided that was good enough and finally went to bed for real (actually getting into the bed instead of merely collapsing on top of it) around 11:30.
As I started getting ready for work on Monday, I discovered that I could not find my clothes!!!!! Turns out I’d been kinda wonky on Sunday evening (gee, how’d that happen?) and hadn’t unpacked the work stuff after all. Uh oh! After several frenzied trips to and from the basement, I finally found stuff to wear, though I’m also coming to realize that I desperately need to do some laundry! (Which means I need to excavate the washing machine, which means I need to figure out where to put a few other things…)
Relay for Life
Today is the Southern Montgomery County Relay for Life, a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. Because of the flooring installation, I’ll probably end up making a trip or two between the event and my house, but I’ll probably be one of the die-hards on the overnight. (I usually am. Besides, what else would I do at night? Sleep? Hah!)
A huge thank you to everyone who’s signed up to sponsor me. The list so far is:
My donations are down from last year, but there’s still time to sign up to be a sponsor. Just visit my donation site at: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/ThatBlairGuy
(And if you do choose to sponsor me, please consider adding a few extra pennies to your donation amount. In part because, as they say, “Every little bit helps.” But mainly because round numbers are boring.)
Thanks in advance!
Installation — Day 2
Last night was fairly uneventful. Seeing as how the upstairs wasn’t really ready for use, I “camped” in the living room, taking the sheets and blanket from my bed and stretching out on a foam pad I’ve used for camping. The work crew showed up around 8:30; today there were four or five of them, so the work might get finished today after all.
New on the glitch list, there are two lights in the basement that won’t come on. For the one I could get to, the bulb tested fine and none of the breakers were popped. I’ll have to do some poking around in the basement ceiling when there aren’t new nails coming through every few seconds and see if maybe something got cut. (Note: Dry wood, such as the stuff a house is built with, is a pretty good insulator. It’s fairly believable that an ungrounded piece of metal could cut an electric wire without anyone getting shocked, starting a fire, etc. Considering the subfloor is just a sheet of plywood, I’ll bet this sort of thing happens all the time.)
Installation — Day 1
The good news is that the floors are absolutely gorgeous; even better than I’d hoped. The bad news is that the lead installer told me he plans to finish on Saturday, but so far they’re less than half-way done. The upstairs hallway and the two front bedrooms have their floors complete except for the closets and the moulding around the edges.
The master bedroom has only half of its floor done and my bed is scattered between three rooms on two levels. The bed doesn’t matter all that much, I’ve taken several naps this week while stretched out on the living room floor. At this point, I’m so tired that sleeping on the living room floor should be a piece of cake.
But wow do the floors look good.
Good Night Dick
Dick Martin, January 30, 1922 – May 24, 2008
The Big Day
I’ve been looking forward to today for a while now. I hardly slept last night, even less than usual.
All the furniture is moved, all the bric-a-brac has been moved too. (I now understand why Dave has become such a fan of streamlining. Good Lord, I have a lot of crap!)
When I get home from work this evening, the first of the floors should be in place.
The Cheap Route to Mars
Tuesday’s Washington Post had an article about the Phoenix lander (and I really do hope it’s meant as a reference to the mythological creature and not a revelation that they’re exploring Arizona) which includes a photo inset showing a soil indentation from the lander’s arrival. Under the picture, there’s a note which among other things points out that it cost $420 million to send the probe a distance of 422 million miles.
At first, $420 million sounds like a lot of money, and in absolute terms, it is. But looking at it from another perspective, that’s less a dollar per mile. That’s significantly cheaper than taking a cab.
Have Paint Brush, No Time to Travel
After about three weeks of prep work and two days of washing walls and emptying closets, I’ve officially started painting. There’s blue tape everywhere!!!! (Look for photos in a week or so.) This evening I got two-thirds of the living room painted. With luck those walls will dry before any dogs or parrots make contact with them.
The floors are scheduled to be installed later this week and I already have this unfortunate mental image of Wylie sliding across the living room and putting his head through the drywall…