Marching on

Pile of tired pups in bed (Bea, Evie, Silas)

I had to take a blogging break to focus on getting ready to go back to school.  Normally, I spend summers revamping and updating my courses and creating new materials/assignments, and in the three week break between semesters, I use most of that time getting my existing courses uploaded, setting dates, and that kind of stuff.  This winter break was rough, because I had three weeks in which to design my materials for all of my courses to be delivered remotely.  This is normally something that I would need a whole summer to do.  Instead, I worked pretty much non-stop over the break, creating pages for each class and recording lectures like a crazy woman.  

I had everything ready in time for classes except my Java class.  It's all done and loaded up through 4/5, but I'm still working on the pages and lectures for the remaining classes.  I've never been in a position where my entire semester's materials weren't all ready and uploaded to our LMS (learning management system).  I'm really hoping to be done with it in the next week or two.  The stress of keeping up with classes and trying to get my class finished is getting really old.  I thought I would have been finished by now and look forward to being done soon.

Post-walk bath for Evie

After almost a month of no dog walks due to excessive ice and cold temps, we were able to resume at the beginning of last week.  The dogs are so much better behaved when they get their exercise!  It's nice to be able to spend time outside, especially when it's sunny.  Currently Froggie isn't walking with us.  We took him on the first two walks last week, and he screamed the entire time.  He wants to "walk" (which for him is being pushed in his stroller) but hates being cold.  We're going to leave him home until it's warmer.  His screaming sounds like a goat being tortured to death, and we don't need that kind of attention on a walk.  So for now, Evie gets to walk alone (really she runs, and rarely walks), then Jezebel, Silas, and Bea get the second walk.  On the warmer days, the walks are followed by an Evie bath (she's very low to the ground and gets quite muddy) and thorough wipe down of everyone else as well as the floors.

He's wearing a full winter coat and wrapped in a blanket and still complaining.

"MAKE IT WARM!!"

Jezebel hates her coat and tries to hide from it.

I've made it through the whole winter of dog walks wearing only a hooded sweatshirt and a headband (to keep my ears warm) and was completely comfortable.  This is a notable difference from all of the other winters of my life.  I'd wear multiple layers from head to toe for our dog walks and still feel cold and miserable.  I've been using the Wim Hof method since last March, and it's completely reset my body temperature.  I went from being constantly cold and miserable in anything below 75 to being completely comfortable outside in the winter with no gear.  I was even able to sit comfortably in the snow in our back yard wearing only underwear for two minutes when the temp was 0 degrees with no shivering at all.  I take a daily ice-cold shower, and spending 3-5 minutes in 45 degree water every day is all it took to make me completely comfortable with cold.  

And...a couple of bonus shots from the herbivore room:

Bonus shot of the rabbits' and guinea pigs' favorite time of day (greens and produce delivery):  Ferrero (one-eared white rabbit), Wim, Wilbur, Anjali, and Scarlett

Scarlett grooming Ferrero

Herbivore room

 

We've had 2-3 vet appointments per week for the last couple of months.  Mostly it's minor stuff, but with so many animals, it can quickly get overwhelming.  At this moment, Bea is on meds for a UTI, Silas just finished meds for a UTI, Jezi is on meds for a staph infection (and her usual thyroid meds), Raf is on meds for anxiety, Ferrero has to be on meds in perpetuity for pastuerella, Scarlett is on meds for an eye infection.

Cressida, my sweet green mommy parakeet died on New Year's Eve day.  She has had a tumor since spring, and it finally overwhelmed her little body.  I'm sad for her loss but am more sad for her family--her bonded partner, Troilus, and her babies Ra, Caliban, Ariel, Tristan, and Isolde, loved her immensely. They groomed her, fed her, and fought for her attention.

We adopted two additional parakeets this month, Sky and River. They're fairly young and very small.  Their wings were clipped when I got them, so I was concerned about their ability to navigate the room and keep up with the other parakeets.  I've been impressed by their eagerness to explore and pleased with their efforts to fly despite the clipped wings.  The room is designed so that birds who can't fly can still get to all of the desirable areas in the room and hang with their flock.  We have several very old birds and disabled birds who are not able to fly, so the various climbing structures and "bridges" in the room are really important for them.

These are the herbivore-room residents as of the beginning of 2021:

PARAKEETS

• PZ Myers - green, old
• Dawkins - green, old
• Hawking - blue, old
• Ada Lovelace - white, middle aged
• Grace Hopper - blue/white, middle aged   
• Sky - white/blue, young
• River - green/gray, young
• Troilus - green/yellow, middle aged (recently widowed from Cressida)
• Caliban - green/yellow, young (C & T's baby)
• Ra - yellow, young  (C & T's baby)
• Tristan - yellow, young  (C & T's baby)
• Isolde - yellow, young  (C & T's baby)
• Ariel - green, young  (C & T's baby)

FINCHES  

• Mercury - brown/gray, old  
• Gaia - gray/purple, old
• Callisto - gray/burgundy, old

DOVES

• Valentino - white, old (really old!)
• Julian Assange - white, middle aged (bonded with Nikola)
• Nikola Tessla - indian ring neck (gray), middle aged (bonded with Julian)
• Aaron Swartz - indian ring neck/white, young (N & J's oops baby)

COCKATIELS

• Max - pied, old (bonded to Elvis)
• Elvis - gray, old  (bonded to Max)
• Begonia - gray, middle aged?  (bonded to Azalea)
• Azalea- lutino, middle aged?  (bonded to Begonia)
• Acacia - lutino, middle aged?
• Rizzy - gray, young-middle aged?
• Aspen - pied, young
• August - pied, young (bonded to Anais)  
• Anais - gray, young  (bonded to August)
• Ailish - pearled, young  
• Ashti - lutino, young
• Akshay - lutino young

GUINEA PIGS

• Wilbur - black/white
• Anjali - brown/white
• Wim - white/brown

RABBITS

• Scarlett - Holland lop, one-ish
• Ferrero - California white, six-ish  

2021

I've never been so happy to see a new year roll in! I have high hopes for 2021 (or my bar is now really, really low).

We survived an entire year's worth of non-traditional holidays.  It was my first Christmas Eve without our traditional family party at my mom's, Christmas without having dinner with my parents, New Year's Eve and New Years at home instead of with the parents.  It was certainly different but not terrible.  Though we weren't physically together on the days that we typically are, we were still able to communicate with each other.  It was nice to be able to stay inside with the animals and the immediate family for the first time.

We were able to get together with my parents for the holidays--just not exactly on the holidays.  We all quarantined for ten days, so we could spend two days together.  Our first day together was "Christmas", and the second days was "New Year's Eve".  We ate good food and played games together both days and have an absolutely lovely time.  We haven't been together in each others' homes since March.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend time with Dej & Chris, because they are working and couldn't take enough time off to quarantine.  We were still able to talk of course, and they came to drop off and pick up gifts.  Dej brought us all food--the best gift of all. :)  She may gyros for Mark, empanadas  and magic bars for me, and cinnamon rolls for her sister.  Everything was delicious--she makes such good food!

So though the holidays were very different and rather distant, they were still full of family and love.

One of the great epiphanies of old age I've had recently is the knowledge that nothing bad has ever happened to me, so I have to believe that will continue.  It's not that I haven't had tragedy, loss, stress, etc.  It's that, with the passage of time and acquisition of wisdom, I can see that even the things that felt like the worst had some benefits--I learned something important, it made me stronger, in some way or another, every really "bad" thing had some positives to offset the negatives.  This year with Covid has been the same.  While we've lost many things and endured great stress and uncertainty, we've also been able to slow down, have more time with each other and our animals, and focus on what's really important to us in life--the relationships we have with each other and ourselves.

Much love and wisdom to you all in this new year, and may you all have a warm snuggle buddy to keep you warm!