Warming Up

Our dog Wolfie has been mainly a delight, but it’s been pretty hard to train her with everything else that’s going on and maybe we haven’t been giving her enough attention, but she’s been pretty well behaved.

This morning we left her in the kitchen on her own for an hour or so and when I came down from bed I discovered she’d gone on a bit of a chewing rampage and had destroyed a notebook, mauled (but thankfully not swallowed) my car key and more devastatingly chomped up my favourite sunglasses AND my ridiculously expensive reading glasses that cost over £500. All eye wear was beyond repair. I don’t know why Wolfie didn’t want me to be able to read small print in a dark room or not be able to shield my eyes from the sunlight, but it did look like she had a vendetta against my eyes, which she was trying to cover up with a bit of notebook and car key mayhem.

I had never got on with those reading glasses or mastered switching between reading and not reading and computer and reading and not reading or computing. I’ve had them for a couple of years and probably not used them more than 10 times, making them £50 a time to not really help me read and make my eyes go blurry. I had been trying to get back into using them, but also had been planning to go back to an optician (though not Boots, who I feel swindled me a bit by making me pay more than I needed to and who you should all subsequently boycott) to get some more regular reading glasses. And the other day I’d taken a punt and bought a pair of reading glasses at the supermarket for £16 without knowing my prescription, but just seeing if they felt like they worked. It might have been better had that pair been mauled.

But even though I hated those glasses, it still hurt to have them needlessly sent to oblivion (she’d actually chewed the lenses into pieces so there was no going back - I’d never even gone outside in them to see if they turned into sunglasses) and I missed my actual sunglasses more (though have long ago learned there’s not point in me spending a lot of money on these as I lose or destroy them at regular intervals).  Somehow for them to die before I had learned to master them (even though I’ve had them so long that the prescription is probably wrong now) feels like a failure. How could something I love (but who I don’t give enough attention to) do this to me? I love questions that answer themselves.

The irony that all this was done by a naughty dog is not lost on me.

Though to be fair, I didn’t see the dog do it.

Got what looked like some proper smiles from my son today (though he was a bit constipated so it’s possible it was just that). But whatever, it’s such a nice moment. Look at his little face, it’s almost as if he understands.

Here’s the links for this week’s RHLSTP with Armando Iannucci

youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mARqejlb6Y

vimeo - https://vimeo.com/240703822