Season of Flu

by Rob

This school year continues to feel strange and irregular.

I don't recall a fall when so many kids have been missing school, and the stories that I hear each day about the absenteeism in other districts add a sense that something quite unusual is taking place.

Add to that, we have been missing school and work too. Abbie is home again today. It's her fifth day in the last two weeks. Kim and I had been able to leave her at home alone when she was ill back in September, but with the flu and her goopy sounding cough, we have been uneasy about leaving her. At this point, we've managed to trade off days, but I seem to keep missing the same classes.

I don't care, though. More than anything, I've come to a point where I realize that this isn't anything that anyone will remember in three months. I think what we'll recall is that there was a whole lot of illness this fall, but beyond that, everyone will do what they need to, and that's all.

On the dog front, we've had to make some changes. Last Saturday, Millie figured out how to leap out of the pen we had in the living room. It was quite impressive, but after the fifth escape, we knew that it was time for phase two. We don't want her to get out and run around the house when we're not here, but more importantly, we don't want her to injure herself. So the pen is gone and we have set up a large wire crate that we bought last spring. It's smaller than the pen but still roomy by crate standards. They don't like it as much as the pen, so it's harder to get them to go into it calmly. The upside? When we came home on Monday, they had not relieved themselves in the crate. We had been leaving a pee-pad in the pen, but sensed that this was the time to take that away. I'm hesitant to say that they're house broken, but at this point, I think we're well on our way.

Now if we can just figure out why Zeke throws up so often...