Another Long, Random Update.

Someday I really need to get my blogging act together.

Anyway, you four people who still read this mess:

My daughter’s family had to say goodbye to Cosmo, as they’d known and braced themselves to face for the past month. The mast cell cancer absolutely tore through him in the last days, with new tumors appearing overnight. Our lovely young vet told my daughter she’d cried when she’d read the pathologist’s report, because he was just SO young.

But Cosmo taught us all good lessons about living in his brief three years: he lived every damn day with such joy, and whatever he did, he just WENT for it, with all of his energy. His life was short, but we are all better for knowing him.

And it might seem abrupt, but their new dog already found them.

My daughter put her name out on various rescues and shelters within a hundred mile radius, and says that within a minute of hitting send on one, got a call, “I think we might have your puppy.” They drove to Gainesville, met said puppy, agreed, and brought home a 7.5 week old hound mix they’ve named Arlo, for both The Good Dinosaur, and the legendary Mr. Guthrie. I hope the music legend doesn’t mind. This Arlo is very smart and a Very Good Boy already.

Arlo is a mix – his mom was dumped at a shelter with her three newborn puppies – and while she appears to have been a true Heinz 57 of pit bull, hound, possibly shepherd and God only knows, it appears dad was a Catahoula, because Arlo is the picture of a Catahoula and so are his siblings. Daddy’s genes were strong in this litter. They looked absolutely nothing like their mom, as if purebred dogs were just randomly inserted in her womb. But he does have his mother’s sweet, gentle eyes.

I haven’t met him yet, it’s been rainy AF here. Cristobal may be making landfall in Louisiana, but he’s been raining here all weekend. Last night we had tornadoes, and it’s pouring here again. It’s thundering and pouring as I type this.

Tomorrow is Monday, again. I wish I had the energy to write pithy political stuff about current events, but Jesus, it’s just so damn insane. The protests this weekend gave me hope, as did local governments rejecting federal “help”. As of today, there are still protests, but they are peaceful and uplifting, and give me hope. Even the new, bizarre fence around the White House has been turned into a public display of peaceful protest. And the Mayor of DC is a badass leader.

I have no idea what is going to happen between now and November, let alone between November and the Inauguration. If we survive this, can we please fix that archaic shit? There is no reason in this modern age to elect a new government in November and not let them take office until the end of January. Tighten that shit up to 30 days, please. We aren’t carrying packets of documents on horseback. And about that Electoral College? Same issue. It might have made sense at the time it was established (it didn’t; it just appeased the slave owning states) but now it has been used twice just in my recent adulthood to install the loser of the popular vote, and both times with disastrous results.

2020 has been a freaking disaster movie so far, but God loves us and gives us puppies.