b Papa Dog's Blog: Trying to Write, Trying to Sleep

Papa Dog's Blog

A Thing Wherein I Infrequently Write Some Stuff

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Trying to Write, Trying to Sleep

First weekend day: walked the dog, reinstalled a safety gate that had gone wobbly, did a pile of freelance work that I didn’t have time to do the night before, cleared out stuff that had been piling up in the back hall, wrote some emails, looked through the mail I’ve been ignoring the last couple of weeks (mostly junk, which I return in the thoughtfully provided prepaid envelopes), put away last night’s dishes, spent a long time staring at the computer screen, trying to figure out what it was I was trying to figure out.

Gran got here this morning for her monthly visit. Around noon she and Mama Dog and Baby Dog went out for a trip to the Farmer’s Market and then lunch at Vikram’s (I’d provide a link but apparently this restaurant doesn’t actually exist because I can’t find anything about it on the Internet), where Baby Dog had some curry, and not the mild curry Mama Dog normally feeds her either. I was left with a several-hour stretch to get some writing done, and after tortuously clapping together a lame paragraph, I decided instead to watch a two-week-old episode of Alias, a show I don’t even like but which I had on tape by accident (I was taping Lost and didn’t turn it off) and felt, for unfathomable reasons, obligated to look at.

The ladies came home, and I was grateful for the interruption of my pretence of working. Then Mama Dog decided to go out for a pedicure, and since Gran had Baby Dog well in hand, I again had no excuse not to work. Finally I decided to take Doggy Dog out for another, longer, walk. Mama Dog had suggested that earlier, and I’d been lukewarm to the idea because it meant leaving the house during daylight hours, but it wasn’t that sunny out and this is always my last-ditch answer for getting unblocked. Sure enough, I started to better understand the specifics of my story by the time we got to College Avenue. We tacked back and forth through the streets of our neighbourhood, walking for about 40 minutes instead of the usual 15-20. I had a lot of good stuff in my head by the time we got back. I’ve written almost none of it down, but I think it’ll stick. How in the hell I’m going to finish the whole story in the next 48 hours I’ve got no idea.

I know I said I was going to do more substantive posts this weekend. The weekend’s not over.

Baby Dog’s found a new way to give me the willies (or, as we sometimes call them round here, the williamses), which I understand is something she’s going to find new ways to do on a regular basis for decades to come. She’s decided she likes her blanket over her face. We’ve seen her do this before, but it’s become a little more of a habit of late. Last night I got up to open her bedroom door, and there she was with the blankie all the way up to her bushy Scottish eyebrows. She was breathing just fine, but it was cause for concern. We’re still not out of the woods when it comes to worrying about SIDS, and it doesn’t make me rest any easier at night to know she’s liable to cover her own face during the night. Fortunately, it seems to be something she does when she’s going to sleep (or resisting going to sleep), as opposed to something she does in her sleep, so as long as we check after we know she’s asleep, we can pull the blanket off her face. About twenty minutes later, I was dozing off to sleep when I heard her cry out. This is not unusual, but the sound was kind of muffled, and I started to wonder whether or not she had her face covered again. The more I thought about it, the more awake I got. Finally I knew I wasn’t ever going to fall asleep without checking, so I got up and looked in on her. She was fine, her face uncovered. She had just been crying out in her tiny sleep voice. I went back to bed and was soon asleep myself. I can hardly wait until it’s time for me to start worrying about her driving drunk and dating bums.*
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*Used here in the American sense.

2 Comments:

Blogger RachelleCentral said...

I decided the best way to deal with the blanket willies is to only use blankets that are cellular, etc - i.e. have holes in them. I feel like that's about the best you can do. You can always try a sleeping bag, too, which I opt to from time to time.

1:20 AM  
Blogger Tarz said...

Papa Dog - the reason you couldn't find "Vikram's" on the Internet is beccause it's really called "Vik's Chaat Corner." Recall that you & I decided to call it "Vikram's" in the same way that we say "william nilliam" instead of "willy nilly."

Yeah, that blanket thing is a real cause for concern. Does the risk of SIDS end on their first birthday? When can we safely use loose, non-cellular blankets in the crib?

Finally -- dating bums and drunk driving? Yeeesh, how unpleasant a thought! I guess the thought of Baby Dog dating a bum is a tad less awful than her engagement in ebrious vehiculation; but still -- I get the willies just thinking about it!

xoxo, Mama Dog

8:37 AM  

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