Another week, another Post from a Pandemic

Syl is learning a lot of valuable life lessons from this whole thing. One of the most important: There's always  money in the banana stand.

Friday was our 16th anniversary. Holy cow does the time fly. We didn't have a ton planned, for obvious reasons. The question of dinner was solved for us by kind friends who sent a steamer kit from Topsail Steamers, via Goldbelly.com. Putting it together was easy and a lot of fun, and the output was delicious

Syl took a sip of champagne, pronounced it intolerable, and dumped it out. Good deal!

Another beautiful day Saturday... and it felt like at least in Massachusetts, the whole social distancing thing started to crack. First, my friend and colleague, Liz, asked if she could bring her four year old, Finley, over to use the trampoline - their first time out of the house!

Jessie, their lab (who is actually related to Bruschi!) came and got more than she bargained for from our two bullies.

Ultimately, she gave up.

Back on the "cracking," suddenly Megumi, who has been strictly locked down since day one, was available to take a walk with Syl... which turned into playing outside in the yard...

... which turned into staying for s'mores.

I'd like to report they were strict about maintaining a six foot buffer at all times, but they were somewhat less than strict (although they were better than I expected).

I also took a 35 mile bike ride, and saw evidence all over of people bending the informal rules. Much more traffic, groups gathered in parks and in yards, informal "graduation" gatherings of high schoolers who now know they won't get the real thing...  Here's hoping that this thing really is waning, because at least in these parts, people are definitely close to done with the lock down.

For our part, we combined our two most faithful distanced backyard guests, with the Holsts meeting the O'Learys for the first time. It was a nice evening.

The mutts have gotten a hike every morning with Melissa, at sunrise, and then usually a family walk in the afternoon. The weekend romps with friends' dogs have them WIPED.

This is the usual arrangement on the couch in the evening. They love their mom... and they don't give her any space.

Of course come morning, they are raring to go again. The MOANING!