February was a wild month. Within the first week we had our water heater fail–rather catastrophically–and flooded the downstairs (which includes ou r bedroom). That’s ongoing, Also had a bit of a vehicular hiccup with the SOTA rig, a 20-year-old Honda Element, that cost a pretty penny. But thankfully it’s running great with 230k miles.…

For the first time in my adult life, I have found myself without a dog companion. I rescued my first dog when I was in college, about 22 yrs old (Kloe, the best dog in the world and I still miss her dearly). Since then I’ve had as many as four dogs at once, two…