Relative Truce

Not much to report around here, so I will report this: a relative sense of harmony has been restored to the house, which now only slightly resembles an animal circus, unlike before, when there were hourly explosions of hissing, growling, and bad attitudes. Yes, Cougs’ desire to be inside loafing and napping has finally outweighed her hatred of the kitten, and so she now tolerates him, only slightly mind you, but she does.

Oh, and this is exciting. I got stung by a bee in the neck. It was at Beaverton skatepark. I showed up around noon, and the park was mysteriously empty. It was weird, like aliens had descended to aduct every kid sucking on a Monster Energy Drink, which of course would’ve been all of them. But then I realized what had happened … school!!! I love it when school starts, thank god for compulsory education. Anyway, Ashley took a lunch break from Nike and came out to meet me. We were by the wooden ramps jumping around on our skootboards, when I felt something nuzzling my neck. Suddenly—pain! A needle size hot poker had been jabbed into my spinal column. Burning! I slapped at it, a yellowjacket crumpled to the earth, and I squawked to the heavens, whilst a juicy red welt bloomed from my ear to my jugular. I carried on with my day.

What else? Lovely weather we’ve been having. Actually, we went to the Sandy River on Friday afternoon and it was so splendid and quiet. I didn’t see any diapers or poop, and it actually really did feel like nature. We just stood out there in the current submerged up to our belly buttons, watching the icy water rush past us and seeing how every now and then a luminous leaf would pass by suspended in the stream—not floating on the surface, not scudding against the bottom, just tumbling down there somewhere in the middle, like it was trying to swim or something.

(Note: above photo, not the Sandy. the Clackamas, actually, which happened on Saturday)