The down, blue downspout and some baloney

 Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  We're extra down, and full of baloney, but that's actually all good.  

Here's the extra down part.  Inkling texted me on Tuesday to say/ask

Hi Mama! How are you doing? 

Also, do you know how to reattach a downspout? Mine is currently on the ground

Since my daughter very wisely bought a house that was practically on the route between my office and the house I'd buy a few years after she bought hers [hint, hint, other children!], it was super easy for me to swing by on the way home from work.   The downspout was down, and it was blue; that was for sure.  But in no time at all we had the spout back up again.  There's one metal bracket missing that helps the spout hug the porch post, but it turns out that yarn works incredibly well as an interim attach-er.  

And speaking of yarn, Inkling is reveling in her new professional perks and responsibilities.  Perks: she now has a work email address, which is [this is fake, to protect identity] "inkling@EnoughsvilleYarnStore.com". 

AND, this week, she'll be running the shop herself, as the owners are taking their first ever (or at least, in many years) vacation, and entrusting her to their baby.  She's over the moon, as is her proud mama.  What a way to be bringing home the bacon!

Her proud mama may or may not be bringing home the bacon, but I *am* bringing home the bologna!  If you've read about all those blood shortages that hospitals and such are fretting about, it's not my fault: I donated my pint earlier this week.  Our local blood bank partners with a variety of local businesses, and so just about every time I do this, there are odd freebies.  I have a "clean cotton" scented candle from a few months back, and a t-shirt or two from other times.  This time, it was "give a pint, get a bologna".  I'm not a big bologna eater, actually, so this is likely to last a while; perhaps this will become fodder for teaching a middle-aged dog new tricks (since Prewash is less wishy washy about bologna than I am).  

Prewash is earning her keep, both by living up to the job implied by her name, but also by befriending and helping me entertain the child of my colleague who passed away last month.  The three of us go to the dog park just about weekly, and often stop by the math building first so we can use chalkboards, run like maniacs up and down the empty hallways (Prewash is the maniac, not the child), . . . 

. . . and play highly entertaining games of tug of war.  

I'm very impressed by this dog.  She is both exuberant and gentle.  Ge, the child, reaches into her mouth to remove the toy, and she never snaps.  Ge has learned they can have one hand on the dog toy, put the other hand on top of Prewash's nose, and say "drop it" -- and then she does, and bounds after the toy once Ge throws it.  

On the topic of gently training, I am more than a little flattered about what Kinderling tells me what she's been up to:  "purging and reorganizing:  we have so much stuff!".  Part of the reason I think this statement is so interesting is that her house feels the opposite of cluttered; it's wide open and what is in it feels joyous and interesting.  The wooden toys she's bought/made for her kids are abstract and attractive enough to encourage even adults to want to play with them in super creative ways.  And yet, I also totally appreciate her sentiment that having less unwanted things makes the wanted things all the easier to use.  Even though Kinderling is the child who joined our family last of all, there are so many ways I think we take after one another.  

OfSnough seems to have recovered from any of his Covid symptoms, and enough time passed that he was allowed to board a plane, so board a plane he did.  Of all the places he could go to escape the frigid 20°F weather that elbowed its way into our area,  he chose Minnesota, where he will get an appreciation for just how balmy it is here when he returns.  He's visiting Sizzling and Nelson, and hasn't sent me any pictures.  Updates next week on that one, I guess.  

And that's the news from our family which continues to have enough baloney and yarn and stuff. May you and yours be similarly prosperous.