Fuzziness

The weekend was the usual sort of thing - trying to pack all the errands that can't/don't get done during the week into the time that we're supposed to use for recreation.  But a couple of things stand out.

Being first time BRT parents, Stuart and I made a boo-boo.  Going into the winter season we decided to let Ursa's coat grow out to keep her warmer.  Probably not a bad idea, but then we fell off the wagon of brushing her regularly, not a good idea, especially in light of her car harness and the coat we put on her for visibility at night.  It seemed like overnight, she developed a whole bunch of knots, mats and downright dreadlocks.  I put in some time with the scissors and the comb, trying to tease the things out - but Ursa hasn't yet developed a love of being brushed and frankly, it was impossible to do without some tugging.  So, looking at at least a week of Chinook-like conditions in the forecast, on Sunday, we pulled out all the grooming implements.  We trimmed her fur down to about 3/4 of an inch, brushed her for about two hours and then gave her a bath.  Her fur still isn't perfect, but we're down to a few isolated tangles and we work on it in every spare moment.  I have my fingers crossed that this will be an effective motivater and that brushing will climb up the priority list.

The silver lining is that with the long afternoon, she was happy enough to go into her crate for the evening, while Stuart and I headed to the Jack Singer Concert Hall to see Trifecta.  I'd bought tickets for Stuart as our three year anniversary present and we were really looking forward to it.  It turned out to be an amazing show.  First off, they are all outstanding guitar players - at the intermission, I imagined them going backstage to plunge their hands into buckets of ice water and sending up thick clouds of steam.  They have obviously become very close and their senses of humor combine in good ways - the audience was chortling and guffawing throughout the show.  It was visually fun to watch as well: Pavlo inevitably sat on the edge of his chair, with one leg tucked underneath and the other stretched all the way to the side, Rik mostly sat, but would shoot out of his chair, flinging his guitar up at the good bits and you could see his rock heritage, while Oscar just danced and wiggled and fidgeted and fluttered through everything.  Looking for common ground, they ended up at the Beatles, so we got amazing renditions of Blackbird, Norwegian Wood and With a Little Help From My Friends.

The show ran for a little over 2 hours and I was definitely bouncing at the end.  I had trouble sleeping and at first I thought it was residual excitement.  Sadly, as the night wore on it became evident that my allergies were actually firing up.  (The down-side of snow melting is snow mold going nuts and spewing out spores as fast as possible.)  I finally gave up and took a decongestant around 3am or so.  It helped to stop the goo from overwhelming me, but between my immune system woes and the drugs, Monday was a write off.  Ursa wouldn't let me sleep, so I spent most of the day watching movies - or at least bits of movies in between staring blankly into space.

I also ramped up my homeopathic allergy remedy dosage, so my overt symptoms are back under control again...  Sadly, I still haven't found anything that controls the itchy, running, sneezy, etc. and also maintains my energy.  There's something about allergies that just drain my system and I find myself foggy and craving sleep at all hours of the day.  Calgary was socked in under an atypical fog bank yesterday and it felt like my internal landscape was being projected onto the environment.  It was a bit creepy really, but fortunately I didn't have the energy to get too worried about it.