I'll sleep on it.

When Boss starts preparing for a class he seems to be all over his work area, his room, even the kitchen, looking for things.

People things. Books. Pads of paper. Magazines. Journals. Not a damned piece of duck or chicken jerky in the lot.

When he scratches his ear, I get the sense he is starting to hone in on things. It would be so much easier for him if he had a better sense of smell. But he makes the best of it. The pile of materials grows at his feet. I think, he will tell me, we're closing in on it.

Then he says, okay, here it is, and be begins scribbling notes, going so fast he sometimes has difficulty deciphering them when he gets to the typing-on-the-computer stage. I can see the shift in energy as he settles in, sometimes smacking himself on the forehead, his way of remonstrating himself the way he sometimes remonstrates with me about barking at the Cudahy place, Why hadn't I seen that before? he will go. Then he seems to grow larger, swelling with the enthusiasm of it, and soon thereafter, he is singing in the shower, then rifling through closets to find something to wear, which is silly because, as I try to explain, if he had just one suit, he would have no problems. You don't see me looking for things to wear. My suit is perfect for any occasion.

By the time we get to class, I'm ready for a nap. It helps that I've already heard the material as he shuffles it around and plays with it. Some of my best naps are in the classrooms he takes me to. Graduate-level naps are far and away the best, but writers' conference naps are not to be dismissed lightly.

WTF

Spent most of the morning guarding the front porch.

As a consequence, Boss has been able to get some work in on what we have begun to think of as The Book.

Time for Bosses everywhere to be up.

Up, Boss, up.

Order

During this long, languorous Summer, I have caught up with the past episodes of House.

Pausing to reflect on the nature of all but a few human individuals, I focused on the Senate Hearings relative to confirmation of S. (not the S. ENK refers to!) and have in a brief moment or two my assessment of people confirmed. In particular, Senators S. and T. are roaring examples of self-serving idiocy.

Tried one episode of Bones, but that was a no go. Dumb de dumb dumb.

No more TV for a while.

I must restore order to the chaos.

The Tenth Cat

It is catching, is what it is.
Everyone around here all of a sudden is a writer. Not on my watch, kiddo. Up at 5:30 this morning to discover the interloper, thumbing through a pile of books. Writer your own damned books. Boss has a time of it as it is, looking for references without some cat having at it. And on top of that, the cat is--I don't know how to tell you this, but I think the cat is orthodox. Or is that Orthodox? Goddamned cat wears a black skull cap? WTF? With orthodox comes separate sets of dishes for meat and dairy meals. And that is only the beginning. Next thing you know the goddamned cat will be seeking nine others for a minyan. That's the thing with cats: takes ten of them to have a meeting. A dog can do it all on her own.

Juggling projects

I am trying to do for Boss what Boss sometimes does for C., which is to say initiating projects.

The downside of his having many projects is a shortening of time we could be out doing field work, sniffing, observing traits and tendencies of plants to express their growing and resting cycles, watching birds at work, pausing to watch the dyspeptic squirrel social interactions, flushing the occasional coyote. A dog has to work around these interruptions, constantly alert for ways to keep Boss up for his game.

P.S. Boss--we need a vacation.
Even a working vacation.

The Work Ethic

Boss is thinking, which is often a tricky business. He does better when he is working. I can, for instance, see the wisdom in Boss coming forth with book ideas for C. Such things keep C. working.

I'm working on a plan.
To get Boss working.

This is why it is a good paring, the relationship between dog and man.

They need us.

Projects

You can see Boss thinking things over, trying to put things together, diving into projects. I know what this means.

Projects can be dived into, of course. I speak from experience.

Projects dived into are not as good as projects that one is yanked into by curiosity or muscle memory.