Pandemic Week 59: A Dog Protest

 Now that Anna is back in school four days a week, Storm has some challenges to his morning routine.  Depending on how late Anna is getting ready (it is all about the hair), he has been forced to speed walk up the street and may or may not get fed.  At Storm's age, he is definitely not in a rush and would much prefer a leisurely pace to stop and smell the flowers....or the grass....or whatever else smells interesting.  On Thursday morning, he donned a protest sign.  Sadly, he was still forced to race up the street.  He's hoping Anna will start earlier this week so that he can have more time for his walk.

Anna is settling in to the in-person school routine.  There are some new lessons.  Tuesday she came home early with a stomach ache.  Lesson one:  when you go to the nurse's office during COVID, it doesn't matter what the symptoms are - they will send you home.  Lesson two:  when you go home, you can just log in and join the class virtually.  Lesson three:  you should not eat a bunch of chocolate truffles for breakfast, which will result in a stomach ache (Anna made homemade truffles on Monday).  She returned to school on Wednesday (there were no more truffles to eat) and had a good rest of the week.  Friday she had a normal teenager day when she joined a group of friends after school to get snacks at WaWa and walked around downtown Vienna (this was truly something to appreciate).

In other news, the weather was beautiful over the weekend (following 50 mph winds on Friday).  The family headed west to the Virginia arboretum for a nice afternoon trip before the cicadas emerge.  Everyone is on cicada watch and reports are starting to come in that people are seeing them.  For those that have not heard, 2021 is the year of the 17-year cicadas to emerge.  It is quite a sight....and sound.  Check on this article on Brood X.  If you are vaccinated and thinking of visiting, you may want to wait until this is over.



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