I spoke too soon.

Well, when I told you Tyke had not been naughty for three days, he was probably already planning his next move in his screwy little brain. While I was asleep on the sofa last night, he tore apart my leather cigarette case and left it in pieces, so I had to throw it away. As I was picking it up, he thought I was also playing and he was darting around me trying to get the pieces of leather out of my hand, so I had to give him a good scolding. I don't think I impressed him very much. Luckily, there was only one cigarette in it and he left that untouched, so he's not going to die of nicotine poisoning.

This morning he came into the living room dragging Jesker's pillow with him and he was about to have a good chew on it. I prevented that from happening and told him to go lie down on it and petted him when he did and told him he was a good boy and that was what the pillow was for. He seems to have gotten the message, because he's left the pillow alone for now. So I guess now we are going to have three days of naughtiness, which means that I'll have to be one step ahead of him all the time.

He's behaved well the rest of the day and seems to want to make a good impression on me now. As I write this, he is lying by my feet sound asleep.

He has figured out that when I speak on the intercom, it means that someone will come to the door, but he doesn't bark yet. This morning the Exfactor came by and was greeted with much joy by him. He just really likes company and when it is a man, he is on his best behavior. I do have to sit on him when it's a woman. His male hormones make him misbehave.

Tyke's fur is cut short and it is very curly, so today I decided to brush it to get the kinks out. He thought it was very strange at first, but after a while he decided he liked it and let me get on with it. I got to brush all of him and got some tangles out. He looked very nice once I was done and I will do this more often as his hair grows longer and he gets the coat of a real cocker spaniel. I will have to trim the fur by his paws and hopefully he will be patient enough for me to do that. I can't wait to see what he will look like. If he allows me to brush him regularly, he should look great. Jesker always disliked getting brushed, so we always kept him trimmed short, but Tyke will get used to it from the beginning.

I'm still spending the least amount of time behind the computer and turning it off the minute I have any kind of unpleasant feelings such as stress or anxiety. No matter what I'm doing, the computer goes off. I'm learning that the computer is not my best buddy, but just a tool that needs to be used sparingly when I really need to do something. It's not a thing to linger over like a good meal or a cup of coffee with a friend. The computer is not my friend.

Having said that, I'm going to turn it off and spend some time with my four legged friend. It's very good for my mental health, as long as he doesn't do anything destructive.

Have a good rest of the day!

Ciao,
Nora

Good boy!

I think Tyke hasn't been naughty in three days now. He's done dumb things, such as knock over a glass of juice, but he hasn't been naughty and he's really listening to me. That makes me feel good, because I get the feeling that he's trying to please me, so when I say "no", that really means "no" to him. Of course, I have to knock on wood now just to be on the safe side, because he may get it into his head to do something any minute now and put me to shame. No, he's been great. He sleeps when I sleep and when I'm behind the computer he amuses himself with Gandhi or he sleeps beside me. Housebreaking is going well too, he's not having any accidents anymore and comes to warn me when he needs to go out. Of course, these warnings are very subtle and could be mistaken for signs of affection, but I'm tuned into him well enough to know what they mean and I'm usually right.

His favorite places to lie down are on top of the coffee table and the back of the sofa in front of the window where he can watch the world go by. I've removed just about everything from the coffee table, because he gets on it as easily as if it were any other piece of furniture and he walks onto it from the sofa as if he was walking onto the sidewalk. No amount of saying "no" has made any difference. I can say it 100 times and he will get on it 101 times. He has no sense of decorum. The back of the sofa is perfect for him, though, and I love to watch him watch life in the street. He likes it when I open the blinds in the morning and he can look outside, just like the cats, so I have a whole menagerie sitting there.

Okay, that's enough about that dog now. I do carry on, don't I? Goodness, you'd think I was the proud parent of a toddler.

Because I was out of money and out of supplies, my sister was a good sport and bought me some groceries today and I was much relieved. I should get my money tomorrow, but that is a day too late. It's because I spent so much money getting Tyke that I ran out this month. He was an unplanned expense. That happens sometimes and he was too special not to get out of the shelter. I couldn't leave him there. That cute little monster.

I took a long nap this afternoon and you would think that I'd be all done sleeping now, but I'm already looking forward to getting into my pajamas and bathrobe and getting ready for bed tonight. First I'm going to watch the Olympics on TV and see how badly the Dutch are doing with our one gold medal.

Have a good evening!

Ciao,
Nora.

To write or no to write?

Here I am sitting behind the computer again early in the morning with my empty coffee cup and my just lit cigarette. I am contemplating making a mug of tea, because I'm almost out of coffee pads and I have no plans to go to the store yet. I have to get paid first and that should be tomorrow. I have Gold Tea from Lipton, or Green Tea with Lemon, or Red Bush Tea. I have to decide which I want. I think right now I'm in the mood for Gold Tea with a spoonful of sugar. Okay, that's coming right up! I can't wait to drink it.

I don't drink tea at home very often and I really don't have a good reason why not, except that I seem so hooked on coffee. So, maybe this is a good time to start drinking more tea. It certainly tastes good if you don't put too much sugar in it, otherwise it tastes like sugar water. The next one I'm going to try is Green Tea with Lemon and then I'll have the Red Bush Tea. I also have Rose Hip Tea, but I don't like it at all and it has been sitting on the shelf for over a year now. I have to remember to buy a tea egg, because I also have lose tea that I have to use up one of these days and they are some nice flavors, Irish Breakfast being one of them.

I just looked in the kitchen drawer and found the tea egg and I am now brewing myself a nice mug of tea the flavor of which I do not know, because the label is no longer on the pot. I think it is Irish Breakfast, though, because I think the Exfactor took the other flavors, because I don't see them anywhere in the kitchen cabinet. I've been divorced for nearly two years and I'm still discovering what is not in the cupboards. Well, I've got myself a nice mug of hot tea. You can't beat that.

The little bit of sugar I put in my tea is going straight to my head and I'm getting a little high from it. It's like I've had a bit of alcohol. No wonder I get drunk so easily. It's the strangest experience. I never noticed it as much as now, though I've noticed something similar in the past. If this is the experience I get from sugar in tea, I'm going to drink more tea. I wonder if it is possible to get off the coffee completely and to only drink tea from now on. Would my body go through caffeine withdrawal, or is there enough of it in the tea? Does anyone have experience with this? If so, please let me know.

Tyke is sleeping on the floor beside me. Every time I get up, he follows me to the kitchen. Wherever I go, he goes. I have a total lack of privacy, but I'm used to that by now. I've always had animals follow me wherever I go and watch whatever I do unashamedly. They even "help" me get undressed. Gandhi claws at whatever dangles from my clothes and hangs on tight and Tyke helps me pull off my socks and leggings. He then also wants to take off with them, but that's another story. I usually catch him on time.

I'm going to take my medicines now and lie on the sofa for a while under the red fleece blanket. It's that time of the morning again when I can catch a few more winks of sleep. Oh, how glorious!

Have a good morning, you all.

Ciao,
Nora

Reluctancy!

Because I am reluctant to spend too much time on the computer for fear that it will take over my life again to the point that it will start stressing me out, I am also reluctant to write a post for fear that I will have nothing interesting to say and that whatever I write will be a boring repeat of the previous one, and that causes me to have writer's block and lose every little bit of imaginative thought I might have had in my head to begin with. Nevertheless, I have to start writing sooner or later, although I do start and then delete and I have done this four times today already, only to shut off the computer with some distaste and to go do something else entirely different.

Tyke is sleeping beside me on the floor where Jesker would have been laying normally had he still been here. It is amazing how one dog so easily took the place of another dog, though it was not that easy for me, but to Tyke that's the place he has to be. I'm teaching him now not to be so subservient when I pet him and to not go lie down on his back with his belly up. I want him to stand or sit when I pet him and he is catching on. I can't stand a subservient dog and I don't want him to show that behavior at all. I know it's normal for young dogs to do it, but I don't have to like it.

It's been slightly raining all afternoon causing the snow to start slowly melting, which is good. The temperatures are going to be higher during the day for the rest of the week, so the rest of the snow will melt and I'm glad about that, because this morning things were slippery. Tomorrow it's actually going to be 6C. Isn't that wonderful? Maybe this is a harbinger of Spring. I hope so. I want to go around and watch green thing pop up. I have to have a good look in people's gardens. Maybe I will discover the beginnings of Springtime there. If all goes according to plan with the snow disappearing, I can go for a longer walk tomorrow and have a good look around. I'll see if those snowdrops are still around and if there are any crocuses coming up yet. I must have faith in that Spring will be here soon. I hang up my hope on that idea. I know I will feel a lot better emotionally once it is here.

Because it's so important that I don't feel any stress, this is just going to be a very short post. I do want to watch the six o'clock news and then watch the Olympics. I will do that nice and cosy on the sofa. I do want to take Tyke for another walk, though, and I'll have to squeeze that in before I do anything else. He's so funny on the leash. Hurry up and stop and hurry up again. Sometimes I almost trip over him.

Have a good evening!

Ciao,
Nora

I really did...

I really did have the computer turned off for a long time today. As a matter of fact, I watched television and snuggled with Tyke and took a nap on the sofa, therefor I'm feeling very good right now. I've taken to sleeping under a red fleece blanket and it is very cozy and keeps especially my lower parts nice and warm. It's exactly what the doctor ordered and I go sound asleep in the shortest amount of time and stay asleep for quite a while too. That's because I'm so nice and warm. Before I would just lie on the sofa in my clothes with nothing to cover me and I would get chilly after a while and that normally woke me up. I never thought about pulling the red fleece blanket over me that has been lying on the armchair all this time and what better use for it?

Tyke likes it too and lies in the hollow behind my knees and makes himself a little nest there where he chews on his rawhide bone. There's usually at least one cat that comes and joins us, so we are quite a crowd on the sofa and it's not that big. It's a two and a half seater, so you can imagine the room we take up. If I lie with my head on the pillow of the armrest, my feet just make it to the end and then there is just room for some animals on the side and on top of me, but I prefer to lay on my side with my knees pulled up a bit. One cat can lie on my ribcage and one on my thigh if they are feeling very communicable. If not, it's just one cat and one dog and if Tyke gets too feisty, it's no cat at all.

I have been watching the Winter Olympics at night, or did I already tell you that? They are also on in the middle of the night, because of the time difference, so I watch them then too. Luckily, they are uninterrupted by commercials and we get to see a lot of what is going on, even the non-action of broken down ice cleaning machines. You're not supposed to call them Zambonis, because they're not. They're sending over a Zamboni to replace all the malfunctioning ones, none of which is a Zamboni, all the way from Calgary. Makes you think that's what they should have started with all along.

The Netherlands have only managed to win one medal so far and that was a gold one in speed skating, done by Sven Kramer in the 5 kilometer race. We all expected him to win and would have been mighty disappointed if he hadn't. He's our speed skating king right now and frankly, we expect a few more from him. No, the pressure on him is not big at all. Only the whole country is watching him and counting on him. No pressure whatsoever.

I watched ice dancing for couples and thought that was lovely, especially since the choice of music was so good. The couple from China that won the gold medal was very good, though I thought the couple from Germany that came in third was lovelier and their music was too. It was from the movie Out of Africa. Very beautiful and heartbreaking, if you've seen the movie and it calls up those associations for you. Streep and Redford, what a pair!

Now it's time to shut off the computer and get ready for bed. Sleep tight, all you people. It's still only the beginning of the week. We've got a long haul ahead of us yet.

Ciao,
Nora.

Finally!

I ran into computer problems a few days ago and have been off line since then. My mouse stopped working and just as I was investigating the reason why, I noticed that Tyke had chewed through the cable of my keyboard, which was very frustrating to say the least, because it was carnival and all the stores were closed and would be for a while, so I could not buy a new one. I called the Exfactor to see if he had an extra mouse and keyboard. He did not, but he promised to try and solve my problem as quickly as possible. He couldn't do anything until today, when Media Mart opened up and he could buy a new mouse and a new keyboard and deliver them to me. It turned out that the portal into which the mouse was plugged was defective and now the mouse is plugged into one of the portals in the front of the PC. I taped the cable of the mouse into place so it won't be a temptation for Tyke to play with. The keyboard works great and I like it better than my old keyboard, so I'm moving up in the world. We've tied the cable of the keyboard to the desk so it won't be a temptation either. At least, I'm naive enough to think it. If I ever am off line for any period of time again, you'll know it is because Tyke chewed through a cable.

The first day I was without my PC, I was rather frustrated and went through withdrawal. I thought it was one of the worst things that could happen, but at the same time I realized that that was exaggerating the importance of it and that I shouldn't let it get to me that much. So, I tried to do other things to take up my time, which I was not very good at, at first.

After that it got easier and I realized that I got more relaxed from not sitting behind the computer and that my mood improved and that I was more even tempered when I was not sitting behind the computer at all hours of the day and night. That was an important observation and one I must not ignore. It seems that the computer causes me stress and I have to keep an eye on how much time I actually spend behind it and how much is actually necessary.

On those days that I couldn't sit behind the computer, I contemplated my own navel a lot and did household chores. I also watched the Winter Olympics on TV. All of these things were quiet activities that didn't cause me a lot of stress, not even the chores did, because I just took my time. I had nothing else to do, after all. I spent a lot of time in peace and quiet not doing anything very important, but hanging out with Tyke and lying on the sofa with a cat on top of me. It seems to have done me a lot of good, because my mood has vastly improved and I aim to keep it that way.

Since my mood has improved so much that even I notice the difference, I want to limit the time I spend behind the computer, tempting though it is to keep lingering here. For my own sake, I must turn it off on time and walk away from it and shut if off and keep it off until a long enough time has passed before I go back to it. I must spend time in quiet contemplation, because it's good for me. I do need to be free of stimuli and distractions. I never realized that as much as I do now.

Tyke is naughty at least once a day. Once a day he gets into something that I have overlooked as a potential naughtiness for him to get into. Everything in the apartment is getting moved up or put away. I thought things were safe on the dining table, but he's even managed to get on top of it when a chair was left pulled out. Other than that, he's his most adorable self almost all the time and a most kissable and hugable little bundle of joy.

Have a lovely day!

Ciao,
Nora.