Olga Outsmarted

My only excitement yesterday was taking Olga for an afternoon walk through the neighborhood. It was sunny for a change, and as we approached the courtyard door where she usually spars with the cats I began making a video. She's been doing this for years and neither she nor the cats are as enthusiastic as they used to be.

This time, the most aggressive cat -- a calico named April -- didn't show up. Instead this whitish Siamese outwitted Olga by staying entirely out of reach, while still watching everything. Olga didn't even notice.

Otherwise, it was another day of mostly reading. I'm on my final Newbery book, "The Story of Mankind." It won the very first Newbery medal way back in 1922 -- yes, I saved the first for last -- and it's exactly what it sounds like, a nonfiction account of the development of civilization. It's 662 pages, complete with two updates that bring us to the year 2000, including the Internet, Bill Clinton and Princess Diana. It might sound dreadful, but it was written for children and the writing is light and even amusing (or as amusing as you can be when talking about Ancient Greek city-states), and there are little cartoon illustrations. So far it's been an OK read. I might do some skimming!

Dave and I are both headed back to work today. It will be interesting to see how many people are out for Covid-related absences. I know of three people who tested positive within the past week. We took our lateral flow tests last night and we're both still negative, knock on wood. As I've told Dave, I feel like it's almost inevitable that we'll turn up positive at some point, working in the cauldron of plague that is a school.