The Only Constant is Change

I think this is the only picture I took yesterday. Olga and I were on our morning walk and passed this pleasant cluster of flowers across the street. Olga is barely holding on to her patience.

So, some momentous decisions are being made around here.

First, Dave and I have decided to stop Olga's daily outings with her dog-walker. After this week we'll be home to care for her, at least through the summer, and the dog walks have just become too much. She has never seemed to relish going with the dog-walker and I think, honestly, she'd just as soon stay home, in her familiar environment. So that will save us £100 a week.

I think in the fall, when we go back to work, she'll happily spend her days just sleeping. If she needs a midday walk we'll hire someone to take her out locally or I'll come home at lunch to let her into the garden. We'll see how it goes.

Second, and more major, we've decided that next year will be my last working in the library. I had planned to go one or two more years beyond that, but our school has offered some incentives toward retirement that make it a good time to step down. As you know from all my grumbling and grousing, the routines of the library have been wearing on me a lot this year, and 13 years seems like long enough to plead with 12-year-olds to return their overdue Lemony Snicket books. I've put in the request with the school and I don't expect them to oppose it (though theoretically they could).

I'm not sure what I'll do next, if anything, but I don't have any qualms about making the change. I am ready. Of course I'm a bit nervous about how it will all play out financially but I don't think we should have any problems. I will still have income from various sources.

Dave, on the other hand, is going to stay put for the time being. He's a few years younger than I am and he feels like he's still got some game, more power to him.

Last night I took the chocolates from that ridiculously long box I blogged yesterday and put them all in a tiny Tupperware container, where they fit perfectly with room to spare. A much better solution, if less elegant. That box is going out with the recycling and I'm glad to have it gone.

TV update: I have finally persuaded Dave to watch "Poker Face," which I am enjoying a lot. At the urging of one of Dave's colleagues we're also watching "Sense8," on Netflix, which I have mixed feelings about but we're sticking with it so far. I think there's a new season of "The Handmaid's Tale" which we might try, and I am persevering with "The Studio" which I love, though Dave doesn't like the energy. He says the show is too hyper. Finally, we watched one episode of the new season of "The Last of Us," which I liked but Dave was, once again, not thrilled with.

He's becoming harder and harder to please with TV and a lot of times I'll look up during a show and he'll be scrolling his phone. He says he can pay attention to both but when I ask him what someone on the show just said, or try to confirm what just happened, he never knows. He is lost in the scroll.