Dogs rule...

At least in our home.

"Steve, why is the front door open? It's only 47°F out!"  

"I think that they might have to go do their business," answers my Aspergian Husband of many years.

"But Sweetie, there's a dog door in the basement for them to use," I respond, as a cold breeze flails the curtains of the livingroom.

"They might have to go too badly to run all the way downstairs. I don't want them to have an accident in the house," rings a slightly irratated voice from within the depths of our home.

"When is the last time they had an accident in the house?"

I stand near our front door and wait for an answer.

And I wait.

And wait.

I look at my phone. It's been five minutes since The Hubster's last response. I walk towards the kitchen where I believe Steve's voice had been coming from with a strong north wind buffeting me along the hallway.

No Hubby.

I check our bedroom and bathroom. 

No Hubby.

I run down stairs. No Hubby, no dogs, but the dog door is indeed open and it's access flap  is ready and waiting for canine egress and ingress.

I run upstairs, calling for my spouse. I try to keep a neutral tone and refrain from puffing. Those stairs must be steeper than they were last year. Hmmm.

Back in the main entryway with no spouse or canines in sight, I shut the front door and head off to do the never ending laundry.

"WHY IS THE DOOR SHUT?" comes a furious bellow followed by a crash as the freshly closed door now swings wide open and smacks against the shoe rack behind it.

"Sweetie, the dogs aren't even in the house!" I proclaim. "They are already outside, as were you!"

"Well they might come in and have to go out quickly!"  protests Steve. "Why do we ALWAYS have to do EVERYTHING your way?"

*Sigh*

Just wait until next week when I have to go buy another ton of pellets for our pellet stoves that heat our house. Then someone will be screaming bloody murder because we went through the current ton too quickly.

It really is a dog's life, lol.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Learn something new every day.

Good advice, very true for today. In preparation for a seminar that I'll be attending today with my daughter on womens' leadership roles and empowerment, I was reading some articles and ran across a term that I either didn't know, or don't remember learning about.

Amygdala.

The amygdala (Latin, corpus amygdaloideum) is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain's medial temporal lobe.

Shown to play a key role in the processing of emotions, the amygdala forms part of the limbic system.

In humans and other animals, this subcortical brain structure is linked to both fear responses and pleasure.

Its size is positively correlated with aggressive behavior across species.

Conditions such as anxiety, autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and phobias are suspected of being linked to abnormal functioning of the amygdala, owing to damage, developmental problems, or neurotransmitter imbalance.

ScienceDaily "amygdala"

Boy oh boy, doesn't this explain a lot about my Aspergian husband!

We had one of those "Julie can't do anything right" days yesterday. Judgement made by my spouse, not by me, by the way. I had a great day.

We spend Sunday removing 400 square feet of Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring from a friend's newly purchased home. She is replacing all of the carpeted areas on her main floor and couldn't match the hardwood satisfactorily, so she's having all new flooring put it. There should be just enough wood to floor our livingroom.

Barely.

If you are contemplating such an endeavor with an Aspergers Syndrome spouse, regardless of how strong that spouse is, DON"T. Period. Live and learn.

Regardless, we finished in just under eleven hours. What a job. I did tell Steve that we would leave the wood planks in our respective SUV's for a few days as I unloaded each piece, removed any remaining nails or staples, washed each piece with Murphys wood soap, and dried the pieces. I would then move all the furniture out of the room, rip out the carpet and pads, make sure that the floor is entirely level,  and lay down kraft paper. Next I would arrange all the tongue and groove planking  tetris style to best utilize every piece 

It's going to be a big job. Good thing I am retired; I wouldn't have time to go to work!

Okay dokey, you say, so were lies the problem?

The wood in Steve's Explorer. That was my downfall.

I folded down his back seat to lay down all the six foot planks while shorter pieces went into my Jeep. Steve doesn't drive anyone else to town where he meets his carpool to go to work. He parks his rig in town. He does not drive it until the carpool drops him off back in town and drives home. Again, alone.

Um, you say, and exactly what is wrong with that?

He forgot his thermal insulated lunchbox in the car yesterday because he 'normally' sets it on his backseat with his computer backpack. Since the wood was in the back he had to put the backpack and lunchbox on the front seat. He actually set the lunchbox on the floor instead of the front seat as he was afraid that the lunchbox would fall off of the front seat (even though the front seat is larger than the back seat area that he normally sets it on). When he grabbed his backpack at the carpool meeting spot he didn't notice his bright red lunchbox on the floor and went off without it.

At lunchtime he had go to the company cafeteria to buy lunch. He accidentally stood in the pho' soup line, which was long, instead of the salad line, which was even longer, so he was late back to work.

All my fault. Except that he forgot his lunch box by the microwave last Friday and by the front door last Monday. Not my fault. He's just very forgetful, or preoccupied, or just plain contrary.

I'd rewrite that nursery verse, but I can't seem to come up with enough words to rhyme with "Stevie"... lol