The Dogs Set the Tone

It's frigid outside making gardening or dog walking unappealing.
We had to wait for the washer repair guy who came right on schedule at 10am. After considerable scrambling around under the counter and behind the washing machine he pronounced the drain pump dead. He had quite a pronounced Eastern European accent (I refrained from asking him if he was from Ukraine) but seemed to know what he was doing and quoted a fairly reasonable price for getting a new pump and installing it. It seems that if he can get one by Monday he will come then. Otherwise he is booked for the entire week. He also pronounced the sensor on the dryer ok and suggested turning up the temperature which I didn't know I could do. He laughed when I commented that it had taken me 10 years to learn how to use the thing. But it looks like we won't have to get new ones.

Somebody asked me how Blake and Spike got along and today's picture, the only one I took today , is a pretty good indication. Blake doesn't mind sleeping out in the rain, but the dog door was blocked by laundry room repairs so he and Spike gravitated to the floor at my feet where I was sitting at my worktable.

The general turmoil being created by Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Washington is being mirrored here at home by a complete reorganization of most of the schools in Sonoma county. Enrollment is dropping and the school board is tasked with closing a budget shortfall. They spent months dithering about closing schools and at one point had about 6 different plans for which ones and when. This left everyone in a state of uncertainty while the superintendent held 'listening sessions' but didn't seem to listen. She seems to be notoriously underqualified to run a single school much less a whole district. A plan was finally announced, and now they are firing most of the popular high school principals and replacing them with others. It's a little like what is happing nationally writ small. And the result is similar. It's the ones who have no say in the process, in this case the kids, who suffer.

We're going to the neighbors' for dinner tonight. I'm looking forward to a change of scene. Either Covid or really miserable weather has left us with little motivation to go out for quite some time.