I listened to my favorite podcast, Vibe Check, today. The gurls (their terminology) talked a lot about the Grammy Awards. The three of them were mighty put out that Beyonce's album, Renaissance, was not named Album of the Year. I was kind of put off by their take on that topic. I listened to several of the albums in the category, and I thought they were all good. Yes, I'm sure Beyonce was disappointed, but don't you think Adele was bummed out, too? How about Kendrick Lamar and Lizzo? Those were good albums that I liked a lot. Bad Bunny's album was the first Spanish language album nominated for Album of the Year, and it was excellent. Harry Style's won the award for Harry's House, also a very good album, and I was happy for him. He did make me shake my head in disappointment when he said, "This kind of thing doesn't happen to people like me." I'm like, "Dude, you are a young white man. Stuff like this happens for people like you all the damn time."
Anyway, who really cares? Those awards are all subjective, anyway. Someone is going to get the award, and nine other people won't. So what? Does it make me not want to listen to Beyonce or Lizzo because they didn't win the Best Album Grammy? No, it doesn't. I will continue to listen to all the albums and enjoy the hell out of each one of them.
I think this was the first time I was not on board with what Sam, Saeed, and Zach were saying. It's okay, though.
You know what really annoyed me about the Grammys? It happened right at the start of the show during Bad Bunny's performance when the closed captioning on my TV said something like "non-English singing." Ugh. I don't know why there was closed captioning on the song. I don't even remember if there was closed captioning on any of the other songs. I usually ignore the closed captioning, but it was on and I saw it plainly during Bad Bunny's performance. Benito (that's what I hear his Puerto Rican fans call him) won an award a little later, and gave most of his acceptance speech in Spanish. I liked that.
There seems to be a lot of heavy news this week. I'm still feeling down about the Tyre Nichols murder. The earthquake in Turkey and Syria is awful to hear about and those images of the crumbled buildings are terrifying, knowing that people were in their beds when the earth trembled mightily. I didn't watch the State of the Union address, but it's American politics, so it can't be good. Oh yeah, and the Jazz just traded three players, including Mike Conley, to get Russell Westbrook and some draft picks.
Ugh! This is not a fun check in! I'm cranky/sad/bummed about so many things!
Ok...so what's good? Here's something:
This afternoon after work, I leashed up the doggos to take them for a walk around the neighborhood. Harley, the lab, is a terrible puller, so MT and I use a harness for her. MT told me to try attaching the leash to the loop on the front of the harness, then the leash would go between her legs and she doesn't pull as much. It really worked! She did much better today on the walk. I gave her lots of praise and kibble snacks along the way to reinforce her good walking.
Stella gets so excited when we go for a walk that she yips and barks for a good couple of blocks. We stopped while she was in the middle of barking her fool head off, and I petted her and talked to her in a calm voice and she chilled out and had a good walk.
Mac is an easy walker - I would have never thought I would say that when she was a puppy. She just trots along, sniffing everything and being good.
After a day of work, I enjoy taking the dogs out for a walk. Sometimes I don't, like if it is raining hard or snowing, or if it's eleventy-hundred degrees in the summer, but most days I do take them out. There have been a few times when the three of them are out of sorts and are terrible walkers, and I'll cut the walk short, but it doesn't happen often. Mostly we all get straightened out within a block or so of the house. The majority of the time, it feels so nice to get outside, stretch my legs, breathe in the fresh air, and have fun with the doggos. Since Stella came to live with us, we have outside play time after the walk. Stella loves to play fetch. Mac has been getting into running after a ball - they have to have separate toys and throwing routes. Harley will sometimes chase a ball, but Mac always takes it from her, so Harley mostly just stands by me and waits to get a kibble and a snuggle. She's my sweetest girl. That 30 minutes I spend with the puppers after work is one of my favorite parts of the day, and I get to do it every day!
Yes, there are times when I really don't want to do it. Leashing them up, herding them out the door, getting them straightened out and walking in the same direction at roughly the same pace sometimes isn't easy or very much fun. Sometimes they pull and misbehave and eat poop out of the yards we pass by. Even on the worst days, though, there is usually something good and pleasant that happens. It is unusual for all three of them to act awful at the same time, and they almost always settle down. Come to think of it, if I don't enjoy the walk, it's usually because I reacted badly to the dog's antics. I lose my patience, and then the walk isn't good for me.
Anyway, that's all I've got for tonight. I'm going to spend a few minutes doing a bit of art. I hoped that I would have some time to work on it earlier, so I could show you what I'm doing, but I read a few pages of one of my books after dinner instead of drawing. Maybe I'll remember to share it with you on Sunday when I post here again.
Enjoy the rest of the week!
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