My brother Scott was born today. In honor of that memory, I watched the opening credits to his (maybe?) favorite cartoon as a kid: M.A.S.K. We never saw it on television, I think we were too young for it by a couple years, plus we weren’t allowed to watch those kinds of shows when we were young kids (it was PBS or nothing for many, many years). But, Scott found it at this video rental store that we used to frequent that was right off the Freeway going into the Arcata. I can’t remember the name of the video store, it wasn’t Figuerido’s, it was another one…but we would watch M.A.S.K. and Voltron tapes from that video store. They were like kid crack.
Coops is having a nightmare right now. He *just* fell asleep, so he must have been pretty tired. Dogs must also go through their sleep cycles, like, WAY faster than we do. I think we can technically go through a full sleep cycle in, like, an hour. I bet a dog can do that in 10 minutes. Just a theory. I should look it up.
The Ho and I walked up town to get coffee again this morning, something we’ve decided is a nice morning tradition. We get bundled up and walk up there to Sweetness & Light, which is a local confectionary that has a coffee window in the front. Both yesterday and today we’ve met fellow dog owners, and they’ve been super sweet and very chatty. In a charming way, for sure. This morning it was a woman with a Bichon named Chloe, who we were told was testy when it came to meeting other dogs and when getting her face touched. But, both the Ho and I were able to get her to come over to us and say hi, and she had a two-second snarl with the Coops, but it was very minor and easily diffused.
Then, we hung out at home for a couple hours while my mom mowed the grass and my dad did some chores. Seth and Queena came over to come with us all out to Blue Lake to visit the fish hatchery they have out there. It was a place I used to go visit when I was a kid, which I think I wrote about yesterday, and it turned out to be pretty much just as cool as I remembered. It was much less busy, since it’s not quite spawning season at the moment, but it was still legitimately pretty cool. They have a fish ladder, so all the returning adults come up, and then they use the actual various pools there to spawn and the millions of babies then grow up in another set of much larger pools before they’re then released back down into the river to go out to the ocean. At least, that was my understanding of the whole process. It would be cool to visit the hatchery in spawning season, which is only about a month away, and actually see the whole process for real.
On the way out there, Seth and I had a pretty spirited discussion that got testy for a few moments. I felt bad about that, it definitely wasn’t my intention, and I don’t know if he ever reads this thing, but even if he doesn’t I will say again for the record that I truly do respect his views on certain things, even if we don’t *always* see eye-to-eye on them. We actually do most of the time, though you wouldn’t know it from our banter. That, and I just love him to pieces. He’s my brother, I can’t help it and I always will.
Then, we left into Arcata after the sun was setting, and us kids got some food at Hey Juan’s Burritos, which was an old haunt for my parents and myself when I was at HSU. That was delicious. I got an Enchilada and so did Liz. So good! I remember going a lot when I was a kid to their sister restaurant in Eureka called Amigas Burritos and I would always get the quesadilla.
Then, we came home, it was only like 7:30, and I was ready to pass the fuck out. Seriously, I was barely keeping my eyes open. But, that passed after an hour or so, and we ended up finding The Grand Budapest Hotel on HBO Go and we all watched that. Everyone loved it, as I knew they would. It’s seriously one of Wes Anderson’s best movies to date, and Liz reminded me that it’s in contention this year for the Oscars, and I think it might be his first real contender for a Best Picture nomination. Perhaps not a win, but definitely a nomination. It’s legitimately one of the best 5 or so movies of the year. At least that *I’ve* seen so far.
While they were watching the movie, which I’d seen already, I spent some time sitting on the kitchen floor with my dad talking about dogs. He’s really coming around to be excited about the prospect of having one (maybe even two), and we just talked about the responsibilities that they come with, but mostly the wonderful enrichments that they bring to our lives. My life, at least. They’re very complex, emotional creatures, and they bond with us very, very intimately. There’s a daily conversation that happens between me and my dogs, and I love that aspect of my life.
Liz is farting, it’s time for sleep. That’s the cue tonight. Yup. You’re welcome for that information. Welcome to my life!