I know everybody has challenges. I know everybody has their cross to bear. But really, this picture just symbolizes, to me, why I can never get anything done. ( The Hub snapped it with the new camera) In the first place, there I am sleeping on the sofa. Actually, when this picture was taken I wasn't even asleep. I was just refusing to open my eyes and face the day. The night before I started out sleeping in my bed with The Hub. The dog jumped up, and the cat joined us. Ok, folks, we only have a queen size bed here. Overcrowding! Then The Hub and the dog start to snore. It's like snoring in stereo.....

So then I moved out to the sofa. Too soft. Back spasms. At 3:00 a.m. I located a sleeping bag and set up on the floor. The dog came out and looked at me as if to say "why are you sleeping on a dog bed?", but dutifully lay down beside me to alert me if I needed my rescue inhaler ( he has a geat technique for this. See that enormous schnoz of his in the picture? He just pokes me in the head with it until I get up and take my medicine.) My back gave up spasming but then I was too cold from the draft, so I staggered back up onto the couch. I woke up again at 6:00 a.m. and was almost up, when Winston, the dog, decided that I had obviously not had enough rest and it was up to him to make sure I got some. So he leapt up onto the sofa on my legs, effectively pinning me to the sofa until I fell back to sleep.

Where does a 150 lb dog sleep? Anywhere he wants!

I could not get up. "Come on Winston! Get off my feet!" etc. Nope. He was immobile. He settled in even more firmly, curled up more tightly, calmly regarding me with his soulful brown eyes. Nope. Not gettin' up. And the sun came up, and it was nice and warm....and the next thing I knew it was 10:30 in the morning!

I remember when I was doing research on what kind of dog to get that a lot of the literature on Old English Mastiffs said, "Owners credit this breed with great sensativity." I didn't exactly know what that meant, but now I do. It's like having a mood-o-meter as big as your sofa. If the mood-o-meter thinks you are sad, lonely, depressed, sick or tired it wants to Be There For You. Never have I been dogged by a dog like I have by this dog. The day I lost my job I could hardly walk around my house. Winston was RIGHT THERE, pressed up against my legs, sitting on my feet, leaping up into the bed at bedtime to lay right beside me and rest his head on my hips. "Oh-kay" says The Hub, "Something has come between us, dear" Winston just yawned. Mastiffs can look magnificently unimpressed when they want to.

Anyway, last night was the same scene. Back spasms until 1:00, bad dreams until 2:00, severe pain/ move to floor from 2:00 to 3:00, freezing my bippy off at 4:00 so back up in the bed. The Hub got up at 6:00 to go to his first "official" carpentry job...clatter, clatter, bang, bang. The Hub has gotten the hang of making eggs in the morning, but not making them quietly. So I got up with him, got the paper, made a list of things to do.... And now it's 9:00 when I should be making phone calls, doing research at the library, etc.

I'm so tired. Can I go back to bed?