A Corgi Tales post is LONG overdue, but like everyone else, my life has been upended by the COVID pandemic. I work in health care in an office of 40+ people. Since late March, I have been the ONLY person who is there in the office 40 hours a week. We have three managers who rotate weeks, and one other half time office person who is a tremendous help and oversees much of the hospice caseload. I work in a supportive role to all who are working from home as well as our clinicians in the field. Our county has the second highest number of cases of COVID in Indiana and we have had many patients die in our care. So no one gets to tell me that anything about the pandemic is overblown.
The HUGE silver lining in pandemic was that my brother Dan (who has lived in China 29 years - exactly half his life) spent four months with me this Spring and Summer. It was a delight to have him; the dogs adored him; he did all of my yard work and much of the cooking and we had some walks in the evening and trips to various Indiana state parks on the weekends. At some point I hope to write about those, and share pictures. In the midst of it all, we experienced unspeakable tragedy in relationship to Dan's closest friends in the Twin Cities. It was good for us to be together as all of that was playing out. He made a trip out to MN the end of July and is with his friends again now for a few weeks. He is now on a year of home assignment, traveling and recruitng in the US, and hopes to return to China next August. 
Though I don't have time or energy to go back and share stories of 2020, I had to stop and take time to write a post in honor of Scarlett's 8th birthday - which was yesterday.
It was 7 years ago this month that my friend Betty and I drove to the Ozarks to pick her up after the breeders (from southern Alabama) realized she did not tolerate the heat and needed a home in a northern climate. Northern MN fit the bill. We moved a few years later, but she still loves the snow more than anything. She's mellow and compliant and very sweet, although she gets VERY upset at those BIG BIG dogs that pull the Amish buggies. She was the unofficial fastest runner at a corgi meet up in the Twin Cities when she was 3 years old and still LOVES to run, swim (!!) and eat (!!!!). She loves to show off her rolling gymnastics for anyone who will watch. When we were in the Upper Peninsula in August, she scratched her cornea while digging in the sand, and we have been doctoring with several different antibiotics and types of treatment, hoping to avoid eye flap surgery, which would take a small flap of tissue to cover the ulcer on the cornea. She's been a trooper through it all. The drops sting, and unlike Zak, who would run to the furthest corner of the house to avoid them, Scarlett comes right to me and willingly allows me to put them in; then burying her head in my lap for a few minutes until the stinging stops. It's been a strange but real bonding time for us.
Zak and were enjoying a little nap until someone else decided she didn't want to be left out. She's only 24# but when she suddenly pounces on your back, it kind of knocks the wind out of you.
We have visited lots and lots of area parks this year, exploring the region in more depth than we have in the now-almost-three-years since we moved to Indiana. Today after church, we went to Powatami Park in South Bend for some squirrell chasing fun. It was a beautiful early Fall day after a hot and humid summer. Bring on the cooler temperatures! In a few weeks we will take a camping trip south to Brown County and Kentucky, redoing portions of last year's trip (which was a total rain-out event) and picking up a few new places as well.
