Our two little dogs wait every night to be tucked into bed and covered snugly for the night. And that's Irving job. I'm already in bed before him, reading before I fall asleep, but I cock my eye to watch the ritual. It begins when he lifts Jillie from the right/wrong side of the bed to the left/right side where she will nest the night through. Jackie is always in the right place assigned to him, or more correctly that he has designated as his own, perched in a slightly elevated place created by folding over the strictly decorative bed-top comforter to the foot of the bed. 

While he's adjusting their comfort zone and covering them, Irving keeps up a running commentary addressed to them repeating some of the day's events and their responses, as they listen carefully. I love watching this ritual because it highlights for me just how very much the boy who has been my constant companion since our early teen years remains in the man he became on the way to the present. The two puppies will remain in place all night, barely stirring. To us, it's a comfort that they're there, comfortable, companionable, content.

We've enjoyed yet another day of clear skies and full sunlight streaming through the house. I had prepared a number of cards to be sent out in the mail. One for my sister's birthday, two days before my own, though she's four years younger than me. One for my daughter-in-law's widowed mother, now 91, and three more for our boys, our daughter and granddaughter. The last three were depositories of Chanukah gelt in cheque form. We only had enough stamps for half the cards, so Irving's gone off to the closest post office.

I had bought, for the first time, a Swiffer product. I wanted something for the hardwood floors. They obviously don't get cleaned frequently, just dust mopped, whereas tile floors are washed weekly. The product is meant to be used with a stick, a kind of remote floor-washing implement I have no use for. I began by doing the exposed portions of the wood-strip floor in our bedroom. Not a big job considering the large Indian rug covering most of the floor, a rug we bought almost 50 years ago. As a trial run it turned out very well.

Then when I'd finished cleaning the bathrooms, we went off to the ravine for an earlier-than-usual afternoon hike through the forest trails with Jackie and Jillie. Not much wind in evidence, and full sun made it a pleasant enterprise. Made all the more so by the dogs we came across now and again. Not as numerous as yesterday's encounters, but representing a bit of excitement for Jackie and Jillie regardless. 

There was a small, jaunty French bulldog with his new winter coat. And a number of feisty large Labradoodles leaping about for joy at being let loose in the forest. And a few hounds puzzled by our two pups' ill-bred mannerisms, but willing to forgive and invite them to a play date. One of the hounds provided a little display of bravado, balancing himself on a long-fallen pine tree trunk that had come to rest years ago over a bit of a chasm under which runs a tributary of the main forest creek.

Irving renewed his vehicle licenses online a few days ago, and in today's mail there was the hard copy of his renewals. When he set out to make an appointment for the renewal of his driver's license, however, it wasn't quite as speedily completed. This is mid-December, but it won't be until the end of February that he'll be able to take the eyesight and written test for those over age 80. So he needs an extension, and awaits its arrival, to ensure he doesn't run into any trouble beyond  his birthday, awaiting his official driver's license renewal.