Walker pretends to be a peacock at the zoo.

Clearly I’m old. I think I’ve pondered this publicly before, but I’m feeling old today. This week was extremely busy. The Adobe Sales and Marketing Conference was in San Jose this week and I traveled the 52 miles each way all week. Events started between 8:30 and 9 each day and ended a varying times in the evening with one night ending at 10:30 (although many of my colleagues remained festive for many more hours). Twice in my life I’ve commuted daily to Silicon Valley and while tiring, it was not a big deal. But I guess I’m old now and it was draining. Ok, perhaps a contributing factor was the 5 am Walker wake-up call or the three presentations I had to do on Digital Marketing and Social Media or the fact that Moxie is peeing on everything we own because she isn’t getting enough thyroid medicine. But nonetheless, here I sit thinking how a younger me would be ready to go out and see a movie. (And you thought I was going to say, “go out on the town.” That was never really my thing. A movie was about as CRAZY as I got.)

And there is one small story bomb from the last paragraph. Of course, the week I’m totally crazy and traveling and having to give a presentation to 250 people, my 15.75 year old kittie gets sick. She’s peeing on EVERYTHING from the bed to the floor to the rug. Anywhere BUT her box. And she’s vomiting as well. So Larry is a wonderful man and says he’ll take her to the vet. On Monday, before I leave, I arrange to have her visit her doctor at 9:30. At 9:15 (a bit later than I know Larry would have liked), Larry drives to the vet. He barely misses a jogger who ran out in front of the car as he rolls through a stop sign three blocks from the house. RIGHT IN FRONT OF A COP. The blue lights turn on and Larry stops and rolls down the window as the cop asks him for his ID. “Hi. I’m late taking my wife’s DEAD MOTHER’S SICK CAT to the vet.” The cop just looks at him. “OK. Just be safe, Man,” the cop replies. Clearly he didn’t want to deal with Moxie (who had peed and vomited in her box in the back seat) even more than Larry. Good news, it’s nothing major. Just a bit more medicine for the Princess and she’s feeling much better.

This week did have a Walker moment. On Monday, I was getting ready to head down to SJ and Walker was munching on some bread. We were in the back of the house and I could tell, he wanted some milk. I looked at him and said, “Walker, your milk is on the chair.” He looked back at me, ran down the hall and returned sucking down his milk. Now, I didn’t tell him which chair or point toward the kitchen. He just knew what I meant and he followed my instructions. This is notable because he’s still chatting away in his own language and selectively pays attention to me. So, when there’s a moment when it’s very clear he knows what I’m saying and acts on it, it makes me feel like we have a deeper connection.

Last weekend we realized Walker was getting to look a bit like a mop top and we thought it was time to get a trim. We took him to Harry, the neighborhood barber who has been giving Larry a #1 all around for the last 9 years. We weren’t sure how Walker was going to take to a big boy barber but he stuck it out like a trooper. Harry used both scissors and the buzzer. No tears were shed.

A few weeks ago, I signed the contracts to put solar panels on our roof so we cut our electric bill to almost $0. I can’t believe we are going to make such a significant “go green” commitment but we do need a new roof and we figured that while we were at it, we might as well try to reduce the environmental impact of our existence (which is good since I did do an awful lot of driving this week.) The solar was actually the easy decision. We’re still getting quotes and deciding on the new roof. Who knew there were so many roofing options for a “low slope” roof in the Sunset. Ugh. I know way more about modified bitumen and tar and gravel than I ever wanted to know. And golly, I learned that it’s probably a good idea to have folks do maintenance on your roof once every 7 years or so. Hmmm. Good to know. Oh, and of course, we have to take a few years off the life of anything we have because we live out at the beach. Our fantastic location was the reason we needed new break pads, “Was this car driven a lot in the snow?” was the question the two different garages asked us. “No, we live at Ocean Beach.” They both nodded and muttered, “Of course.” So, it appears that roofs, skylights, gutters, and other parts of our house have more limited life spans as well. I’ll just have to update the financial models in light of this new information. And if you think I HAVE financial models, you give me too much credit.

We’ve found Walker enjoys wicker. He loves to sit in the wicker clothes basket. And now he loves to walk around with the wicker trash basket on his head. We like to call him Wicker Robot. He’s able to navigate surprisingly well in this get up. He rarely bumps into walls and he’s logged quite a bit of time as a robot so he’s had ample opportunity for bumps and bruises.

Speaking of bumps and bruises, Walker is very interested in spending time on his head. When he’s not trying to climb up on the practical baskets that are supposed to help keep the house a tad tidier than it is normally after Toddler Bomb explodes, he bends over and puts his head on the floor. I figured out he’s trying to do a somersault. You see, Alex, his gym teacher (yes, he has a gym teacher), absolutely ADORES him. He’s always trying to teach him something new. Walker spends each day trying to figure out how to get some air when he jumps — he’s got the bending and extending down but his two little feet just stay affixed to the ground. I’ve GOT to get some video because it is HILARIOUS and often attempted in the morning or during some dancing insanity. Anyway, I’ve decided to help him out and grab his ankles and complete the move. He’s quite appreciative and laughs and laughs and laughs.

I’m enjoying William Shatner’s new talk show. I’m preparing to move the troops to visit Gigi.