Three Beautiful Things 01/07/19: Snow, Corgis to the Vet and Groomer, Steely Dan and Horace Silver

1. Last night's snowfall was light, but it was heavy enough that the sidewalks and driveway needed to be shoveled. It wasn't a strenuous workout, but made me tired enough that a couple of hours later I napped briefly while resting in my living room chair.

2. I loaded Charly and Maggie into the Sube and chauffeured them to the vet and groomer on East Cameron. For some reason, since the Deke has been away for her teaching job in Eugene, Charly, Maggie, and I have enjoyed each other more than at any other time over the last 12-15 years. Charly and Maggie have been relaxed. They've joined me regularly in the tv room and lie near me, often sleeping. Charly almost always lies near me, often making contact with one of my ankles, no matter where I sit. Whereas Maggie, in particular, used to charge to the living room's picture window to bark at anyone who passed by, she hasn't done that at all over the last couple or three months.

But, there's one thing that hasn't changed: if I run the vacuum cleaner, the corgis go beserk, scream barking and charging the vacuum cleaner and headbutting it. If I put them behind a closed door, they scream bark and butt themselves against the door. (It's funny, but I can't put them through this.) Therefore, with Maggie and Charly out of the house at the vet and groomer, I happily vacuumed the living room, kitchen, tv room, and bedroom and was not expecting such a deep feeling of satisfaction.

3. Along with vacuuming, I cleaned up the kitchen, laundered clothes, and laundered my bed's sheets and blankets. While doing these tasks, I listened to an Amazon playlist called "50 Great Classic Jazz Songs". I've listened to this playlist many times, but today, for the first time, I recognized that Steely Dan had borrowed the opening bass notes of Horace Silver's "Song for My Father" to open their own song, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number".  It was fun to discover this bit of Steely Dan homage to the jazz of of 1964 and I had a sudden and warm memory of Patrick playing a long string of Steely Dan songs in the kitchen some time around Christmas, one of many awesome sets of music Patrick played through the Bose wireless speaker while he was here.