What have I been doing for the last month?

Not writing anything lighthearted and hopeful enough to post on the cogitator, obviously, and that speaks, of course, to the visceral experience of dread, disappointment, and disgust which I share with those of you who do not celebrate the subversion of enlightened democratic social order.

Ah well. Nice while it lasted, I suppose.

So, what HAVE I been doing? Trying to write, trying to read, wrestling with two young dogs, giving advice to two older dogs, cleaning the kitchen, shopping on EBAY, watching brain numbing schlock on my 81 streaming services, and combing through Facebook in order to find tigers who have bonded with weasels and foxes who play with border collies.

I’ve never been much of a presence on Facebook, dropping in every few weeks to see if everyone I know is OK. I’ll add a huzzah to birthday greetings and congratulate newlyweds and newborns. From the depths about a month ago I started to click on short reels of border collies doing what border collies do best (being smart and active). One clever dog led to another, and now  I am no longer invited to shout out and congratulate the humans who once inhabited my Facebook universe but wake each day invited to join yet another highly segmented, increasingly specialized animal friend group:

 Border Collies, I Love Border Collies, Border Collie Puppies, Border Collie Puppies For Adoption, Bull Moose Who Chase Border Collies,  Rubik’s Cube for My Dog, David Attenborough’s Dog Riding the Bus, Does Your Dog Jump On Guests? (Guests? The only guests we see are bears, deer, and squirrels, and YES my dogs jump on anything that moves!), Bull Moose Crossing Highways, Pool Time At Doggy Daycare, Foxes Listening to Music, Things You Get With A Golden Retriever (mostly hair, apparently), Deer Coming Through Doggy Doors, Bears on Trampolines, Foxes Playing With Puppies, Bison Charging Buses in Yellowstone, People adopting Lion Cubs, People hugging Swans, SOOOO many Russians Wrestling Bears,, Signs Your Dog Is Happy! (“Soft Eyes, etc.), Angry Sheep Facing Off Against Border Collies, More Than One -Can You Guess What Animal Is Locked In My Car?, How To Reassure A Dog That Love Persists Even When Not Allowed To Share Bathroom… 

Occasionally another stream opens up. Apparently I am also the person who needs: Warrior Chair Tai Chi (Lots of hip clapping!) How To Remove Price Tags With Flame, Something Scientific About Leaving A Carrot in The Toilet For 24 Hours (Titled “They Should Teach This In School!”), and many, many “helpful” tips on aging gracefully, almost all of which require some sort of physical activity, so …

For the past week, however, the first thing I’ve seen when opening Facebook is a portal entitled: “My Cat Is An Asshole.” I don’t currently have a cat, but this post is the kind of dangerous provocation I have worked very hard to avoid. I stay away from political exchange because I am barely hanging on as it is. Do I need to defend this cat? I’d have to open the reel to begin with, and I’m pretty sure the cat universe is one I do not need to enter. Maybe the cat is a terrible, horrible, very bad cat. Am I providing hope and succor by watching whatever atrocities it performs and responding with a big thumbs up? Will that have any effect on the cat, the owner, or the universe?

Look, I know the obvious remedy is to leave Facebook permanently unopened even if it means I miss out on another reel of bears playing on trampolines (I mean, Pretty Great!), but … occasionally a random post will point me to a realm of knowledge and expertise I had not known I lacked. Using flame to remove labels, for example. 

I’m walking away from Facebook for a while, taking time to work on the Cogitator and my most recent not-very-mysterious mystery, and using flame to remove labels. What makes more sense in this nonsensical quadrant of decline known as now?