Love anyway

This time of year, when the warm weather is here but the skies are still gray, we all tend to get a little itchy.  My husband is itching to hit the road on his motorcycle, I'm itching to get back to rural life in the San Juans, and the dog -- well, he just gets itchy.  Which means that now, in addition to the insulin shots and eye drops he already gets, we put him in a cone of shame, dress him in t-shirts (to keep him from opening wounds with his incessant scratching), spray him with anti-itch medicine, and feed him benadryl.

So as a compromise we decided to take off for a couple of days, carting the dog and all his meds (he doesn't scratch as much in the car) to Eastern Washington (lots of sunshine, lots of driving, lots of dramatic scenery for my husband) to ride a ferry that's about to be de-commissioned (I love ferries) across the Columbia River.

It was a gloriously photogenic and sunny two days, so I'll be sharing photos with you for a bit.  But I did notice I was starting to get pretty cranky towards the end of each day: lack of sleep (the dog begins scratching as soon as the sun comes up), long periods of time in a confined space being driven by someone else...  As I said to my husband last night -- next time, I think I'd prefer to take a vacation FROM the dog rather than WITH the dog. 

But thinking about it this morning, I realized the ultimate message of the trip was "love anyway."  So what if the dog drives us crazy with his constant scratching: love him anyway.  So what if my husband drives a car like it's a motorcycle: love him anyway.  And so what if, thanks to lack of sleep and changes in routine, I get pretty surly by the end of the day: I need to learn to love myself anyway. 

I'm working on that...