The Long Process of Settling In

We are here in Corvallis and have begun the long process of settling in.

My friend Anne loaned me two folding camp chairs and an airbed. Besides the dog crates and suitcases, that's the sum total of our belongings at this point.

The Saudi shipment won't be here until June (inshallah). I was hoping my eBox was here already but I haven't gotten an email about it. My pots, pans, silverware, and good knives are in there and having those would go a long way to making this place feel like home.

The cats are not settling in too quickly. HellBeast won't eat. However, Tsingy seems to be doing a bit better. She's camped out on a blanket on top of a dog crate staring out of the front windows at this new green world.

Azza has taken to the new backyard quickly. She's been in backyards before because it was one of our usual habits to let our dogs play in the yards of empty houses in Dhahran. However, this is HER backyard and she can eat sticks and grass and run around as she chooses. The terriers are a bit more regimented about their exploration of the yard but they seem to be happy in it.

I took them for a walk in the pre-dawn dark this morning. We are all waking up at odd hours because of the jet lag. It is very quiet in this neighborhood.

One thing I discovered (I suspected it before the actual experiment) is that Azza's paws, adapted for running on loose sand, act as extremely efficient water scoops, so that her belly quickly gets soaking wet. She has no hair to speak of on her lower half so I ordered her a raincoat with a "chest shield"!

Here's a nice picture of the dogs napping that I took while I was writing this update.




I took this one of Tsingy at the back door yesterday. This was just after I had finished sweeping and mopping the floor and cleaning the glass door.