Friday

As a result of sleep deprivation, we stuck close to home today. Our efforts to train Toby to sleep in his crate at night have failed. We gave it three nights, each one worse than the one before. We both decided that we couldn’t physically endure another sleepless night. We have been zombies today. After a good night’s sleep, we’ll reevaluate our options.

The point was to get Toby to sleep in his crate in our bedroom instead of in the bed so we could both get a better night’s sleep. Such good intentions; such an ironic result. Last night, John and I had to flee to the spare bedrooms on the other side of the house to get away from Toby’s crying. Toby was the only one in the master bedroom. And there was really no escape from his high pitched whining and “breathy” cries that sound like screams but with air instead of voice sounds. At one point, he escaped his crate, bringing on recriminations about who forgot to throw the bolt to latch him in. It’s really difficult to argue convincingly and coherently at 2:00 a.m. after getting only one hour of sleep.

Today, I did research (I know, too late) and learned that we were going about it all wrong and probably would not find success. But I did learn that it’s very difficult and the process can drive people crazy. The advice seemed contradictory and/or impossible to pull off, at least for someone with our skill level.

Unable to think clearly, much less exercise, I decided to paint the orange grove picture for John. Right now, it’s in the ugly phase not showing much promise. 

Nevertheless, Toby is at least feigning interest.

It’s a start.

Miles walked: 5.4

Miles biked: 0