Sunshine after the Rain

After many, many days of incessant rain, the sun has finally come back out. Bow is happy.

On Wednesday Lawrence stayed with Bow while I ran errands. When the delivery person brought a new man with her, Bow was at first wary, but then he warmed up to the new man. It turned out he really liked him. Bow gestured to Lawrence excitedly that he wanted to say something. Then he took Lawrence's hand and spelled: "I want him to come in."

Bow can go for a long time without saying anything new or surprising. But when he needs to say something in order to express himself, he knows how.

Someday, we will develop new ways to test intelligence and learning. Instead of expecting a subject to be compliant, we will test what they can do when they are actually engaged by the subject and are initiating a communication rather than responding to one.

Successful employers have already noticed that a high GPA predicts little about future performance by a employee, besides coming to work every day. Soon they will realize that standardized testing does not tell you much about creative use of intelligence in real life. Once we develop a way to determine knowledge and ability without cooperation, when we distinguish compliance from intelligence, Bow's achievements will shine, and people will see that he is much smarter than that dog who can identify objects by name on command.

In the meantime, Bow and I continue with our routines. There's a new review of Theodosia and the Pirates: The War Against Spain on Amazon. Bow and I are spending more time outdoors. In the video below from yesterday, Bow and I were just sitting peacefully on the stoop together, when I noticed an injured wasp on the floor. I asked Bow if he caused that.

Right after lunch, I went out for a walk and noticed a butterfly sunning itself on the road. I stayed and looked at it until a car drove by and the butterfly flew away.

On my way back to he house, I spotted several colorful butterflies enjoying the milkweed flowers in our pasture.

In the evening, I went to a local carnival with my daughter and her friend. It was Friday the 13th, and people had made up a rumor that there was a murderer at large at the carnival. Of course, we saw no sign of a murderer. But I did get a great shot of the sun setting at the carnival grounds.

Bow's Birthday Bash

Yesterday, Bow turned twelve. We had a small and exclusive party for him. The only guests were Lawrence and his youngest daughter Lori. Sword was out of town visiting her grandmother, so besides myself, those were the only guests.

Bow knew that it was his birthday and got progressively more excited as he saw me making the preparations. We celebrate his birthday every year, so he knows what to expect when he sees a birthday cake and a balloon and presents.

Bow's uncle sent Bow two boxes of  the finest pears. (Ordinary pears would simply not do!)

Among the presents from me was a helium balloon.

When the guests arrived, Bow was happy and well behaved. He even made it nicely through a weird rendition of the birthday song. Usually I sing the Hebrew song first, then everybody else sings the English song. (They do not have the same melody.) But this time Lawrence and I sang at the same time, even though these were different songs.

Then the dogs announced that there was an intruder on our property. It was just that Australian shepherd from across the road. We had not seen her in all the cold winter months, but in the last couple of days she has made a renewed appearance. Bow gets very upset when someone is trespassing on our land, and we almost had to send Lawrence out to deliver the dog safely back to its owner, but at the last moment, Bow calmed down and let us help him  blow out the candles, and then he had a piece of cake.

The neighbor really does not understand how disruptive having that dog on our property is. She thinks the problem is mine and not Bow's. But it's Bow who will not suffer strangers on our land, and for him a dog counts just as much as a human.

But there was cake to eat and a guest to play with, so Bow made the best of things.

Normally, after eating cake, Bow will open his presents.

But this time he was less interested in the presents than in playing with his birthday guest, Lori.

This video only represents a fraction of the time that Lori and Bow actually spent playing chase and getting to know each other.

After the guests left, Bow decided he wanted to try one of his birthday pears.

He ate the pear with great relish and so speedily that it seemed to disappear right before my eyes.

The pear proved quite satisfactory! And it was gone in the blink of an eye.

There was also the birthday balloon. It was of short duration, but still worth the effort.

Bow enjoyed the balloon while it lasted, but did not mourn its passing.

Bow got many other gifts, including a light up toy from Lori, and a set of paints from Lawrence, as well as a picture of himself and Lawrence together. But for Bow, the things that really count in life are good food and good company. He does not value material objects nearly as much. He enjoyed his time with Lawrence and Lori, the birthday cake and the birthday pear. Life is good!

All in all, it was a fine birthday bash for Bow.