January 16, 2026
Once again, Nancy visited the Subaru dealership, but unfortunately, I couldn’t accompany her. This time, she had a valid reason. She had an appointment with her retina specialist after the car visit. Although I don’t want to admit it, I was stuck at home with Greg, even though I enjoy spending time with Greg. I would have preferred to go to the car dealership instead. In the past three weeks, Nancy and Greg have had to jumpstart her Outback three times. Fortunately, the issue with her battery was due to the DCM (Data Communication Module) draining her battery, and it was covered under an extended warranty. 
By now, you might be wondering why I’m reporting about her car problems, especially since I didn’t get to witness it firsthand. Well, on our way to the Subaru dealership, Nancy mentioned that she was listening to a jazz station. It’s quite unusual, but what’s more surprising is that she actually enjoyed listening to it. Usually, she can’t stand the sound of most jazz saxophonists, but this particular artist was tolerable to her. She prefers jazz trumpet far more than jazz saxophone….whatever! I don’t think she’ll be taking up jazz saxophone anytime soon, but I see it as a positive sign that she’s open to exploring different music genres.
I wonder how many things so many of us don’t try because we assume we won’t like them. Just like the standard poodle breed, many people assume that we’re only pretty dogs. Little do they know that we’re almost always smarter than humans. Of course, this doesn’t include my blog readers because if you’re reading my blog, you’re smart enough to know that poodles can write blogs better than their humans could.