duty is exactly how it sounds...

So, Patrick is on duty tonight.  Duty is super fun for me, probably just as much as it is for him.  Which is a bold statement considering he has to get up an hour earlier work all day, is on duty all night, and then has to go straight back to work a full day.  Count 'em, that's a solid 38ish hours he is at work.  So you can see why it is brazen for me to say I'm suffering just as much.  Here's why:

These two little gems, here shown in their attire from last year's Christmas card photo shoot, turn into different dogs when Patrick isn't around.

They somehow know when he won't be around for 38ish hours, and they go into psycho-dog  over-protective mode.  They bark at everything and nothing.  They make me SO incredibly paranoid.  Tonight for instance, Jack jumped off the bed, ran out of the room, down the stairs (Winston and I followed) and he went straight to the front door and proceeded to pace back and forth while doing his high pitched squeal.  WHAT?!?!  Then he jumped on the couch and continued pacing and squealing while Winston took over front door duty with his nose pressed firmly against the crack between the door and the floor sniffing away.  They bark all night and don't let me get any sleep.  

Issues with the dogs aside, even mother nature knows when Pat is gone on duty.  It is ONLY on the nights that I am home alone that there is a terrible storm.  Last time we got approx. 10 inches of rain in one day with 30 mph winds and our grill blew over and I had to bring everything inside as if there was a freakin' hurricane!  This time is similar, minus some of the rain, add a lot more cold, and so much howling wind the power as been flickering all day.  Oh and there's the thunder.  We're in for one good night.  Thank goodness for TV on Demand, right?

PS:  The dogs don't care when Patrick is left alone.  We discovered this when I was "nest sitting" for a turtle nest down the road.  I left for a few hours, came back around 9 pm, and Patrick was asleep.  I unlocked, opened, and shut the front door; silence.  Stomped my way up the stairs; silence.  Opened the bedroom door to a snoring husband and 2 puppy faces smiling up at me with wagging tails.  How does he get to be so lucky?!

PPS:  Minus all the barking antics, they are the best snugglers I could ask for.  Love them.