Quiet... for the first time in a long time, maybe forever... things are quiet... quiet except for the noises of day-to-day life... the vacuum cleaner, Freud's snorfuls... the squawks of Henrietta Chicken... currrent events. The normal sounds of everyday life are everywhere... but there's always something lurking in the background, something... Always... like rats under the floorboards maybe... Still, except for those muffled scuttlings, Eric's life has somehow become... safe? Safe... Quiet... safe... simple... No... not simple; simpler? Perhaps... Eric has settled in his home with Freud, his "man's best friend," and the affection (let's not say love, let's not go there) of a woman has Eric found his new normal? But, normal... what's in a word? Just what... and well... what's normal these days anyway? As Eric finds a moment of quiet, a moment of almost peace, a moment to look around... a moment to peek into the madness of others' lives... a peek... just a peek... And what he sees: what he sees... Why people change every day, they start over, they remake themselves... they even reimagine themselves in ways that were unknown to most of American humanity not so long ago... Imagine that... And they pass away, in control or out of it... but they pass away... And all of this activity is seen from sometimes near, and sometimes far, by Eric... peek, by peek, by peek... Peeks at the new normals of American life... Peeks at the new forms, shapes, and content of current American families. Peeks at these new relationships, and the people that go into them all... There are new norms all over America now... and who can say what makes a "norm" anymore? Those "norms" just ain't what they used to be, those... he, she, zir, hir, ze... those norms... And "normal..". what's in a word... any word... There ain't no new norms for Eric, as far as he's concerned he's busy living his familiar, a relationship with a woman doesn't stop him from searching those alternate dating websites, and the beautiful house, and its hard-earned security... it's a sham... A sham... Whether anyone knows or not... this quiet, this security, that relationship, it's all a sham... and Eric's trapped in that sham. Trapped the house..." a normal life..". trapped, a prison... But with Freud for company, at least... and that's familiar... that's normal... As The Dog Barks On Some More.