Woolly Mutts

Time it was, oh what a time it was.

This is the view from my office window.  Look at that glorious orange tree.  It inspires me every day.

Well, let me tell you, we've been having a time over here in Muttville. I'm still coughing, though there has been improvement.  Will see the doctor again next week. I continue to work on my sexy voice since my vocal chords have been trashed.  I think it lends a bit of mystery. (not even)

These two sad sacks.....

...are having their own struggles.  Miss Magnolia has begun walking in circles and has lost most of her balance.  Most likely a brain tumor, which sounds really dramatic, but considering her age and symptoms is a real probability.  We'll continue to watch her and hope she'll let us know when it's time to let her go.

Samten has a horrible bacterial infection caused by licking and scratching from allergy itching.

See his little naked back leg? Both legs look like that as does the underside of his body.  This has required multiple vet visits, two antibiotics and now a medicated shampoo where we bathe him 3 times a week, each time leaving the shampoo on his skin for 10 minutes. He's been so good about it, poor thing.  He's so sad right now.

However, there has been good news!!!! Last week we had the front window replaced!  This house was built, I think, in 1980 and has been aging, as we all do, in some not so attractive ways.  One was the leak in the thermopane of the big front window.  I give you exhibit A.

Boo.....hiss......ugly...bye, now.  The installers demoed that thing out of there in no time.

Getting the new one in took much longer, but the results are just amazing.

That is Adam.  He is the crew chief and a really great guy.  He is from Poland and he tells me, as I cough away, that he has remedy that can fix me right up.  I take the vodka, the good kind, this very important, add some lemon and ginger and bottoms up.  Cured in no time. Couldn't hurt. :-) 

These guys were such perfectionists and we are just thrilled with the results.  They also recapped our front and garage doors and replaced some front siding.  Taking this opportunity to spruce things up even more, Tom took down all the outside lights, cleaned them and then spray painted them a new color.  He is also repainting the front of the house. In case you're wondering, the house is all brown because I want it to look organic; like it grew here.  (I know. Consider the source. I'm never going to win any awards for conformity.)

He just finished putting up the house number that was made for me by Leif Bjornson, a potter from St. Croix Falls, WI in 1993. It's the little things.

Please send us good thoughts as we heal and continue to try and find the beauty in every day. A little seasonal weather wouldn't hurt.

Oh, and Go Cubbies!.

Namaste. xo

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The cough

Dudes, I am sick.  The Cough has once again visited my lungs and it sucks.  I don't cough like normal people, who quietly hack into a hankie.  I cough and gag and choke and gak and occasionally puke. My father was the same way.  I remember he used to carry around licorice flavored lozenges in his shirt pocket.  My mother's father always had a tube of Vicks that he would stick up his nose and sniff.  Apparently I am genetically predisposed to breathing issues.  Lucky me.  I feel just disgusting.  My entire body hurts from the coughing and the major lack of sleep.  I even had to miss my nail appointment, which is so bad.  So bad.  But my whining is not the purpose of this post.  That sweet faced dog up there is.  He is deeply offended by my coughing.

Seriously.  I start to cough and he leaves the room, but not before giving me a look of complete disapproval.  This is an animal that is pretty much deaf to everything but high pitched whistles, but my coughing, he hears that and is not amused.  In the middle of the night he tries to get me to let him outside, like he's going to go out and wait until it's over.  Then he comes back in and I cough again and he gets up and goes to the door again.  I'd like to think that he feels some sort of doggie empathy for my suffering, but no.  He's just pissed.

Last night I got up and went to sit up in my office chair for awhile (it's really comfy) and he came in and just stared at me. Believe me, if there is a technique to ease this coughing, I've tried it and I tried to explain that to him, which just made me cough more because talking is a major cough trigger.  He went to hide in the bedroom closet. Aren't dogs supposed to have a deep need to offer support and comfort?  I think my dog is defective.  Then again, he's old and we all get a little cranky with age.

I emailed with the doctor's office and got the usual response; if I'm not running a fever just let it run its course.  If I'm still coughing after a week to 10 days give them a call.  I'm pretty sure that if I'm still coughing in 10 days Sam will have packed up and moved in with Kysa. I might be okay with that.

Stay well, people.  The Cough is evil and I'm doing my best to keep it to myself.  Darn lungs.  Darn dog. 

To brighter days ahead.  Namaste. xo

Clown lives matter

Buddha and his sun powered disco ball. (You could be dancing....yeah.)

I do not consider myself to be an overly fearful person. I mean, we all have fears, like our family members becoming ill or injured, or your big, bad natural disaster (I'm looking at you, Matthew).  I do fear being burned (been there, done that), but things that other people might shy away from, like spiders or snakes, I really like. I'll tell you what I don't like, at all, even a little, clowns.

My clown hang up is actually a subset of a bigger problem with people in costume.  This includes, but is not limited to, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, team mascots, and the giant robin that gets led around by the hand at Red Robin. To this day, at nearly 59 years old, I will do what ever it takes to keep Santa Claus a safe distance away from me, and by safe distance, I mean miles.

We have to blame for this irrational neurosis, my father, who when I was almost 2, decided it would be fun to dress up like Jolly Saint Nick and come home that way.  He came through the door, hoisted me up whilst shouting HO HO HO and I lost my shit.  Probably in a literal sense.  We have pictures of him in that crazy get up and me, mouth wide and screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I was never the same after that.  Did I want to visit Santa at the mall? No.  Did I want the Easter Bunny to come and bring candy? No.  Did I want to leave my tooth under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy to come? No. Do you want to dress up as a witch and knock on people's door to get candy? Are you kidding me?  Anyone in any sort of a costume was the enemy in my book

Oh, but clowns? Clowns come directly from hell to steal your soul. I always suspected it, but Stephen King confirmed it and that dude is never wrong. Have you read IT, because I have and, well.....no clowns.  Just no clowns.

Now that you know my little secret, you can probably understand that the latest rash of clown attacks has had me a little uneasy.  While Tom was out of town, a neighborhood watch group I follow reported a person dressed like a clown shooting paintballs at a local elementary school, which was bad, but THEN he was sighted on my street.  Why, why must people act like idiots? Paintball Clown was never apprehended and has probably long since ditched the mask and moved on to other acts of vandalism and stupidity.  Please let that be true.

Rationally, I am aware that beneath the latex and faux fur costumes are perfectly lovely people who are just doing their thing to make the world a more fun and entertaining place.  I wish them all well, even the clowns.  It isn't fair that the good ones are being penalized because of a few nut cases.  These are hard days to be clowns. To quote the Insane Clown Posse, “So there ARE no "killer clowns"--it's just jackasses being jackasses so everyone relax!” If a posse of insane clowns says to relax, I'm going to try and relax.  No promises.

Namaste. xo

 

 

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Never say never

I have a fitbit.  You're laughing aren't you.  I know. It's okay.  Any kind of verbiage referring to myself and using the word "fit" is sort of hilarious. I am not fit, nor do I expect to ever again be fit.  (Wait, was I ever fit? I don't think so.) I was also the person who silently scoffed at the flood of fitbit wearers who exploded on the scene when it first came out.  Oh how the mighty (again, not even slightly mighty) have fallen.  Karl, who was looking to get rid of his, offered it to me for the bargain price of one good hug.  Sold.  I've been wearing it for just shy of a week and these are my observations.

1. So far, the coolest thing it does is tell me who is calling when my phone rings.  The first day I wore it I was doing yoga and Kysa's name flashed up on the screen. It took me a minute to associate the fitbit and my phone, to whom it is linked. I'm digging this little unexpected perk since I frequently keep my phone's ringer on silent.
2. I will never, ever make it to 10,000 steps in one day.  If I do, there had better be a party or a funeral, because 10,000 steps will surely kill me.
3. Having said the above, I walk much more than I previously thought.
4. I am now a little bit obsessed with how many steps I do walk.  I check the thing WAY too much.
5. I think it does what it was designed to do; be a good incentive to moving more.  I am much more motivated now to park WAY out in the lot so I get more steps and go up and down all the grocery store aisles, even if I don't need anything in those aisles. Same goes with any store.  This could get expensive.
6. It makes my wrist sweat.  I could live without that.
7. It is not cute, but if you layer it with enough bracelets it kind of blends in.
8. It's sort of a gateway drug because now I really want an iwatch. Christmas is coming.

Closing thoughts.....I need to move more and I think the fitbit is helping. We'll see what another few weeks brings.

P.S. My sister called this morning to tell me she had juncos (snowbirds) at her bird feeder.  Juncos arrive very close to the first snow.  I thought you might like to know that.  he he.

Nameste.  xo

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