Grown up, but still a lovely scoundrel

I think Oliver still holds the prize for the most charming/photogenic of all my dogs.

A Guest Beauty

This is young Mr. Q, a Lockeye pup out of a sister of Moon. He lives in Switzerland with Evelyn Constantinidis and her wonderful pack of dogs. Moon and Molly belong to an extended dog family who stays in touch with each other and I think that is part of what makes them so special-being able to share with people who truly understand how I feel about my dogs-because they feel the same way too.

It was only a few days ago Q was living with his siblings in Oklahoma-now he's off on his world tour.

Lent

No. I'm not Catholic, but I like the idea of sacrifice making you grateful for what you have and aware of what other's don't, so I typically give something up for Lent. This year, it's Starbucks. And yes, it hurts. It is my stress reliever comfort food protein source all rolled into one. But, it's 5 bucks a cup.

I went to the local hispanic market today-they had chicken thigh quarters on for 29 cents a pound. Score for the dogs and their raw meat diet. The lady in front of me was checking out, paying cash, and was going to have to put back a gallon of milk-without thinking I said, "No, no, I'll pay." And she was very grateful and I felt good.

Let's just say I don't dress for success on gardening/chore/dog days. I was in a muddy pair of jeans, t-shirt and my hair was sticking straight up, so this poor soul probably thought I was in bad shape too. But that made the gift all the sweeter. And suddenly, thinking of her kids who would have had to do without milk, I didn't feel nearly so put out that I didn't get a Starbuck's today.

Another miracle was that I was not at all conflicted about buying meat for my dogs when she couldn't buy milk for her kids. One, the meat I did buy was less expensive than premium dog food and much healthier, and two, they ARE what sustains me, just as her kids probably sustain her.

It's the first time in a long time I've mentally asserted my right to have things too. Maybe I should have given up Starbuck's a long time ago.

Hee heee heeee! HAW

Ooooooh yes, what a good week this has been in Oliver Land. That woman still has some craps and she bought me two pints of strawberries too. AND, a banana. With all that good fruit, who needs to eat the grungy old bird food? But she won't give me so much as one crap unless I eat my bird food.

I've learned some new words. Cody, Moonie, Lily. I hardly ever say Slim any more-I realize now that each of the furries has a name, just like I do. I am a bit confused about the one who they call "Oliver. What kind of idiot would name a furry after ME? I am Oliver, yet the woman refers to the brown scraggly one as "Oliver". That puzzles me. The world is full of sounds, why would you need the same sound for two different things? No wonder you people are confused.

HAHAH HAAAAAA! eeeeeeh, yes, yes, yes NO, NO NO....heh heh heh.........Happy Animal Wednesday.

PrePost

Tomorrow, which will be today when you read it, I'm sitting at the hospital with Daddy while Mom has her second cataract surgery. So, I thought I'd write something today to post for tomorrow. The only trouble is, I seem to have run out of things to say and share.

And its not like there aren't many wonderful things going on in my life, I'm just having a little trouble enjoying them. Depression is such a nasty, ugly, insidious disease. It creeps up on you and sucks the life right out of you before you can realize what's going on. Then, when you realize, you have to fight back the depression that comes from realizing you are depressed (again). Talk about kicking someone when they are down.

My strategy has been to work each day on what I can do, and to let the bigger picture kind of fade into the background for awhile. I don't much feel like looking at the big picture, and so much of it is truly beyond my control. Lots of it makes me really pissed off. WHAT? Obama didn't solve the financial crisis in the first 8 days? What kind of moron thought that was even possible?

I worked my ass off for a Master's in Journalism, and am too disenchanted to use it. I don't ever want to be like those people, the ones I read every day. Too disenchanted to be an accountant, too disenchanted to be a compliance officer. I look at the classified and know I truly can not do those things ever again.

My father mentioned that wanted to be a pooper scooper was sinking pretty low, and I snapped back "Not as low as taking big money to look the other way....." How the hell did I get so moral in my old age?

With a gift for writing, I could spin numbers so that even auditors would sign off. Falsifying numbers is bad-but in the big grey sea of subjectivity, the ability to spin an idea is priceless. Yay me. But I never believe my own spin, and that's why I couldn't do it any more.

I feel like an hold has been/never was. I feel like I had the "American Dream" and pissed on it because I didn't like the rules. I'm afraid I'll end up a crazy cat lady.

While Mom prepared Sunday dinner, Daddy and I watched some sort of extreme building show where this fellow had spent 40 years hand building a castle out of found materials. His life's work. It did keep him going and in good shape, but he didn't seem very happy. He was angry at the government and angry at people who didn't understand his vision. If I do end up a crazy old coot, I hope I'm not an angry one.

Prickly Pear

With permission from Jim Wakeland on one of my Yahoo Groups. I feel a bit prickly myself today.

Planting Onions

Mom is not supposed to bend over because of her cataract surgery. She finally relented and let me help plant onions-she poked the holes and supervised the placement and packing of the earth. I got down on my hands and knees (wearing my beloved wellies), rubber gloves and my knee pads and surrendered to the entire process. Her onions, her patch, her direction. We had one of the most special times we've had.

I took the surplus onions and planted them in my surplus dirt-not one little onion stalk was wasted. Mom and I disagree on many things, but onions are not one of those things.

My scheme to fight depression and low energy today

HAW HAW what the heck?

GOOD LORD!!!! What a commotion. The woman brought in another slim, err, dog. It threw a howling fit during MY opera time and I told it QUIET QUIET. What is wrong with people? Raising a fuss during opera time is not ok.

The woman is so funny-she never just ushers a critter in and shows it all around. No, she keeps it seperate, and then SLOWLY introduces us to it, as if we don't KNOW that it's there. We ALL know it's there, but she keeps mumbling something about not overwhelming the puppy. Geeze, if the puppy can't take some civil conversation, it should just pack it up and go elsewhere.

I did get a new bag of craps though. I'm trying to watch my figure. The woman gave a couple to the parakeets who were too small and stupid to even eat them. Oh, I forgot, the littlest, weakest one died last week. It never molted once-I guess the stress of all it had been through was just too much. It was the grey one too and the woman was sad because she said it never had a chance. I watched her cradle it, and I knew not to interrupt or say anything rude. At least its last weeks were spent in a safe, warm, bright place. Still, like I said before, what's wrong with people?

The picture is of the new creature and The Prissy. The Prissy is not amused at all-ha ha ha. Of all of us, she is the most narcissistic-she'd really be happy as an only child somewhere. Maybe in a previous life she killed all her siblings and now has to come back as a very small dog in a very large household......HAW! Karma is such a bitch.

Kind of a big deal to me

I've never seen one of my snakes begin a shed. All I had was the little pocket Olympus, which meant I had to get close during what is a cranky time for most snakes. Green Tree Pythons are notorious biters, but GloWorm is such a good, patient boy. He does look a little annoyed, but this is supremely tolerant behavior for a young snake.

Doesn't the old skin look like he's growing a beard?

Cactus Garden?

Still waiting on my dirt-maybe a cactus could take root?

Happy Cactus Monday.

Glory

This is Molly's Mom.
It's funny, the other pups in the litter were merles like Sage (red and blue) but I got my little red smoothie just like I wished for.

Molly

I let Mom name Molly, uh, Molly. She's too much of a chunk to be a Vixen, and Freckles sounds like a boy name. Mom loves naming my dogs, even if she won't admit it.

Dreams

Dreams come and go, some come true, some never do
Others arrive in ways you'd never expect
Maybe it's all a dream.

The Woman Adds......

Shhhh, don't tell Waddlever (or the AP press service) that I added this photo of hail accumulation about 20 miles from here. Fortunately for US, we missed that fun part! HAW

ooooooh HAW~ Thar She Blows!

OOOOOH, about 5 today the sky got dark and the sirens blew and blew. I got so annoyed. I yelled "GOOD LORD....NO NO NO! QUIET! " and the woman laughed at me. Those silly humans kept blasting away. It was funny though, the dogs howled and I got to yell at them too. Humans need all manner of things to tell them to come in out of the wind and rain. They aren't terribly smart.

I shared my apple with the parakeets and the dogs today. Everyone got a bite. I'm such a pretty good bird, aren't I?

The woman was going to take a picture of the big snake who is in shed and looks "ghostly", but the big snake was not feeling the love. I think the Teri woman will be glad. HAW!

The Prissy was bad today-bad dog bad dog. She was angry because Greta and Moon got to go for a truck ride, and she got out and ran down the street. The Prissy has almost as big an ego as I do, but she's not as pretty or clever. Dogs never are.

The woman is speaking to me about being in charge of a new puppy. I've never trained a puppy before-it might be pretty interesting. I'm already really good at giving commands and clicking-heh heh heh heh.....I do love to boss things around.

OOOOOH, I had a lovely bath yesterday. Sorry, no pictures, I don't like nekkid pictures of me on the internet. HAW!!!!!

I got A Valentine from Lolo!

Thanks so much-I haven't had a Valentine in years. Sounds pathetic, but it's true.

Woops Sorry

I really didn't mean to leave a picture of foot gunk up for several days.

I had a lovely day of riding and horse work yesterday. Mr. Bailey and I executed several proper turns with him working off his hind quarters. It was a good day-he was just cranky as all get out and I had to make the ride happen-but it was good for both of us. And I took him for a long walk/graze afterward.

I stopped and bought 60 Cinderblocks (an entire truckload) and I am halfway through laying out my raised bed garden project. After my lunch settles I'll finish. It's been really cool working with the blocks, you can build a big impressive something in a fairly short time and that's good for the ego. Plus, the weight of the blocks pushed the truck down, yet I have been able to move that weight one block at a time-it's been a powerful lesson which I will meditate on as I finish up my project.

Ionic Footbath

A few weeks ago I had an ionic foot bath. They put particles in the water which are absorbed into your lymph system, and after 27 minutes the machine thingy draws the particles back out with a lot of noxious looking/smelling goo. This is MY goo.



I feel kind of like that today-just a sweltering pile of blech.

HAW, that chick is losing it!

She knew she had plans with her father for Tuesday, and what comes after Tuesday? Animal Wednesday!!!!! She was in the act of logging in to the blog to write about her day when I caught her. UH UH-NO! I get one day a week and I'm not about to share it.

We did have a nice moment this week. I was flying around the house and then got ready to go back. I was pooped, so I started walking and she came up, didn't have a perch, but offered me her hand. It was a big moment of trust for both of us. I stepped up without being told and was touched that she trusted me. I was so touched I didn't even give her a little nip.

I've figured out if I don't want to eat the pebbly things (preformed bird kibbles) that I can just throw them in my water bowl and she'll fuss, but she'll clean out the bowl. She's been feeding me more on the fruit veggie end these days-I may have been hitting the cheese and peanuts a little hard. Flying is difficult when you are too fat.

The small, inferior parakeets are terrified of me. They are fine if I stay across the room, but if I go near their cage they freak out. The woman says they think I'm a hawk, or maybe a fierce, harpy eagle. So now she calls me "The Harpy", but I still call myself Mr. Bird. I can get more syllables into the word bird than even that Okie woman. Mr. Biiiirrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrr dddddd.
Heh heh. Haw haw haw.....HAWWWWWWWWWW!

Canine Massage?

I'm thinking about taking some classes/getting a certification. What do you think?

I did sleep well last night

Exercise and relaxation is a great combo-I'm going to have to do more of it.