Wooops!

How long after your dog goes to Doggie Heaven does it take for you to realize that the little munchkin is not there to clean up the occasional food mishap. We always exclaimed, "Whoops!", every time we dropped a morsel on the floor to let the dog know there was a tidbit there for her. I am still "Woopsing", but have to go back and clean up the mess. The first week after Tip's flight, the kitchen floor looked like hell, and the squirrels thought that I had come around to the idea of artificially feeding wild animals.

Get it may take a while. I found one of her toys in my by-the-back-door-garden-crap-I-won't-leave-out-in-case-a-great-big-spider-takes-up-residence-and-tries-to-attack-me basket.

Anyway, I can see why dogs were so handy during the Dark ages.

Summmmmmertime Bounty

It seems that the last few weekends have culminated with family, friends, food, and great times. This next weekend will bring a reunion with one side of the family, while a gathering at the end of next month will bring us together with the other side. This weekend will also herald another pool party for the "babies". Is it Kosher to still call them that? I'm not sure. They are definitely old enough to admonish me for my temporary lapses into the world of the expletive: but seem forgiving and entertained enough not to rat me out to their Papa. I can usually ransom my way out of trouble with a "bawoon" from Papa's office or jelly bean from the candy dish. Looking into their impish faces and twinkling eyes, I see resemblances of both my sons and a glimps of the future.

I look upon all the events as a time to touch base, and spend precious moments, with both sons and family and extended family. Although one of the reunions has been motivated by severe illness, we will take the time to celebrate the fact that those of us that are there, can eat, drink, and laugh together, even though the future may not be very bright.

Stand aside, I have side dishes and dessert to prepare! I feel caprese and chocolate coming on........

Lactose and the Quirky

I have an affinity for lovely cheeses, and was thoroughly in my element in England. My bi-weekly trips to Cambridge were made to visit the cheese monger to ensure that the fridge always had a ration of Stilton, Leicester, Edam, Brie, and "hard" cheese. Now that the U.S. has finally caught up it's a pleasure to go to our farmers market and find quark, Portuguese Dry Jack, Cheddars and other delights, in additon to fruits and veggies.

Having recently raided the sausage factory, my lunches currently consist of bits and pieces--bread or crackers, sausage, cheese, fruit, and alas, soda (not wine!). Others I work with think I'm just too frugal to buy a sandwich or burger. Some even think I'm quirky. Tomorrow, lunch will be ledt over Caprese, sausage, french bread, and iced tea. A sweet Pluot and (golf course) blackberries will round out the meal.

So sorry for the Quiznos and Carls set. Eat your heart out!

Furlough Foolishness

This furlough this is making less and less sense to me. It appears to me that there is no true budgetary savings, and the loss of work time and the stress that it puts on our already burdened State services and human capital has yet to be included in the calculated "savings".

Here's what just doesn't comput. I have to take three days off without pay--a little less than 15% of my pay. With the time that I have worked, and with the special program I am in, I earn two days off a month that are vested and are mine until I either use them or retire and cash them out (in some form or other). I usually try to take the days off, just to stay even; but with the advent of the furlough, I am not taking my days off. So here's what's happening:

My pay is reduced which naturally reduces my taxable gross, therefore I pay less in State and Federal taxes (and I pay a lot of taxes) and social security. I am banking the leave days that I would normally take off, thereby increasing a State liability of difference between the one day of leave that I am not taking less the taxes that I am not paying.

On my days off, I use it for going to the doctor and using the other services that are provided as a part of my employment. Normally, I wouldn't use the services, but because I have the spare time now, I use the services--therefore increasing medical plan and other costs. I spend less because I have less money, therefore decreasing sales revenue. Let's face it, staying home and reading a book or working in the garden cheap.

What I am doing is universal throughout the State. So tell me, how is this saving?

Squirrely

This morning around 2:30, the resident squirrels (or rats—no problem, there is no difference) put up such a ruckus in our palm tree. Two were chattering loud enough to make even the noisy neighbors take notice, and it was easy to tell that it was definitely an animal discussion—squirrels aren’t nocturnal. Later in the morning, when we were both fully awake, we discussed what might have happened. My husband said that the male squirrel probably came home too late and the lady squirrel found an unidentifiable and strange grey hair.

I thought that the male woke up, and being a little frisky, wanted some midnight lovin’. I thought that the lady squirrel was probably saying, “What a squirrely thing to ask! Are you nuts? You’re an animal! Knock it off, or you are soooooo out of this tree.” My husband added that maybe the squirrel had lipstick on its tail. I told my husband not to get any bright ideas, and it probably wasn’t the squirrel’s birthday…..

Anyway, all was quiet at 6:00 a.m. I’ll keep and eye out for other foolishness, too.

Independence Day

This morning with the dawn of the 4th, I heard a thump on our large front windows. "I think they are leaving today", I said to my husband, knowing that this would probably be the day all along. I peeked out the upper window--only one baby and Mama peering back.

Now, one is stuck on the lower roof, probably thinking, "Oh, hell, what did I do now". From roof to brick ledge to grass and back again, testing, and trying. It may take the other one and hour or a day to get up courage, but it will go. So, again we are empty-nesters.

Having a Bang Up Good Time

In the last few weeks, I have seen more of my son's and grandson's that even I thought was possible. We have celebrated Father's day, my youngest son's birthday, and now tomorrow, the 4th. The one thing I have been able to see is that they have become wonderful men that bring me a great deal of joy and laughter. My older son is making his way quite nicely, working extremely hard, and showing the same signs of father and husbandness that makes for a life of satisfaction and joy.

My younger son has gone through a period of personal turmoil, and is in the process of re-discovering the person, with the same hopes, dreams, ambitions, and self-confidence, that he was in the past. He has worked so very hard to balance life, school, and work, in the last few years, that it is hard to believe that he is yet to really strike out on this adventure call, "life". I know with the direction that he chooses, whatever it is, he will do well, because a see a calmness that balance and resolution can bring.

The next year for all of us will be a challenge, but together, we can all pull through. Happy 4th!

Dog Gone, doggonit!

Last month, we lost our dear Tipper. On June 1st, at the age of 15 1/2 she went to puppy heaven to join our other dog, Tassie. If you had told me before it happened, that over a period of twenty-five years we would have had only two dogs, I would had thought you were silly. Farm dogs, after all, and larger breeds, (the only kind of dog I was familiar with), don't live longs lives. So, the fact that both these two girls managed to stick with us for 15+ years (each) is a mystery to me. When we told the neighbors about our loss, one of them commented that knowing how everyone in our house gets the royal treatment, he wouldn't have minded being our dog for 15 years!

Anyway, the dog is gone; and on various occasions, I actually slip and think that I hear her tags jingle, or glimpse a sight of doggie movement out of my side vision. Would you call that doglucination, or flat out canine separation complex? Why does it seem that everywhere we turn, someone has the cutest damn dog you ever saw? Is this the way that man, humans ended up with pets in the first place?

It will be a while before we go there again...opening our hearts up to a pet that can so utterly consume our love; but when we do, we probably won't see it coming!

I don't get it...........

Now you know I’m not a quitter
But it seems you’re all a twitter
Any you’ve morphed into a social butterfly.

Is a girl suppose to rue
When it seems that all you do
Is flaunt, and gush, and maybe make a sigh?

With your heart upon your sleeve
It appears to be a sieve
And your motives have been looking sort of thin.

As you stretch the one last link
I can see you just don’t think
That it matters any more to show you care.

Time to settle down and ponder
If tomorrow you will wonder
Of the things you might have done that now are past.

But for now, you’ll have to twitter
When it seems to me the quitter
Doesn’t understand the gift has all but gone.

Duhs Are Back

She's back this summer, only higher up under the eaves where the jays can fret her and the babies. Two broods so far. The last are ready to fledg. One more brood and we will need, "Bird Control" pills.