Monday, August 04, 2008

Twists and turns...

After the events of last week, I wonder where and what and how to pick things up again. One of many reasons I was glad to retire last month was that I wouldn't have to go to work anymore to find the face of someone I knew taped to the front doors of the plant with the time of their services listed. Some weeks there would be several, never more than a couple of weeks without one. Sometimes active, sometimes retired, usually older than I, though some not by much; some were younger. The union newsletter always lists the union members they are notified of who died that month; it always seems none of them got long enough to enjoy things.

So with those thoughts in mind, a renewed vow to take it all a bit less seriously and enjoy things a bit more!

Having two extra dogs here for the last week was insane! My yard isn't fenced anymore, as a 5 foot high retainer wall collapsed some years back and without some serious (read bobcat) landscaping there isn't really a way to fence the upper side of it. Angel goes out the back door on a 30 foot piece of aircraft cable anchored just outside the door; when she comes in it lies underneath and hangs there 'til next time.

Everytime one dog went outside last week, all 3 had to go. So every two hours while home and awake, there was a half hour rotation of the critters. Their German Shepard is a "runner" and John has spent countless hours through the last couple of years trying to chase her down when she gets out and decides it's time to gallavant; having her do that in a strange neighborhood didn't enthuse me, so we used "kiddy gates" and doors to make sure only the one we were putting out could get to the door.
Their little one is prone to accidents in the house (we didn't have a one) so one gate stayed up to keep her off the carpet in our bedroom...it was a long week of moving gates and such as neither of us can just step over them like we did 30 years ago.

Late afternoon meant putting their little one in her kennel to keep her from mischief and driving to feed their cats, put their mail in and water plants. Come home, rotate the dogs outside again and start dinner.

So waking up this morning to our one dog and one cat was a treat!

Yesterday I managed to move my computer desk, unwire the tower and take it out to the living room to clean the inside of it and change it's battery. The howling noise at start-up is a power supply fan that I'll be changing sometime soon. Of late, whenever I shut it down during a storm if it was off more than 12 hours I had to designate "BIOS" and all that when it started; now it should be fine for another 5 years. After putting it back together and vacuuming my way out of that room, it was past lunch.

Then I tried to vacuum up all the dog hair and my day was done, it was time to start dinner again!

Off to grab a bite to eat and then go surprise my wife by meeting her for lunch break...

For those who might wonder about Kansas in the summer:

11:00AM- 91 Farenheit- heat index 100- humidity 56%

May the week be kind to each of you!

alan

5 comments:

Kranki said...

More dogs is like more kids and all their strange dietary and toilet stuff. Hard work. BTW-I can't get over those baby gates too easily either.

Have a great week.

Jennifer said...

Musical dogs! I get a break from that game, beginning tomorrow when MrZ takes off for Mexico and Fido goes back to Mom's house. Nothin' against Fido, but it sure is easier around here with only one dog!

Stay cool, Alan!

Barbara said...

Wow, what kennel capers! LOL

It's awfully muggy here today in Canada's banana belt. On the Fahrenheit scale it's 81 degrees which feels like 84 because we are at 70% humidity. This morning when I drove into the city we were at 89% humidity so it was steamy.

Lucie G said...

Not a dog fan though for some reason they like me.

Green tea said...

I love small dogs, we had a mini-poodle poodle. I just loved him.
no hair to vacuum up..he lived 15 1/2 years.
Now I don't want to be tied down,
your a good man Alan!!