It was dark when coming home about 8pm last night. This daylight thing shortens ever so quickly even as summer seems to still be here.
Two houses on our street are getting new tenants - traditionally a Fall activity around here. Notice that I'm working to accept the inevitable as if it were a new thing.
Bill I too am trying to ignore the darkness in the morning. I was working out (5:30 a.m.) mostly in daylight for a bit. Now it's in darkness again. Unavoidable. Sigh.
We have been letting Nattie aka Cuica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5YvtPWou68 out for about an hour at a time this past weekend. She is totally excited/scared by this. I think we have adopted a cat with our worldview. I was hoping for another Mudpie with extreme confidence but maybe this is better. Nattie can teach DH and myself how to project confidence without really having much. She had us fooled initially but is revealing more and more of her true self.
We also saw an exhibit called "The Forbidden City" this weekend. Treasures from Imperial China. Exquisite, almost painfully ornate and opulent things. Given the choice of a $60 living cat or a priceless cloisonne one I'll take Nattie thanks!
I haven't noticed that our days are shortening much yet. It's darkish at 5:30 here but I'm sure in a few weeks I'll have to resort to using a flashlight on the mornings I need to clean up after the dogs in the yard. That is a real challenge!
Some weird storm is a brewing here. The sky is so hazy I cannot see any mountains. There is a hot wind blowing in something from Arizona so I'm certain we'll have a little rain. If not just horrid heat and humidity.
Introducing Culley the office cat to our house is getting better by the day. He's less and less scared and is exploring more and more. He's been sniffing the dog door but seems a little scared of the noise the magnets make when a dog goes through it. I'm still closing it when we're not around but I hope he continues to be scared of it as I don't want him to get out without our knowledge (too many coyotes in our area).
I think I mentioned my inlaws young dog being sick. She's been diagnosed with melanoma and they are going to try chemo. My FIL is hopeful. My MIL thinks she will be gone by Christmas.
I am back to work today. Ready and not ready simultaneously. Summers are way too short.
Last edited by traveling michele; 08-18-2014 at 10:05 AM.
Wow, Michele, I don't know if I've heard of a dog getting melanoma, but I guess anything is possible. Are they able to do surgery? Where is the tumor?
As for Culley and the dogs, he's great with them. I think having the dogs at the office all the time helped with that. He has no fear of the dogs. And the dogs basically ignore him.
I'm certain that during my vacation last month, and having the animals home alone for extended periods without supervision has caused a deepening rift between Ringo and Bogey. Remember when we got Bogey he had too much interest in the cats? Well, after the personal training with the e-collar, he became much more docile and stopped trying to chase the cats and everything calmed down. But lately we've noticed that Ringo is hating Bogey more and more. He'll fluff up and growl when he sees Bogey--and of course that makes Bogey MORE interested in him! Then he'll spit at Bogey, sometimes he'll try to hit him, too. And of course that makes Bogey move unexpectedly fast which then makes Ringo flee and often Bogey gives chase. Seriously, it's Ringo that starts this. Usually Bogey won't get near Ringo but at times Ringo seeks him out to do this nasty thing. Bogey is really good to leave Ringo alone when I say "off!" but I can't get Ringo to stop egging him on. I don't know what to do to make Ringo forget about Bogey.
One of my cats does that to Jozi. If she didn't make a fuss, Jozi would ignore her!
My inlaws are impossible to get medical information from. They don't get medical stuff so I end up with half a confusing story. So I don't know. I just know she was sick, they did a ton of testing and determined it was melanoma.
I didn't know this. And I think the very elderly lab I walk may very well have one of these tumours in his mouth. That would explain a lot of recent behaviours. The poor old buy is 14 1/2 so I'm not going to add chemo to his list of woes.
I think we have had a breakthrough with Culley. This morning he followed me into the cat bathroom and talked to me while I dished their food. Later he chased Louie out of the cat room and then returned to the cat room while Louie decided to wait it out in Nicky's room. Meanwhile I decided to give Ringo a dose of his calming medicine. He has only two more pills so I'm debating on whether to ask for a refill. I had told the doctor that there are times of stress for him where it's just best to medicate him. I think she understands that this is a rare occurrence--not that I want to drug him continually. I've found that a dose or two when he gets bad calms him back to normal for several months.
Allison, I'd ask the vet for more! I know what you mean, if you just can change the behavior a few days, they forget their old behavior.
Tonight starts my night time teaching job at a local adult college. Makes for a long day, leave at 6:30 and get home around 10:30. When DD graduates I'm going back to 2 jobs. Although it is very satisfying to help some of these students, I'm getting too old for three jobs. My second job is teaching online for a university and I've done that so long it doesn't even feel like a second job. But this one night a week class from 5-10 is pretty grueling. Not just going there, but also the prep time and grading.
I'm taking off today from exercise. I'm pretty sure I've been over doing it, but I'm really loving all of it. I started strength training at a gym just two days a week, training on my own for a 5k, riding bikes (ordered a new bike!) and then if I don't do one of those things I do the exercise videos. But some days I do two of the exercises. I know you should have rest days, but I just don't want to. I went to put on a suit this morning that I like to wear the first night of class and skirt is falling off! Weight is 142 so not much from my goal of 144 so it surprised me but no complaints!
Looks like I have a knack for picking appealing dogs. All of the ones (4 in total) that I've been considering for adoption were adopted this past weekend! Always good to see adult mutt dogs given homes.
Definitely some fall-type stuff going on in my neck of the woods - the ragweed is beginning to bloom, the burning bushes are starting to turn, and yes, I'm leaving for work in the dark (ick). On the nicer side, it actually is now dark when I want and should go to bed. As far as temperatures go, it seems like we never really made it out of spring - we have had very, very few HOT days and way the heck too much rain.
The weekend mattress hunt was successful and I feel very good about what we chose (PureLatex Bliss). I'm still swallowing hard when I look at the receipt, but DS sleeps face-down on this thing for 9+ hours a night. Hoping to have it in 2-3 weeks, which gives us a bit more time to purge his room. The hard part is all the bookcases that have to come out to make room for the L-shaped desk that's 5 feet on each side. That one needs to be in place and done by 9/3 when school starts.
I have no bunny news to report, to keep up with pet stuff. I was a little amused/appalled to watch DH absolutely fall in giddy love with a young Llewellyn setter that was at a beer event we attended last weekend - he was talking about bird hunting with the owner and listening to the setter's field exploits ... yikes!
I agree, Sharon, it's hard to take a day off once you get going!
I'm trying to take one day off per week and was somewhat excited that Tuesday was so busy that I planned to take it off. However, I was dismayed when I figured out Monday would be next to impossible too and I didn't want to miss two days in a row. I compromised by doing a 33 minute youtube Kettlebell routine on Monday. I'm hoping to go back to bikram today-- I miss it if it's been a couple of days!
Dagmar-- are you planning on adopting a dog?!?!
I was back to work Monday. The crazies begin. Dh is trying to get back from Hong Kong/China and having flight issues. He's supposed to be back Thursday (he better be), to drive dd back to Arizona Friday, to then fly to Houston Saturday to visit other dd. There's no room for issues! Dd hasn't started packing yet-- she better get on it today. I'm trying to stay out of it and I told her I'm not mailing whatever she forgets.
Famous last words. My DD is a senior this year and it gets better - the past few years I haven't said a word about packing or mailing. She makes her flights, gets there, does it all. She left this AM - school doesn't start until after Labor Day but she went to visit friends and go to the beach. The NJ/NY beach? When you have beautiful Florida beaches an hour away? Oh well, the friends are up there. The FL friends are all back at school already because we start early down here.
Dagmar, you are looking at dogs! That's great! I want another one... but I'm just too busy right now. But apparently not too busy to avoid my work and post on here for a few moments.
Famous last words is right, Sharon. I'm sure I'll be complaining here about all that she forgot that I have to mail.
Speaking of dogs, I bought "toe grips" for Jozi. They are rubber dohickies that you put on the toe nails to help older dogs with slipping. You would have thought we were killing her but now that they're on, she doesn't seem to mind. We will see if they help. We were cracking up last night when Dewey wanted us to do him too. He was totally submissive laying on his side and shaking-- like-- just do it already. We pretended to put one on and he proceeded to run around the house like a banshee, chasing balls and playing!
This back to work business is tricky mind wise. I have to get my routines reestablished. I left my "bag" at school yesterday so I didn't have my coffee traveling mug or a bunch of other stuff. That necessitated a Starbucks stop this morning while I was already running late. Sigh.
Maintainers Weekly Chat August 18 - August 24
Always good to see adult mutt dogs given homes.
My DD is a senior this year and it gets better - the past few years I haven't said a word about packing or mailing. She makes her flights, gets there, does it all. She left this AM - school doesn't start until after Labor Day but she went to visit friends and go to the beach. The NJ/NY beach? When you have beautiful Florida beaches an hour away? Oh well, the friends are up there. The FL friends are all back at school already because we start early down here. 