This Is A True Story

I was gearing up to make a new post here and for some reason got lost down the rabbit hole of reading my own blog posts from years back. Now that 11^1/2  year old Stedman is undeniably “not the dog he used to be”, this one about old Bob the Actual Corgi in his decline made me sad.

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IT’S A SMALL WORLD WHEN FAMILY NEWS OF IMPORTANCE CAN BE RELAYED INSTANTLY ACROSS THE COUNTRY IF ONLY SOMEONE WAS ON THE OTHER END TO RECEIVE IT

Its Suzette (8:34:31 PM): teddy?

Its Suzette(8:34:36 PM): you there?

Its Suzette(8:34:44 PM): i have something to tell you.

Its Suzette(8:34:55 PM): bob plunged into the creek today.

Its Suzette(8:35:15 PM): daddy left the little gate at the back of the yard open. and then he sent the dog out and told nora to bring him in later.

Its Suzette(8:35:34 PM): she was taking a shower and she heard him furiously barking, so she threw her clothes on and went to find him

Its Suzette(8:35:47 PM): he was wandering in the creek way over behind angelo’s pool

Its Suzette(8:36:00 PM): the creek bank is very steep now from the erosion

Its Suzette(8:36:21 PM): he must have been walking on  the spot where the grass clippings get dumped and just stepped too far and boom!  he went straight down

Its Suzette(8:36:29 PM): its a good 14 ft plunge

Its Suzette(8:36:36 PM): even nora had trouble getting down.

Its Suzette(8:36:50 PM): she had to jump down into the water, just like indiana jones

Its Suzette(8:37:29 PM): and she saw him and started calling him but you know he can’t hear now

Its Suzette(8:37:57 PM): he was just standing there all covered with mud barking and barking

Its Suzette(8:38:12 PM): and then he caught a glimpse of her and started barking in a different way

Its Suzette(8:38:20 PM): so she had to go down there and pick him up to carry back

Its Suzette(8:38:45 PM): and then she faced that steep wall of dirt, so she parked him on a dirt shelf while she scrambled up the side

Its Suzette(8:39:08 PM): and then put him farther up, etc

Its Suzette(8:39:18 PM): and when they got up to the yard, he was all muddy

Its Suzette(8:39:27 PM): so she had to squirt him with the hose

Its Suzette(8:39:44 PM): and then he pepped up and started running around trying to get away from her.

Its Suzette(8:39:54 PM): so she had to give him an outdoor bath

Its Suzette(8:40:00 PM): with apple-scented shampoo

Its Suzette(8:40:12 PM): and chase him with the hose again

Its Suzette(8:40:26 PM): but this time, he was sort of collapsing when he was trying to get away from her

Its Suzette(8:41:03 PM): like those cartoons where the feet are furiously moving , but no forward progress is made. bongos playing.

Its Suzette(8:41:30 PM): his back feet were moving but he was falling on his face

Its Suzette(8:42:06 PM): daddy is trying to act tough like he doesn’t care, but  he came to supper with his pockets full of biscuits to give to the dog while we ate, and later we saw him making a taco for the dog.

Its Suzette(8:42:51 PM): the dog seems to be ok

Its Suzette(8:42:59 PM): a bloodshot eye and a limp, but he had the limp before

Its Suzette(8:43:11 PM): you there?

Its Suzette(8:43:22 PM): ted?

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I used to have the best commenters in the world back then. Some of the links too their own blogsites are still active but lead to a 404 page now. I miss them but am grateful for the brave few here now who leave their mark.

I do believe that I am maudlin now. Time to get up and do something else.

Continue to dig around in the flower bed? No – too lazy.

Go shopping? No – too smelly.

Go to the library? No – see above.

Float around in the pool and listen to podcasts? Ok – that’s a plan.

Super (?) Blooms

My brother-in-law has a green thumb. The last time I went to visit, he had one geranium in a big pot and it had at least 20 flower heads on it. No exaggeration – for real. I asked him what his secret was and he said #1 he’s got a lot of time on his hands to water and #2 he uses an organic fertilizer called Bloom.

So I went looking around for it and came across SuperBloom which is a Scott’s product and made entirely of lab-created chemicals. BUT it’s doing wonders for the plant growth and flower bud count. The lovely hibiscus that I let freeze and wither to 4 short bare sticks over our 8-day winter in NE Florida not only recovered but is thriving and loaded with buds.

The Birds of paradise are another story. I don’t want to get overly excited but I think one of the them is sending up a flower shoot. Maybe not, though. The Birds are reacting strangely to the fertilizer.  That same plant has now produced a Siamese leaf stem and both of them are sending up red spines instead of the customary white they’ve been making all along. Coincidence or Nuclear Power Plant Run-off effect?

strange birds

That’s not going to stop me from using the stuff. I was raised in the age of Better Living Thru Chemistry  and figure that by now my body composition is 50% toxic chemicals anyway. And I’m not going to eat the things for heaven’s sake.

In other garden news, I created a very satisfying diorama featuring a resin sea gull. Truth. I memorialized it on Instagram.

This week I noticed that the carefully arranged sea shells were scattered and turned over. I blamed the guy who loaded that bed with mulch – until I caught the dog in the act of licking them and trying to make off with an oyster shell. He bashed his way through the ornamental grass to do it and I told him no so he left. The next time I saw him there, he sneaked in from the side behind the grasses. Odd,  because I scrubbed the oyster shells and let them dry in the sun for 3 weeks before I put them out, and the clam and scallop shells are from last year. How could they still be tasty?

My dog is good dog but still – he’s a dog. The lure of food in the wild is stronger than his desire to please me. He’s not going to win this one, though.

 

 

Instagram: Old Dog/Old Habit

Sympathetic Mourning

Blogging will be light due to extreme long-distance mourning for Willow, Queen Elizabeth’s last corgi. My sympathies to life-long corgi lover, QEII.

This is how Stedman looks at me.

Queen Elizabeth’s Last Corgi Willow Dies at Age 14

 

Current State

“It feels like spring here”, she said cautiously. Is Florida winter over now? I hope so because I’m desperate to get into the pool again.

I went to the doctor yesterday for an annual exam and he told me that I need to get more exercise. Which would mean more than the zero exercise I get now. Well, technically, the random relocations throughout the day from the bed to the bathroom to the office  to the sofa would count for approximately 1/4 on a scale of 0 to 100.   But I no longer walk the dog outside and I realize I only shop at places that have those scooters with a basket on the front. So pretty pathetic.

But in just a few short weeks (please Jesus), I’ll be able to swim again. Not swim so much as exercise in a way I can’t on dry land and then reward myself with floating around listening to the radio. I didn’t want to spoil the perfect design of my pool area but it had to be done. We invested in a pool blanket (which is a giant sheet of bubble wrap) which is going to extend the swim season by several weeks on each end. Now we have a reel and a cover for the reel when the blanket is rolled up. It looks like hell but when it’s spread out the blanket collects solar rays and passively heats the pool water and when we use the heater, it keeps the heat in overnight and minimizes evaporation. All this means that as long as the air temp is reasonable, we can get in the pool and be comfortable. And move like regular people do  on land.

Anyway, time to relocate to the sofa. That should be worth about 20-25 calories

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YouTube obsession of the week:  Australian Soldiers in World War II singing Waltzing Matilda