Pets – Page 109 – red paper boat

A Crack in the Sky

January 21, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

Dear God! When, oh when will I ever learn not to drink acidic beverages right after I’ve brushed my teeth? Ugh. I will say, though, that Santa Cruz organic, not-from-concentrate lemon juice is to die for. When not chasing toothpaste, it has a wonderful burst of flavor that is nothing like the single-note sourness of RealLemon and its kin. It tastes a bit like a mixture of lime and orange. I don’t normally splurge on the good stuff, but it was on sale at the co-op this month, so I bought some.

Okaythen.

I never did accomplish much yesterday. I think I’m still in the two-day weekend mentality of having to be productive the whole time. The whole point of having a three-day weekend, and of working my behindermost off doing four long days to enable such, is that I then get to have an ass-sitting day.

I did get a couple of things done, which will make it easier to get to work today. I went through my hard drive and made a play list of random, inspirational music. It’s an odd, eclectic mix, with about 500 songs in all, so it should be awhile before I get tired of it.

I also did some cleaning, so I don’t have to mess with that today. I have a really hard time working on other things when the house isn’t clean. Since I hate to clean, that might explain why I often have a hard time getting anything done. I also blame some of it on the weather and the time of year. Mid-winter is difficult for me. I like the cold, but the lack of light–made worse by the endless Indiana clouds–is depressing. The days are getting noticeably longer, though, so there will soon be an end to that particular excuse.

And, look, the sun’s come out to play, so I can stop thinking about making paper boats.

Here’s a tip!

If you ever have to use adhesive velcro strips or dots, you know it can be difficult to get everything lined up properly. What I do is peel-n-stick one piece of the velcro to one of the objects, then peel-n-stick the opposite piece of velcro onto the first piece, velcro-y sides together. The glue-y side of the second piece(s) of velcro will be facing out. You can then press the object to the surface you want to stick it to, and all the velcro strips/dots will be perfectly aligned.

I only mention it because I just got done velcroing my computer speakers to the top of my monitor. Pandora likes to nap up there, and I’m sick and tired of her knocking the speakers off. One of these days she’s bound to break one of them, and since I splurged on nice speakers, I’d rather avoid that if I can. And, whaddya know, I only just finished and Pandora is already back on top of the monitor. I guess I should be appreciative that she waited until I was done? Cats are some sort of pain in the ass, I’m tellin’ ya. But she’s 17 and I think that’s permission enough to do pretty much whatever she pleases–including sleeping on my monitor and walking across my printer and turning it on and off–so I’ll do what I can to accommodate her.

Pets, Photography

Silly Saturday Dogblogging

January 21, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

For some reason, Harriet has a thing about oatmeal. It’s one of only a few foods she’ll actually lose her brain over. Because I’m a big meanypants, I teased her with my flying oatmeal spoon while I got pictures of her brain implodiating. She’s a ridiculously funny dog, but she has very little sense of humor about some things. Like food. I suspect that it’s a Very Good Thing that I’m the one with the opposable thumbs and not her, because she does not look amused. But, not to worry, she was handsomely rewarded for being a good sport.

Pets, Photography

Frosty Dog

January 15, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

We had a nice, hard frost last night. It’s been warm and wet and yucky, so this was a very welcome change. It seems as if the local critter population appreciated it, too. The birds were extra boisterous this morning, and there seems to have been a higher than normal amount of bunny traffic in Harriet’s yard (cuz, it is all hers, dontchaknow?).

I got some pictures of her patrolling the perimeter, nose-to-the-ground, tracking rabbity interlopers. Every so often, she’d pause, stuff her face in a pile of leaves, huff and snort, then move along to the next spot.

I also got a couple of what I think are good “stacked” (ha!) photos, taken from the rear side, one with her head facing away, and one with it turned back toward me. I nearly missed the second one, because she saw or heard something interesting and was off like a bolt of lightning.

I’ve been finding that it’s difficult to get outdoor photos of her, because whenever I’m outside with her, her attention is focused on me. It was much easier when there were two dogs, because she was more apt to ignore me in favor of more entertaining companionship.

I also got some photos of the frosty grass and frost crystals on one of the young black walnut trees. Since I was up way past my bedtime last night, finishing up all the image issues left over from the migration from Blogger, I was lucky that I woke up before the frost had melted away. I had just enough time to get a few photos before it started to disappear.

Pets, Photography

As Promised, with a Side of Cute

January 7, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

First, the cute, in the form of Miss Harriet Brown.

The rest of the photos were taken this morning from the driveway. I’ve been meaning to get some pictures of the driveway itself for months now. It’s more off-road than on-road. The center driveway photo shows the trench SBC cut when they laid phone cable. I have no idea what on earth they were smoking when they did it. It should have been laid along the edge of the driveway, not in it. After repeated complaints about poor sound quality and dropped calls, they eventually came out and moved the line. Unfortunately, they did not do anything about the huge trench they’d made.

Every time it rains, water funnels down the driveway and washes away the gravel, widening and deepening the trench. Last summer, while I was house sitting for the neighbors, we had several days of heavy rain. The bottom of the trench shifted and deepened, and my poor little car was eviscerated and mortally wounded. So, that’s why, when I was car hunting, I wanted something with both high clearance and part-time 4WD. I do not want to repeat that particular experience.

You may ask why we don’t just fix the driveway? I rent, and the folks who live next door don’t own the driveway, either. They only have an easement to use it. The owner keeps chucking gravel at the problem, but it’s only a bandaid solution. Maybe it’ll be fixed, someday, but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, I now have an off-road vehicle.

The Driveway of Dqqm

Abandoned Truck Bed & Cap

Old Tires

Abandoned Trailer

Gas Easement

Pylon

Bird House

Fence Near Entrance to State Forest

Stream Along Driveway

Crankypantsing, News & Politics, Pets

A Gallimaufry

December 29, 2005January 8, 2016 Shelly

The good news is that drilling in ANWR is on hold, at least for the time being. The bad news is that senators who supported Arctic drilling are pissed off about it, and decided to vent their spleens at the folks who can literally least afford it. What kind of mental disconnect are they suffering from, that allows them to cut US$2 billion in home heating relief for low-income families, all onna counta they didn’t get what they wanted? Waaah!
From the Things That Make You Go Wha…? File: If you have early stage Parkinson’s, are having trouble walking, and you live alone, you probably shouldn’t consider getting a high octane dog, like a Husky x German Shepherd Dog. I’m just sayin’. Also, just because a dog sits quietly in its pen at the animal shelter does not, not, not mean that it’ll be mellow at home. Worse, just because it’s mellow at home for the first few days, or even weeks, does not mean that it’ll continue that way. There’s a honeymoon period, in which dogs settle into their new homes. After that period of acclimation, the dog’s behavior can change pretty significantly. Your perfectly behaved dog may suddenly decide that she really needs to investigate what’s on top of the fridge. (No, I am not making this up.)
Also, why anyone would find it remarkable that the new King Kong is found battling dinosaurs is beyond me. I mean, does King Kong vs. Godzilla not ring any bells?
I’ve developed an odd sleep pattern lately, wherein I go to sleep fairly early, have lots of peculiar dreams, wake up for a couple of hours, then fall back asleep. It’s useful, though, because some of the mind-wandering that occurs after waking up from those weird dreams is artistically productive. Last night, for example, I woke up and realized that I had the image of a new painting in my head. I guess that late-night programming can be good?

Pets, Photography

Cats! In! Sinks!

December 24, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

Foolish human! A raised finger cannot stem the tide of eeevil.

Plotting

Sweet, Sweet Lovin’ Soothes the Eeevil Beast

It must be time for Saturday cat-blogging.

I’ve never understood the attraction cats have for sinks, but over the years, several of the cats I’ve lived with have been sink sleepers. Rory, too. His favorite place to hang out–aside from his kitty condo–is the bathroom sink. It means that I often have to brush my teeth and wash my face and hands in the tub, but I’ve gotten used to it.

I couldn’t get a photo of him curled up, asleep, in the sink, which is unfortunate, because he seems so snug and comfortable. But, I did get a few of him being sweet and/or eeevil.

Rory’s tail isn’t in a weird position. He’s a bobtail, so that’s all there is of it. It isn’t usually as poofed out as it is in the first picture. He’d been rolling around in the sink, which gave him a little bit of static cling. I’m blaming the new cat food, which is seriously drying out his skin and coat. Petting him is a bit like petting a sparkler. Also note the Eeevil Glowy Eyes of DQQM in the middle picture. He is All Bad, All the Time, Bay-BEE!1!! Except when he’s groovin’ on the sweet, sweet lovin’, and even then, Teh Eeevil is lurking, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. Mostly, though, he’s just a damnfine cat and a total riot to live with.

In other news, I stopped by the Backstreet Mission[1] on my way home from work the other day. I picked up quite a few books to use for arting, including some ’70s vintage world and US history text books for high school and middle school, a 1939 algebra text book, a high school world cultures text book (again, from the 1970s), the Better Homes and Gardens Baby Book (1943 ed., which is chock-a-block with great illustrations and photos), the Better Homes and Gardens Family Medical Guide (1964 ed., again, with the groovy illustrations and photos), and a 1931 US history text. Most of these will be used for my new altered book project, which I intend to get started on this weekend.

_______________________________
[1] I’m a big fan of shopping at thrift stores. Not only can you find lots of cool junk at cheap prices (something that anyone who makes art with recycled junk should appreciate), but the money generally goes to the folks who need it the most. The Backstreet Mission does a lot of really good things for folks in the community, and I like being able to support them whenever I can.

Pets

Teh Cute

December 22, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

Three Wise Monkeys
Credit: Graham C99

Last night, the coyotes were having a raucous good time, with lots of yiping and howling. They spend the warm weather in the larger section of forest, a few miles away, then move to the smaller section of forest behind where I live during the cold months. I’ve been hearing them in the distance for the past week or so, as they moved closer, but last night they were right outside my house. Coyotes are shy animals, and even when they’re close-by, I rarely actually see them. I know they aren’t a threat to me, but knowing that on a logical level doesn’t stop the hair on the back of my neck from raising up. Last night, they were close enough that I could hear their feet crunching on the frosty gravel of the lane, as they passed by.

It’s interesting that they returned on the night of solstice.

Harriet’s reaction to coyotes has always amused me. She pretends they don’t exist. I know she can hear them, but she doesn’t acknowledge them. If dogs came that close to the house, making that sort of racket, she’d be in a tizzy, but not so with coyotes. It’s like she’s trying to impersonate all of the Three Wise Monkeys at once: “I cannot hear them, I cannot see them, and I will not speak of them.” If you point them out to her, she looks at you like you’re smoking crack.

Meta, Pets, Photography

Monday Pet-blogging

December 19, 2005January 16, 2016 Shelly

The sun came out today, and it was blinding. Harriet played for awhile outdoors, hunting bunnies and giving the squirrels a piece of her mind. I finally got a photo of her with her eyes squeezed half shut, because of the bright sunlight. I love it when she does that.

I let Pandora come outside with us for a little while, too, so that she could explore the snow while I cleaned off the car. She’s pretty unflappable, but she didn’t know quite what to think of the snow. It took her about 30 seconds to decide that it was not her idea of a good time. I let her back inside, and she hasn’t asked to go out since. Usually, she sticks her head out the door whenever I let the dog in or out, but I think her curiosity has been satisfied, at least for the time being.

A lot of the snow has been melted by the sun, but it was so cold today that there’s still a crust of it covering everything. I noticed that the snow on my car, which is dark, has melted completely, while the neighbor’s truck, which is white, is still coated in it. Yay for solar energy. It’ll probably be singing a different tune next summer, but for now, it’s nice.

I stayed home from work today, but didn’t get much done. I’d planned on working on a couple of art projects, but all I managed was some scanning and Photoshopping of old journal entries. I uploaded them to Flickr (Hemp-bound Journal and Dada Journal), and will eventually get them uploaded to the website.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Instant Review: Snow!

December 9, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

I don’t know how much snow we finally ended up with, but it’s a goodly amount. And, it’s purty. As of last night’s news, it was six inches. We had high winds overnight, so there’s likely a lot of drifting on some of the back roads. I decided to stay home today, because I didn’t even want to think about repeating yesterday’s driving experience. It was truly, truly horrible.

A normally 35 minute drive took me over 2.5 hours. The roads had not been plowed or sanded or anything. I saw several plows travelling in the opposite lane, with blades up, but the west-bound lane hadn’t been touched. WTF? Every place where the snow was churned up made me fish-tail, so intersections were, um, interesting. It was really a horrible, horrible experience, but somehow I managed to get home without wrecking.

The funny/good/sad part was that I managed to stay on the road, but when I got home, I slid off our lane and got stuck tight in the neighbor’s yard. Haw! Much hilarity ensued. I was wearing stupid shoes and short socks, for maximum snow-up-the-legs effect. I was also dressed thoroughly inappropriately, in a t-shirt and a hoodie, with no gloves, scarf, or hat. No shovel, either. Or cat litter. So, I had to walk home to get properly dressed and get a shovel and cat litter (and to let Harriet out, which was ridiculously funny. Harriet: “Eeew! WTF is that?!). But, I got unstuck all by myself, which I’m sure, if the neighbors were watching out their windows, afforded them much high-quality entertainment. It also gave me a chance to work off all the scared-to-the-point-of-vomiting nervous energy I’d worked up driving home, so it was probably all-in-all not a bad thing.

And then I got to hang out with Harriet and play in the snow, which was all kinds of fun. She was much put out at first, but she quickly got her snow legs and did all sorts of snow-plowing, boinging, snow-snorting, and bird chasing. It’s a whole new world when you cover it with white stuff.

I have to say that I’m pretty happy with how the Tracker handled in the snow. Yeah, I was slipping and sliding all over the place, but not as badly as many other folks. And, after I dug myself out of the neighbor’s yard, I was able to actually get up the driveway. That would *not* have been possible in the MoonPie of Delight. *love*

One thing I do not love, though, is students. As I was trying to leave campus yesterday, they were in all sorts of inadvisable, dangerous places, doing all sorts of inadvisable, dangerous things. Cars were obviously sliding everywhere, but there were students walking out right in front of them. What the hell were they thinking?! The pièce de résistance, though, was a group of students standing in the middle of the road, throwing snowballs at cars. That kind of fuck-headed asshattery ought to be criminal.

Crankypantsing, Ladybusiness, News & Politics, Pets, Photography

Friday Round-up

December 2, 2005January 8, 2016 Shelly

Harriet has long contended that squirrels are eeevil, that they should be exterminated, and that she’d ought to be the one doing the exterminating. Now, we have proof that her concerns were well founded.

Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park, local media report.

Passers-by were too late to stop the attack by the black squirrels in a village in the far east, which reportedly lasted about a minute.

They are said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh.

A pine cone shortage may have led the squirrels to seek other food sources, although scientists are sceptical.

Via Feministe: A play in one act, in which a professor entered his office, to find that two students had broken in and were having sex. Now, the story is plenty damned funny on its own, especially this bit, wherein the trespassing male tells the prof to go away and threatens to report him for sexual harassment.

HALF-NAKED MALE: GO THE FUCK AWAY! THIS IS PRIVATE! WE’RE BUSY!
ME: (holding the door half-open) I’m coming in.
HALF-NAKED MALE: STOP HARASSING US YOU PERVERT OR I’LL REPORT YOU!
ME: (still holding door) You’ll report me for your having sex in my office?
HALF-NAKED MALE: GO THE FUCK AWAY!
ME: (still holding door) That’s it. Put your clothes back on. You can’t have sex in my office.

The comments, too, are worth reading. However, I found myself thinking the entire event would have been even more amusing if the prof had quietly entered the office, sat down, and gone about his regular work, ignoring the burgling shaggers.

Via The Smirking Chimp, a rant about Bill O’Reilly and the “war on [White] Christmas”. Because, after all, it is the season. It includes the following gem, on ~~Christmas balls~~ Holiday ornaments:

Speaking of buying, I have a problem with your online shop there, Bill. Yeah, yeah — I hate to interrupt a good misguided rant, but I’m disappointed in you guys at Fox News and the O’Reilly Factor. Being as I’m holding out hope that Christmas won’t be stolen by the liberal Whos of Evil-doer-Whoville (you can use that one, too), I went to the online Fox News Shop to buy some of your balls. But what’s this? I couldn’t find a single Christmas ball in the store! They’d been replaced by these bizarre spheres called “Holiday Ornaments.” The description under the The O’Reilly Factor ornaments claim they’re designed to adorn something called a “holiday tree.” What is this so-called holiday tree? I know what is a Christmas tree, but this holiday tree thing has me stymied. Do I need to buy a second tree? What’s the deal?

Ah, I do so love the smell of hot, buttered irony in the morning.

I’ve mentioned that I watch Survivor, haven’t I? Last night’s episode was lovely, because Judd was finally voted off (hallelujah!). Even lovelier was his reaction. After a speech, in which he claimed that no one was safe, that anyone could be voted off at any time, and that there should be no whineypantsing about it, because it’s a game, stupid, Judd turned around and cursed his tribemates for having the nerve to give him a boot to the head. What an ass!

Speaking of people who need a boot to the head, Oprah gets on my very last nerve. When she’s not busy leading her cult members in I Love Oprah fests, she’s telling women that they should submit themselves to the patriarchy. Most recently, this patriarchifilia has taken the form of touting a new and apparently mediocre form of plastic surgery, called a “thread lift.” Small barbed, plastic threads are inserted under the skin. The barbs catch and hold the tissue, so that it can be pulled tight. Apparently, one can have this relatively inexpensive and speedy procedure done during one’s lunch hour. Because, you know, women ought to have bits of plastic stitched into their faces, so that they can look more babe-uh-licious. Or something. No matter that the procedure can potentially do more harm than good. I dunno about y’all, but I don’t think pain and deformation sound very sexy.

And, don’t even get me started on her magazine. Talk about a heaping helping of harmful messages.

And now for the obligatory Friday dogblogging, starring everyone’s favorite Boxer, Miss Harriet Brown. This was taken last Saturday, in my mom’s kitchen. Harriet is such a delicate flower that she insists she can’t lie on the bare, hard floor. She’d rather have a nice, fluffy dog bed, but a rag rug will suffice in a pinch. It’s not like there wasn’t a comfy couch for her to sleep on, either. There was, and it was even heaped with pillows and blankets and all manner of soft, cushy things amongst which dainty Boxer dogs might wish to lie. But, no. We were sitting around the kitchen table, drinking coffee and talking, so Harriet had to be in the kitchen with us. To supervise, dontchaknow. That’s onna count of the fact that humans cannot be trusted on their own. This is apparently a sacrament that every Boxer dog holds dear.

And now, a rumpus of random ramblings:

Whispering–I can’t stand it. All that pst pst psting drives me batshit crazy.
Obsessive throat clearing–I can’t stand that, either. It’s one thing to periodically clear your throat, or to do so more frequently when you’re sick, but when you make disgusting horky noises every two minutes, that’s socially unacceptable.
Did you realize that you can rearrange the order of tabs in Firefox, by grabbing and moving them? “The more you know…”
Overheard at work: “How long have we had MS Office?” Um, how long have you worked here?
I hate it when people ask for information, then don’t pay attention to the answer! Surely there’s a special place in Hell for such time wasters?
I spilled something on my shirt this morning, and didn’t notice it until I got to work, so I turned it around so the stain wouldn’t bother me.
While watching teevee last night, and petting the dog, I noticed that she’s getting white patches of hair inside her ears. Her muzzle started to go grey years ago, which is common in Boxers, but damn, 6.5 is too young to be going grey.
I have to work on Saturday. Waaah!