Harriet – Page 27 – red paper boat

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

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!

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Instant Review: Harriet Brown Goes a-Visiting

December 1, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

Harriet likes to sit on the corner of the deck and look out over the neighboring fields. She’ll spend hours like that, sitting and watching. I think she may be channeling her namesake, Greta Garbo (Garbo used the name Harriet Brown as a pseudonym). Like Garbo, Harriet often wishes to be left alone.

Harriet had an exciting weekend. We went to visit my family, who live a couple of hours north of me. Harriet is a wonderful travelling companion, so I enjoy taking her places with me. She’s always eager to get into her car harness and settles down quickly in the car. While we’re in stop-and-go traffic, she stands up and presses her nose to the window, so that she can watch what’s going on. Once we’re on the highway, though, she curls up and goes to sleep. I mention this, because I think it’s interesting that the only thing I specifically wanted when I got her was a dog who enjoyed car rides. It’s funny how those sorts of things work out. Her previous owners never took her anywhere in the car, but as long as I’ve had her, she’s been a fabulous travelling companion.

Gabe playing with Harriet’s ears

She had a great time at my mom’s house. She always enjoys going there, and is nearly as relaxed there as she is at home. She even managed to do some kidney beaning and sassy woo-wooing, which she never does in front of anyone but me. She got to play with my brother’s kids, and got all sorts of attention from my brothers. She also got to eat all sorts of stuff she wouldn’t normally get to eat, and was entertaining in the process–there’s nothing quite like a kitchen full of people feeding green beans to a dog, who thinks they’re some sort of canine crack. I guess they’d never seen a dog eat green beans before. Harriet loves them, though.

This was the first time I’d taken the new car on a road trip. I was well pleased with it! As we reached Indy, the wind picked up, which was, um, exciting. It handled pretty well, though. Even though it’s much bigger and taller than my last car, it’s also much heavier, so it sticks to the road better. There were times in the Festiva when I’d crest a hill, and a strong gust of wind would nearly lift me off the ground. Talk about unsettling! That doesn’t happen in the Tracker. It’s just too damned large and heavy to go kiting. I did get pushed around quite a bit by the gusting wind, but it wasn’t all that bad.

Gas mileage was good, too. Even with all the wind, and running the AC because the windows kept fogging up, I only used a little over half a tank. I forgot to set the tripometer, but I’m guestimating that I used about 8 gallons over 250 miles, which would be around 31mpg–not bad at all for an SUV. Have I mentioned lately that I lovelovelove my Tracker?

Now, for the obligatory randomness:

I belong to umpty mail lists, most of them art-related. Artists don’t tend to be the most computer savvy folks on Urth, so I ought to cut them some slack. I draw the line at reading badly formatted messages, though. If there’s HTML coding, or if I have to hunt around to figure out which is new and which is quoted text, or if there is nothing but quoted text, I skip the message. I would think artists, being aesthetically sensitive, would take the time to make their messages look presentable, but apparently that’s not the case.
I’ve temporarily put my Netflix subscription on hold. Waaah! I’ll miss having good teevee to watch, but I just can’t justify spending money on it right now.
It snowed today. We were supposed to get two inches worth, then sleet and freezing rain, AKA Icy Death from Above[tm]. Welcome to winter in Indiana!
Christ died on a spruce tree for your sins. Wait, he didn’t? The use of evergreen trees during the winter holiday season dates back to at least Roman Saturnalia festival. Yeah, the Christians appropriated it, but the tree itself, along with its symbolism, is strictly pagan. So to complain about calling it a “holiday tree” instead of a “Christmas tree” is, I think, a little funny. But then, Mr. Falwell is a funny, funny man. And I don’t mean in the funny-ha-ha sense, either.
I don’t know why this should be surprising, but it was. It’s sad but true that all news really is just propaganda. From the administrator who was paid to promote No Child Left Behind, to “astroturf” (the opposite of grass roots) form letters sent to US newspapers, supposedly by local soldiers who supported the war, I think it’s a bad idea to believe anything that comes from or lends support to the current administration.
Firefox v.1.5 is out. If you’re using IE, I really recommend downloading Firefox and giving it a whirl. The tabbed browsing (ctrl-T) alone makes it worthwhile, but the lack of pop-ups and the ability to truly control text size (ctrl-mouse wheel up/down) are quite nice, too.
The Ebola virus has been traced to bats.

Sunset Another Day

Clouds were just beginning to creep in from the southwest. They must have thickened overnight, because this morning, it started to spit freezing rain. We were supposed to get two inches of snow, then more freezing rain and sleet, but it was too warm for it to actually stick. It’s still gross and disgusting, though, in a way that only Winter in Indiana can be.

Pets, Photography

Happy Post-Turkey Day

November 25, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

Wednesday Sunset (top) and Friday morning frost (bottom)

It got relatively cold last night, with lows around 12F, so there was a good layer of frost on everything when I got up this morning. And, guess what? I still don’t have a window scraper! I don’t have a winter coat, either, so coming home from Thanksgiving dinner was a little brisk. I usually wear layers, instead of a coat, because I like being able to vary my outer-wear to suit the needs of the day. Indiana weather is so changeable that I always end up being too warm or too cold if I wear a coat. Last night’s freezing cold temperature took me by surprise, though. The weather guy kept saying “It’s gonna get really cold,” but he never got around to saying just how cold before I had to turn off the teevee and leave.

The Orphans’ Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. D. brought Quorn cutlets, which are now my favorite meat substitute. Oh my, are they good. She put barbecue sauce on them, which I usually can’t stand, but they were so good that I didn’t mind. I brought a left-over one home with me, and they heat up well in the microwave. Often, veggie burgers will get texturally weird when re-nuked, so I was surprised at how well Quorn fared when re-heated.

I took Harriet along with me, which is always a little stressful. She doesn’t get along at all with the resident bitch, and can be tweaky in large groups of people. She did fairly well, though, and even sucked up to one of the guys, which surprised the hell out of me. She’s always been freaked out by strange men. It was wonderful to see her enjoying being around other people. Unfortunately, though, she got a little resource-guardy during dinner, which resulted in a big snark-fest. It wasn’t serious–no injuries–and consisted of a lot of snarling and posturing and no teeth-on-skin, but I think it was a little nerve wracking for the non-dog folks who were present.

Overall, she did pretty well, considering. She’s always going to be tweaked in the head, no matter what is done to desensitize her. She’s just hard-wired wrong.

And, poor dog, her weekend is going to get even more stressful, but in a good way. As always, she’s going with me to visit my family. She likes car rides, and loves visiting my mom and brothers, but no matter how enjoyable it is, it’s still stressful. She also has to have a bath today. She’s very good for baths, even though she can’t stand getting wet. Everyone in my family is allergic to cats and dogs, so I always bathe Harriet with Dr. Bronner’s castile soap the day before we visit, then wipe her down with Allerpet-D right before we leave. It works pretty well.

Now, off to wash the dog and clean out the car. It’s amazing how quickly I can fill a car up with junk. I’ve had it less than two months, and it’s already full of trash.

Pets, Photography

The Rainy Season

November 15, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

The rainy season has begun in Indiana. One might think spring time would be the wettest part of the year, but we always seem to get a stretch of rain in the fall that lingers and lingers and, without fail, makes me think I should begin building an ark. The rain started last night, along with periodic lightning and rolling thunder. We’re under a tornado watch until this evening, too, so the weather could get exciting.

Can you spot the dog? Harriet is, unsurprisingly, not amused about the onset of cooler weather. She insists on being covered up while she sleeps, and who can blame her? Right now, she’s in bed, curled up under a pile of blankets and comforters. That’s what one does on a cold, rainy day, right? Sleep? I know that’s what I want to do. In fact, a nap is sounding quite inviting.

Taken last Saturday just after sunset. There were thick clouds covering the entire sky, except the section just above the western horizon. It’s not a very good photo, but I liked the contrast of the large, dark area against the small window of light.

We had a blazing sunset last Wednesday. It was like looking at a lava flow and seeing the cooled, blackened crust breaking open to show the glowing, molten lava underneath. (Yeah, I watch way too much nature television.)

Meta, Pets, Photography

The face of Jesus in my soup…

October 27, 2005January 16, 2016 Shelly

Or, apparently, in a tree. Or here. He really is everywhere!

Yahoo is now giving unlimited space for photo storage. I haven’t been actively using my storage space there, because it’s problematic for non-Yahoo users to access, and, they used to have a 20mb storage limit. Twenty megabytes? It is for to laugh!

When I started blogging, I used Hello (a Google-Picasa tie-in), then Flickr. Now, I use a combination of Flickr, my own web space, and Blogger’s photo storage. I’d totally forgotten about my Yahoo space until I got a courtesy reminder from them, telling me that if I did not access my photos at least once every six months, they would delete them. I took a quick look, just to make sure there wasn’t anything important stored there (nope), and saw this photo. The quality is crappy, and I have no idea when it was taken–at least a couple of years ago, I think–but it’s a typical “grazing cow dog” photo, so I thought I’d post it here. Harriet does like her fresh greens!

In other animal news, Rory has yet another UTI. There was a tiny amount of blood in his urine this morning, so I made an appointment to have him seen first thing tomorrow. I know he can’t be comfortable, and he really ought to be seen today, but I can’t face taking another animal back to the old vet. I managed to find another vet who is taking new clients (not as easy as one might think!), but they can’t see him until tomorrow morning.

On the bright side, I got more information and assistance, just from one phone call, than I ever got from the old vet’s office. I’m optimistic, both about the quality of care and the possibility that we may be able to finally get Rory’s crystal problem under control. Another plus is that they don’t usually keep animals overnight. They’re not staffed at night (most regular vets are not), and they feel that animals will be better off at home, where they have supervision and will be more comfortable. I tend to agree.

Today’s cool website contains a collection of black and white photographs, taken from long lost film found in old cameras.

And now, let’s have some fun with searching. The following are search strings used to arrive at either my website or blog:

tacky religious art
christian sationery
dog with a blue tongue
marble catholic sculptures
sleeping in curlers
scintillating scotoma (this one pops up about once or twice a month)
puggles (almost a daily occurrence)
unbleached waxed bag
silly shelly blog (well, duh!)
cigarette burns on children (another that pops up once or twice a month)
paris hilton porn
acupuncture mannequin

Pets, Photography

Stealth Brindle

October 26, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I was sold a pig in a poke. Well, not exactly sold. And, not exactly a pig. Or, a poke, either, for that matter. But! For years, I thought Harriet was fawn. Then, one day, I noticed that her coat looked a bit like tiger maple. I looked more closely, and saw that she had faint brindle striping along her shoulders and black stripes on the backs of her hind legs.

The funny thing is that I really prefer brindle to fawn. Some day, I’ll have a plain, dark brindle Boxer. Harriet has way too much flash for my tastes. Not that I don’t think she’s the prettiest dog EVAR, mind you. I’m just partial to less white. I also think that breeding for excess flash in Boxers is problematic, as it leads to more white (and potentially deaf) dogs being born. If flash weren’t so popular, and if it weren’t being actively bred for, there would likely be fewer deaf, white Boxers born. I just can’t get behind breeding practices that knowingly create dogs with potentially deadly health problems. (Deaf dogs are a challenge to train and are at higher risk of ending up being euthanized. It isn’t a trivial issue.)