If your pet could talk, what would be the first thing it says?
Feed me. Now I need a nap.
I’m worried about various illnesses. Dogs have bad allergies (Penney got steroids). Black widows are on the prowl again. My mental health is slipping—I can’t make myself do things i know I need to do. I just want to read.
I guess I couldn’t do much outside anyway, since they fertilized the field across the road and it smells like a very ripe diaper. I still have humor.
What’s the best and worst airport you’ve been to?
Today I rested, as a worker I supposed to do on Labor Day. You’re also supposed to protest, so once again I’ll complain about the irony of being a contractor and being told not to work, but also not get it as a paid holiday. Sheesh. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I’ll just answer the blog prompt, then. You can answer too, unless you don’t fly, of course.
Favorite airport? I have a few I like, especially any airport with clean terrazzo floors. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is one I recently visited with great floors, interesting seating, and lots of light. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it looked.
My other favorite airport is Hilton Head Island, also in South Carolina. It’s tiny, intimate, and oh-so-easy to get in and out of. I think they’re expanding it, which is sort of a bummer.
Runners-up include Greensboro/High Point, North Carolina, with just enough space for a friendly bar if you need one, and Portland, Oregon.
Least favorite airport? Just about any huge hub like Dallas, Houston, or Atlanta. I have PTSD about O’Hare thanks to being there on 9/11, so I’ll add it to the list.
Outside the US, I like Toronto and I really don’t like Heathrow. Thanks to marrying a non-flyer, I don’t get to go many places outside the US anymore.
Feel free to share your favorites!
I’m glad to be back to be with all the birds. I missed them. I restocked the feeders and sat in the birding hut a while, even though it’s still darned hot. The new shades that were put up for me help a lot. My garden spider companion didn’t mind me one bit!
I’m also glad to be back with the family, too. Travel is fun but regular routine and being a hermit are also good.
If you could erase one event from history, what would it be?
I think I’d rather stick with “the devil you know.” The possibility of preventing one atrocity that leads to a worse one makes me leery of even contemplating erasing an event. There always seems to be another evil lurking in the wings after one’s eliminated.
That’s also why I don’t wish anyone, even my least favorite human, would die earlier than nature intends. Just think about what may happen next. Or not. That leads to disregulation.
Breathe and think about birds, trees, or cute little dogs. I happen to have an example dog. This is a series of Benito playing.
Who writes these prompts? I guess I can’t imagine anyone really wanting to erase an event. But maybe I read too much science fiction as a youth.
We have a better idea about what at least two of our dogs are made of, now that Carlton and Benito’s Embark tests have come back. There were mysteries solved and theories confirmed, too. My guess is that Penney’s swab didn’t take, because hers didn’t come back.
I was pretty sure Benito was not the purebred Chihuahua that he was purchased as. People guessed he had Fox Terrier or Miniature Pinscher.
I was right about our little fellow. At least one of his parents was a mutt.
I never had any good guesses about Carlton other than there must be some pit bull in there. And there had to be some breeds with the Merle gene.
It turns out Carlton is a big ole mix, as we knew, but there are some good surprises in there.
He’s about as pitty as I expected but the Mountain Cur thing threw me for a loop. I didn’t know we had any of those here. We do have lots of cowdogs that they call curs, but I thought those were mostly Black Mouth Curs. Seeing the ACD in there makes me surmise one parent was a working dog with those breeds mixed in. Then the other parent was probably a small dog that looked like a lab. Carlton has carefully hidden his Chihuahuan heritage. That’s a hoot.
Who knows how it works out? They are both quite the mixes! And I know enough to take these analyses with a grain of salt. I would have loved seeing what breeds contributed to Harvey, but there was no way he was gonna let me swab his saliva!
I didn’t pay the extra money to get their health analysis. Benito should be hardy now that his heart worms are treated. And I know Carlton has weird eyes. That’s enough.
Yeah, the last couple of days have been fairly low stress, with just a couple of bobbles. Also the blog prompts are so repetitive that I didn’t feel like answering the last few. Nonetheless, there have been highlights.
Master Naturalist meeting was last night, and I even made the end of the Board meeting (but missed some ruffled feelings, thankfully). A highlight of the meeting was getting a photo with all our living Presidents as our current one received a commemorative Bald Eagle pin.
The other highlight has been Stumpy’s growing popularity with its avian buddies. We now have little flocks of House Sparrows vying for stump space, as well as Cardinals seeking out their sunflower seeds. My patience has really paid off! Here are blurry phone photos to prove it. I’ll have to bring out the good camera now that there’s something to photograph.
I’ve felt good about work, because I’ve hit a few deadlines, but I’m glad the weekend is here. We had a pleasant dinner with my son and his partner at the new restaurant in town, which always is a pleasure. I do enjoy the little downtown area.
It rained somewhere near here this evening, but not here. We are back in crispy season, with extreme heat and brown plants. I’m glad to have water to look at here! Tomorrow I’m working with the water garden some more, too.
If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?
I hope my future self (maybe when I’m 102) would tell me how proud she is of all the learning and growing past me did, and that she appreciates all the memories of my fun with nature, friends, and family. My guess is she’ll have a lot to say.
Thankfully, today was uneventful, which allowed me to get lots of work done in between helping people, which is also part of my job, come to think of it. Other than work, I just enjoyed the animals and their antics.
There must have been something outside this evening, because there was sure a lot of barking. But I forgive the dogs, due to mostly being cute.
And hey! I finally saw a bird eating from my tree stump feeder. I kept putting food on the stump, just in case. No photos of that, just dogs. Enjoy.
It makes me irrationally happy to see Benito play with toys. The other dogs no longer do. He is so full of pure joy.
If you had to give one life-changing tip, what would it be?
Just one? Do not confuse hormones or sympathy for love. Let’s just say I’ve made that kind of mistake so many times that I have no intention of starting any new love relationships.
On a more cheerful note, it wasn’t quite as hot this morning, and I figured out I can sit in the shadow of my bird hut to hang out with nature. My spirits were lifted by getting to see a Yellow-bellied Cuckoo in the closest tree.
I also got to watch three Gulf Fritillaries enjoying the passion vine and sorrel vines. It was rather enchanting.
I’ve really needed more nature time lately. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do for the years I have left. I really want to stop volunteering to do things to try to make others happy, and I don’t want to spend my time on things I don’t enjoy, just because I “should.” If I cut back on obligations and let myself just relax more, my mental state could improve.
If my mental state improved, I’d start exercising again and keep feeling better. That would lead me to choose activities I enjoy, not obligations. A happy cycle.
More on this later. I’m thinking hard but also allowing ideas to come to me when I’m relaxed.
Today was good. Lots of work was done and I had a nice talk with my Master Naturalist friend, Donna. Then Lee and I tried out my friends’ new restaurant on the Cameron square. I had a nice chat with Michelle, then enjoyed a Chicago dog and really good green chile creamed corn. All fine. Pleasant.
I went up to my bathroom and immensely clean closet just now to change into pajamas and ingest my hormonal normalization pills. As one does, I looked into the mirror as I brushed my blueish hair. Not only the hair was bluish. So was my face.
Okay, spouses, if you go to dinner with our spouse, at least LOOK at their face. I tell Lee when he’s dribbled food on his beard! He could sweetly whisper to me that there’s blue smears all over my face. Geez.
Explanation: today I spent some time reorganizing my pens, since I change colors each month. July was red and blue, in a feeble attempt at portraying loyalty to where I live. one blue pen had sprung a leak and I got some on my hands. I washed that all off. But I didn’t check my face. I did a Zoom call with my boss with that stuff on it, too. Argh. That pen is in the trash basket now.
This is cheerier. I finished July on my temperature blanket at the end of July! I can easily see only three days when the high was below 90, plus three 100+ days (today being one). I’m predicting August will look similar but maybe with no oranges at all. A good month to leave town a lot!
Benito is having a blast. Yesterday he got to help the Great Hunter Vlassic chow down on a fresh rabbit kill. Remember, that’s what dachshunds were bred for. Both dogs got a healthy fresh meal at least. And today he figured out that toys are fun and has been tossing two toys around and playing. that’s less icky.
Benito also is an incredible jumper. He can really launch himself into the air for long distances, to our surprise! He’s probably missing out on a career in agility work. Also, when he’s excited and barking with the other dogs because someone is here, he bounces on all four legs. I have always wanted a dog who could do that.
He’s fitting in. And he doesn’t care if I have ink on my face while ordering in a restaurant.
I’m sure glad it’s Friday.
I rewarded myself for all that closet cleaning I’ve been doing by saying yes to an invitation to meet our friends Mike and Martha at the bakery in town. Lee even agreed to come along, though he was displeased that screeching children were hurting his ears. Nonetheless we all had nice conversations.
Since I am the lesser hermit, I enjoyed talking to Martha, my friend Mary who was there with her family, and my son and his partner, who also came in. Then I had to have a good chat with the bakery owner’s dad and their nice employee, who collects Native American jewelry and is a Master Gardener, so she knows some of my friends.
This, dear readers, is why small-town living can be pleasant. I enjoy it much more now that I’m not paranoid about gossip and mean-spirited people. I’m glad I’m better at not caring about people who aren’t nice.
After all that socialization I was fine with watching some TV (finished Hawk and got through much of Ride or Die today) in the quiet house.
Of course, I spent two more hours putting clothing into boxes and moving things around. I almost finished sorting everything hanging up, and I disposed of two garbage bags of plastic hangers from my old house.
I still have a big pile of stuff to hang, now that there’s room for it, and plenty of hangers! That shows you how big the purge was. Tomorrow the hanging stuff will be hung, and if I have time, shoes will be culled* and arranged.
My teeth still hurt but it’s better every day. I think the dry socket is healing. I think I’ll join my sleeping beauties and indulge in my favorite activity, sleep.
(*Sue, that’s the word my typo was trying to be yesterday)
If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?
I’ll tell you what trend I’d like to eliminate: charismatic psychopaths taking over the leadership of powerful countries and embarking on unstoppable campaigns to satisfy their need for praise and power.
Can we make this trend go away? Not without a destructive struggle, I fear.
Okay, people who came here to read the prompt response can stop reading. I’ll go on to ranch news. First, the dogs are making progress. And, hey, I discovered in the archives that we got Penney seven years ago this week, and she was my most recent acquisition. So we aren’t grabbing dogs Willy-nilly. (Kathleen rescued Goldie.)
Benito has started to both play with and assert himself with Harvey. I just hope they establish their boundaries quickly. It’s hard to keep B calm for his heart worm treatment when everyone wants to play and play. But they do sleep a lot.
We have noticed much less mounting and marking from Benito, which is really good. I’m not fond of that stuff.
As for the rest of us, we are muddling along, with no one feeling all that great. My jaw swelling has gone down, but I still hurt. I’ll let the dentist know, and I’m taking the antibiotics on schedule.
Big thing for me: I am finally going through all my clothing from work and ranch and will be making some lucky thrift store shopper very happy. I got two boxes full of clothes today. More to come! This is one of my “issues,” having too many clothes. Comes from not having many growing up. But I go overboard. Sigh. I guess I could have worse issues (and probably do).
PS: haven’t lost a fish in my water garden! Yay!
The Hermits' Rest 