Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A Week That Has Really Gone To The Dogs

I can tell you that sometimes you don't get to know that you bear the same scars as your spouse until well into your marriage. Mine was Max. Hers was Cassie. I felt that I did something that led to my great dane's death and really never let myself get attached to an animal again. Cassie lived a long life but her passing away in Kerry's arms at the vet about 7 years ago closed that door for her as well. Neither of us needs a pet, right? I mean, we are newlyweds and have a son that makes cat noises about 4 times a day.

It may be for that latter reason that we talked about getting a dog. We made plans to both take the day off work yesterday (Nov. 11th) to take David on a surprise trip to the store to "meet a very special person in his life." Well, that was what we would tell him on the way there. Before that day would come, this would become a week that went to the dogs.

I think that I showed you a picture of the wall at my old home (now endearingly called the rental) with bricks falling over on our side. Part of that was due to the tree roots pushing the intersecting walls apart. The other cause would be the two big dogs the neighbor has that wedge themselves between the tree and the wall and push. I got a call almost a week ago that the neighbor's dog pushed another brick over and was jumping about half-way over the wall. Meaning, I had to confront the neighbor and fix the wall before their dog jumped over and killed the renter's pooch. I told them I'd be over on Sunday.

Sunday arrives and I go on my normal errands with the wife. I really do enjoy grocery shopping with her. It's some one-on-one time that we don't get often and a chance to show our thrifty sides. We are just returning home from the stores (with the plan that I will head over and work on the wall as she takes David and our niece and nephew to Shark Reef) when she gets a call from her sister. Our niece got bit around the eye by their dog. This killed the Shark Reef plans as well as our nephew spending the night (which really depressed David.) Kerry ran to the car to head to their house before going to the hospital. I unpacked the groceries and headed over to the rental. (As this seemed like a sign.)

A pleasant approach wound up bringing the neighbor and renter together in a joint effort to fix the wall. A large old sheet of wood left at the house worked perfectly to prevent further dog pushing. We also mixed up some mortar that I left there at the rental and re-stacked the brick wall. I left listening to the Raiders getting killed on the radio (this is rather expected though.)

Got home. Consoled David and brought him a little lunch. Our niece needed 7 stitches and was rather chipper about the whole ordeal. The sleepover worked out and they went to Shark Reef the following day after Chuck E. Cheese. I used the time to slip over to a pawn shop and purchase our first video camera. (We are calling it our gift to ourselves for Christmas.)

So we woke up this morning, did some shopping and got ready for our purchase. David was floored when we stood in front of a sign that said "Puppy Sale." We chose a beautiful female puggle we named Bella. Took her shopping for some necessities, went home and then went to my mother-in-law's house for a little birthday gathering for David. It was during these trips we discovered that Bella does have kennel cough and I'll be taking her to the vet tomorrow. So, the dog week continues but I have to say that I haven't yacked once cleaning up doo-doo this time around. Here's just a few photos:


Tuesday, November 04, 2008

My Only Election Post On The Day Of...


I wanted to get this in during the 11th hour. As you can tell, I didn't spend time waxing political during this major election campaign. I do want to take this time to thank all those voting -- no matter what part of the ideological divide you may sit. Yes, it is expected that just under half of the nation will be either celebrating or looking for a recount. But, we have a wonderful country and a system of constituent participation unmatched. I'll just be happy when we can return to dreaded tampon and feminine freshness ads and be done with the phrase "I approve this message."