How beautiful is this?

I've been meaning to post this for a while...sorry Coral, but I just love this snap so much that I want to share it...hope you don't mind. It just touches my heart to look at it. 

Jenny and Leo

I feel so bad that I didn't finish the story of Jenny and Leo. Not that anyone has been asking, since it's one of those "family" stories that don't mean anything to anyone but the family, but I promised myself I would write it. Anyhow, just for posterity, I'll finsih it up here. After Leo returned from Japan, he married Jenny and it was one of those storybook, fairy tale marriages. He loved her with a passion and gave her everything he could. Sadly, one night while he was away, the house caught on fire and Jenny perished in the flames. He never married again and he never spoke of her, other than to say how much he loved his Jenny. None of us ever knew anything about her, whether she had family who mourned her passing, or if her family even knew what had happened. 2 things that Leo salvaged from the house were the framed 4 leaf clover that she picked for him in 1939 (the one pictured a few posts below) and the picture of her that you see below this one. None of us even know where she is buried.  

Jenny and Leo

All that remains of Jenny....a torn photo. 

Isn't Nature Amazing?

We had a bit of a windstorm the other day, and while walking in the park today I gathered pincones. The difference in sizes quite intrigued me, and it made me wonder just how trees "know" how to grow their pinecones. The large ones are from a Bullpine and I don't know what the little ones are from, but other than size, they are identical. I just thought it was pretty neat. 

Chatterbox!

Hooray! I now have a "chatterbox" on my blog...thanks Rhiannon, for helping out your techno-impaired friend. Also thanks for downloading the Countdown thing too.

So, now you folks can leave comments on the chatterbox, it's much easier to read and to see. Kayleen, that strange "plugin" message that you saw the other day was what happened when I tried to download stuff myself. I have learned to just leave well enough alone.

I am so "people". Look at me sit!

Sitting in the sun like a little person. Amstaffs seem to like to "bend at the waist" like this. 

Pills, ills and Red Bull.

What a day, what a day. Or what a night. Or what a yesterday. *whew* let me start at the beginning. Steven was having pains in his abdomen on Monday, and they were slowly getting worse. As some of you may (or may not) know, he has Crohns and he has had flare-ups these past few months...I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say that we knew a trip to the hospital would certainly involve being admitted, and it did. He was hoping for just a shot of some sort of painkiller but no chance of that. In he went, IV's inserted, painkillers administered and after a not so bad wait of 3 hours, I went home. (Sidebar: We have a whole new Emergency Room and Admitting area at our hospital, with a real triage area and the whole shebang, pretty impressive but the nurses are no friendlier than they ever were. And no speedier either) Anyhow, I went home and watched a bit of TV and went to bed at midnight or thereabouts. No sooner did I fall asleep when Gypsy woke me up with this gentle little coughing spell. It lasted a half hour or so and then we both fell asleep. For maybe an hour. Then she started again. And this repeated itself all night. Needless to say, for those of you who know both me and my relationship with Gypsy, I was a frantic wreck. I lay awake until about 6 AM when I got up, showered and waited until 9 AM to phone the vet. Luckily he was able to get me in right away, so off we went, poor Gyspy thinking she was going for a ride to the park. When we pulled into Dr. McIntyre's place, she started to tremble and tried to fit herself between my feet. Inside, she tried to climb into my arms (yes, all 51 pounds of her) and on the examination table she just quivered and stuck her head under my arm. When Dr. McIntyre gave her an...umm....anal exam, her little eyes nearly flew right out their sockets, such an invasion! Anyhow, turns out that she has pneumonia. Who knew that dogs could get pneumonia? Not I. She was prescribed antibiotic pills, a pill and a half, two times a day. He said she'll be fine in no time. Thank God for that. her health is really my foremost concern. Oh, not to belittle Stevens' health, his is too. But, you know, dogs and all...

Off we go home, me thinking that it would be no trouble at all to make her take a pill. This is a dog who is extraordinarily well behaved and ready to please. Amstaffs have an inbred desire, more so than other dogs (or so I've read) to please their owners. Although, this is also a dog, who in her 11 years, has probably not had more than a handful of people food (literally, I do not exaggerate) and that food is the odd carrot, orange and maybe a bit of pretzel now and then. Well, once when she was little she stole a pizza, but that's another story for another day.

So I give her a pill and she gives me a look. I tell her: "It's ok, good girl" and I put it in her mouth. One deft curl of the tongue deposits it on the floor. I try again with the same results. Hmm. I put it in the back of her throat and push it down and out it pops on the floor again. I do the same but this time I hold her head up and stroke her neck. I hear a little swallow noise and I let her go. Out pops the pill and she gives it a push with her nose as if to say: "Piss off with this thing will ya?" Ok, I'll try the old cheese trick, all dogs fall for that. She has never had cheese before (except the stuff on the pizza that time) and she looks very interested as I cut a little chunk and insert the pill. I'm not foolish though, I give her a plain piece first, calling it a "treat" and she gulps it down. I praise her and give her the second one and she mumbles it around in her mouth and down it goes. Other than the pill, which she deposits gently on the floor. By now the pill is getting soggy and is looking worse for the wear. I am at my wits end. Can I glue it to a dog biscuit with peanut butter somehow? Can I crush it and mix it in her water? Maybe a banana. I cut a banana into chunks, give her a plain piece just to see what she thinks. She seems to think the texture is rather revolting, she sort of curls her lip with disdain, but again I praise her and call it a "treat" and down it goes. I put the pill in another chunk and try again., and Whooo-hooo, down it goes, pill and all. I was SO pleased. Now I only have to do that 19 more times. Lets hope she doesn't get tired of bananas. And oh, dog antibiotics cost $104.00...just so you know.

So then it's off to see Steven who was pretty heavily sedated still. They did a catscan and it looks like a blockage and probably surgery, but we'l l know more tomorrow. He is on buscopan, morphine and antibiotics (which he gets through an IV, not a banana) and has one of those nasal tubes as they want nothing, not even stomach fluids to go through his intestine.

So meanwhile, I am exhausted...no sleep, stress and feeling just beat and I had a cup of coffee or 2 to try and wake up and then discovered a Red Bull in the fridge. I have never tasted one before and I sort of though it would look and taste kinda like tomato juice. I was surpised to see that it's carbonated and tastes like that pink pop, what the hell is it called? You know, that really sweet stuff. Anyhow, I drank it and now I feel rather energetic and if I am typing wildly...oh, well I guess you'll never know that, but if it seems like I am babbling and/or rambling, well, I guess that's why.

And that's all for now, I think I'll go and run around the block a few times now...(umm, yeah, that would be a joke.)
 

Too Cold!

What is with this weather? Minus 27? Who does one complain to? It's so cold, it's that bitter, bone-numbing chill that just sucks the life right out of you. It's too cold to walk the dog, it's even too cold to walk myself. It's all I can do to run right out and start the truck...bundled up in my down jacket, wishing I had down pants. Do they make such a thing? Just think, last year at this time I was in Tanzania...enjoying the +40 weather. I'll never forget that heat, although it wasn't so much the heat as the humidity (hee, hee, I never thought I'd actually use that phrase in all seriousness) It was like walking through a field of hot, wet towels. "Good times, good times."

But, speaking of Tanzania, I have an excellent chance to return to Haydom this year. Stay tuned for further details.

A Beautiful Day in the Woods.

Even the fence was hard to recognize, it was really quite an unusal day, probably the prettiest snow day I have ever seen. 

I like the difference in the light between this picture and the one below. I prefer to walk in the shadows where everything is shades of blue. Hmmm...wonder what Freud would have to say about that? 

Snow Shadows

This is the path where we normally walk, too much snow to even attempt to get through.  

I almost expect to see Golum or some other cold blooded amphibious creature poking his head out of this ice cold little pond. 

The weight of the snow has almost bent the trees to the ground! 

 

Fallen Angel

This is Scott's new tattoo, personally I am a huge fan of tattoos and if I were younger I'm sure I'd have a dozen. I think this one is rather sad. His other one, which I posted just below this post has some symbolism in it, which means a lot to Scott, even though it looks rather odd to us.

What can I say?

The hand is someone in control,the chains are showing how they try to control, the hanging "man" is showing that he is strong and can overcome these trials. Shane will be getting a very similar one as well.

Narnia?

Remember the opening scene in The Chronicles of Narnia, when they first entered that magical land? That is how it looked in the woods today, last nights snow SO heavy that all the branches were bent over from the weight. Some of our regular trails were actually impassable.