Ghosts??

 

 

Happy Halloween from Darby, Pumpkin and Harry! 

Ignorance

I suppose I should be checking on whatever Pumpkin is up to, but you know the old saying: "Ignorance is bliss."     I'm going to assume she is curled up snoozing just out of view until I hear something to indicate otherwise and go on enjoying my coffee and a bit of blog surfing. 

Feet up

How I spent the last evening of my first week back to work:

[this moment}

Once again, I'm copying Amanda Soule over at Soulemama, a blog I love.  Head over there to see her {this moment} after you've checked out mine!




{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.   

Waiting for breakfast

I'm a bad mother to these dogs Leda has entrusted to my care.

I make them sit and allow me to walk in and out of doors before they do.

I make them sit for treats.

I only allow them to get on the sofa when I say it is OK (well, I try to do that...) and I lock them in kennels (lined up along my side of the bed, and lined with cozy, comfy fleece pads) at night.

And, not only do I make them sit and wait a moment before I place their food bowls on the floor in front of them, I make them wait until I've made my coffee before I even think about filling up their bowls!

Maybe if I pretend to be dead she'll hurry up and feed us.

Well, I don't want her to die, but I wouldn't mind if she went on vacation for awhile and I had The One Who Feeds Us to myself again...

Maybe if I stare at the bowls that will get her started...

Maybe if I look pathetic that will make her fill up our bowls.

Does this look convey that I'm starving?

I'd sure like to be tasting some food with this super long tongue of mine!

 

I hope PETA doesn't hear about my mistreatment of my dog-girls and sue me to protect their civil rights!

Tuesday evening, early

Well, I survived my second day back to work.  It was good to see my office coworkers on Monday.  Yesterday I went to a meeting with a lot of people from all areas of the organization and it was fun visiting with them before and working with them during the meeting.    Monday night I was in bed and asleep by 8:00 pm.  I managed to stay awake a little longer on Tuesday night so I think I am slowly getting used to no afternoon naps! On Monday I didn't even pick up my camera but Tuesday evening I did. 

So I guess I am officially back in the swing of things. 

 

Watching crows flying home to roost in the avocado grove.

This one is a real daddy's girl.

I love how the sun set reflects against the mountains.

Looking out the fence with me. 

I love this mountain -- El Cajon Mountain, also called El Capitan.  

I couldn't see anything, but they sure could smell something. 

Sigh

My last leisurely morning until next weekend.

I know I have it good; I know I shouldn't complain. I'm fortunate to have had the surgery, fortunate to have health insurance, fortunate to work for an employer that provides excellent leave packages and fortunate to have had a good recovery.

But, still.  It sure has been nice wandering my backyard with the dog-girls and my camera at all times of the day.  I can't help but think I will miss it!

A whirlwind at my feet

First, let me say: please ignore the grubby walls you are about to see.

Often, when I am sitting at the desk where we have the computer, the dog-girls curl up on the dog bed under the desk. Sometimes,  one of them will claim the dog bed and snap at the other to keep her from getting on the bed, too. Sometimes, like right now. Pumpkin will be sleeping on the landing just outside the room and Darby will be sleeping under the desk. It varies depending on their moods and how warm or cool the house is, I suppose.

Yesterday evening they were both on the dog bed under the desk, but they weren't sleeping! They were playing.

It was like a whirlwind under there!

That looks worse than it was!

Now, back to those grubby walls.  They don't show up too badly in these photos, but in real life, they are quite bad.  I've spent a good bit of time using Mr. Clean eraser pads on the walls and I think I am about to rub off the top layer of paint!  Arrggghh!  I guess that what you get when your two dogs routinely wrassle in a confined space and they look and sound like they are having so much fun (in spite of the display of teeth!) that you don't have the heart to stop them!

Poppytalk's Colour Week

You may remember me writing about Colour Week over at the design blog, Poppytalk.   Several of my photos have "made the cut" and been featured on her blog during Colour Weeks over the last couple of years, and I'm pleased to say another one was chosen for this year's Autumn Colour Week -- Brown.  Check it out here!

And, because the subject of the photo is just so darned cute, I'm posting the photo here, too!

Zoomies*

Tomorrow is my last day of leave.  I'm feeling physically well enough to go back to work, but I'm feeling a little sad about it, too.  I'm gonna like being retired when the time comes!

I think I mentioned that one of the good things about having been home this last month was being able to wander around in the backyard taking photos of my dog-girls and whatever else struck my fancy.  It was good for me to be up and moving around and my camera weighs way less than the 10 pound lifting limit I still have imposed on me, so it was a good activity for me.

It was especially fun watching the girls doing zoomies around the backyard.  Like this:

 

 

When the girls are doing zoomies, it's a good thing.  When I am doing zoomies, it isn't such a good thing at all.  Now that this slow, gentle recuperating time is coming to an end and I'll be going back into the rat-race, I'm promising myself to avoid zoomies and zoomie inducing situations, to slow down, worry less and enjoy everyday life more.  Even traffic.   

*I stole the title of this post from Sarge and Daisy, Kendra and Bella who use the word "zoomies" a lot.

Simply Ten Not-So Good Things

OK.  So, a few times over the last few weeks, I've been all chipper and smiley face about the 10 good things in my life.

Well, I've got a list of ten not-so-good things to share with you as well.  When you're done reading the list, you'll be glad I don't have photo representations for all the items on the list.

Simply Ten No-So-Good Things

1.  Dog poop.  WHY, tell me, do the girls have to poop ALL over the yard?  Why can't they choose one prime grassy area and go there all the time?  I pick it up every day-- in fact, I was out there picking it up three days after my surgery! -- so it isn't like any one area gets so messed up.  So, why can't they choose one place and go there all the time so cleaning up after them wouldn't be such a hunting expedition?  (I KNOW I could have trained them to go in one place, I want to know why THEY can't train themselves!) 

2.  Pant leg sniffing. Darby sniffs the legs of my pants when I first put them on in the morning, when I change into a different pair, when I come home at the end of the day, when she comes in after having been outside for awhile, etc., etc.  I swear this sniffing gives her a clue about what might come next:  maybe the pants that routinely go to work on me smell differently than the pants I wear on Saturday morning to go for a walk with friends?  Unfortunately, she isn't content to just get a whiff -- she has to actually touch her nose to the fabric which often leaves dog-snot marks. 

3.  When the mail delivery person changes her route.  Does anyone else hate walking out to get the mail at 11:00 -- the time at which the mail has been dutifully sitting waiting in the mailbox most of the last 30 days -- only to find an empty mail box? 

4.  Dirty windows.  Windows, especially those on the upper stories of houses should come equipped with automatic washers.

5.  The way strips of postage stamps are rolled into rolls.  Has anyone else noticed that when you put a roll of postage stamps into a cute little stamp dispenser, if you hold the dispenser in your left hand, and pull the stamps off with your right hand (as I would guess that nearly all of the nearly 90% of us who are right handed would do) the stamps come off the roll upside down.  (At least they do for me no matter how many times I switch the way I put the roll in the dispenser. Maybe my cute little handcrafted wood dispenser is to blame?) I'm forced  to choose between putting the stamp on upside-down, or twisting my arm around, or doing that sticky finger transfer thing so I can put it on right side up.   Now who cares you might ask?   Someone well versed in the language of stamp placement would care:
          Q. Is there significance to a stamp being placed upside down on an envelope?

Maybe. One reason for the requirement of prepaying postage was that many individuals developed elaborate codes to convey messages that could be transmitted by seeing the outside of the envelope and thus not requiring payment for the receipt of the letter. According to The American Philatelist, February 1985, p. 154 the following codes were used (assuming the person was not just in a hurry and was not in need of glasses):

• Stamp upside down in the left corner - I love you
• Stamp crosswise in the left corner - My heart is another's
• Stamp straight up and down in the left corner - Goodbye sweetheart
• Stamp upside down in the right corner - Write no more!
• Stamp in the middle at the top - Yes!
• Stamp in the middle at the bottom - No!
• Stamp diagonally across the right-hand corner - Do you love me?
• Stamp diagonally across the left-hand corner - I hate you
• Stamp in the top corner at the right - I wish your friendship

6.  The little plastic pieces that fall off plastic grocery bags (which I know I shouldn't use but sometimes do when I forget my reusable cloth bags) that are nearly impossible to pick up off a tile floor.  

7.  Dog drool.  So, this is a really bad picture taken with the zoom feature of my iPhone, but get a load of this Pumpkin drool:

Is that a great, er, I mean terrible drool, or what?  The fact that it hung there for long enough for me to zoom the camera tells you something of the viscosity of the drool.

8.  When a dog who has JUST eaten looks at me like this:

9.  Not seeing the web before seeing the spider.

10.  Running out of blog fodder.  So far, I have never actually run out, but I've been scrapin' the bottom of the barrel lots of times.   As this posting proves!

Simply Ten Good Things

I like the idea of listing ten good things about life -- the way Amanda Soule does on her blog periodically.  It makes me stop and think about -- and therefore savor -- things that I might take for granted.

Today, I've been thinking of all the good things about having been home on medical leave these last four weeks -- the fact that I go back to work this coming Monday is surely what prompted this thinking!

So, here are Ten Good Things I'm Going to Miss When I Go Back to Work:

1.    Leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee every morning, not just Saturday and Sunday.

2.    Having time to wander in the backyard and take photos at all times during the day.

3.    Making lunch and having my dog-girls sit under/next to my chair while I eat it.


4.    Extra knitting time (with my dog-girls sitting under/next to my chair.)

5.    Talking with Erika without the three hour time difference getting in the way.

6.    Sitting in the sun watching the girls chase lizards.

7.    Taking naps.  I never used to be a napper and doubt I will turn it into a habit when I retire some day, but the freedom to take a nap if the mood strikes, seems like a real luxury.

8.    Being around my dog-girls all day long.

9.    Reading.  For long periods of time, without falling asleep after the first couple of pages (as usually happens to me when I read in bed at the end of the day!) 

10.  Not rushing out the door in the morning and slogging through traffic to work and on the way home. 


I've promised myself to list the 10 good things about going to work, too.

At the moment I can't think of more than one -- the paycheck! -- but, I'm sure once I'm back in the swing of things the list will grow!