dogs in the rain

So, Sal's other Grandma died. I feel sad because my mom is dead. I liked Millie also, back when I used to hang out with her. She was funny and quirky and a pretty good cook. She sired some sensitive boys and they seem to have done the same. Now the only grandparent Sal has, besides step-types, is my dad. An amusing and annoying fact. I miss my mom, its strange how life goes on without people even though you may not want it to be all regular.

So last night there was a zine/printed works fair over at the Northampton town. Actually, I may have been the only one with "zines". There were people with gorgeous printed art work and one annoying lady with bad teeth who had a "literary quarterly". Whatev. It was kind of neat to see my work all laid out there. I didn't have every single issue of Who Is Johnny Cash? (there were 45 of them spanning from 1995-2000) But a fellow bought every issue I had with turned out to be 36. Then the same fellow (a collector of cool things, I guess) wanted one of all the others. I had all the issues of The Observation Deck with me and he bought the 15 of those (spanning from 02-07) and he wanted all 6 of this year's Pawl Bitt. His request was a little mindblowing and I was perfectly straight when he asked for one of each but I was so flabbergasted at the request that David had to help me put them together for the guy. We gave him a deal, 56 zines for $50.

On Wednesday I finished issue 6 of Pawl Bitt, specifically to have for the event, and I was so happy and excited that I put it up on Etsy with the other five issues and before I was able to push "refresh" so I could see all the issues lined up pretty I noticed that iss 6 was gone! Some nut had purchased it within the 3 minutes I was loading the thing. I had to relist it and then I noticed, 12 hours later, some wacky lady from Cedar Rapids bought the entire catalog of Pawl Bitt. So now I have to mail her the things and relist again! I actually never imagined selling the things on Etsy, truth be told, I only print the things to keep the US postal service in business, ha ha. So it has been a busy and exciting zine week. I took #6 to the H+O to hand out to the stars of the issue and I was amused to overhear Jim say to some employee who works there as he showed it to her, "guess who that person is?" "guess who that is?" I think I am going to do one more bug and restaurant issue to make it a set of three and then do a different type of theme. We'll see.

David bought a butcher block table for the kitchen and I am getting used to it slowly. We've been hanging around drinking coffee on it and it is beautiful. I can't wait to roll out some dough on it. It's almost cool enough to bake today.

so! flowers lovers and plant observers, pay heed:

Hey!

remember a couple blogs ago when I wrote about those darn morning glories?
well, they are a-bloomin' now! check out the ones on the back porch:
This is today when I counted 13 flowers. There were two clusters of five and then three more scattered along the vine.




This is the vine I began at home and brought to work.



Sometimes the flowers don't pop first thing in the morning, sometimes they need a second cup of coffee,



and sometimes, most of the time, they are just perfectly lovely.



The plants have been very thirsty this year. Maybe we should all water our plants now. Don't forget!!

I love Pickles

For the last week or so (since Wed Aug 5) I have had something in my eye and went to various eye doctor appt and put loads of drops and unguent in my right eye until yesterday I achieved healthiness. I only felt sorry for myself 2% of the time between Aug 5 and 17th.

Monday I felt worse than ever because my dog Pickles was acting funny. Every day I take him for at least 2 walks and before we go and after we come back I make him sit on the top stair to get his leash put on and taken off. He was very reluctant to do so monday morning and then on monday night when he did the same I pointed it out to DbR who surmised that he was sick, constipated or the like. I immediately feared the worst because that dog eats a lot of crap, pieces of balls, plastic, rubber and the like. Luckily, he has somewhat of a cast iron belly and everything has passed through but he has never acted like he did Monday night after I put his leash on him (without really making him sit) and taking him out.

He walked willingly but with his tail down, tucked between his legs in a most disconcerting way. I realized it was a very uncommon sight and worried very ardently. He did have a bm and picked up his pace a little but not his tail. He continued to haunt the Bricker with his listlessness the next day when I took him out for his morning walk. DbR mentioned he had a morning success in the yard but his tail wasn't too perky and neither was he.

I came home for lunch and he didn't greet me at the door like Peretz did but did get off his bed for an outdoor visit and a treat. I gave him a biscuit with a little peanut butter. I thought about him all afternoon and decided I would give him a treat that night. On the way home I bought a soft serve vanilla ice cream cone from the Pete's Fried Fish Restaurant and when I arrived home Pickles greeted me at the door with a ball in his mouth and his tail up! The three of us went out on the back porch where I ate my third of the treat and gave him the rest. I watched him lick it and thought of the ice cream cone dog and master story shared by DbR's parents and smiled a little at Pickles crunching into the cone. The rest of the night passed with Pickles acting completely normal! He chewed on the bone, loitered in the kitchen while David cooked, begged under the dinner table as we ate our corn on the cob and barked out the window at KiKi the neighborhood calico.

I'm so happy to have a healthy pup!

Three different Groups

It is interesting, the three different groups of morning glory plants that I have growing right now are all very different. There is bunch I brought to work which is growing profusely. It is in the full sun for most of the day. The leaves and vines are very rich and strong but no flowers.










Then there is another plant in my back yard which is in the full morning sun and it growing very tall. Toward the bottom where it comes out of the planter it is more spindly with stems and branches than full of leaves. There are no flowers or any evidence of oncoming blooms.










The third plant is the shortest and has the least amount of foliage but there have been two to three flowers a day for the past week. This plant is in shade until the middle of the day and has full sun until sunset (around 12-8 pm). Is this plant going to die soon and has to throw out its flowers in an attempt to procreate? Perhaps the other plants are robust and healthy and feel no stress nor need to bloom?








The blooms are lovely on that front porch plant. Deep rich purple.

Dog Day FOUR sure

Always the entrepeneurs, Pickles and Peretz borrowed Roddy the rotweiler's truck to make a firecracker (and I do
mean "cracker") run into NH this morning. For some reason they felt they needed to go undercover so they referred to each other as "Coldcut" and "Toothpick" during the run. I don't know how they made out financially, they never talk about those affairs to me or DbR, but I noticed they brought back a bicycle horn, a scooter, a shiny MyMelody bracelet and an eyepatch. I guess the Greenfield town kids are equipped for today's holiday. Pickles keeps calling Peretz "Coldcut", still, and they both giggle nervously when he do.

today is thursday

just a few updates.
Pickles wormed out of his collar today. I was walking him around our backyard after the regular walk and he smelled something he wanted to investigate very badly out in the shrubby overgrowth. I couldn't see what it was and I didn't want him to roll in shit or a dead thing so I resisted him. He did not comply, which is odd. Usually he will resist but easily relent when I make my will known with conviction. We pulled in different directions resulting with him squeezing his head out and he was gone. I followed him around for a while, got sweaty in the humidity. I despaired at catching him because what am I going to grab? No collar. DbR did not run around, he stood in front of the Bricker smoking and keeping watch. I followed Pickles down the block to the weird apartments/crappy condo strip which reaches between Wells and Conway and he led me to the backyard of a family which spoke a slavish language between the children and mother. The father was nearby doing work on their humble sedan while she bbq'd a load of chicken on their hibachi. the chicken wasn't in pieces but a big piece which wasn't actually bbq'd but cooked in a big piece ( i know i repeat ) wrapped in foil. I tell ya, I wasn't staring and investigating this woman's cooking because remember Pickles was loose. They had two boys under 6 or 7 and a little girl younger than that. The little girl stayed on her swingset's teeter totter while her brothers and I tried to trap that dog. It was hard but I showed them my empty collar and they understood. It was the kind of family where the boys spoke English to me but their parents spoke Polish ? to them. They were white. One of the boys offered me a piece of --maybe it was pork, not chicken-- to lure Pickles who had squeezed out into the next yard which was spacious and depressing, given my trial. The three of us also squeezed into the yard and looked over at dog and I despaired continuously. Pickles rounded the big yard and started headed back toward us. I called to him knowing that never worked and held out the meat. He came. He must have been tired enough to be curious about me and the kids. I gave him a morsel of the meat while I leaned over him as securely as possible, still not believing, still expecting him to wiggle away and bolt. I got the collar on him and put it on the tightest setting. I called David who was holding the leash.

When I pulled out my iPhone and started to dial the older kid asked, "Is that your phone?" and I explained about my husband coming with the leash. I said thank you and headed out, leaning uncomfortably over the collared dog away from the back line of the yards, toward the pavement. They didn't ask me to dinner.

I am 71% ready to complete my next Pawl Bitt but I am lured by the second season of Veronica Mars, I love it so.

Last week the washing machine coughed and we had to call a repairman. He came and took out the offending piece of machinery and voila! Because I live in the same town as the Bricker, it was my task to meet repairman and let him in to do his $65 task. After he left, I started a load of DbR's clothes which had been sitting around the cellar since the machine paused. I eagerly started to do my own laundry directly afterwards which created a situation where I was doing everyone's laundry. His shirts have buttons and collars and a very nice cottony broadcloth kind of material which wrinkles. He tries to hang up his shirts directly after the dryer ends. Because I didn't want to throw them haphazardly into the bin, I gave them a little bit of a one two fold to keep them somewhat neat until he could hang them. He was pleased.

Tonight we were in his room talking about Tanya's bro doing computer programming when I noticed the bin of shirts still folded in a pile somewhat neatly but the pile was 66% depleted. "Are those the same shirts I folded?" I asked
"Yeah."
"You never hung them up?"
"No."
"Do you dig through them to find the one you want or are you just using them as they come up in the pile?"
"Just using them."
I think that is so funny.

we went to the Famous Grille's on its opening day. I got us seated in a booth in the bar which was well lit and somewhat pleasant. The bar now wraps all the way around into the next room, dining room. I liked the way that looks, feels in the place. Our waitress seemed nice and eager to tell me about all their beers. I made her tell me the names of all the tap beer and they were all the most dull, dislikeable beers you can imagine. No "hot rod rye" or "hop devil" certainly no "beer of the gods." I asked her about the bottles which I guess were many because she paused. "what kind are you looking for?" she asked. "any IPAs" I plunged in, narrowing her list. "Oh, we have Harpoon IPA." which, if we are ever on the matchgame you can answer "Her least favorite IPA from the United States." when asked. I gave up and got a scotch and soda which was made strong and somewhat interesting in a dull way. We got through the greek-diner sized menu and were ignored by the waitress in favor of the folks sitting in the next booth who came after us. After another 5 minutes she came over and offered to take our menus, "get them out of the way". "Oh, I wanted to refer to it when I ordered." I informed. "Oh, I haven't taken your order." she realized verbally and walked away for another five or more minutes before coming back and taking the order! oy!
I ordered the gargonzola dip/garlic bread app and it was good. While eating it DbR and I realized that the people at the bar nearby were getting drunk and they were being "VERY LOUD" I said loudly. Loud enough for them to hear. They hushed and muttered amongst themselves until one lady (the loud one) said, "we better go, since we're getting so loud." more mutters "we don't want to (something) pipsqueak over there."
yes, I was called "Pipsqueak". I really thought they were being too loud to hear me complain loudly but they did hear me. It was an odd situation. Our food came and we were ignored some more by the waitress and then it seemed like another lady was helping her with busing and other tables and even though we sat there with empty plates and they cleaned off the table right next to us, neither one of them checked in to see if we wanted dessert or the check. They walked away, one even asking the next table over, "Do you have everything?" I was kind of grumpy about it. The lady who wasn't our waitress finally wandered back toward us and I leaned toward her, "Can you get our bill? Our waitress hasn't ..." I forget what I said here. Something more forceful than "checked in with us." and it wasn't "brought it" but it was definitely along the lines of "hasn't cared to ask if we want it." And she hustled away to come back (without the check) to tell us "she'll be right over with it." and she was right behind with it. The bill was $40 for the burger and three apps, two cokes and my drink. We gave at least $20 and decided not to go back any time soon.

The hail yesterday damaged 17% of my zinnias.

oh my

There was all this hail. I've seen hail before but not so much that I could go up and gather a bunch and take pictures. But today I could go in the backyards wearing my flipflaps and while they soaked up the new standing rain, I could goggle at the nuggets. What a strange weather event. I felt like I was in one of the Little House books. Later, I finished watching the first season of Veronica Mars and we walked dogs in the wet wet world. The rain had eased and lightning still flashed occasionally toward Poets Seat. Looking across the factory yard toward the train tracks there was more light to be seen. A carpet of fireflies had awoken and were flashing their little selves into a storm of their own.

future plans

its nice to think of taking a vacation in September, nice to think of having a summer. sometimes i think of taking all my blogs and ditching them. when's the last time i even dialed up my livejournal? i remember once i was going to download it all to pieces of paper and then put them in a ring binder, etc etc. but i never did. what's the point? and i think, what's the point of doing a blog anyway? so many times i think of something i want to share but don't because it is too depressing.

i think i'll keep the blog up on the internet because i might fall down and break my neck tomorrow and maybe people will have that morbid curiosity about me, that lady they knew peripherally or however and want to take a peek at my personality as displayed by the blog writing. maybe i'll go back and read my blogs and try to imagine being a stranger who heard i was dead and saw the blog link in the obit and decided to spend some time reading it. what would they think? would they be bored? would they be curious? i'm curious. i wish i would spend more time drawing dogs, like i did today, even though P & P would not pose very well, goofballs. i decided to follow this lady who tweets for Ashmont records and on her background there is a drawing, a really nice comic drawing of the pitbull, Charlie, who is the mascot, i think. i'd like very much to draw such things. i think i've drawn something cool once.

Do I Love You?

Yes.





Yes



Yes

another Easter pic

I just looked at DbR's upload from the past week or so and I saw this one of me and the pups on Easter Sunday and I had to include here on my blog. It's Wednesday, 2 am and I still have much I'd like to do in Nashville, we leave Saturday morning. I started reading Team of Rivals which is just an enjoyable history about Lincoln and his cabinet. There is a yukky bug flying around and Peretz is dreaming. David may be too but he's snoring so loudly I can't hear the dream. I had a fun time today making a cake for father in law. It is nice to be on vacation.

Translucent Easter Bonnet

Leaving him at home with Peretz tonight while we go to the Station Inn.

So, about Pickles

Since my mom died last month DbR and I started planning a trip down to Nashville with the dogs to visit his parents and their dogs on his dad's 70th birthday week. Pickles hasn't had a face to face with Pepper or Berkeley and I was nervous about it. Pickles is generally a big dick and wants to always be the alpha and happily Peretz has come to grips with that from the get go. Meanwhile, Peretz has always known and been accepted into the Russell family of dogs, in fact, he came first and is sort of P + B's foster uncle.
So, in preparation I sent two of Pickles' blankets to Nashville along with a bone and a ball he had chewed and drooled on, believing in the experts who say that the scent of the strange dog will become familiar to the home dogs and he'll be more easily accepted, etc etc.
I was still very nervous the whole drive down from Massachusetts and the overnight in the Wytheville hotel didn't calm me. It didn't seem like either dogs are hotel dogs and they both (mostly Pickles, of course) were crazily preoccupied with the smells out in the hall (Pickles had his nose pasted to the doorcrack and spent most the night lying in the mini-vestibule) and wouldn't calm down. They relaxed for most the drive yesterday, however.
We got to Currywood Drive and let them run around the fenced in yard, without P + B at first. Pickles was in heaven. That dog loves to run run run and in the yard full of tennis balls he was pretty happy. Then we let Berkeley into the yard. Berkeley is a shaggy mutt, about 25 % larger than Pickles, same age. They scrapped pretty hard at first and no amount of yelling ceased that action. I was very upset, almost crying at the violence. The fighting continued and began to ebb. I was reassured by the Russells that that was what usually occurred, alpha was made clear and dog fighting ended. I was still worried, as Pickles still hadn't met Pepper and I was afraid the Peanut Butter gang would gang up on him and although Pickles kind of deserved it, he was definitely the aggressor, I was worried someone would get hurt, even a human when dogs were attempted to be split up.

"What if one dog bites the other dog's eye out?" I fretted, imagining the worst scenario.
"That wouldn't happen." I was reassured.
"I just don't want anyone to get hurt, get taken to the hospital."
"They usually yelp or tell us if they are hurt."

Pepper was introduced and Pickles attacked but when she backed down, peace haphazardly reigned. David wanted to nap after a while and so the four of us hunkered down in the bedroom and although at first the dogs napped for a minute, after a while longer they were anxious to go out and party some more. I grudgingly rose and feeling like showering but needing some product, I let the dogs out in the yard and asked Mr and Mrs if they would watch the four hounds while I went shopping real quick. They assented.

As I was leaving the store with my bag of hair stuff, toothbrush and new bag of balls, I received a call from David.

"You're up!" I declared.
"Yeah, my mom just woke me and told me she wanted to take Pickles to the vet because I guess the dogs got into a fight and his eyelid was tore."


We went to the emergency clinic and $450 and seven stitches later I have a dog on vacation who pushes against stuff with his lampshade hat as if it weren't there.
He definitely needs to be separated from the Peanut Butter gang. He seems happy enough, still chasing balls around the yard like mad. This morning he woke me up at 7 am and we went outside in the most gorgeous pink light and when I saw him running at full tilt I knew he was going to be okay.

Pickles was hurt in a Fight

Easter Sunday

where is my one day old spotted tiger?

Today after work I walked Pickles after getting totally bundled up. It was kind of raw outside. I was happy with the walk, though, after putting on the heavy sweater and heavy LL Bean jacket. Recently I was looking through my mother's pics and there is a pic of me with a less than one year old Sal on my back in one of those baby back packs and I was wearing that ol' green jacket, the same ol' green jacket from LL Bean. The thing works hard and now it's older than 15 yrs old. Good ol' jacket.

After the walk I went upstairs to put on play clothes and take off the stiff school clothes (i.e. brassiere) and after pulling on jeans and my new tee shirt I landed in bed. It was pretty nice and as I drifted off I heard Peretz down on the first floor bark bark barking and I could hear Pickles tearing around the house like a maniac which he often does after coming in from a walk. He'll start in the living room by the wood stove and run across the room to the hallway and run up the three steps to the first stairway landing and pant there for a few beats and then take off, running back the same way, at his top speed for inside the house and I could hear his feet on the floor scratching and scraping and running across the wood floor and it sounded very particular and idiosyncratic and meanwhile Peretz was bark bark bark. If someone was illustrating a dog barking, as a demonstration of the form of dog barking the picture would show Peretz with a word balloon which reads "bark" and that would be exactly him.

I heard all of this so loud and clear from the comfort of my bed and I heard Pickles take off again on his running route and I laughed out loud. I did not LOL but I did lay there in my jeans and comfortable tee shirt on my bed and I laughed out loud at the noise the dogs were making in the Bricker downstairs and at the dependability of them and their antics and their noises. Then I fell asleep.

One Step Forward is all that is expected

Sometimes Puppies Seem To Have Big Paws

People Make Me Laugh

Big Pink Pillow
Sunsets with Flower Buds
Dread, Resignations and
Other People's Triple Word Scores


On Facebook I read two comments tonight from women I know-well, one I know well and one I know peripherally. The woman I know well I love but sometimes do not like and the woman I know peripherally I find grotesque -on the inside and on the outside- and their comments I found completely superficial and self important. They dropped names and told stories which does nothing but seem to enhance their coolness- except to people like me who see through the guise keenly and skeptically and now I feel supercilious and resultingly self debasing because I would even have those judgmental thoughts flit through my mind.

"Are there any windows in here?"

the assessor from my mortgage company came and looked through the house, taking pictures! and making notes so that she can go back and (hopefully) tell the company the house is worth more than 90$ thou so that I can get that pmi (private mortgage insurance) taken off my monthly mortgage payment. it actually adds up to 50$ a month that I pay for that shit!!!
i think my house is well worth more than 90$ at least the other bank thought so when they gave me a home equity loan. i told the (nice) lady that i had all new replacement windows (even in the basement!), a new boiler (well, from 2002 anyway) a new roof, new bathroom tile, etc etc. i forgot to tell her about the new chimney (argh!)

She was nice, thank goodness, because she and i travelled around the Bricker for twenty minutes, her making drawings of the floor plan and hopefully taking pictures which show how lovely the house is, me being charming as can be. She was nonplussed by the room on the second floor which was soundproofed but enthusiastic about the pantry, even in its current state of chaos. "that's ok, though, it's a pantry!" "yeah, but I can't find my muffin pan!" I complained.

There is a cellphone on the Bricker's front lawn, thrown there by some errant knave.

blurb...up to minute news from Greenfield, MA

there was a cat-a dead cat in front of the elks club, lying on the grass between the sidewalk and the street. I could only see his large furry gray and white legs and some tail because the top 2/3rds of its body was covered with a nice quilted blanket. It was a large cat, at first glance i thought it was a small terrier-type dog but then i realized it was lying still, under the blanket and then I realized it was a dead cat. It was kind of strange.

distraction

When i was on the vineyard getting over a bad date or whatever, i often watched ww2 movies or that south park movie to distract me from the pain. After I became the only one living in the Bricker, I watched a lot of Buffy to dull that experience. Now I distract myself again with amusing stories up on the screen. This time it is Battlestar Galactica. It's pretty interesting.



My mother
His mother




mother mother blah blah mother

Happy, sad, okay, sad, not bad, sad...

When I was a kid and I was up and about, doing stuff around the house or whatever, and my mom was in bed sleeping while I was up, always made me feel funny. It was never right when she was sleeping (during the day) and I was awake. Of course this changed as I got into my teens and stayed up late watching tv. That was different. But when I was a kid during the few times she slept in or took a nap not on the couch I was always a little weirded out.