to have something to do

Welp, it happened again. I've [mentioned before] about how I strangely come across pocket sharp things while out walking around. This was the collection, with household object for scale:

On Sunday, Magnum and I were walking down our street, minding our own business when, yet again, another sharp thing jumped out at me.

I guess they don't really jump, but my eyes are somehow drawn right to them.

People speak of finding pennies, golf balls, toys, etc. while out walking around. For whatever reason, I mainly find these pocket knives. 

Here's the latest to join the collection.

I certainly don't need any more. In fact, I think I've donated most of them since, surprisingly, they've all been in good condition.

This one is sort of an outlier because of it's red plastic housing. I figured out that the notch in the blade is a bottle opener. It doesn't seem quite as robust as the others in my "collection" - like maybe it was a freebie promotional thing.

I feel I should pick them up and remove them from the wild so some child doesn't come across one and end up slashing themselves or others. But now what? Anyone have a bottle needs opening?

On Sunday, we got together with Wolfgang and Meego to celebrate Meego's birthday. I don't want a fuss on Mother's Day, but Meego was actually born on Mother's Day - speaking of fuss. So we often celebrate his birthday on the weekend nearest, which is often Mother's Day.

Considering that, plus it being CSU graduation weekend, we avoided the potentially busy places and times. We went out for oh so good Mexican food late lunch. Seriously, I'm still thinking fondly of those chicken enchiladas. Always nice to hang out and catch up with those guys, and I also talked with Chaco on the phone. So a good Not-Mother's Day.

My work has slowed since I'm tutee-less until summer semester begins in a couple of weeks. I will indulge in some errand running today since it's a full day off. 

Who knows, maybe I'll find another knife.

SilverLiningness Sunday

Yesterday was a workday for me, and it was thankfully nice and mellow.  My boss and assistant boss both have Saturdays off, so it's the day of the week that I'm "in charge".  Last Saturday was when we had that latest COVID situation frenzy, so while that was exciting, I was happy for a mellow day yesterday.

After work, Magnum and I went for a walk.  We're back to earning points for cash at his work's health incentive program.  I shoot for 10,000+ steps a day for maximum points.  

So we hoofed it about 4.5 miles, and my linked app credited me with about a measly 3,000 steps for the trip.  I don't think so!  Not only that, but we were nearly hit by a irresponsible bitch woman in an SUV failing to yield to pedestrians (us) in a crosswalk.  

So I figured I'm due a Silver Liningness blog post.  Onward.

Winter bicycle update:  I thankfully decided not to buy a third bicycle, deciding that three's a crowd.  My new winter tires have arrived, and I'm going to put them on Ariel and see how they are on dry pavement.  Others have told me they just leave them on from November-ish to March-ish, and they're fine even on no-ice days, so we shall see.  Here they studly sit beside me, patiently awaiting employment under the watchful eye of Catbug...

Why do I have a Catbug plush?  That's another story.  Anyway, I figure if I don't like the feel of them on dry roads, I'll just change out the tires.  It'll be good practice for flats I don't intend to get.

Whachu reading?  I've just finished reading a couple of books by Japanese authors.  They were recommended to me from my Kindle for some reason.  Both books were strange, but I liked their strangeness.  I think.  

Certainly not for everyone, but I went from going, "okay, what is the point??" to "Hmmm, lemme think about that for a bit" with each.

Working in the time of COVID.  This week, the CEO of the healthcare system I work for mandated that COVID vaccines will be required for employment as of April 1.  We've already had some fallout from staff who don't want the vaccine.  I'd decided to get it at the end of this month before the mandate was announced.  I'm thankful to have it available to me and at the thought of protecting our senior residents.  Fingers crossed it does the job.

In closing, I'm thankful for nice long walks, even if I don't get credited the full step count.  And I'm thankful for not being run over by a motor vehicle.

a couple of quick peeves

Well doesn't that sound so nice.

I do enjoy walking.  I have a bit of a problem with the word "every" in that image, however.

I walked yesterday.  I was not happy for every ten minutes.

See, I took the beater/learner car in for new tires and then walked home.  It was about a 2.5 mile walk and a pleasant morning.  All was fine until I came upon a point where the road crossed a creek.  The sidewalk disappeared.  What's up with that?!  Google maps did not warn me of this development!




My logical choices were to:
(a) wait for a break in traffic on the very busy road and make a mad dash for about 50 feet where the road went over the creek.
(b) backtrack well past the tire place to a crosswalk, walk across the busy road (6 lanes plus a median)  to use the sidewalk on the other side, then cross back again at a crosswalk beyond the creek
(c)  backtrack well past the tire place and catch the bus
(d)  call a neighbor friend to come get me
(e)  hang out near the tire store for 2+ hours where the main hangouts consisted of a head shop and a tattoo parlor

I chose (f) for .... "screw" this and just scrambled down the creek bank, scrambled across the creek, then scrambled up the opposite bank.  Luckily, the water level was quite low and there were big rocks from one end of the creek to the other that I could walk upon.

So no biggie for me, but I was thinking about other pedestrians?  What about older people whose scrambling days are behind them?  What about people walking with little kids - maybe with strollers?

Later, when the car was ready, I contemplated the same choices above and ended up choosing (f) again.  It felt good and rebellious, so maybe that graphic is true.

And since I don't particularly like to complain, particularly on the blog, I'll vent about something else and then be done with it.

A woman in my PEO chapter just had a baby. YAY!  Of course we've known this was bound to happen for a few months now, and a couple of months ago, I asked the appropriate person if we were going to have a shower for her.

I got this answer, paraphrased:  "No".

Now, I've been in PEO a long time and have been to many a PEO baby shower.  My own babies were showered upon by PEOs.  Heck, Chaco was nearly delivered by them!  But that's another story.  I am relatively new to my current chapter, and I really do like the members, but this baby thing...

The reasoning was that "We haven't had a baby shower in a long time, so if we have one now, the moms with babies that didn't get showers might feel left out".  Oh sheesh.  On a side note, Running Sue, who is also relatively new to this chapter, asked about a shower too.  I say that's evidence enough to mark this chapter as a bit of a party pooper among the sisterhood.

But fear not, they do have a plan for new babies:  a spoon.

OH no!  Not that spoon!  Rather, a sterling silver baby spoon that might be a nice token, but who actually uses such things?  Now, I realize I'm more practical-minded than average, but I feel a bit disappointed that we're just giving this new mom a spoon that she will likely never use.

Sidewalks and showers.  Is it too much to ask?

.

b*tches be walkin'

Several years ago, during lent, I decided that I would walk the dogs every day.  I'm not even Catholic, but I kind of like the idea of the lenten sacrifice.  So when people I knew were sacrificing for six weeks, I made the commitment to the dogs.

By the time lent ended, it had become such a habit that I just kept doing it.  Truth is, I enjoy my walks with China.  Back in that initial lent decision, we had two dogs - China and the lovable Domino.  They were active exercise-me! dogs, and I had a 2-headed leash.

Then we lost Domino to the dreaded cancer, and China's not the youngster she used to be.  She and I continue to enjoy our old lady walks together.  Some days, I think maybe I should skip it and get caught up on other things, but then she gives me that look...  It's practically all she asks of me!

This week's Mama Kat's prompts include " Your morning drive  "   Well, I've already blogged my hellacious morning commute, so I thought I would instead share my heavenly morning walk.

Let's go walkin' with China!

READY!

We went out the back gate to catch the pedestrian trail - the same trail that started out the hellacious commute to the school crossing.

This morning, a bicyclist, who was totally spandexed out, passed by and made me wonder how Bike Lady is doing these days.










Then we head west along a nice shady sidewalk.  This is also the route that starts the famous Midnight Mile.  I like it this time of year for the shade and views of the mountains.  I do love China, but I get tired of looking at her butt.





About a half mile down the road, we are near a shopping mall.  Even though it's so close, I can't remember the last time I was actually inside this mall.

One can't seem to go very far here without coming upon a large evangelical church.  This one is not too large, and it's not that large scandel-ridden one either  

Because of our close proximity to the Air Force Academy, there is a constant din of trainer aircraft circling each morning.  

There are several of these single-engine planes in the air at any given time as well as another that spirals slowly upward before making a dump of parachuted cadets.

China and I are buzzed so much that I don't even notice them anymore.  If they're not there for some reason, it seems weird.

We walk by an apartment complex that has a pool I fantasize about crashing.  I'm not sure what PARC stands for, but I have noted that it's CRAP spelled backwards...

It was right near here that I had The Great Bear Encounter of 2011.

Eventually, we've looped back around to the pedestrian trail, approaching the school from the opposite direction, where a fearless crossing guard counterpart slaves.


The school sits at the top of the hill.







Aah, another lovely walk to get China off my back start the day!

This post actually almost qualifies for another of this week's prompts: "9 pictures. 9 words" , but seriously, if I could do just 9 words, I'd be hanging out at twitter.
.

mending fences... or not

Yesterday afternoon, I poked at the window blinds to take an assessment.

"Damn clear blue skies", I murmured.

What an ingrate, huh?  But what can I say, it was hot again without a friendly cloud in sight.  We really haven't had much appreciable rain since the mass car-washing ploy that helped put out the Black Forest fire.  While other blog friends are getting more rain and yuck weather than they seemingly deserve, I wish we could organize this weather better and share the "wealth"!

Terri recently shared some photos of her parents' downed tree from a recent storm.  She also noted the neighbor's deteriorating fence.  I'm not trying to pull any one-up-blogship, but I looked at the photos of the deteriorating fence and thought, "oh honey..."

Allow me to share just a couple of deteriorating fences in my neighborhood.  I snapped some pics during this morning's China walk, trying to be incognito.

Exhibit A

Exhibit A is what is left of the poor fence at the house near my former office, the school crossing.   Looking further up the way, we see that there is a slight bend in the road.  An errant driver, however, decided not to follow it and instead, to drive into the now gone fence.

This is actually the second time in about five years that has happened.  Gee, I'm gonna miss that job but not really.

Exhibit B

Exhibit B is my favorite, though.  This photo really doesn't do it justice (incognito, remember?).  If it did, the pile of tree branches placed in line with the gone fence line would be more prominent.  Several sections of fence are missing, and the pile of branches are saving seats?  There is also a utility box in shadow that is covered with graffiti to give it a certain urban feel.

Exhibit B.1

Exhibit B.2

One feature I get a kick out of is how that one section of fence remains standing.  It's like a lone tooth in an otherwise toothless mouth.

Now let me just clarify that I'm not neighbor bashing!  Most of the fences are in decent shape, but weather and traffic and teenagers with spray cans happen.  And some people have things going on in their lives that preempt fixing back fences. 

We live in an HOA-less neighborhood and we like it that way.  If something is a safety issue or such, then there's already a city code for it.  We don't need an HOA to tell us our house isn't beige enough.  

With that comes the potential for tree branch fences and graffiti-ized utility boxes.  Signs of freedom.

HOA's.  Do you have one?   Pro or con?

.

trying

I met him one afternoon in the rain.  I was staying with a friend, but she was moving, so I would have to find another place.  She said she'd help with that, and she did.  She introduced us.

He was lonely, I could tell by just looking at him.  His demeanor showed a guy who'd been through some hard times, and way deep down inside, he was crying out for help.  I agreed to be his roommate.

The apartment was sparse.  Just basic necessities. A few kitchen utensils, one stained coffee mug...  There was an old beat up couch and one chair in the living room with the small TV.  Nothing on the walls.  But the place was kept pretty clean and comfortable enough.  It was quiet there.  Very quiet.

And he was very quiet too, but because of our living arrangement, eventually he began to open up to me.  He told me about his wife whom he hadn't seen in over a year.  How they'd been happy at first and shared some good times.  But then came his first tour in the war, followed by two more.  He'd seen too much, and by the time he was discharged on disability, he'd changed.  

He didn't like going out, he told me.  People and noisy crowds made him anxious.  He just wanted to stay in, and his wife was good to him, but she grew restless.  She started going out and pursuing her interests with others.  One day, she just didn't come home.  

From these chats, I came to feel very protective of him.  He was a good man, but fragile.   He told me that he'd decided to take in a roommate after discussing it with his therapist.  He'd seen others in the apartment complex doing things and being out and about, but he didn't feel like he fit in with them.  Maybe bringing a roomie in would help him get over his anxieties and join in with the others.

The therapist thought it was a good idea, so he looked into it.  Turns out his brother had a friend who knew my friend that I was staying with before she moved.  And there we were.

And we tried, we did.  

The two of us would leave the apartment and try to mix in with the others.  I wanted to make new friends too, but at the same time, I had these overpowering protective instincts.  I would lash out at anyone who got too close.  Ironically, my man would end up being the one having to calm me down.  

The others began to avoid us, going out of their way to not cross our path.  It was obvious.  I felt awful, but my defenses seemed to have a mind of their own.

There was this one couple, though.  They'd come around every once in a while when we were outside.   The woman seemed friendly enough, and her companion, while a bit mental, had this endearing, harmless cluelessness about her.  

Still, I could only take them for so long before I was going all rage on them, and they would abruptly leave. This made my man sad, I could tell.  What was wrong with me?  I can't remember how I got this way.  

----------------------------------

Yeah, there's this guy who lives in the apartment complex China and I stroll by.  He's got this dog - nice looking dog, but geez - needs to lose the  Cujo  style
.

Gentlemen,... don't start

A small woman in a red car beckoned me while I was with China on her beauty walk this morning.

"Kin soup?", she asked.  At least I think that's what she asked.  

"Wha?", I replied

"Kin soup?", she said once again. Aha, I was right.  Using my super powers of translation, I correctly translated this to

"Excuse me.  You look like a friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful person.  Can you please tell me how to get to King Soopers (supermarket)?"

The gears in my head began to spin.  I calculated that there were, in fact, three King Soopers equidistant from the exact spot we were at.  As I contemplated which one would be easiest to direct the small woman to, she interjected

"Dry lice?"

Oh!  Well, this threw an entirely different wrench into the situation.  I adeptly translated to 

"I'm actually looking for the driver's license place.  I was told it was near King Soopers".

There is no DMV anywhere near any of the equidistant King Soopers.  There is, however, a nearby DMV located in an Albertsons (another supermarket) shopping center.  I then attempted to direct the small woman there.

"YOU  NEED  TO  GO  TO  ALBERTSONS!",  I shouted, because we all know that shouting the English language makes it more understandable to those who aren't fluent.  

I continued on with directions to Albertsons, all the while gesticulating exaggeratedly.

"Take THIS ROAD to RESEARCH PARKWAY!  Then go RIGHT!  KEEP  GOING until you see AL  BERT  SONS!"

All the while, the small woman was mirroring my gesticulations - etching it all into her brain.  

"There's a DRIVER'S  LICENSE  PLACE there!".   

To which she replied, "Thank you so much.  Enjoy the walk with your beautiful and patient dog", or close enough.  I honestly didn't have much confidence in the outcome.

What made the whole thing kind of eerie, though, was that I was thinking of the DMV just prior to this exchange.  I need to make plans to go there for Wolfgang to get his license.  

He's had all of his required driving, etc. completed for a quite a while, we just hadn't gotten around to his driving test.  We finally did that yesterday, now we must go to the loathsome DMV.  

HE thinks he will borrow our cars willy nilly to go have good times with the buddies.  WE think he will mainly be Meego's chauffeur and resident gopher, thereby filling Chaco's recently vacated exalted position.  

Either way, we must first deal with the DMV.  The one near AL BERT SONS!  can't accomodate us either. No, we must go to the sleazy one for new dry lice.  

I need motivation.

.

peds

The second time's a charm apparently.  Remember the two left shoes I got last week?  Did I mention that they weren't even the same size?  Oh well, even if they were the same size, it would still have been a major wardrobe malfunction.

I took a second chance and tried again.  The box arrived.  I didn't get my hopes up.  I opened the box, pulled out one properly sized shoe then pulled out... another properly sized shoe for the opposite foot.  Success!

Good thing because my knees and shins were starting to feel the effects of walking in shoes long past their useful life. 

So now I'm off to take China for her beauty walk.  I came across this video, and now I'm wondering if I can train her to do this for me.

Watch 'til the happy end!

.

opposites attract, the sequel

Okay, agg79 commented that since I'm having fun at Magnum's expense, and that since I certainly dont have "perfect feet",  then I should at least fess up an reveal my running shoes.  NOT a problem.

These are my lovely Nikes, or at least an attractive google rendition of such.  Note that they are not optimum for me based on my gait analysis, but I like them because they're lightweight and simple.   So I run in them, rebel that I am.

No, my true shame comes from the shoes I wear for walking.  I typically walk the dog everyday, and typically walk with Magnum each evening.  In fact, I attributed most my "running" injuries to improper walking shoes.  And now, these are what I wear for walking:

They are absolutely hideous!  Really, this image does not do them justice.  They look bad enough now, but imagine them in summertime when I wear them with shorts!  It's difficult for me to admit that I do such a thing!

BUT, I'm on my second pair of these ugly ugly shoes and my feet, knees, hamstrings, etc. have never been happier.  It's quite the love / hate relationship.

I did joke with Magnum that, when he's finished running in his new shoes, maybe we could bronze them and put them on the mantle.  But in reality, I totally win the ugly shoe contest.

And that's enough about the shoes!
.

advice served cold

Sheesh it's cold today.  Weather forecast is for a high of 10.  Our school district got a delayed start because of snow and cold.  But I was prepared for the the frigidness of crossing guard duty today - all the way down to my Miley Cyrus leggings.

There are these 3 siblings that are regular customers of mine - two brothers and an older sister.  They came walking up today as usual, braving the cold.  As we walked across the street, I said to them, "Welp, enjoy your walk to school because you'll probably be stuck inside with no outdoor recess today".

They took my advice to heart.  I watched as they made their way up the path to school by wading through the snow and throwing it at each other and plopping down in it.  They were probably drenched and near to hypothermic by the time they got to the building.

Oops.
.

a dog walk with half a face and a bear

Today was interesting.  First of all, the crossing guard morning started out better.  I did get a hold of the school building manager who got the flashing lights synched properly.  The only glitch was a large pile of "evidence" left on the walking path to the school by, apparently, a largish herbivore. 

I knew it wasn't deer "evidence" or coyote "evidence" or fox "evidence" - the known wild neighbors.  I fathomed that it could be bear "evidence", but here?  A bear?  Nah.  Outstanding crossing guard that I am, I took my shovel to it.  I mean come on, there's moms with strollers that use that path.

 Shortly afterwards, I spent about an hour and a half in the dentist's chair on my way to getting a new crown, so I figured the day would be all down hill from there, right?  WRONG

After leaving the dentist, I was just happy to be released from the land of power tools of the mouth, and thought I'd take China the crazy dog for her beauty walk.  Only half of my face was functional because of the novacaine, but I figured I wouldn't need it (the face) for China's beauty walk. 

About 15 minutes into it, we were strolling by some apartments when we rounded a corner and were faced with this:

Okay, I didn't have a camera with me, so I got this image from the internet.  But I swear, the beast looked JUST like this... except it was smaller and running in the opposite direction and smaller.

China the oblivious dog and I stopped and decided to turn around and head back from whence we came.  No slaves to the route are we!  Anyway, I guess that cleared up who left me that gift of "evidence" this morning. 

I called the D.O.W. and I don't know if they ever tracked the bear down.  I'm guessing not, but it was a bit of harmless excitement for China and me... until tomorrow? 

And turns out no, I didn't need my face.
.

big

Today, I took China the crazy dog for our daily stroll. We emerged from our back gate and were greeted by the biggest [censored] German Shepherd I have ever seen in my life.

In My Life.

I mean, clearly, this was not a purebred German Shepherd. It must be a mix of German Shepherd and something huge. Like a moose.

And naturally, when it saw us, I think it had lunch on the brain. Although, I think to this creature, China and me together would still just have been an appetizer.

So, I just want to say how grateful I am for the large strong man that was at the end of the German Shepherd Moose leash. And also, I am thankful for the good strong well-made leash.

Other than that, a nice walkie.
.

the gift

A young schoolgirl. On the last day of school before the winter break. There'll be a party. She's brought a few gifts, carefully wrapped just so, for a few of her special friends.

Upon arriving at school, she finds that she's missing one of the gifts. She searches her bag. She searches her back pack. She checks the floor, retracing her steps. It's nowhere to be seen. Where could it be? She's sad. She's upset.

I take the crazy dog out for a walk nearly every day. The therapy has done wonders for her social skills, and for me, I enjoy being outside with her. On these daily treks, we find all sorts of "treasures". Baseballs with the outer skin falling off, slobber soaked tennis balls, various species of "scat". On a good day, I might find a dime.

But today, among the melting snow and muck on the walking path, there it was. A small red and gold gift-wrapped box, finished off with a tidy green bow. The label read "To Mickinsay From Stefani" in somewhat shakey young penmanship.

And that's when I saw her in my mind. This Stefani. Arriving at school, excited for Christmas. Missing one of her carefully wrapped gifts. "Aaaaaawww", I think I actually said it out loud. Dog probably thought I was weird.

We got home from our walk, and I headed back up to the elementary school after dropping off the dog. The office ladies might recognize the unique spelling of the names and know the owner.

"Ah, yep, I know who that is", the secretary said, "Thanks for bringing it in." I almost want to thank the girl for dropping it.

Finally something worth finding.
.

going polar

I was running earlier today. On my treadmill. I normally would've been running outside, but because of various weather conditions including but not limited to ice, below-zero windchill, blowing snow, and erratic traffic, I decided to confine my run to the treadmill. It's just an expensive hamster wheel, really.

But I did open the window in the room to make it more outdoorsy-like.

It was a good run, but not quite a good enough fix for my usual outdoor jaunt, so I decided to hook up the dog and force her to go for a walk this afternoon. Cold weather turns her into a wimpy house dog, and this must be stopped.

We had a marvelous time, actually. The wind had died down and it was, by then, a whopping 18 degrees F. At one point, I reached up to push my glasses up my nose a bit, as they had slipped some. A total nerd gesture on my part, yes, but a necessary one. As I did so, I bumped my nose with my thickly gloved hand and noticed that I didn't feel it on my nose at all. The entire face was totally numb. I did a quick assessment and at least determined that I didn't have a frozen booger mustache that I was unaware of. I think one has to have an actual hair mustache for one of those to form.

China and I returned to the warm house, only to have her make a bee-line in the door. If I thought she was becoming a wimpy housedog before, our arctic trek probably pushed her that much further over the edge.

And yeah, she had a bit of a booger mustache going on.
.

a latter day walk

I was out being taken for a walk by the dog when I saw them. Out of the corner of my eye. "Look away! Do NOT make eye contact, that will only provoke them into attacking. Don't even look in that direction!", I told myself. I focused my eyes straight ahead. They were about a block and a half away from me, if I just kept moving forward, they'd go off in the direction of another scent.

"Hello, ma'am. Just out taking a walk?"

Crap.

"Yeah, just walking m'dog". *Sigh*, here it comes. The pitch from this young 20's Mormon "elder". I knew it from the telltale signs: the bicycles, the black pants and shoes, the white shirts, the dark ties, short helmeted hair, no tattoos, no facial hair, no piercings: LDS missionaries.

"We're just going around telling people a little about our church", okay, it was clear now that they weren't going to just go pedalling off. I turned and did the eye contact thing, then I looked at his name tag with the etched "church of JESUS CHRIST of latter day saints".

"Oh. Right, okay, LDS, yeah. We used to live in Utah. We did the 6 or 7 lessons when we were there", I told him, hoping that would encourage him to seek someone else to missionize. He stayed next to me, though, with his cohort right behind. Asked me what I'd thought of the lessons, asked me how long ago it was, asked me where in Utah we'd lived.

We lived in Utah for about 3 years. Although I'm not swayed by the teachings and practices of their church and I'm not impressed by the prophet Joseph Smith and his "revelations", I will say that Mormons in general make for pretty good neighbors. Sure, they had this communal lifestyle that kinda said, "your stuff is our stuff" and "our kids are your responsibility too", but it was tolerable. For about three years.

And one thing that bothered me about living there was that the non-Mormons, the Gentiles, did a fair amount of Mormon bashing. When I'd ask what they knew about the Mormon church, it was mostly gossipy stuff, not actual teachings. They'd always sent the missionaries a-packing.

So when they came to our door, we let them in. We were honest with them up front. We weren't interested in converting, we just wanted to know a little more about what made our neighbors tick. At first, I think they saw us as a challenge, but by the end of the lessons, they knew we weren't to be swayed.

So I told this new guy. No thanks, I wasn't interested in a refresher course. No thanks, I don't need any help around the house. No thanks, fortunately, I don't know of anyone at this particular time in need of spiritual guidance. Thanks, but no.

Lots of good camping there, though... Utah.
.

not just a yo-yo trick

What's that? Feeling at a loss? No more "Live from Beijing"? The Olympics are over and now there's nothing else to do, so might as well just go to bed? I've got the next best thing: the dog!

Well, her name IS China after all. A little story about her name. No, we aren't particularly partial to fancy dinnerware nor communist governments. China came to us from the Humane Society. There, her name was "Haley".

We went there and looked over the line-up and Haley/China stood out to me. I took her out for the test drive and she was just as sweet as I prejudged her to be. She cozied right up to me and said "Please, please PUH-LEEEEEZ take me home with you! And by the way, my name's China, not Haley".

Okay, easy enough.

We requested her hand in family-dog marriage and the paperwork was begun. But wait! A little while later we got a call. There'd been a mix-up. Haley/China had already been promised to another family! Okay, fine.

But wait! A couple of days later we get another call. Haley/China has been returned to the shelter. Wasn't getting along with the first family's other pooch (uh, no doubt that alpha bitch thing I mentioned the other day...). Still want her?

YES!

Could we go get her that day? Like in a coupla hours? Otherwise they'd have to snuff her out? (not their exact words, but that was the long and short of it.)

YES!

So that was about six years ago. Our other dog, Domino, who has since gone to the big running-around field in the sky, didn't seem to mind the alpha bitchness. What a guy he was. *sniff*.

And I was glad to have her in the family. It's wasn't easy being the lone bitch around here. We get in our girl time, and I'd like to share a bit of that today. SO, lace up the shoes and load up on some plastic bags! We're going....

W A L K I N ' W I T H C H I N A !


Enough chit chat. Let's GO!

Blogging. Doggie style.

The dam view from the dam walk
across the damn dam.

Thanks a bunch, everyone,
next time,we'll do the Dumpster tour!

.

looking for a sign

Friday, I was at the mall with Meego. He had the day off from school - yeah, already a day OFF. That must be why we start school so early out here: all those days OFF. So anyway, we went to the mall because both of us needed socks. We were sock hunting.

We stopped at the pet store to look at those poor little mall pet store creatures. Meego was engrossed in the creepy-crawlies section while I silently wondered why anyone would pay money for such things. Two young guys - early 20's I'd say - were also looking around.

"Dude, check it out!", one says to his friend while holding up an Empire Scorpion container.

"Whoa, Dude... that's my horoscope".

Dude, that's my horoscope too! I mean, that's my astrological sign. I'm sure that's what he meant, right? Fellow Scorpio?

So anyway, I was remembering that this morning for some reason and decided to check my forecast for today:

Daily Overview: August 25, 2008
SCORPIO
October 23 - November 21
Small stuff may be boring to someone like you, but you need to pay close attention today.....

Okay, stop there! I'd just gotten back from taking the dog for her walk. While out walking, I found a penny! A Penny! Heads up 1978! I picked it up and kept it just in case that thing about pennies being good luck is true. I mean, what are the chances of finding a lone penny laying around RIGHT where I'm walking the dog?! Who even carries pennies around anymore?! And why don't they ever drop... say... twenty dollar bills in my path?!

Something should jump out at you that may necessitate a whole new way of thinking about the problem.

Again! Yes! Something jumped out at me already today!

No sooner had China and I left the back yard and gotten onto the walking path that I see this guy heading towards us. He's got one dog on a leash, another leashless dog, and he's on roller blades. What a talent!

Except he's not that talented.

"Don't worry, she's harmless", he says referring to the big leashless dog - thus implying that the one on the leash is harmFUL? Probably, guessing from the sudden strain on his leash and the raised hackles of the leashed, rather strong-looking mongrel. Note to anyone who wants to try this: Rollerblades don't exactly counterbalance a dog who really wants to go somewhere.

Now China, while being uber submissive around humans, sees herself as the alpha bitch when it comes to other dogs. It's the main reason I don't take her to the dog park. So there I was with alpha bitch China on the end of my leash while this truclulent cur is heading for us while giving a guy a nice ride on his rollerblades.

Still, I'm thinking the guy knows what he's doing and is in control or else why would he put on rollerblades to walk two large dogs, right? Appropriately, he does a quick maneuver over to the grass to give him some traction. Meanwhile, I've gotten obedient China to leave the nice puppy alone. I exchange some pleasantries with Mr. Rollerblades and noticed that he's kinda nervous looking and has dropped his bag of dog poop. Not a good sign that he'd dropped his poop. Maybe he'll wear shoes next time.

But anyway, what was my point? OH yeah, the horoscope. It's all true, you see? I found a penny (small stuff) and had a strange encounter with a guy and his dogs (something should jump out). All foretold by an Empire Scorpion at the mall!

It's gonna be a Monday, I can feel it!
.