Since I have sorely neglected this poor old blog lately, I treat you with a photo!
Ladybug love...
Now, doesn't that photo give you a warm feeling inside? Even the smallest creatures are loving, and loving each other. And like humankind, some are just plain freaks, even among the smallest creatures... notice the little voyeur there on the side?... ahem...
This post must be photo-filled instead of text since the reason for my lack of posts is a decided lack of creativity in the cranium. I'm busy at work, as usual... I'll be too busy for the next couple of years cleaning up from my 2008 debacle. Too busy at home, as well, with a backlog of work there, too. And I'm still spending much of my free time whining and laying down. *sigh*
And I'm still not winning the lottery. *sigh* (Even though I dreamed, very realistically, that I won $250 million... in which dream, I made a list of 100 people, family, friends and coworkers, who would all get $1 million each. If you're reading this and fall into one of those categories, don't you sorely wish I had won?! Me, too.)
But instead of a million bucks for you, I have another lovely photo... Mike and Joycie on Mike's new-to-him Harley...
Isn't it all shiny and beautiful? And don't they both look so happy? You can't see me, but I can tell you that I look both happy and worried. *sigh*
Yet more love... this from Texas, where my best friend, Sandra Jean, and her hubby, Brian, have a new puppy. Meet Jake...
He is with his best friend, Scout, and Jake is a fun-filled, lovable 4-month old. And Jake is also, like most puppies, simply beautiful while napping...
Sadly, Sandy and Brian lost their dog, Shadow, a while back. Shad was a black lab, and she lived a long, happy life, and as with all our beloved pets, she'll always be missed. Having Jake helps the hurt a bit for both Scout and Shadow's humans.
After Kev felled the big oak last weekend, he and I took a short ride together on our 4-wheeler. We drove out back so Kev could show me where he cut down some more trees. Out back by our little pond, there are 2 clumps of witch hazel growing there. I have a fondness in my heart for those witch hazel, and Kev knows this. The past couple of years, some small poplars have begun growing up too close to the witch hazel. I've been hinting, asking and outright begging Kev to clear those away. And he did! Have I mentioned lately how much I love that man?...
On our way back to the house, I used Joycie's little Sony for another video. I am amazed at how well that little thing records. And yes, my skills are not very refined, I'm afraid. But I was riding on a 4-wheeler. Don't expect too much.
The fun part, which is also at times very irritating, is Reilly's behavior. Reilly loves, loves, LOVES a 4-wheeler ride. He likes to be right in front of it and jump and act all weird. He used to bark at it and act like he was trying to bite it, but we got him to stop that behavior. Most of the time. Usually Kev will holler at him and tell him to run on ahead, and since Kevin is the ONLY person Reilly will mind, that's what Reilly does. I asked Kev to let him be coz I wanted to record Reilly's madness so we could laugh at it later. You can also hear Barney huffing and puffing behind us. Now that he's blind, he follows the 4-wheeler right on our tail. Betty makes her way however she wishes. Now, from her you'll usually hear some major huffing and puffing... but she stayed back away too far to get it on this video. The ride was fun. Enjoy...
Kev had moved both the pickups away from the polebarn in the event the big oak wasn't convinced to fall in the direction he wished. Squash the pole barn, just don't squash the trucks! I loved his comment when we were riding along side the pond and could see both the trucks parked in the front drive... Kev said, "30 years of technology right there between those 2 trucks." I thought that was a cool observation... we love the old pickup. Kev traded in his 1999 Chevy truck for this 2008 he has now. I think Kevin really tried to love that 1999, but he just could not. Me, neither. This new one, we both love. She's a keeper.
Out back near the dogs' run and the pole barn is one large oak that was part of a twin. One of the twins fell a couple of years ago, causing no damage. Though, years ago, back in 1991 when our house was in construction, we had a big wind storm that summer, and a huge branch of that tree fell off... and on its way to the ground, the branch swept down the side/corner of our pole barn. Did some major damage to the pole barn. And that was just a branch of the tree! A branch the size of a small tree.
The remaining, still-standing twin has become less stable. This is always the case when a pair of twin oaks loses one. This is the third set of huge oak twins where one came down in a storm and Kev has had to take the other one down. All 3 have been near our house, so also near our outbuildings and everything, too. Felling a tree that big is a risky venture, and you gotta know what you're doing. Thankfully, Kev has tons of experience cutting down trees, and he was taught by the master... my Dad. Dad and Kev have felled many a huge tree together.
So this tree has been leaning toward a couple of pine trees we have over there, pines we would like to keep... Kev decided yesterday was the day to take that tree down before it came down on our pines, or worse. We have very few pine trees on our property, and those we have are because we've planted them ourselves.
The wind yesterday was quite strong and blowing to the west, which would be helpful in taking this oak down in the right direction. My job was to keep the 3 dogs out of the way. Betty was easy, she just laid down, poor old girl...
Barney, now totally blind, was a bit more of a challenge. He had found an old tennis ball and was walking around with it possessively in his mouth. I got him to lay down, but he always just starts rolling around on the grass, coz it feels so goooooooood...
Reilly minded me and sat still. He also kept an eye on Betty and Barney, and when Barney would wander, Reilly desperately wanted to herd him back to me, but I made Reilly stay put...
This is Kev beginning to work on the tree. Big tree, huh...
The other big, single oak is staying... at least for now. It's standing tall and straight, well, mostly straight... so far, so good. Though, when a single oak has grown up so near other trees that have come down, it affects that tree. That oak has been used to the other 2 big trees all its life. With those twins gone, the single tree will have to adjust, such as how the wind and sun change against it, the roots at the bottom. That single tree should be fine, but through the years ahead, the twins being gone may adversely affect its life expectancy.
Kev starts on the tree by making a cut on the side he wants the tree to fall toward, first one cut...
Then another cut...
Cutting a wedge out of the tree, making the weak spot to convince the tree to fall that way, hopefully avoiding the nearby pine trees as much as possible...
Here's the video I took of the tree falling. Not very good videography skills; I'm not used to Joycie's little Sony at all yet. There is also a lot of wind noise in the video... it was a windy day! And there's a loud shout by me when I screamed for Barney because I thought Kev was telling me he was in danger. Scared the crap outta me! Poor old blind Barney.
Kev got the tree down keeping the pine tree intact... whoo hoo, Kev! That's my man!!!
It was pretty exciting. Scary, too. Big tree. Kev is 6' tall, so this photo gives you an idea of how much work he has ahead of him getting the tree cut, split and stacked and the stumps taken care of...
Of course, the first thing Barney did was find one of the wedges Kev used and had it in his mouth, which made Reilly instantly want it.
Kev got Barney to drop the little wedge and tried to get him to carry around the big wedge... eh, made us laugh anyway!... poor old blind Barney, guess we shouldn't be making fun of him...
Barney is such a huge dog, though. Guess we thought that wedge was more his style. Reilly only cared that it gave him the opportunity to get what Barney had...
I also took a sweet photo of N.C. also... can't you just feel that stretch?
And then later, Joycie and Mike got home, with groceries! Joycie started cooking right away. She cooked for about an hour, and the house smelled so wonderful. Usually Mike helps her cook because they like to do that together, but he had homework to work on. Joyce made taco beef, homemade tortillas, fried up some homemade tortilla chips and made a big bowl of guacamole. Oh. My. Heck! That was some good Mexican food. Izzy, Mike's momma, has done a great job teaching our Joycie how to cook the good stuff! It was so delicious.
You can see our beautiful girl had been slaving over the hot stove... looks at those pretty red cheeks! The four of us had a nice dinner together. Sammy wasn't home; he was at a friend's house. As usual... our little social butterfly, that boy.
And now, just for kicks, here's a crazy photo I made of our crazy old, blind Barney...
Bet that got your attention... Stiff neck, that is.
Kev took another fall, only this one didn't get his butt wet, and it wasn't so funny...
Kev and I took a walk the other morning, with the 3 dogs. As we walked by this big pile of logs he has waiting to be split, Kev decided to climb to the top.
Then he called Reilly up to him, and of course, Reilly could make it up to the top...
Meanwhile, Barney and Betty were running around and around the base of the log pile. Betty was huffing away, which she always does when she runs, but since she was excited, she was really huffing. Barney wasn't real sure what all was going on, but since Betty was so excited, he was following her lead and was equally wound up. No way could those 2 climb up that pile of logs, though. Betty's too old, and Barney's too blind.
Reilly picked his way carefully back down the log pile, and so did Kevin, where Barney and Betty were happy to greet him...
It's those last few steps, y'know...
At first I wasn't sure what had happened, so I just kept taking photos...
And then I realized Kev was on the ground not moving. On his last step, a log rolled out and he lost his balance and went down, but then Barney jumped on top of him. Bad enough to fall, by then having a 90+ pound dog land on your chest and slam you against a bunch of logs... um... not so fun...
Up and walking again, a little slowly at first...
He's ok, but now his shoulders and neck have needed the heating pad every evening. And when he turns his head to look at you during a conversation, he pretty much has to turn the top half of his body to do so, since his neck is so stiff. Age: 47, last attempt at log pile climbing. Duly noted.
My stitches are driving me crazy! I had an appointment Monday morning with Dr. Adams, but he was called into an emergency brain surgery... so when I arrived at his Midland office, the 2 young women working there rescheduled my appointment to later this week. They were very apologetic about not calling me, and though a phone call could have saved us a half-hour drive into town, I was rather happy they neglected to call. Because I got out of the house! Since I am home-bound again, this time through six weeks of antibiotic treatments, getting out of the house is a rare treat. One week down, five to go. Hopefully stitches will come out this week. For those still interested, here is what the incision is looking like now.
I haven't been into the office where I work or driven a car in almost 7 weeks. Seems like longer. Much longer. And in those 7 weeks, I've been away from home 6 times; 4 of those times were going back into the hospital and going home from the hospital stays.
Kev took the dogs to the vet recently to get them updated on their rabies vaccinations, and the vet confirmed it... Barney is totally blind. Poor old Barn. Kev and I took a walk outside the other day, and of course, took all 3 dogs with us. Barney stays right by Kev's side. So Kev is like his seeing-eye human.
Kevin had a birthday on March 1st, and now the old fart is 47 years old! We're now the same age. Happy Birthday, Honey.
My mother-in-law, Sharron, called me the other day and asked what we were doing on Saturday, and told me that she'd like to bring us out dinner. Heck, yeah! (She's a great cook!). Didn't even dawn on me that it was Kev's birthday. So it was super nice when Kev's Dad and Sharron arrived with corned beef and cabbage stew (cabbage cooked separately), a loaf of home-made bread and a gorgeous made-from-scratch German Chocolate Cake. The dinner was excellent and the cake was sublime. And the company was wonderful. A nice, relaxed but festive birthday for Kev.
Sammy has been home from school the past 2 days, sick with an awful cold. Lots and lots of coughing. The hacking and coughing of major proportions kind of cold. Kevin and I have both been trying to comfort him... from a good distance. Neither one of us wants that nasty bug. Poor Sam.
Joycie is on her spring break this week. She spent yesterday going down to Ann Arbor with Mike and his mom, Izzy. Mike had a check-up appointment for the surgery he had recently. Joycie said it went well. He's one tough young man. He is still having some problems eating, and he has to be careful (swallowing is different now for him), but that will improve with time.
Joycie started her spring break by going shopping for a prom dress. Mike's senior prom is coming up soon. Joyce found a beautiful kelly green prom dress. It's very, very green, but it doesn't overtake her or eclipse her... she looks stunning in it.
If you've noticed, I'm doing this post in the wee hours of the morning (it's almost 4:00am). It's like I have no set bedtime any more... I sleep when I sleep, whatever time that occurs. Mostly because the antibiotics I'm taking make me sleepy. In the mornings, I start my dose of vanco about 7:30am, and when that's done, I do the Invanse, which is the once per day antibiotic. These 2 usually take until around 10:00am... and then I have to sleep for at least a little while, because I can barely keep my eyelids open after the Invanse. And then that's how my day goes, I'm up and around until I have to lay my head down. I woke up at 1:00am to take a couple of pain pills, and then I woke up at 2:00am for no reason... wide awake. So I brushed Reilly for a while, cleaned up the hair mess for a while and here I am finally doing a blog post. This "no-set-schedule" schedule is likely not a good thing... so I have five weeks to get my inner clock straightened out. Although, I think that I will sleep much better once these stabbing stitches are removed.
I just got back into the house, settled into my chair (see how Kev's recliner has now become my chair...) with a nice cold glass of water. I worked up a sweat taking a walk outside with Kevin. Since there's ice under the snow everywhere, it was potentially treacherous, but Kev hung onto me like I was his 98-year-old granny. Truth be told, it made me feel more comfortable. Wearing that big neck collar limits my view, and I'm not supposed to be moving my neck to look down (or up or sideways).
But oh my heck! it was nice to get outside. We basically took a walk from the house to the pole barn, where I let Barney and Betty out so they could romp around with Reilly, then over to our outside wood stove so that Kev could load it, then up the back trail around the other side of the house back around to the pole barn to put Barney and Betty back into their run. No, it's not that long of a walk around our house, but it sure tuckered me out. I've only been doing a little walking here and there the past 2 weeks (2 weeks ago since surgery! 2 down, about 4 to go to hopefully resume to normal life!).
Barney is so funny... the poor brute is totally blind now, but he's still pretty much as enthusiastic as ever. Kev was really watching him so that he didn't knock into me or knock me over. Barney brought sticks to me 3 times, but when I throw them, he has no clue where to head out to retrieve them until he hears Reilly going... and then, of course, it's way too late. But I was also feeling very sad for him a couple of times. His blindness combined with his lifelong fear of ice gave poor Barney a few moments of not knowing where to step and of being afraid... When we were walking in front of the house on the way back to the pole barn, I heard him whimpering behind us... he had apparently stepped on a patch of ice under the snow and it scared him. Kev called to him and told him it was ok, and Barney was able to continue forward, but he was doing a type of walk that was in between walking upright & normal and walking belly to the ground.
When we reached the cement approach to the pole barn garage, Barney wouldn't walk on the cement. He knows it has patches of ice on it. The dog run is on the side of the pole barn, and Barney went all the way around and finally scooted next to and along the dog run fencing so as to get back into the dog run with as few steps as possible actually on the cement. Once in the dog run, he was a happy, happy camper. Definitely in his comfort zone.
Barney is way too young to be blind; he's only about 5 years old. I believe it must be a genetic thing. Other than his blindness, he's one huge, handsome yellow lab. Joycie's boyfriend, Mike, was asking her about breeding his family's lab with Barney, but I won't let that happen. Kevin never had Barney neutered; I think because Kev was thinking if Barney was a great hunting dog, we may want to have one day gotten a puppy from him... continue the line, so to speak.
But no on both counts. He's not a good hunting dog, and he won't be fathering any puppies ever. He's not really a good watchdog, either, he wasn't even before he went blind. Barks at everything and anything, sometimes all night long. But he is a lovable big ol' Barn. He is the sweetest dog, and he will lavish love on us unendingly. Ol' Blind Barney loves Kevin beyond anything else. Barney is a pig for food, but he would choose Kev over a tasty morsel any day... all Kev has to do is that whistle of his or call him and Barney rushes to him. Big floppy ears, happy spittal flying as he jumps on and about Kevin, and you can just hear Barney's "I love you, I love you, I love you." He's a great dog.
So Kev and I are walking down the drive to the pole barn, wrapping up our walk, with Reilly dragging yet another big stick toward Kev (he's always hoping), and Betty trailing along behind us as usual, with Barney doing his half-belly walk thing, big feet splayed out timidly advancing through the ice/snow... and I asked Kev, "So when you have a blind dog, would you get him a leader person?"
Recently, Sammy expressed an interest in getting Photoshop, and since we have our new, fast Internet, he was looking around for it the other day. I was up in his bedroom working on his computer, tired and frustrated, when he arrived at the bedroom door to tell me that Photoshop software was something like a thousand bucks, but we could download a copy and use it for 30 days free, so could he please download it? He wasn’t too happy when he got a vehement “no” from me.
It took a while, but I finally figured out what he wanted. He just wanted to screw around with some photos of himself for his myspace page. I found a bunch of bitmap files of just an eyeball, and I made him explain them to me… he was trying to take a photo of himself and make it all black & white except for his eyes. Which is one reason why he wanted Photoshop. So I showed him the not-so-quick-&-easy, but free way to get that same effect. Actually, I’m not sure how to use Photoshop, so maybe my way is just as quick & easy. It didn’t take me long, probably less than 5 minutes. Here’s the end result, the photo how Sammy wanted it...
Pretty cool, huh. He’s quite creative. Here’s how I did it...
The original photo looked like this...
and I wanted to make it black and white, like this...
so I opened it using Microsoft Office Picture Manager (right click on photo file, select Open With & choose it), and I chose Edit Pictures, then selected Color (or you can go to the Picture menu & choose Color). I then changed the Saturation to -100, making the photo black & white.
I did a File Save As to save the black & white photo, retaining the original photo file as is. Sammy decided he wanted his eyes to show more green, which sometimes his eyes are super green, other times golden... they change depending on what he’s wearing and what the light is because he has those ever-changing hazel eyes. Lucky, gorgeous boy.
So anyway, I decided to really green up his eyes, and it didn’t matter that everything else became more green as well, because only his eyes would show...
I once again opened the original photo using Microsoft Office Picture Manager, then chose Edit Pictures and selected Color again, this time changing the Amount to something like 25 and the Hue to 130...
Again, File Save As for the green version. Then I opened both the black and white and the green version photo files in MS Paint. On the black and white, I wanted to erase his black and white irises, so to make that easier to do I first selected View, Zoom, Large Size, then I selected the erase tool and erased his irises... looks spooky, huh...
Then I took it back to normal size, View, Zoom, Normal Size, and without saving that file or doing anything else with it, I simply selected the entire photo (you know, CTRL+A, or Edit, Select All), copied it to clipboard (CTRL+C), then I went to the already open green version and pasted it on top of it (CTRL+V) – but it is important that Draw Opaque is not activated (Image, Draw Opaque should not have a checkmark next to it), and you get this...
Oh, and by the way, you can’t save the black and white photo with the eyes erased out of it and use it later to paste again... I don’t know why it doesn’t work that way, but it doesn’t, because the spot you have erased isn’t a hole in the photo any longer.
Now this would be very time-consuming if you were trying to do something more elaborate than a couple of little eyeballs, but for those of us who, a) don’t own Photoshop software or any other special photo editing software, and b) don’t have time to learn how to use it even if we had it, this is an easy way to get popping green eyes, eh?
And it made my boy happy. I believe his exact words were, “You rock, Mom!” I’ll take it. And I love looking at those green eyes... or...
My folks have 3 dogs. Well, really, I should say my Mom has 3 dogs, and my Dad tolerates them. At least that's what he would like us all to believe... Daddy was never much of a man for pets, and he especially doesn't like animals in the house, though he does appreciate a good watchdog.
Through my childhood, we always had a dog outside - the watchdog. Usually a German Shepherd. My earliest memory of our family pet/watchdog was a silver Shepherd named Duchess. We all loved that dog so much, she was the best.
We also had other pets, dogs and cats, and horses and ponies. But never in the house. I was the youngest of 5 kids, and you can imagine how many times my Dad was asked to have a dog in the house. What kid doesn't want to have their dog sleep with them on their bed?
Mom has since overruled, and she has had various dogs in the house, much to Dad's overwhelming glee. Dad's main complaint about animals in the house is the dog hair. And the man has a point. Our Reilly, who lives in the house with us, is a Border Collie mix, and he has long hair... which he sheds all over the house. It's an ongoing challenge. That's how we got Reilly as ours... my Mom bought him as a puppy, but as he grew, my Dad didn't like the dog hair in the house. We all loved Reilly, especially Sammy... Sammy would get on and off the school bus at Gramma and Grampa's, so he spent a lot of time there, with Reilly. Mom finally got tired of Dad's bitching, and gave Reilly to us. Joycie, Sammy and I were over the moon about it; Kev not so much. Kev is more in the same camp with my Dad.
But a good dog can win a dog-hair-in-the-house-hating man over... This is Toby, who lives in the house with my folks.
Toby is my Mom's dog, and he spends a lot of time right next to her. Whenever we are sitting together in the living room at my folks', you will find Toby in this pose - laying next to my Mom with his paws on her feet. Laying claim, so to speak. Toby is a super smart dog, and he is very loving and affectionate. He's also a good watchdog. And he is graceful and comical. I've never seen a dog move like Toby moves. He'll use his front legs and paws like arms and hands, hugging you and handling things. It's amazing. He's a great dog. And he has won my Dad over. You can't live with a dog that wonderful and not love him. Daddy would never say he loves Toby, but I know he does. And Toby loves him, too.
Dad will sit in his recliner and play his harmonica, and Toby will "sing" along with him. It's a treat to watch.
My folks have 2 other dogs that live together outside. They are both German Shepherds, and they're The Official Watchdogs. The male, Connor, is a black and tan, and the female, Sadie, is all black. Connor and Sadie are both excellent watchdogs, and they are loving pets, too. They have personalities very different from each other... Connor is huge, larger than normal, and sure and steady. Calm and smart. When he barks, people listen. Sadie is smaller and quick, fast and bossy. Wants your attention. But she is also able to be ferocious, and with her deep growl and those white fangs showing against that deep black fur, you know that's an animal to reckon with... she can be very scary.
With the family, though, they are fun pets. Both Connor and Sadie love the golf cart, because my folks take them for runs around the trails and the dogs love it. When I was riding the golf cart a couple of weeks ago, Connor and Sadie took a little jaunt with me. Connor kept pace with the cart, right near my side, while Sadie ran circles around us, barking up a joyful storm.
When I took a walk out back to our old pond the other evening, Sammy and the 3 dogs came along. The mosquitos soon drove Sammy back to the house, and with him went Reilly and Barney. Old Betty stayed out with me and nosed around.
Sammy and I had a great walk yesterday. I took my camera along. Every little bit of water we went by, the dogs had to check it out. Every stump we went by, Sammy had to jump up on it. I love this time of year. Also, Reilly and Barney were constantly trying to get Sammy to throw a stick for them. Mostly Reilly carried one around, and his tongue was all covered with stick bits & bark. Didn't look appetizing to me. At one point, Reilly had a long stick, probably a little over 3' in length. Sammy threw it for him... both Reilly & Barney stand there in front of Sammy, wriggling and kind of hopping, waiting for him to throw the stick, then when Sammy raises the stick up to throw it, both dogs turn around and starting racing forward... they know the stick is going to land somewhere out in front of them, so they begin racing immediately. But that long stick didn't behave the way short sticks do, and it went up real high, turning end for end, then came back down hard without going too far out. Just as Reilly turned around to look at Sam, with an expression like, "where the hell is the stick?!"... that long stick came down right on top of his head. Oh yeah, he jumped. Didn't hurt him, thank goodness. Gave Sammy a quick fright. Cracked me up.
So, back to stumps. Here's my Mighty Sam, King of the Stumps.
