Odd Pairs of Animal Friends - Photos

Weather and Parental Warnings

So I'm sitting in Rosie's dining room, having just eaten a meal of scrambled eggs and sausage.  It's a few minutes after six in the evening, and I've been up and going for twelve hours plus.  I had a chocolate iced doughnut at 8 this morning, and a navel orange at 1 this afternoon.  I feel stuffed and full of food, but I want something sweet.  I say that's "Momma's Curse" since the Swedes were the first people to build a candy factory....
   At least I was only skittering between four places today - the ABCs returned yesterday, so I didn't need to be there to give Pounce thyroid medication every 12 hours.  Today, it was Rosie, Finn, Seek, Carter and Xuxa; not to mention seeing my own kits twice for an hour each time today.  Everyone is inside and has been fed supper.  I'll need to leave just before 8 to pick my roommate up from work and take her home.  The weather forecasters are calling for an inch of snow tonight - but Boulder weather patterns are very difficult to predict.  Rosie's folks will return Sunday evening; and Seek, Carter and Xuxa's two families will return Tuesday morning.  I'll be with Finn until Friday, when I switch over to staying with Maggie May.  Home again in my own bed on 8 February....   And, of course, I'm walking Rosie and Tess every weekday.  Staying busy, I am.
   I have the feeling that senile dementia is getting hold of Rosie.  Usually she sleeps the night through, unless she has an upset stomach.  Last night, she was up every 90 minutes, barking to be taken out.  Each time, she did not go to the bathroom, she just walked calmly over to her bed on the deck and settled in.  I roused her out each time and took her back upstairs...  I hope she doesn't pull this tonight, as I need to sleep.  I think I'll bring Finn over to spend the afternoon, until Rosie's folks return tomorrow - they get along well, and maybe Finn's presence will get Rosie to eat her meals in a timely manner.  We'll see.
   I still can't believe that my hair has grown out so much...  if the wind blows, it's constantly in my mouth.  I pull it back and pin it up on top of my head when I'm at home because I'm so hot and sweaty.  I don't know if I can stand another summer of sweat running down the back of my head and my neck - I might have to chop it off again.  It scares me at night when I wake with unknown fur all over my face (my hair); and Lovey constantly parades back and forth across my chest when I'm sitting at my desk.  Her weight pulls on my hair unbearably...   I have a tender  scalp and tender feet soles.  Guess I'm a wuss.
   I'll need to check with Finn's folks and find out what vehicle I'm supposed to drive while they are gone...  I hope it's the Audi, because if it does snow, the MiniCooper is useless.  And I'm afraid to take the Tesla out on the road...   Forecasters are saying an inch of snow tonight, rain tomorrow changing to snow in the evening, and anywhere between three and thirty inches of snow Monday and Tuesday.  At least I know how to use the snowblower at Finn's - that'll get me down the quarter-mile driveway to the gates and the local residential road.  I've stocked up with food, drink, books, and a new coloring book just in case the 30-inch prediction is correct.
   When my sister and her husband had supper with me Thursday night, to celebrate our Mom's 94th birthday, we were discussing how our parents would tell us not to do something, but not give a reason for not doing whatever.  Kathy and I discussed how, at 83, Great-Uncle Ray went on a tour of the western states on a motorcycle; he sent us fantastic postcards from the places he visited.  Kathy and I thought that would be the coolest thing in the world to do- but Mom and Dad both told us that riding motorcycles was dangerous.  We were never to get on a motorcycle, period.  When Kathy was in 8th or 9th grade, she rode as a passenger on a motorcycle - and, the very first time she rode, they were involved in a wreck and Kathy was on crutches for several weeks.  Mom and Dad just said, "See? Motorcycles are dangerous."   I thought about that today when I read a local headline - One Killed, Several Stabbed At Denver Motorcycle Expo - and my mind just said, "There you go..."
   Do we ever really get away from things that our parents drummed into our brains?

Cats in Snow

Lucifer and a Movie

We watched the new television show Lucifer last night.  The very short previews had looked quite fun.  The only problem was that the  powers that be used all the best clips in the preview.  Beatrice and I decided we'll give the show a viewing of two more episodes, but if it doesn't improve greatly, then we'll both stop watching it.  It's such a great premise, and quite a few good one-liners were tossed out in the first episode....  but the entirety seemed flat and stale.  Lucifer, the devil himself, decides to leave Hell and live in Los Angeles.  He brings along a female - is she an imp? - who works as the bartender at his night club.  He has mesmerizing eyes, and most people, male and female, will tell him exactly what he wants to know.  The females also get sexually excited by his presence.  Except a divorced, female Los Angeles police detective, who has her own baggage.  They rub each other the wrong way.  Another angel, who is African-American, appeared at the beginning and end of the episode stating that their Father wanted Lucifer to return to his appointed place.  With this premise, there are so many ways the series could go - I was hoping for something with lots of twists and turns in the plot, like Gotham or How to Get Away With Murder.  Doesn't seem as if it will happen, though....   Disappointed over all.
   However, I laughed and hooted and grabbed my cracked ribs in an out-pouring of mirth that came upon seeing the trailer for a new movie:  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  I laughed until I cried, and almost lost control of my bladder - while at the same time, hugging my ribs and wishing I could stop laughing.   Thoughts of zombies have never bothered me, and I've always found zombie movies boring in the extreme.  To see that someone had taken Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and added armies of the un-dead seemed ludicrous.  To find that the book was published in 2009, made me shudder.  To realize this movie was actually going to be shown in cinemas around the world seems insane.  I laughed last night because of the sheer absurdity of zombie presences in such a staid and genteel novel.  I can understand the juxtaposition, and I can understand it with grim humor.  But I simply cannot find it frightening - or even entertaining....    I suppose the next big movie releases will be "Romeo and Juliet and Zombies," "The Zombies of the Ten Commandments,"  "The Four Zombies of the Apocalypse," and/or "The Force Versus the Zombies"....     Are all the new ideas used up?  Can no  one come up with an original book or screenplay?
    Can I resign from the human race?

Pretty Sorcies - Photos

My husband and I always called equines "sorcies"...

Weather and Weight

I've been fighting with my computer again, which is why there haven't been many blogs recently.  I think we've come to terms, but it's a wait-and-see situation.  The sky here is a beautiful blue, with stretches of soft see-through clouds spread on the horizon.  It's 43 degrees out, and Bertie, our squirrel has been sunning on top of his telephone pole.  The folks in Florida must be cold - it's 54 in Vero Beach, and there are snow flurries in Gainesville and Alachua.  There is snow still on the ground from two weeks ago, here in Boulder, but you need your sunglasses on outside.  And we're expecting more snow during the AFC Championship game tomorrow afternoon and throughout tomorrow evening.  Maybe three to five inches; maybe nothing.    The people on the middle and upper east coast are really getting a snoot full of snow, too.  There was a blizzard warning, a nor'easter warning, and a coastal flooding warning for Chincoteague and Assateague Islands.  My cousins prepared for snow - they were surprised to find water up to their doors this morning.  Seems that the low-lying areas of Chincoteague are underwater now....
   I've been eating less junk food, and getting my dog walks in, so I don't know why I'm surprised that I need to buy smaller pants.  I was thinking about something else when I went into the bathroom yesterday to relieve myself; when I stood up to pull my pants up, I discovered that I'd slid my jeans down to my knees without un-buttoning or un-zipping them.  Then I ran to catch the bus, and my jeans were definitely droopy....  Guess it's time to go get a couple new pairs of denims.

Scenes From the 2016 National Western Stock Show

Parade in downtown Denver

Longhorns in front of Union Station

Welcome from Governor John Hickenlooper

Mounted drill team

Sheep

Petting zoo for young and old

Breed judging...

even for the smaller critters

Herding trials

SHows for all breeds of equines, including donkeys and mules

Workers getting in straw bales for the stalls

Junior exhibitors show goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, and a variety of barnyard creatures

Best of breeds heading for the show ring

Rodeos, including bull-riding and mutton-busting, plus dressage and jumping shows

Don't forget the alpacas!

Oyster and Assateague Island Views

The top three photos were taken in Oyster by Mrs. Cox

These photos were taken on Assateague Island by various photographers

A Fallen Woman, Again

I slipped and fell twice yesterday - walking along a sidewalk, and there was an angled bit for a driveway to a home.  There was a thick layer of smashed snow and ice on that part, thanks to a usual thaw during the day and freeze over at night weather...  I had walked over that section on the way to walk the dogs, and I didn't give it any special thought on the way back - even though I was treading carefully.  I somehow landed on my belly with the first fall - realized I was suddenly on the ground with my arms trying to encircle a small trash can that was frozen in the ice.  I took a few breaths, and slowly got into a four-point crouch, straightened up, and took a step onto what looked like slush with crushed ice underneath.   Appearances can be very deceiving on a bright sunny day with snow and ice all around you.   I fell sideways that time, landing on my left side with a good impact.  My left shoulder, breast, ribs, and my head took the most punishment.  I was out cold for a few seconds, I think.  I suddenly realized that I was lying on something hard and cold and that I couldn't see clearly, and I tried to think why I'd be in that condition.  Then I remembered falling, and realized my poor vision was due to a lose of my glasses.  I found my glasses about 2 feet from my head and put them on - discovering that the left arm had broken off.  I felt my face and found a few scratches, but because of the cold and ice, they hadn't bled.  I inventoried the rest of me, and decided everything was in working order, so I crawled to an area where the sidewalk was again level and stood up.  I was in a residential area, but no one was home - they were all at work.  So I brushed myself off, and went to the bus stop.
     Visited the Urgent Care Center and was told I had a concussion and a cracked rib.  Then toddled on down to the Vision Center, where I had bought the glasses, and was lucky to find a replacement arm in stock.  Got home, took a long hot shower, and took a 30 minute nap.  Then took another long hot shower.  Discovered my teeth had cut the inside of my cheek when I fell.   I didn't feel too badly last night when I went to bed - but boy howdy, was I stiff and sore this morning.  My left shoulder is nasty and I awoke with hiccups that hurt my ribs.   Otherwise, I'm A-OK.   Spent today puttering around the apartment - made pumpkin waffles for breakfast, had turkey breast and veggies for lunch, had pizza for supper.  Making homemade marinara sauce and meatballs tomorrow....  and, maybe, a chocolate cake with vanilla icing...   We'll see.  Cooking always makes me feel better.

Dogs - Photos

Airedale terrier

Golden retriever and Irish setter

Harrier

African wild dog

Old English Sheep dog

Weimariner

Rhodesian ridgeback