new blog

I have decided to start a new blog. I haven't seemed interested in blogging to Gravity in a while so I have started a new one. The address is:

http://suburbancave.blogspot.com

finally!!

Now he can finally hold his head up again. Yes, I finally took him to the groomer. I showed her his face. She knew what I usually ask for (since that's the only place I have ever taken him, but he has been done by several people) but I didn't really want his face too much shorter. His ears were matted pretty bad but I didn't want her to tug and tug but she said she would try to comb them out but she might have to take them down to the leather.

I got the call to pick him up and when I went in, she gave me the slip to go pay and explained what she had done. She told me she had taken his face down real short so he could eventually have a French moustache and his brows and he kept shaking his head and fluffing out his ears so she had to take them down to the leather.

Long story short, since I just lost the long story, she worked a miracle and put some form into his face, left some hair on his ears and lightened his poor load considerably. He smells better, weighs less and we're both happier. This was much better written the first time, but this is all you get.

backyard visitor

While checking today for more Langolier holes, or the revisitation of old covered holes, I picked up the firepit cover that I had taken off the firepit and stood on it's side so it and the base wouldn't get rusty. Much to my surprise, the grate had a rider. 

This little guy had knit himself into the holes of the grate cover. I immediately thought "Photo op! and abandoned Ozzy, ran inside' grabbed my camera and took

the grate out into the sun and tried to get a good shot of the snake. 

When I had gotten the best shot I thought I could (I barely missed getting his tongue coming out. I wished my camera had a faster shutter speed, or I was more intuitive) I took the grate and snake over to the transformer thinking that, 1). I really didn't want him that close to the house,

and 2). the sun might warm him up and inspire him to work his way through the grate and back out into the field where I hope he came from.

When I took a closer look at him, after taking the photos, I began to worry about if he could actually get out again. He seemed so intricately entwined, at such angles, that he might not be able to get out again. I know that doesn't make sense, cause he got in there, but look at him. Anyway, I left him in the sun, thinking he would be all charged up, warm and inspired. 

Sure enough, I looked out at the grate later, sitting on the transformer, and he was gone. Hopefully in the direction of the field and not back toward my house. 

Did I mention the last snake I found? I found a 6 inch baby last fall and put it in a Tupperware container, thinking of releasing it, I guess. I put it in the garage and forgot about it, thinking it was safe in a plastic, high edge container. I checked a couple of days later (I forgot about it) and it was gone. Now I tiptoe around my garage like a cat on a wet floor, waiting for that thing to come back out, big and fat from hidden bugs. 

No, I don't think I'll let a foot long snake get happy taking up residence in my back yard with the mythical one living in my garage.

Ozzy, me and scisssors

Ozzy has been having some trouble with his allergies and rubbing his eyes again, so I've had to put ointment on his eyes. All the rubbing has caused his face to get mats, so I've taken the scissors to him, gradually over the past week.

 It started with his mustache, little at a time. I'd cut off a little bit then give him a Pupparoni and make a big deal about him. When it came time to cut off the mats around his eyes it was a little trickier but I used the same format and he let me do it, with the Pupparoni at the end, and a little bit at each session.

He needs to be groomed, obviously, as you can tell by the length of his ears. His nails are too long, too, but I'm not going to try those. I know he must be a pistol for the groomers to do on his face cause that's always what they're doing when I pick him up and that's always where the stray long hairs are. Maybe now it won't be quite so hard for them. 

Anyway, now his face is short and his ears are long so he looks like an Afghan hound with a gland deficiency. Usually he enjoys having his picture taken, but as you can tell by the second picture, he just wanted me to put the camera down this time. No standing and posing this time. Oh, that's a sad face. Alex already told me she's not letting me anywhere near my grandchildren with scissors in my hand.

facebook

I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook lately. I think I got on it originally because Trish was on it and it was the only way I could see what was going on with her. Now I am on and off of it all day. I can get a basic version of it on my iPod although the full version is a lot more fun cause I can take the quizzes and do the things that kill so much time but are the fun part of it. There are people on there that have hundreds of friends, but I have 17. 

But that's why I haven't been blogging so much. I can't actually blog on my iPod, much to my chagrin. I can put in the title and that's it. Bummer. I'm getting out of the habit of picking up the computer so maybe it's a good thing.

We survived the spring snow storm. It came in late last night with the typical Oklahoma wind but it never was enough snow to fully cover the lawn. This afternoon there was barely any snow left but there were still flakes wafting on the wind (since they were wafting you could tell it wasn't the blow-the-chain-off-the-fence usual Oklahoma wind). 

I talked to Josh today, which was really sweet of him since it obviously cost him. His voice sounded better but it was getting kinda croaky by the time he hung up. He left work at noon yesterday because he just couldn't get his voice out to make a sale. Coincidentally, Alex walked in at the same time he had to hang up the phone. 

The wedding plans are coming along. Alex's last day of work is next Tuesday, officially. She's going to still be on the books at Corrino's so she can help them out, but she'll be working with her mom now, doing bookkeeping at insurance companies. But no more being on 24 hour call for the catering anymore. I'm so happy for her and I know she's excited.

That's about it. Just hanging out. Watching CNN. Like I do.

no more Langolier holes

Today was a busy day. First of all, it started at 3:30 am. I tried really hard to get back to sleep but at 4:30 I gave up and got out of bed and went to the living room to play some Guitar Hero. I played until I was tired and making mistakes, so Ozzy and I went to McDonald's and got some Sunday breakfast. 

I thought I would read the Sunday paper. I had given in to one of those teenage solicitors trying to win a contest, in this case a savings bond. I thought that was a worthy goal, and it was only $10 for two months of Sunday papers, so since I had that in my wallet, I did it. Today's was the first paper I have opened, and they have been delivering it daily ever since I gave that kid the ten bucks. 

I can tell the recession is hitting the Daily Oklahoman cause, since I took the paper the last time, the paper is thinner. Not the number of pages, the width. It is now proportionately much more tall than wide than it used to be, enough to be obvious and I think a bit odd looking. Maybe it's just me and twenty years in the newspaper business.

Anyway, the day progressed in an interesting way, considering the way it started. I kept thinking that I would just lie down and take a nap at some point, but I kept finding things to do. I took out the trash after finishing the paper cause with the paper it was just too full not to take out and tomorrow is trash day. I did the dishes and got the counters clean and, in fact, am in the process of cleaning the stove. I straightened the spare room and made the bed again, picked up Ozzy's toys (he pulled his favorites back out), all the while staying in the living room, thereby making Ozzy's day. 

I check my iPod frequently during the day and when I checked the weather I noticed a severe weather alert for tomorrow. The alert is for wind during the daytime but there will be storms moving in tonight. I started thinking about the Langolier holes at the edge of the foundation of the house filling with rainwater. Not really a good idea. I had planned to fill them up a long time before now, as Josh as some Top Soil left over from filling his gopher holes in his back yard and told me I could have it. I tried to call him but he never called back, so Oz and I went for a ride to get some.

We went to Lowe's and I picked up a couple of bags of Top Soil and a couple of other things I need. Last year the water main at the sidewalk between my neighbor's house and mine broke and the City did a terrible job fixing it. It took them a year to flatten down the mounds of dirt. Now it just looks... unloved. So I bought the other bag of dirt to make that look better. It doesn't matter to me that the main is mostly on Dusty's side. It will look better when it's leveled out. I bought a little metal rake that I can use in the gardens but will still level out the dirt. I bought this industrial weed remover with an ergo handle. When I was in the Valley for so long last summer some weeds took root that I can't get out with anything so far. Even if they die the stalk is shrub size and painful to step on. 

Anyway, I came home with those things, and dinner from Sonic, and decided that I had better get the holes filled before I did anything else because if I sat down I would probably just want to stay down and the storm would probably hit and it would all be for nothing. So I trudged that heavy bag of soil to the back (man, that bad was heavy, or I was really tired - the other one is still in the trunk) and opened the bag and just started pouring dirt into every hole I could see. It took the whole bag. 

A couple of things struck me, though. First of all, I'm so used to hard packed Arizona soil that I was shocked when I used the weeder to help put the dirt in place and the weeder went right in and the dirt moved around. What was wrong with this stuff?! There hasn't been any water on it in ages - it should be rock hard!! Oh, wait a minute, there's actually moisture in the air and stuff. 

The other thing is that it's starting to look like spring. What looked like a dead garden in the Langolier pictures now has greenery in it. Granted, some of the green stuff is weeds, but not most of it. The perennials are coming back and the rose bushes are almost all filled in. The weird black leafed shrub is back again and that other shrub next to the door is about five feet tall. I think it's time for some pruning. I'm getting excited about gardening. 

The grass along the freeway is starting to green up. It's interesting that the patches where the fires were are the greenest. I remember Randy's dad burning his yard in the early spring. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. He let me light it once. This was legal!! Really shows the need and benefits of regulated forest burns. My yard isn't all that green yet. I was going to start watering, but it's going to rain, so I didn't. I had a treatment put on it that was a weed and feed. Most people around here do it. It looks like they paint their yards green. But it seems to work well cause there are some really beautiful yards. But what sold me was that the highway department does it and the grass along the highway is beautiful. I just didn't know what else to do to take care of those weeds. I want to walk barefoot in my back yard and not have to fear a half inch thick stalk in the sole of my foot. Plus I want it to look nice for the wedding.

So, where was I? Oh yeah, filling holes. Finished that, came back in and had dinner and called it good. That was it. That was the last thing I did, other than watching OU in the NCAA women's championship. They were the secondary game (ESPN switched back and forth between playoff games) so I didn't get to watch all of the game, but they won, so that was the important part. The only reason I watched was an article in the paper I read today about Courtney Paris, the senior sensation from OU who vowed to pay back her scholarship if she didn't lead her team to a national championship. This has caused varying reactions from commentators, especially considering UCONN is evidently considered to be the powerhouse team this year, giving OU an outside chance at the win. This makes watching much more interesting for me.

So I've managed to stay awake all day which means I'll have a better chance of sleeping all night and normalizing my schedule on a long term basis. I'm gunna be tired tomorrow, but it's going to be a good tired. 

a wedding date!

Yes, you read it right! We finally have a wedding date. Alex told me last night that she is going down to the Hall to make it official there but the date they have scheduled is Sunday, June 14 at 6pm. There is a reason for it being a Sunday, which you will all hear about when you get here, or when I get chattier, but this is a non sleeping morning so I'm not telling this time. Suffice it to say that the date is firm. And it's worth it to get the Hall where they are having the wedding. It was my personal favorite of the places they took me to see. I tried hard to be objective but it kept slipping out when we were looking at the other places, so when Alex said they were going to have it there I did my private little happy dance. LOVE IT! It's going to be beautiful. 

So, now I'm going to be working on the addresses that I don't have for some of the family for Alex in the next week or so in order that she can get working on the invitations. Starting to feel like a real wedding now, isn't it? 

The not sleeping thing is getting to be more sporadic, not a constant thing anymore. I went to the doctor and she changed a few of my meds and I'm feeling better so I think it's just going to take a few weeks for things to adjust. I actually did sleep last night and woke up early and then slept again in the afternoon so this could be just having all slept out. I actually took Ozzy for a short walk last night (at 1:30 am, but you know my neighborhood - we went about three or four houses each way). It's a start. He's turned into such a couch potato I wouldn't want to give him a heart attack by either the exercise or the shock.

So that's it for now, but it's a good one!