Tag Archives: Blazer

Mad Dog!

18 Nov

Normally, when I go over to knitting at church, I take Blazer with me.  On Monday nights, he has a grand time playing with the Cubs Scouts, but for the last several months we have been sharing our space on Wednesday with the Golden Age Group. Now, Blazer is a bit of a Golden Ager himself, but I do worry that he will be in the way, so this morning I left him home.

The Squire said that when the dog realized I wasn’t in my normal spot – in front of the computer, alas – he went looking for me. He couldn’t see the car in the drive, so he searched all over the house, sniffing in every closet and under the bed.

Then he looked for my car a second time, and began his search anew. Sometimes Blazer gets very “talky”, but The Squire said this morning’s words were more akin to angry muttering, mixed with low growls. The dog was obviously seriously pissed.

And the Golden Age group didn’t show up!

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It’s Official

10 Nov

My head really is screwed on properly.

We went up yesterday morning and had X-rays made of my neck, and as far as I can tell, all is well. The washer that replaced the crushed disc  is clearly visible, and so is the plate that holds it all together.  The side view gives you a good look at my jaw; I quite obviously grew up before fluoride. What a metal mouth! I see the surgeon on Thursday morning, and that should be that.

Blazer and I went over to knitting last night – first time I’ve been out alone since the end of September.  The Cub Scouts meet in the hall while we meet in the office, and Blazer spent most of his time hangin’ out with the boys. He is such an attention hound! A good ear wiggle from every man, woman, and child in the room, and then he came into the office for some more loving and some dog treats. Are we spoiled? Oh, no, not us!

A young lady from church came over this morning to talk with me about planning her wedding next September. She is an orphan, and has sort of adopted The Squire and me as surrogate parents. She’s had a dreadful life, and if anybody deserves a bit of “happily ever after” it is her.  Working with her on this wedding is a strain, as she wants it all, and we have very different tastes and ideas. Every colour in the rainbow, fruit, flowers, ribbons – and that’s just the cake! She did select a very pretty wedding dress, quite restrained, actually, but for the two flower girls she is thinking lilac dresses with turquoise sashes. And lime green flowers.

I told her it was going to resemble Nanny McPhee, and she shivered with delight. “I know! Wasn’t that beautiful?”

Just keep repeating, “It’s not my wedding. It’s not my wedding. It’s not my wedding.”

Oy.

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Lost in Space

15 Oct

The Squire is  great fan of science fiction, which I do not usually enjoy, but we have stumbled upon a series written by David Weber, about an earth-like planet called Safehold, many light-years away from our galaxy, which pleases us both. A combination of space age technology and a pre-Industrial Revolution society.  It is all too complicated to go into here, but it is essentially an alternative history of the time of the Inquisition, which even  the staunchest Catholic will admit was not the church’s finest hour. I should warn you that Mr Weber is very Protestant in his views.  The books are huge – over 600 pages each – and very, very complicated. You really need to take notes, especially as the characters have rather odd names, and there are a bunch of people involved in this story. Fifteen pages worth in this book, but most of them are also in the other books.

The first book in the series, if you are interested, is Off Armageddon Reef and you really do need to read them in order.

The eighth book in the series was just recently published, and I picked it up at the library Tuesday.  I joked to the woman who brought me home (I’m still not able to drive) that once I gave the book to The Squire, I probably wouldn’t see him for about 48 hours. “I just hang a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign around his neck, hand him a sandwich once in a while, and dust him off, but there’s no point in talking to him. He gets so engrossed that either he won’t hear me at all, or I’ll startle him.”

Now, for the first eight years we had Blazer he was perfectly content to sleep on the floor, but last winter he decided he had enough seniority to claim The Squire’s recliner for his own. I got a chair cover and put it over the seat and sides, but the dog usually claws it down in to a heap on the chair seat, and sleeps there.bookmark

With this new book in hand, The Squire carefully folded the cover and put in on the floor next to the chair and settled in to read. Blazer about had a fit. He tried to get into the chair with The Squire, and when that didn’t work, he tried a plan of attrition, pacing back and forth around the recliner, trying to bother The Squire out of “his” chair.

So – I have no idea what time The Squire came to bed Tuesday night, but by 1:30 yesterday he had read over 300 pages.  He read most of yesterday, and after a short argument with the dog this morning, he read steadily from the time he got home from PT until 7:25. He finished the entire 627 pages in slightly more than 48 hours.

Now, it’s my turn.

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Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jog

28 Sep
Just to let you that know I am, as a former rector used to say, upright and taking nourishment. Got home shortly after noon, went to the bathroom while The Squire fixed the sofa bed, and fell asleep on the commode. He fixed me a cup of coffee, and tucked me into bed. My hearing is very, very sharp, but I slept through the long-case clock beside the living room door striking every fifteen minutes, so I must have been just plain dead to the world.
I slept until Brian, my boss, came over around 3:15 with a bouquet of pink roses, ferns, and ornamental grasses from their garden. Sweet of him. Nobody can sleep through the doorbell and Blazer barking!
The surgeon went in through the front, so I have a huge bandage between my Adam’s apple and my chin. Because he was cutting so close to my spinal cord, there was a lady doing a constant EMG on my scalp, arms, and legs to make sure things were still working as they should. Plastic disc to replace the mashed “real” one, with a titanium plate – all MRI compatible, so they tell us. One nice thing this hospital does is ask you how you’d like to be addressed, rather than automatically calling you by you bare-nekkid first name. I just find being called “Anne” by somebody young enough to be my grandchild patronising.  So, Mrs Rice is was.
Being pampered by The Squire, bothered by the cat, and observed by the dog. Sofa bed is low enough he can poke me with his nose. Fortunately, he couldn’t reach my face. Took a pain pill about ten minutes ago, and it has hit bottom.
Oh, and I can’t talk. As you can imagine that is a problem. We have a dinner bell (don’t ask) and The Squire can’t hear high-pitched sounds, so if something goes wrong I’ll have hope Blazer remembers how to Go Get Poppa. He claimed he was going to watch TV, but I have the feeling he is checking his eyelids for pinholes. We got up at 5AM to be at the hospital by 6, and while I got a nap, of sorts, he’s been on his feet all day.
Speaking of the dog – normally when I come home after the shortest of trips, he is all over me. If not jumping on me, he is pawing at my legs, whompping my legs with his tail, and generally getting underfoot, but today, other than a few very thorough sniffs, he has been very gentle and “non-invasive”. How do dogs know these things? The cat, on the other hand…

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A Cascade of Minor Frustrations

16 Sep

I have been working from home for about the last month, two days a week, for three hours, from 9 until noon. It’s really convenient – I don’t even have to put in my teeth – and the money comes in handy.  Today was rather frustrating, as the program kept crashing, and I had to reboot three or four times. Not sure if it’s the program, or this laptop, but it was maddening.

I had a pre-op visit today, and my GP had said he would administer the Shingles shot for me, but Medicare doesn’t cover it. I had to go to the drug store, fork over $200 of my hard-earned cash (see above) and take the vaccine to the doctor’s office. Fortunately, our secondary coverage will pay for it, but I have to mail in a form and wait for them to send the money back. I left here at 1:15, with the form in one hot little hand and an ice pack in the other, as the serum has to be kept frozen.

When I got to the doctor’s office, I discovered I’d left the pre-op papers home, and the form The Squire had printed was for reimbursement for medical expenses, not prescriptions. And what I had in my ice box was only the powder, not the “dilutant”, so we couldn’t do the shot anyway. My surgeon’s office had to fax over the paperwork (I, of all people, ought to know better than to pull such a stunt), so what with one thing and another, my blood pressure was 155 over something dreadful. Yesterday, when I went to the surgeon’s office, the nurse had to take it twice, because it was 116/98, and she didn’t believe it. Today, we tried the b/p again, just before I left the office and it was 120/72, which is more like it.

When I got into the car, I glanced at my paperwork and discovered one test had not been done. We’ll pick that up tomorrow when I go back for the injection.

And then, when I called the pharmacy, I was told all they needed was a few CCs of saline, so I’ll have to call back tomorrow morning and make sure that’s on hand, or I’ll have to go over and pick up some at the pharmacy. I don’t think they dispense it in that quantity, to be honest. Wonder what I’ll do with the rest of it?

Blazer managed to get off his rope for the second time in as many days, and I had to verbally drag him out of the neighbor’s yard. The fool hound has managed to remove two rabies tags and a license, all on S-hooks, without damaging his collar, plus working himself out of a regular clip and a carabineer clip.

Houdini never had it so good.

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The Church Dog

29 Jul

When I go to knitting on Monday evenings and Wednesday mornings, I almost always take Blazer along. He has a mad crush on Miss Kathy, the secretary, who always gives him treats, and acts as Official Greeter for another group that meets on Wednesday mornings, sitting by the door and waiting for a pat on the head.

He also goes with me when I am on Altar Guild, and knows he can follow me anyplace but up onto the altar steps. He stops and flops down on the carpet, once even resting his chin on the step, and waits for me to get things done, then trots back to the sacristy while I finish up. Ah, if only he had opposable thumbs!

The last couple of times I’ve gotten ready to leave, he’s come out the door, and then flopped on the grass, refusing to move. This morning, I had to go back in for something, and he leapt to his feet, dashing back inside with me, but wouldn’t leave the front lawn. I finally had to get his leash out of the car to get him to follow me.

Mind you, this is a dog who  won’t eat until we say grace, so it’s hardly surprising. The Squire says we should just get him a white collar and rename him Deacon.

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Happy Birthday!

22 Jul

I was supposed to spend most of today at the radiologist, but they called and rescheduled for Monday, so Blazer and I went over to join the knitting group at church this morning. When I tell him we are “going to see Miss Kathy” (the secretary) he gets all “talky”, which he only does for her, and nobody else.

He hops in the car, turns sideways so I can fasten the seatbelt around him, and when we arrive he bolts for the office, sitting in front of Kathy until he gets a treat, then grabs his stuffed bear off the shelf and comes out to join the rest of us. An Al-Anon meeting is scheduled at the same time, and he gets a pat on the head from each person as they come in. This morning he followed one lady across the room because she had walked by without patting him. He takes his Official Greeter duties quite seriously.

When it is time to go, he gets Bear and returns it to the office, dropping it at Kathy’s feet and getting one more treat. A very rotten, but very sweet puppy.

Back in June, The Squire received a very generous gift card to a local High Class restaurant, so we decided today would be a very good time to use it, to celebrate my umpty-dumpth birthday. We had invited our closest friends and my brother-in-law to join us, but only George was able to make it.  We had a very pleasant time, exchanging dreadful jokes, and enjoying wonderful – if insanely overpriced – food.

Dinner was filling enough,  and dessert would have been nice, but they wanted $9 for a dish of ice cream, and $8 for bread pudding, so we passed on that. Stopped at Yogi Palace on the way home for frozen yogurt and were just as happy as if we’d paid twice as much.

Off to feed the fish and the foxes, and then, as Samuel Pepys would say, so to bed.

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Schroedinger’s Dog

31 May

About a week ago, I spotted a small shiny green thing in the grass. Blazer’s current rabies tag. This was attached to his collar by one of those double rings that causes so many broken finger nails and lost tempers. How did he get it off the collar?

Good question.

When I went to put it back on, I discovered he had also lost his previous rabies tag and his license. Those were both on the S hooks. We kept them all on the collar because they jingle-jangle-jingle when he runs. I’ve waved the metal detector around along the path he traces with his tie-out rope, with no luck. Mind you, we have slightly over two acres, and he could have lost it anywhere within that radius, or in one of the spots where he likes to roll when he and The Squire go out for the mail. You have no idea how many bits and pieces of metal can be scattered over the amount of ground we have to cover. I swing the detector and The Squire checks out the beeps. Paper clips in the front yard? Belt buckles, two keys on a chain, a watch, and more rusty nuts, bolts, and nails than I can count.

I have to contact Baltimore county and see if there’s a way to get a new license. (I mean, there must be.) The county only issues one tag, and then every May 1st, you send them your VISA number and they send you a certificate via email, saying the license has been renewed.

The question, of course, is how on earth he managed to remove THREE tags with no visible damage to the collar.

Very mysterious.

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Pushy, Pushy

8 May

We removed (caught) another snapping turtle day before yesterday, and thought we only had one left in the pond.

This evening Blazer and I went out to feed the fish, and there were two very impatient turtles literally hanging over the edge of the pond, waiting to be fed. Because they were halfway out of the water, I couldn’t throw bread to them, but had to find a small stick (a lilac branch, in this case) break it in half, and put a piece of bread on each one. Once both sticks were “loaded” I held them out and the turtles yanked the bread off. They will only eat store-bought white bread, and I have to use the crusts and the heels so the stuff won’t fall off the sticks. (The center of the bread gets thrown into the middle of the pond so the poor fish actually get to eat.)  I am not the sharpest crayon in the box, but this is as close as we get to “hand feeding” snapping turtles.

I squatted out there for about five minutes, poking food into two gaping maws, while Blazer hovered behind me. Some protector he is! I imagine it was like feeding twins, but most twins don’t have such sharp edges.

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All Dogs Go to Heaven

21 Apr

The Squire and I normally eat our breakfast in front of the computer, checking our email before we start the day. I bring Blazer’s dish into the den and he eats with us.

Dinner and supper, we eat in the dining room, with the dog’s dish on the floor at the end of the table. He will not start eating until we do.  Today, both The Squire and I were out at dinner time, and even though we had put food in the dish, it was untouched when The Squire got home. When he sat down to work a crossword puzzle, the dog came in and sat beside the dish, looking up expectantly. Finally, The Squire bent his head and said grace over his puzzle, and the dog began to eat.

You may make of that what you wish.

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