Always Look Behind You

The other morning while I was eating breakfast the dogs let me know in no uncertain terms that they wanted to go back out and play in the snow some more. I turned on the mercury light that illuminates at least part of the back yard, and let them out.

A short time later, Taz the Pomeranian, Lhasa Apso mix, scratched to come in.

“Where's your partner?” I asked, but he just wagged his furry tail and grinned his overbite grin at me.

I waited for a while, and then put on my head lamp and went out to look for her. A Papillon, she's a tiny little thing and we worry about her having a run-in with a Bear or a Coyote or even a Raccoon, all of which, at one time or another, have visited our back yard. Like most small dogs she's way too fearless for her own good.

“C'mon Squeak!” I called, and tried my best to whistle. ( Since I got my partial denture I can't whistle for shit.)

I walked back into the darkness toward the fence that separates our yard from the large forested area behind it, the headlamp making a dim circle on the trampled snow.

“Here Squeak!”

I searched under the big Fir tree at the far end of the yard and worked my way back along the fence, shining the head lamp back and forth in front of me. Now I was starting to get worried, and bad thoughts of what might have happened started running through my mind.

“Squeak!” I yelled as loud as I could with my weak Parkinson's voice.

I searched everywhere, and finally stopped at the last place I could think of, under an overhanging Spruce tree beside the house. There was still no sign of her, so discouraged and heart sick, I turned to go back. When I turned I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye behind me. I spun around and saw something dart in back of me again. Finally when I bent over, she came out from behind me to be petted, her head cocked as if to say,”This is fun! Can we play some more?”

“Squeak! Dammit, this isn't a game!” I said, laughing despite how worried I'd been.

I don't know how long she'd been following behind me, but I think Squeak and Taz, who'd been watching the whole thing, both enjoyed every minute of it.

Snow Day

Yesterday morning the dogs and I woke up to a winter wonderland. We couldn't wait to go out and write our names in the snow!

Since it was Squeaks first experience with the weird white stuff, she had a blast running, jumping and sliding, while Taz half heartedly gave chase. I even ran ( slowly, to be sure) with them for a little bit, huffing and puffing clouds of steamy breath. It was still dark but I took some flash pictures when I could get Squeak to hold still long enough to focus the camera.

The house was chilly, so I got a good fire going in the fireplace, but before we could even get warmed up, Squeak wanted out again. Taz laid down in front of the fireplace, but Squeak sat by the back door doing her “I want out!” squeak. She sounded so pathetic we went back out and played some more.

Taz and I pooped out, but Squeak couldn't get enough of it. When her tiny little paws would get too cold she'd come in for a warm up and then cry to go out again.

When it got light I took some more pictures, and some video of the dogs playing. Squeak drove us crazy, wanting out every 15 minutes all day long.

After leaving Colorado, I didn't think that I'd ever like snow again, but now when it only happens once in a while, it's kind of fun.

J.C. vs. The Big C

With typical macho Cleland stubbornness my brother J.C. put off going to see a doctor until his pain got unbearable. At first the doctor thought that he just had a kidney infection and an enlarged prostate, but when treatment for that didn't help, J.C. went in for more tests. They catheterized him and when he began bleeding into the catheter they sent him to our local hospital.

The doctor at the hospital couldn't stop the bleeding so they decided to send him to the Corvallis hospital, a much larger facility. Carol arranged for him to be transported by our local Waldport ambulance (which she drove for many years.) They hastily put together a crew to transport him but unfortunately none of them were very experienced and he didn't have a very good ride. The driver got lost in Corvallis and the EMT attending to him got car sick.

After countless ultra sounds, x rays, and blood tests they found cancer in his prostate that had spread to his ribs and shoulder. They put drainage tubes in both kidneys and started him on chemotherapy. In the meantime his daughter Brandy drove up from Elko Nevada and stayed overnight at the hospital with him. A few days later, much to everyone's surprise, they sent him home.

The next morning Brandy and I went to Newport and after leaving the prescriptions at Walmart to be filled, she drove me to the hospital parking lot to retrieve J.C.'s Honda. We were worried that it might not start after sitting so long, but it started right up and I drove it back to J.C.'s house with no problems. It turned out that when Brandy went back to get the medicine she left her lights on and had to get a jump start in the Walmart parking lot.

That afternoon J.C. And I had our first visit since he was transported to Corvallis and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits, despite the kidney tubes and the medicine he was on. When he began to tire I asked him for his fancy cell phone so I could call Carol to come and pick me up.

My history with phones of any kind is that if any thing can go wrong it will, and it's especially true of cell phones. I once tried to call Carol on J.C.'s fancy cell phone and somehow ended up having a pleasant conversation with Cheri, his ex wife in Elko, Nevada. This time proved to be no different .

I listened for a dial tone, didn't hear anything and handed it back to J.C. “It's not working!” I said.

He looked at it and said, “Well, you just took a nice picture of your ear!”

I let him dial it for me.

The next day, Sunday, I put on my rain coat and walked up to J.C.'s. I found him in the living room watching football on his big screen (3 inches bigger than mine) HD TV. He was having problems with one of his kidney tubes not draining right, and he had a lot of swelling in his legs and feet from water retention, but he was feeling pretty good because the Broncos were beating the crap out of Kansas City. We watched football for a couple of hours until Brandy returned and I walked back home.

Shelby

Forget the Barby Dolls! Forget the sugar and spice and everything nice!

Give our 7 year old granddaughter Shelby a tree to climb, a baseball bat to swing, or a “Transformer”to play with!

She dressed up in her Halloween costume, (“Optimus Prime” a transformer that turns into a semi truck) and made the rounds last night. If you didn't give her candy, she wreaked havoc and destruction!