Stupid Weather!

My sister Sue from Colorado visited over the weekend, and of course it rained, hailed and snowed all the time she was here. She even had to leave early because the Coast Range was getting pretty heavy snowfall every night.
She helped us spoil the puppy, who's still not housebroken. I've been taking him out every time he cries at night, which is about 3 or 4 times, but he still poops on the floor. He's starting to wear me down, but hopefully he'll get the idea soon. It's lucky for him that he's so cute.

Taz again

I don’t remember that house breaking a puppy was so hard. Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky but shouldn’t he be learning the difference between carpet and grass by now?

After all, in dog years or more importantly, in dog poops and pees he’s accumulated quite a score of hits and misses.

Taz has been sleeping beside me, or on top of me, at night and does just fine except once when he slid off of me, off the bed and into the wastebasket. He always wakes me up early, which is OK since I’m an early riser anyway, and after I get dressed, start the coffee pot going and throw on a coat or some rain gear, we go for a walk in the back yard.

He’s not real sure if he likes the wet grass at first, but once he gets going he’s a joy to watch. He usually finds a piece of moss or a stick to grab and shake until he’s satisfied it’s dead and no longer a threat, and then he might attack a snail or a beetle speeding by, and if I’m lucky he may remember why we’re out there freezing my butt off, and do his business.

We have a towel inside the back door to dry the dogs off when we come in. As soon as I try to dry him he grabs the towel and the tug of war begins, along with some fierce head shaking and growling. Then he starts living up to his namesake, the Tasmanian Devil. He plays with his toys, tennis balls, chew toy, my slippers, unties my shoelaces and generally terrorizes our other dog, Chewy, who just wants to be left alone.

This usually lasts for about an hour until he finally wears out, and takes a nap. Thank God! This is my chance to clean up his “mistakes,” go to the bathroom, take Chewy out, brush my teeth, fix breakfast, get on the Internet and…Shit! He’s awake, and we start all over again.

Whoops!

It looks like Carol's ambulance driving is on hold for a month or so. She slipped and fell Tuesday afternoon and broke the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones in her right hand. Now she's finding out how difficult it is to be right handed and have it immobilized in a cast. Opening medicine bottles, getting dressed, signing her name, all those simple things, have become almost impossible to do without help. (I take it back about medicine bottles, they're hard to open with two hands.)
The puppy is peeing about 50 times a day, sometimes outside. I take him out as soon as he wakes up from his naps, but if I'm not fast it's too late! You'd think he could at least wait until I get my boots and raincoat on.

Taz

Things have settled down quite a bit. We decided that our grandson Austin no longer deserves the nickname "Taz," so we gave it to the puppy. He has a couple of white horns on his forehead and he goes through the house like a Tasmanian Devil, so the name fits.
Last night he came into the bedroom and slept in one of my slippers.

Khan-Hoppy-Taz?

Poor Chewy has to put up with a new puppy in the house. We haven't decided on a name yet, he's part Lhasa Apso, part Pomeranian and part Tasmanian Devildog. He wants to play, but Chewy just wants to be left alone.
Neither Carol nor I got much sleep last night.

Appreciation Dinner

The Firefighters Appreciation Dinner was held Saturday evening at LaSerre restaurant in Yachats.
In a little over a month, Carol single-handedly raised nearly $4,000.00 in prizes from local merchants, which were given to firefighters and EMTs in a drawing. Brad, Tony and Derrick handed out the prizes and awards.
Carol got an award for the most hours volunteered and came close to her usual 3,000.
For the third year in a row, LaSerre served a great prime rib dinner.

Waiting for a call

Well, the rains have stopped for a while. We haven't had much since the middle of January, and we've been able to get out and enjoy sunny, warm days.
Every morning we have a fire in the fireplace to warm up the house, because the nights have been cold, but then around ten we open the back door and let the sunshine in. We fixed the wind damage to the greenhouse, and today I want to mow the grass, which is getting pretty deep.
We sat out on the patio enjoying the sun Monday afternoon and after it began to cool off, we started a fire in the Chimania and stayed out till long after dark.
Carol had a fairly busy January with at least 17 calls, (sometimes she forgets to write them down) and she gets a lot of reading done between calls.

Man vs. Mole

I've been involved in my own war against terror for several years now, and only recently have I been able to claim a few victories. Our back yard is our pride and joy except for the ugly mounds of dirt that mar the grassy surface. I declared war on "Molezilla" in 2005 and have been trying to trap him and his fellow terrorists ever since.
The mole trap that I carefully set according to instructions from my friend Don, (an ex-mole trapper) always came up empty and it seemed like the moles increased their attacks in revenge for my attempts. Finally in November when I had almost given up and surrendered, I got him!
It had to be Molezilla!
He was huge! I did a victory dance back into the house dragging his carcass behind me. (Well, he wasn't quite that big, but big for a mole!) After Carol threw me and the mole back outside, I buried him in a mole hole. There! let that be a lesson to them! Any moles traveling that route would see that the war had seriously escalated!
They fought back, tunneling and mounding everywhere, and the yard dropped several inches in elevation from tunnels collapsing. They even tried recruiting our dog, Chewy! (See pic.)
Then, I got the number two mole! (I haven't printed a deck of cards yet but I'm thinking about it.) I asked Carol if she would like me to start skinning them and tanning the hides for a mole skin jacket, but she declined.
I also have considered a surge in the war, (buying another trap) but we'll see how the battle goes this spring. I'll keep you informed.

What's this white stuff?

Boy, what a crappy winter! We've had rain, hail, snow and ice. This past weekend was in the high 20's at night, and barely made it above freezing in the daytime. The firewood pile is shrinking fast. I knew we were due for a bad one and it finally got here. Hopefully it'll be another fifteen years or so before we get nailed again.

I guess I shouldn't complain, a lot of places are really having a tough time, but complaining about the weather is kind old an old fart hobby anyway.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
We had a pretty quiet New Years Eve, except for some idiot shooting off a dozen or so pistol shots at midnight. Earlier we watched the Broncos get beat at JC's house while we ate barbecued Turkey breast. (It was his Sunday to cook.)
I took the sunrise picture last week from our backyard.