Flannel Shirt

Foggy night in the Gorge

The Gorge being the Columbia River Gorge. And this picture was taken sometime last Winter, so this picture doesn't have anything to do with anything. Nothing much eventful happened. The whole day. Nothing.

Poolside at the wading pool in Pacifica. I read on the internet that a lot of jellyfish have washed on shore, and since jellyfish can still sting if you touch them, it may be better to have a pool day at home.

Today was the cleaning lady day, which was good because we were up to our knees with dog hair. Whoever said that dogs with short hair don't shed were lying. Izzy is a hair generator. When I walked the dogs I ran into Barb and her dog Mickey. She and Izzy played for awhile and, of course, Gilbert wandered away. I brought Izzy home and went back out to find him, then heard Bill across the street saying, "Come on, Gilbert." He had crossed the street and was exploring Bill's backyard. 

The cleaning lady unplugs everything, and often puts things back in the wrong places, so for the next few days we will be getting the house back in order. Then Joan and I went to the Laurelwood across the street. She had a burger and fries and I had some poutine and a small plate of hot wings. That was about it.

 

Poolside, with girl and alligator

It was a very quiet Memorial Day around here. The only exciting thing was the Warriors winning tonight, which means that they go to the finals. 

Otherwise, not much happening. We thought we had two steaks in the freezer, but when it thawed there was only one, so Joan marinated it, sliced it up and then stir fried it and threw it into a salad. A great big salad, a great dinner.

My two girls

Please note that Kinsley is carrying her little stuffie Spirit, who unfortunately lost one of her eyes when a certain playful dog in this house confused Spirit with one of her toys and nipped off the button eye. Nevertheless, Spirit perseveres. Also, notice what hand she is carrying Spirit in. The girls are down at a music festival this weekend.

Up here in Portland things are quiet, the sky is blue and there's just a little bit of a breeze tonight. At night when the lights are out you can hear a train in the distance. The whistle. Do you remember hearing trains at night at 423 South Main? In the summer when the windows were open in my room I could hear the traffic moving along both Highway 36 and across the Acme parking lot to Highway 35. I'm surprised that no one's sold those sounds as background sounds to lull you to sleep. It has accompanied me to dreamland for years. 

In the middle of the afternoon Joan suggested the dog park. Izzy was a little confused but once she realized all four of us were getting into the car she was all in. It was a nice half hour. We mostly sat on the bench with other dog owners. All of the dogs were smaller than Izzy today and some were a little intimidated (also smaller than Gilbert but Gilbert doesn't intimidate anything). But none of the dogs were very much into chasing or being chased, which is what The Iz lives for. I'd trot for ten feet and try to hide behind a tree but Izzy saw through it. But even an uneventful day at the dog park is great for the dogs. When Izzy sees Joan and I moving towards the gate she runs up to me and sits for me to put on her leash. And every days she's a little less fearful about her surroundings. Tonight while we watched TV Izzy laid down on the little dog bed on the floor, fell asleep and was dreaming. She'd move her paws and whimper. No way to know if she had good dreams or bad dreams, but she felt safe enough to dream with us. Previously, if she was sleeping next to you she always had an eye cracked. 

I had a good dream last night. I was in college and the coach invited me on the team. The quarterback quit right before the game and the coach told me to go in. We won 17-0. I threw two touchdowns, one to a running back who worked his way through the gridiron and the opposing players to the end zone. The other TD pass was to an end running along the sideline. Usually the dreams I have are about something stressful that could happen in a post office. For instance, having a dream of delivering mail in a heavy downpour, and the ground is so wet that I am sinking into the lawns up to my knees. True slogging. So it was nice to wake up having been the hero in a football game as opposed to delivering mail in a monsoon, the sun disappearing, up to my knees in mud. Anyway.

Catching up on pictures

I'm not sure how many of these pictures you've seen, so I'm sending them all to you. If any are repeats, such is life.

The only thing exciting today in our lives was that the Warriors won tonight, meaning that a game seven on Monday will decide if they go on to the finals.

We ate leftovers. Izzy is sleeping on the couch next to Joan and Gilbert is sleeping on the floor next to me. Half the folks on the block seem to have gone somewhere for the Labor Day weekend. We're holding down the fort.

Celebrities

Our fun and excitement today was picking up Oliver from kindergarten. They had an assembly at school by the graduating class, fifth or sixth, and for Oliver it was okay except it was so long they didn't have time to show their stuffies. Stuffies are stuffed animals. Today he had a stuffie Mexican desert pig. He knew the Spanish name for it too. Last week he brought his desert rattlesnake stuffie. He apparently likes desert animals. 

After Oliver was picked up Joan and I looked at each other and she said, "Pizza?" So we ordered a delivery.

Well, that's it. 

Pondering Bob Dylan's birthday

“Maybe he’s playing his songs or maybe he’s sitting in his chair waiting for his folks to come sit with him and join him...maybe he’s dreaming” -Ramona

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Meanwhile, nothing much on this side of the street except it was a beautiful day. Blue skies, a little over seventy. Izzy and I went for a few walks, we got Oliver after school and fed him snacks. Joan helped him dress in his workout clothes for his ballet class and took him to his mom in an afternoon swap. We watched the Warriors lose. Maybe it's not their year. 

Usually the first walk of the morning Gilbert comes along with Izzy and me. The problem is that Izzy is very motivated and Gilbert isn't. He's getting slower and slower and tends to wander off into the neighbors' backyards. He can't go too far. If he disappears I'll bring Izzy home then go out and wait for him. He eventually shows up. 

Ecstasy

Don't know if I posted this before, but it's good for repeat. 

The Painted Hills of Oregon

As you can see, I've run out of baby and dog pictures, so this is what you get tonight. 

It was a nice day today. Joan was a little queasy today so we put off going to Costco, but later in the afternoon we went over to the dog park. When we walked to the car it all came back to her. She got those crazy eyes. She just loves running around with other dogs.

I don't know if she was in a street gang when she was living on the streets of Indio out there in California's Colorado Desert region. East of Palm Springs. Hot. Dry. Sleeping in a shady spot during the day. And maybe at night she was out there on the streets, doing the doggy equivalent of drag-racing or some other delinquent dog activity. 

When we got to the park there was just a small dachshund who wasn't at all unfriendly. Eventually, another four or five dogs showed up, all friendly with varying levels of energy. The Iz needs to run and I unfortunately can't run. My high speed of limp just isn't as fast as it was. Then a puppy showed up. And it's name was Izzy too. This was the first time that the little Iz had been to a dog park. At first she was rather timid, running a little with our Izzy but when she felt overwhelmed she'd hide under the bench where the adults sat. Little by little she loosened up and by the time we all went home little Izzy was running circles around all the dogs. I think she tired out Big Iz. 

Before we went to the park I did a little watering, flowers and lawn in the front, the herbs in the back. We've got one big pot that has sage, rosemary and thyme. I call it the Simon and Garfunkel pot. (ask Judy and Warren)

That's it. 

Visiting friends in Sacramento; and going to the zoo there

I wish I knew how to copy videos. There were a couple of them with this batch of pictures, and as cute as she is in them she's even cuter in the videos. 

Lucky that Robin posted these because, as usual, nothing much happened around here. The overcast burned off quickly and it was a lovely day today. I think it's going up to the high eighties and nineties this week. Myself, seventy is fine. 

It seems that every day Izzy makes another step or two forward in not being afraid of things, but for the life of me, it's hard to figure out some of the things she does. The first neighborhood walk in the morning she's there at the door wagging her tail and ready for me to put her harness on her. By about noon if we're going to walk she'll retreat into the dining room. By mid-afternoon she runs to the hall to be hooked up to the leash. After five until bedtime she runs to her bed up at the top of the stairs. When we first got her I told myself that going up the stairs was good exercise, but with the knee I have to be a little more careful and deliberate. Anyway, that's just one of her little mysteries. Every once in awhile she does something that someone taught her, a faint memory from before she was on the street down there in Indio. 

She slept with me Saturday night, which she does occasionally. On Sunday morning she got a good belly rub, which I think is her favorite place to be scratched. 

Sunday night I went out to Safeway and got some Chinese food for the Warriors-Rockets game. I'm not sure what the final score was, but at times the Warriors were forty points ahead of the Rockets. That's domination.