The Ordeal of Bathing Dogs

Shani

This morning was bath day for our two dogs, Nikki and Shani. For these two, bathing is an ordeal. They would rather do anything else in life than get a bath. Now it's not as if they dislike water. Give them a wide open beach with gentle surf, a bay, bayou, lake, river, stream, creek, pool, or even a mud puddle and these are two happy dogs. But just try coaxing them into having a bath. Bathtubs are out. Showers are out. So we have to resort to a bucket of soapy water and then drag the dogs, one at a time, onto the back patio for a much needed shampoo and rinse. They'll do just about anything to keep that first drop of soapy water off their fur, which is just fine with a little dirt, thank you very much. But since they primarily want to be inside dogs, a bath now and then is a must.

So we started with 96 lb Shani, who for some uncanny reason, knows when she's about to get a bath. Today we had to half push, half drag her out the sliding glass door and onto the patio. Once she gets soaped down she resigns herself to the ordeal and cooperates with no problem. When she's fully shampooed, rinsed, shakes off, is dried with a towel and then given her after-bath-treat, then she's a happy camper. Of course, in 2 to 3 months time we'll go through this all over again.


Nikki

Nikki, now at 41 lbs, is easier to handle. Today I just bodily picked her up and carried her out the door. Of course, I'll pay for that later with an aching back, but at the moment it seemed like the best solution, as there's no way to coax her out the door. We've tried that method too many times and it never works. Nik has short fur, so it takes only minutes to get her cleaned and dried. Then she heads straight for the kitchen to wait for her treat. The treat today was half a slice of turkey-ham.

My Mom has two Basset Hounds, Lulu and Daisy, who love getting a bath. They jump willingly into her downstairs bathtub and enjoy their bath. She used to bathe them one at a time, but they both wanted to be first. So now she just lets them both get in the tub at the same time. Of course, they get an after-bath-treat too. After that, they run up and down the long hallway like crazy dogs.

My sister-in-law, who has four small dogs, a Shih Tzu, a Chihuahua, a Yorkie and a Chorkie (a Chihuahua-Yorkie mix), just puts all her dogs in a plastic tub on her condo patio and bathes them as a group. She says the dogs sulk for about an hour or two, because they're offended that she would do such a thing to them.  Then, once again, they're all happy and much nicer smelling dogs.

One time I took Shani in for a bath. After charging me $42 it turns out they tranquilized her in order to give her a bath. I was furious and have never subjected any of my dogs again to that kind of experience. So maybe Shani does have a reason for not wanting to get a bath?

Anyway, after the bath and a nap, our dogs usually sniff each other to check out the new smells. They seem to like being clean, after the fact. Also, I think our dogs take great satisfaction in knowing that we get a bath at the same time as they do, because after all is said and done, we're as soaked as the dogs and have to change into dry clothes afterwards. As I've already said, bathing the dogs is an ordeal, but we'll do it all over again in a couple months or so.

Learning Colors

I spent last Saturday afternoon with the grandkids. This time I brought a selection of art supplies for my grandson, Bubba. He was delighted to find green kid's scissors and a green plastic box to hold his new treasured art supplies. "Nana, you know that green is my favorite color," he said. "I know sweetie, that's why I bought you green scissors and a green art box."

When I'd gone to Bubba's PreK4 class the week before last for Grandparents' Day, his teacher had said Bubba needed more practice cutting with scissors and with coloring. Well, since I'm "into art" that's right in my line. So, in addition, I'd bought a new box of crayons (new ones are always better than old) and new watercolor markers, plus an art workbook that had lots of colored pages with lines, squares, circles, triangles, etc. for him to cut and paste.

The twins, not to be left out on anything, were put in their chairs and pushed up to the big dining room table. They were given coloring books and crayons and were instantly into their art projects. Amazing that  at only 19 month olds they were very intense about coloring. Our art time went on for a full two hours. Whoever said little ones only have a three minute attention span? These three have a longer attention span than me when it comes to art.

Well, halfway through our art projects, Baby1 (they both still call each other Baby) switched from her chair to my lap, which put us between Bubba and Baby2 at the dining table. Bubba would cut out a colored shape and hand it to Baby1. I'd say the word for that color and Baby1 would smile and repeat the word. Then she'd hand the colored piece of paper to Baby2 and I'd say the color and she would repeat the word. When we got to yellow, both girls beamed and sang out, "Yellow, yellow, yellow." They did the same with blue. "Blue, blue, blue," they repeated in their little sing-song voices. I pointed out to Baby2 that the blue circle matched her blue t-shirt. You could see the wheels turning in her brain and then she reached into the crayon box and picked out a bright yellow crayon. She handed the crayon to me and said, "Yellow," with a big smile on her face.

I was bowled over. Not only were the twins repeating the words for the colors, but they understood the concept of color. And at only 19 months old? So the color game went on and on. Green and purple were a big hit too and the girls continued to sing out their colors. Funny thing, when I said, "white," they just looked at me with annoyance. Apparently white held no interest for them? I tried to get them to say the word "pink" but maybe that color was too ordinary? Their bedroom is in pinks, so that's a color they see all the time. So maybe they didn't care to put a name to it?

Bubba, at almost 4 1/2, was more interested in the variation of colors. He grouped the shades of blue together, the oranges and reds, the yellows and golds. Though he's learning his letters, he can't read yet. So he wanted me to read the name of the colors on the side of each crayon. Though he knows all his colors, he added "coral," "lavender" and other new word colors to his vocabulary. Anyway, the four of us had a grand afternoon doing art and learning colors.

I Love "Dancing with the Stars!"

I have to admit that I love "Dancing with the Stars!" I'm one of those people who picks up the phone and votes. Only I didn't vote last night. There's something extra sad about being the 1st star voted off. So I just can't bring myself to vote the first night.

I happen to also be a long time football fan. So "Monday Night Football" is something I don't want to miss. So I ask, whoever made the decision to play the two opposite each other? Last night I had to flip back and forth  between the two channels each time there was a commercial break. I know, I could get a DVR and record one or the other. But I'm stubborn about new fangled things and am not yet ready to get one. I must confess, I'm not a techie type and still haven't mastered my DVD player, so I'm sure I'd mess up trying to use a DVR.

Anyway, it's great that tonight they replayed the dancing from last  night's "Dancing with the Stars." Maybe that's for us football fans? Anyway, I enjoyed watching every single dance, even Margaret Cho's comedic dance routine and David Hassellhoff hamming it up. Michael Bolton seemed out of his element, but I imagine he has the potential of becoming a good dancer.

I thought Florence Henderson did a great job and I should look so good at her age. She still has great legs! I thought Bristol Palin was adorable and sexy. Once again, I loved those gorgeous legs. I've been a football fan of Kurt Warner, so I had to cheer him on as he did his first dance. I think he did a pretty good job for a quarterback turned ballroom dancer. Brandy looked great! Hey, we've watched her growing up on the TV, and now she's a beautiful young lady and I'm sure will be a wonderful dancer.

Jennifer Grey was just exquisite on the dance floor! I imagine she's going to be my favorite throughout the season. I didn't know the other few, but still enjoyed watching them dance. Anyway, I know I'm going to enjoy watching this season's "Dancing with the Stars."

I wasn't surprised that David Hasselhoff was the first to be voted off. As my grandson would say, he didn't have "dancing feet." On the other hand, I remember meeting David Hasselhoff in Las Vegas many years ago at the opening of the "New York, New York" casino. He had such boyish charm then. So the same charm is still there, just a bit aged.

I definitely enjoy the musicians who appear on the second night. I'm a long time fan of "Santana" and enjoy "Daughtry" too. So it was great seeing and hearing them perform together. I loved their combined sound!

Well, I'm already looking forward to next week's "Dancing with the Stars" and "Monday Night Football." So maybe I'll have to get that DVR?

Barefoot and Autumn Leaves

The autumn leaves have started falling right on cue. For now it's just a handful of leaves gently floating to the grass. In no time it will be tons of leaves. You see, we have a yard full of oak trees: giant Naval Oaks, probably well over a hundred years old, and numerous White Oaks and Scrub Oaks. Though they generally drop most of their leaves the end of winter, they start dropping some of their leaves now. Then there's the next door neighbors' huge Tulip Poplar that drops most of its leaves into our backyard rather than into their pool. I think they've trained the tree to do that. However, since I love fallen leaves, I really don't mind.

To this day, I love walking barefoot in a pile of fallen leaves. I love the crunching sound under foot. And it always brings back fun childhood memories of collecting fall leaves on the way home from school and bringing home handfuls, which my mom probably threw out once I went to sleep. Also, as kids, we used to love to run and jump into a great big pile of leaves and scatter them every which way.

Even my grandson loves fallen leaves. He told me just the other, "You know, Nana, I love falling leaves." In his four short years he's already developed a love for piles of fallen leaves. He loves crunching them underfoot. It's one of his happy memories from visiting Nana and Grandpa's house. Though we don't live all that far apart, we live in a neighborhood with big old trees. As he tells his friends, "my Nana lives in the woods," and our grandson lives in a new neighborhood with only a few small trees.

I'm looking forward to introducing our twin granddaughters to the joys of playing in fallen leaves. At 19 months old, they've yet to have that experience. So this will be their first year of stomping through those crunchy leaves. Thankfully, the grandkids have inherited from their mom, who inherited from me, who inherited from my own mom, the love of being barefoot and of walking barefoot through the autumn leaves.

My "Problems with Kindle" and with my Back

At this point I want to give a quick update on the status of my problems with Kindle. Emails are now going back and forth between me and Kindle Support. They've now made it perfectly clear that their policy is to replace a defective Kindle with a refurbished one. However, they said they are making "a one-time exception" and they will now replace my defective Kindle with a new one.

However, there's always a catch, always a complication. I had to order the new Kindle and it will be charged to my credit card. Then, when the new Kindle is delivered and the defective Kindle and the refurbished Kindle are returned to Amazon/Kindle, they will then credit my credit card for the cost of the new Kindle. That sounds very frustrating and stressful to me, but I'm going that route.

The new Kindle is supposed to be delivered in a few days. I'm sending the defective Kindle and the refurbished Kindle back to them. Then we'll see if I get credited as they claim. If I had disposable income so I could just blow off $259 then this would be no big deal. But since my husband is retired and on a fixed income and I'm disabled (but not qualified to receive any disability benefits) and not able to work, we are on a very tight budget. Such is the economic status of so many people in this currently depressed economy.

I'm not complaining here about my disability. I consider myself fortunate to have reached the age of 58 and still pretty much have my health and I'm still able to walk. My disability is a degenerative back condition, which includes chronic spinal fractures, herniated and bulging disks, and permanent nerve damage.

On top of that, I have osteoarthritis in my spine, hips, knees, hands, basically all my joints. So that means constant pain, 24/7, which is somewhat manageable with pain pills and anti-inflammatory pills. The pain never goes away. Sometimes it's less and sometimes a whole lot more, kind of like having a toothache, only the ache and burn is everywhere, and on occasion it still affects the sciatic nerve in spite of having had the surgery to relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve.

I did have back surgery in 2004 on L4 and L5 for herniated disks and to relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve. I was working at the time and luckily had medical insurance that paid for most of the $25,000 surgery. Before the surgery I could barely walk. After the surgery my ability to walk has greatly improved. I no longer have to drag my left leg. I can't walk long distances, mostly just around the block. If I decide to push it and walk around the mall a bit, or take a short walk on the beach, then I pay for it afterwards with a big increase in the level of pain. Even sitting upright in a chair with my feet on the floor is very painful.

I spend most of my time with my feet elevated, either on the couch or in my recliner. In addition, I have to be careful what I lift, which includes my grandkids. I also have to live with a continuous burning pain down my legs and into my feet and toes.  It's amazing what you can learn to live with when the need arises.

Mind you, I was always active and very athletic in my younger years. I played baseball and football with the boys, also played tennis, water-skied, snow-skied, hiked, back-packed, roller-skated, ice-skated, surfed, swam. It wasn't until 2002 that I suddenly started experiencing all kinds of pain and was finally diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

For the next two years, as the pain increased and my ability to walk decreased, I was just told that it was my arthritis "flaring up." I finally had to force my doctor to allow me to have an MRI and that's when I found out my true medical condition. Needless to say, it was a shock. I don't know of any family members with my same condition, so not sure who I inherited it from. My doctors say it's inherited and not caused by my former active lifestyle.

I've been told that I will eventually end up in a wheelchair. So some days I look longingly at those sporty motorized chairs. I envision myself down the line racing around in a fire-engine-red motorized chair. Hey, you have to look at the lighter side of things like this. I've been reminded enough times by my Mom that "God doesn't give you any more than you can handle." So apparently I can handle a lot?

I want to clarify the "not eligible for disability" thing here. Though I worked for over 33 years of my life, Social Security says I don't have the correct number of work credits in the right time period to qualify for Social Security Disability. In the years they're counting, I have 19 of the 20 required credits. All my other work credits don't count as they're too old. You see, I pretty much haven't been able to work since my back surgery. So then you ask, what about SSI? Nope, Social Security says I don't qualify for that because my husband's income "exceeds the income limit for SSI." Huh? Believe me, our income is very very low, but apparently not low enough.

There's also another complication in all this. I can't get real medical insurance because of my "prior medical conditions" which means my back, spine, nerve damage, anything to do with bones, joints, nerves and arthritis. So all I've been able to obtain is Major Medical Coverage,  Hospitalization only,  with a monthly premium of $180 and $1,000 deductible, only pays 80% of approved costs, and it doesn't cover any of the excluded medical conditions. Also, there's a clause that allows the insurance company to cancel my insurance at any time with no notice, even at the time I try to use that insurance.

So really, I'm paying for coverage that I don't really have, because if I ever try to use it, most likely the insurance company will cancel my policy on the spot. I don't have the money for another surgery when the time comes, so surgery just won't be an option. Anyway, I guess this makes me one of the $50.6 million Americans who don't have medical insurance and most likely won't until I turn 65 and get Medicare, assuming we still have Medicare by then.

I know my husband and I are not unique in all this. So many of us "Baby  Boomers" are caught in this situation. Retired, just enough money to get by, but nothing extra. No real medical coverage for me and being disabled I can't work and even if I was willing to put up with the increased pain, no one would hire someone with my medical problems. Not to mention there's no jobs available, because the economy is currently in a big slump.

My husband, being 65, finally has Medicare, so we're covered in that respect. He's even taken on a part-time job to try to offset the rapidly rising costs of food, insurance, utilities, repairs. We've gone so far as to cancel our home phone service with AT&T and replace it with Magic Jack at $19.95/yr. Magic Jack works some of the time and some of the time it doesn't, but the cost makes up for the inconvenience. Such is the way we "Baby Boomers" have to live nowadays. But I'll save more of that rant for another day.

That said, since I got my Kindle and started using it on July 1st of this year, I've really enjoyed having it. I have lots of time on my hands and reading is one of my greatest pleasures. The Kindle is convenient, light-weight and easy to hold in my arthritic hands. For this reason I was looking forward to getting it and greatly disappointed when it started malfunctioning.  I'm hoping that this issue with Amazon and Kindle will finally get resolved to my satisfaction, meaning a new Kindle that works. So I'll keep you all updated on how this goes down.

On the other hand, if you want a Kindle and can afford the expense, then go for it. The Kindle is great when it works and not great when it doesn't work. I'm not pleased with the Kindle warranty policy of replacing a new/defective product with a used/refurbished product. I wouldn't have bought my Kindle in the first place if I'd realized that.

I've never heard of that kind of warranty policy before, not with any electronic device I've ever purchased, from a TV, camera, DVD, washer, dryer, refrigerator, or even a computer. In most cases, a new product works like it's supposed to work. But that's why you buy an extended warranty, "just in case." Only with Kindle, the warranty, extended or otherwise, means a used/refurbished product as a replacement. By the way, I suggested they just take back my defective Kindle and refund my money, but I was told that Kindle doesn't do that. So I still continue to say, buyer beware.

ALERT TO ANYONE THINKING ABOUT BUYING A KINDLE

This is an ALERT to anyone thinking about buying a KINDLE. DO NOT BUY ONE! They're great while they work, but when they stop working you're up a creek, even if you have the extended warranty on it. Mine went nuts yesterday and is no longer functioning. So after about an hour on the phone with Amazon and Kindle Support last night, they agreed to send me a new one.

I got the "new" Kindle today. Only guess what?  It's a REFURBISHED Kindle, not a new one. And this one doesn't work at all. So tonight, after another hour on the phone with Amazon and Kindle Support I've been told that the "fine print" on the warranty is that they only send a REFURBISHED Kindle as a replacement and it's not their fault if the REFURBISHED KINDLE doesn't work. They'll just keep sending me REFURBISHED KINDLES until I get one that does work. I said I bought and paid for a NEW KINDLE and that they can either give me my money back or send me a NEW KINDLE that works. They said they can't do that.

Now I paid $189 plus $69 for a two year warranty, and I'm supposed to receive a used, REFURBISHED product and hope that I'll eventually get one that works? Think about it. If it had to be REFURBISHED, then it didn't work in the first place. So why would it work in the 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th or 5th time around? Obviously there's something wrong with their product.

Well, after all the phone calls I was told there's NOTHING they can do for me and I can send the Kindles back, but they WON'T BE REFUNDING ANY OF MY MONEY. That's $258 that I just lost down the drain. What they told me is that it's not their fault that I didn't read the "fine print" before I bought my Kindle.

By the way, the "refurbished" Kindle they sent me not only doesn't work, it looks used and worn out. Why, when I bought a new product would I be satisfied with a used product as a replacement? Also, I read all of the Kindle ad before I ordered mine, including the "fine print" that was in that particular ad. Nowhere did they say they'd replace a "defective" Kindle with a "refurbished" Kindle. What they said was, they'd "replace" a "defective" Kindle. I would never in my wildest imaginings think that meant with a used, "refurbished" product.

So BUYER BEWARE! DO NOT BUY A KINDLE! If you already have one, I hope yours keeps working, because if it doesn't, you're just out of luck!

Rainbows



A Rainbow photo taken by my Dad

Rainbows have always held a special place in my heart. Some of my earliest memories are of my Dad taking me outside to look at a rainbow. Sometimes it was only the faintest bit of color in the sky. Sometimes only a half rainbow. And sometimes a great big double rainbow. I always held those special moments with great awe at the beauties of the world around me. I couldn't imagine anything more beautiful than a rainbow.

When my Dad passed away from cancer many years ago, one of the few things he left me was an assortment of photographs he'd taken through the years. Most of the photos were of his myriad of hunting and fishing trips. I'm really not into hunting and fishing. I don't believe in killing those gorgeous creatures put on our earth. But my Dad grew up in a time when hunting and fishing was something most guys did. And he didn't do it just for the trophy. I grew up eating all those fish and that venison. I was raised on what my father, the hunter/fisherman, brought home to the family. I look back and think my Dad must have been a throw-back to frontier times, or older yet, to his Danish Viking roots. 

Though I didn't inherit my Dad's desire to hunt and fish, I did inherit his love of beauty, a love of nature in it's purest form. So, from my Dad, I inherited a love of rainbows. The rainbow photo in this post is one of the ones my Dad left to me. I think it was taken of June Lake, which was one of his favorite spots, but I can't be sure. When I look at the photo I think of my Dad and it brings back those early days when he and I gazed at  those awesome rainbows in the sky.

Horse Tails - Part 1



Me at Riata Ranch

I've been in love with horses for as long as I can remember, which is a really long time. From a very young age, I watched every movie about horses over and over  again:  "Flicka," "Black Beauty," "National Velvet," you name it. I also read every book I could get my hands on about horses and ponies, which means I read every one of the books by Marguerite Henry, with Misty of Chincoteague being my all time favorite. I used to fall asleep dreaming about Chincoteague Ponies and begged my parents to take me there to get one of the ponies. That never happened, but at least I tried.

Then I read about wild Mustangs and I spent all my time day-dreaming about a Mustang coming out of the hills and into my backyard. I could envision a beautiful stallion jumping the five foot tall redwood fence in our backyard, yeah right, and coming to find me. That dream stayed with me for years.

The Los Angeles County Fair, in Pomona, CA, was my favorite place to go when I was a kid. Even better than Disney Land where I went on many of my birthdays. Anyway, my parents would escort me to the Livestock area of the fairgrounds and there I would be for hours on end. I'd pet and sweet-talk every single horse, from the huge Clydesdales to the golden Palominos (my favorites at the fair) and all the other horses and ponies. My parents never had to worry that I'd wander off. Just look for the horses and there I'd be.

My first memory of actually riding a horse, I was seven years old. We were on vacation at Uncle Buell's ranch outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. Buell was actually my Mom's cousin, but everyone referred to him as Uncle Buell. Anyway, "Dolly" was an old gentle mare and she didn't mind having both me and my little brother riding on her back at the same time. I only got to ride "Dolly" at a walk, but that was good enough at the time. I was in love with that beautiful mare and never wanted to leave the ranch.

Eventually, my parents gave in and sent me to summer camp at Riata Ranch in Bass Lake, CA. I was 12 years old the first time I went and stayed for a whole month. Riata Ranch was all about horses. It was owned and run by Tom and Vicki Myers. As a young man, Tom had been the stunt rider for Elizabeth Taylor in "National Velvet." For one whole month I lived in Levis, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. I rode horses all morning long and then learned to groom and care for them after.

I learned to ride both English and Western and even learned cross-country riding and rudimentary jumping, both in the arena and on the trail. I also learned some trick riding and could do a running mount, a scissors kick to reverse in the saddle and ride backwards, how to ride standing up and could even do a back-roll dismount. I'm amazed when I think back on all that. As a parent I would have been horrified to see my child doing all those things. But remember, my parents were not at the camp with me, so I could try all kinds of cool stuff. Needless to say, I never wanted to leave Riata Ranch.


"Gunsmoke" and a Pinto at Riata Ranch

When it came time to leave, gee, I had to go home and back to school, I begged my parents to buy me one of the ranch horses. Tom trained all those two and three year old Quarterhorses himself and often sold them to the kids' families at the end of the summer camp season. I'd fallen in love with a big buckskin gelding named "Gunsmoke." I was just sure I had to take him home with me. My parents pointed out that we had nowhere to put a horse and so I didn't get to bring "Gunsmoke" home. I hadn't yet figured out that a horse could be boarded out and my parents weren't about to mention that possibility. Hmm!


Another of the Riata Ranch Horses

At the ranch we often rotated the horses we rode. However, "Gunsmoke" was bigger and some of the other kids preferred not to ride him. He also had a bad habit of bucking off any kid he didn't particularly like. But "Gunsmoke" and I were buddies, so I always volunteered to be the one to ride him. He and I clocked a lot of hours together in the arena and out riding trail, where we'd jump over brush and logs. "Gunsmmoke" was so gentle with me, that I actually remember one extra hot day when I lay on his back and took a short nap.

The following summer I only spent two weeks at the ranch. Much to my dismay, "Gunsmoke" was no longer there. Someone else had bought him at the end of the previous summer. So for those two weeks I took turns riding different horses. They were all great fun to ride, but none of them ever compared to "Gunsmoke." 

Now the Shetland Ponies at Riata Ranch were another matter. They had a string of Shetlands, which they used to give pony rides to little kids. Sometimes some of my fellow campers and I would take the ponies out in the afternoons and go trail riding down to the lake and then take the ponies in the water for a swim. We rode those ponies bareback, and let me tell you, a couple of those guys were mean as all get out. You'd be riding full speed, which isn't all that fast on a Shetland, and then come to a trickle of a stream and the pony would throw you right over his head.

It never made sense to me that those ponies would swim in the lake, but had an aversion to a tiny bit of water. Go figure. Anyway, one time, when I rode one of the mean little geldings, I got thrown so many times that I got off and led him all the way back. I swear he had a very satisfied grin on his face. Needless to say, I never again rode a Shetland Pony.

I had no problem riding a Quarterhorse bareback. During all my camp days, I was never thrown from a horse. I had no problem sticking to the saddle or bareback. I was probably more comfortable on a horse than walking. So I always considered it such a shame that I didn't have a horse of my own. For that reason, I kept my dream of someday getting a Mustang. I was sure there was one out there somewhere waiting for me. (Read more in Part 2.)

Please Note - Somewhere there's an old photo of my brother and I riding "Dolly." For some reason, no photos were ever taken of me riding a horse or pony at Riata Ranch. In the only photo of  "Gunsmoke," I didn't get his head in the picture. I was just learning how to take photos back then and wasn't very good at it. Thankfully, I eventually got better with a camera.

A Story About Dogs - Part 4



Shani

Shani was a 30 pound, 5 month old "pound puppy" the day I brought her home. Our other two dogs, Maggie and Nikki, adopted her immediately. Maggie became her new Mama Dog and spent hours every day training Shani in everything a good dog needed to know. Nikki took on the role of buddy and rarely left Shani's side.

 
Shani entered the household as a big happy puppy. She played non-stop and would run circles around our pool. She and the other dogs would go swimming, but only if I went in with them. On the other hand, on scorching hot Vegas summer days, all three dogs would wade on the pool steps.

Not long after we got Shani, we put our tract house up for sale. It sold pretty fast in the then booming Vegas market, and  we moved to a hillside house at the edge of the desert. It was a custom house in an all-custom neighborhood with a view of the Las Vegas lights. Our dogs adapted immediately and quickly claimed the pool and attached hot-tub as theirs. The back of our lot sloped up in a berm, which enabled the dogs to look over the walls into the neighbor's yards on either side. Thank goodness both neighbors were dog people and didn't mind being watched by our dogs.

 

Shani learned right away how to jump up and grab the top of the wall and could hoist herself up the rest of the way so she'd be hanging over the top. The neighbors behind our house in the tract neighborhood had not liked Shani doing this, which is one reason why we'd decided to move. But in our new neighborhood, these neighbors didn't mind a bit.

 
One day, when my husband and I were sitting on the patio, Nikki decided to climb the wall, something we didn't know she could do. Before we could stop her, Nik went over the wall into the neighbor's backyard. I had an instant moment of heart failure, because that neighbor, who had a big red Vizsla, happened to be dog-sitting that day, and he also had a big Samoyed and an even bigger Rottweiler in his backyard. Nik was about half the size of those three dogs, so I didn't expect her to survive if those dogs turned on her, not to mention the long drop she had to make into the neighbor's yard.

 

I contemplated climbing over the wall myself and then decided against that tactic. As much as I loved Nik, I didn't want to be dog food. So I ran around to the neighbor's front door and explained the situation. We went together into his backyard only to find Nik with the other three dogs and all had their tails wagging. Whew! That was a close call. After that, we mounted some planter boxes on the top of the wall, right where Nik had gone over, and she never did that again. Shani continued to hang on the wall and to look over, but she never did jump down into the neighbor's yard. Maggie, being the tallest of our three dogs, could stand on her tip-toes and look over the wall. Maggie never  had the urge to climb a wall. Thank goodness!

We lived in that cream-colored stucco, Spanish style house with the tiled roof, for the next couple years. By that time we found out that our daughter was pregnant with our first grandchild. That's when I decided it was time to move back to the south, because I wanted to be within at least driving distance of the grandbaby. In short order I had my husband convinced it was time for him to retire, which he could do since he'd recently turned 60.

I was all for moving back to Florida, to the little old bayou house we'd turned into a rental property when we moved away from Florida 11 years before. But we had long-term tenants in the house and we didn't look forward to having to renovate the inside of the house when they did move out. However, for some reason, we decided that we wanted to retire on an island, so we moved to Saint Simons Island on the Georgia coast. That would put us a day's drive away from our soon-to-be-born grandbaby. At least an improvement over having to fly from Las Vegas to Florida.



Now moving across country with three good-sized dogs is quite an experience. In all the years we'd lived in Vegas, we'd never traveled with the dogs. I had a girlfriend who would "dog and house sit" whenever we went away on vacation, so our dogs had never had the opportunity to travel. We started out with some day trips to Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire National Park. Maggie took to the traveling right away and would ride standing up, "surfing," in the back of the Jeep Cherokee. Shani would pant non-stop, while Nik would just fall asleep. Anyway, our day trips were a success, so we decided the dogs were ready for the big move.


We'd already purchased our house on St. Simons Island, so all we had to do was get the U-Haul loaded up, with help, and head out across the 2,000+ miles. My husband drove the U-Haul and pulled the Camero behind on a trailer, while I drove the Cherokee with the back seat folded down and padded with comforters for the three dogs. We took the Interstate-20 route and stopped somewhere in Arizona that first night. The dogs had their first night in a motel, a Best Western if I remember correctly, and they acted like three little kids jumping from bed to bed.

Me with Shani, Maggie and Nikki

It took us four days to drive across country and much of those miles were a blur. We made numerous pit-stops for the dogs and to stretch our legs. I do remember that we never had a problem finding a motel that would let us stay with three dogs. They were well behaved, rarely barked, and never left a mess in or out of the motels. So for anyone contemplating a cross-country move with their dogs, big or small, it's not all that hard. The only hard part is all those monotonous miles of driving. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of beautiful scenery too, but after a while it all gets mixed together. The dogs, on the other hand, thought they were on a grand adventure.

 We arrived on Saint Simons Island exhausted and relieved that the move had gone so well. The U-Haul office sent two guys over to help us unload the 24 ft. moving van. It's a good thing we had help, at the cost of $100 for the two helpers, as I'd had back surgery the year before and couldn't lift much of anything. Thinking back on it, I'm amazed I'd even been able to make that long drive. But I guess you just do what you have to do when you have to do it. Besides, I had a great motivator, a new grandbaby on the way.



Maggie, Nikki and Shani were elated with our new house, a two story beach cottage style, with covered front porches upstairs and down. They particularly liked that the French door from the master bedroom opened onto the upstairs covered porch, which became their favorite place to hang out. Their other favorite place was the dog beach where they could run off-leash, play in the surf and chase seagulls. (Read more in Part 5.)

"My Nana lives in the Woods"

"My Nana lives in the woods." Those were my grandson's words when he introduced me to his PreK4 school friends on Grandparents' Day on Friday. His best friend added, "Do you really live in the woods?" Hey, what could I say? Apparently four year olds think it's cool to have a Nana/Grandma who lives in the woods. "Yes," I said.

Now I don't really live in the woods. I live near the tip of a long wooded peninsula that juts into Pensacola Bay on the Florida Panhandle. So I guess you could call it living in the woods. Just down the road is the Naval Live Oaks National Park, and since my yard has two of those ancient old Naval Live Oaks, plus bunches of other old oaks, then I'm sort of living in the woods. My grandson, you see, lives in a "new" three-years-old neighborhood of big modern brick houses on a circular street with very few trees. So in comparison, our house, built in 1971, is surrounded with huge trees, an assortment of ferns and palms, azaleas, gardenias, camellias, plus wisteria, jasmine and other flowering vines. So our brick house does sort of look like it's in the woods.

My grandson loves all the greenery and, when he does come to our house for a visit, he spends all of his time in our backyard looking at the trees, flowers, butterflies and birds. We move the patio table and a couple chairs into the shade of two tall White Oaks. My grandson asks me the names of the different birds: Cardinals, Doves, Robins, Sparrows, Wrens, Finches, Blue Jays, Mockingbirds, Hawks and an occasional Great Blue Heron who flies overhead now and then. He listens to the birds' melodious songs and "sings" the songs back to them. He loves when the birds respond. He also loves the hawks best because they swoop down out of the trees and chase the other birds.

Anyway, I was a hit on Grandparents' Day. In fact, several of the four year olds asked if I would be their Nana too. So, of course, I agreed. I could be a Nana to all of them. Their teacher asked if I would consider volunteering from time to time, helping with art projects, because Bubba's other Nanny/Grandma told the teacher that I like to do art. So I agreed to volunteer now and then, and Nanny did too.

On Saturday I spent all day with the grandkids at their house. The twins were little whirlwinds. I can't believe how much energy two 18 1/2 month olds can generate. Bubba refers to the girls as "wild babies." And they are definitely wild. They understand "No, no, no!" But does that stop them? No way! They smile sweetly and continue on with whatever they were doing. So you have to follow up the "No" by taking away whatever it was that they weren't supposed to put into their mouths, or bodily removing them from whatever you told them not to do. Because "No, don't do that" or "No, get down from there" doesn't stop them. These two are climbers and they scramble over the wooden arms of the futon couch in the playroom or climb to the back of the leather living room couch. They definitely inherited this climbing trait from their Mama.

On Saturday my grandson continued the green thing. He said, "Nana, you know how green is my favorite color?" I nodded, "Yes, darlin', I know." Then he asked, "So what I want to know is, what makes the grass green?" Oh, no, a science question! I explained something about how the sun and chlorophyll make the grass green. He repeated this newest word, "chlorophyll," and said he liked that. Then he asked, "Is that why the tops of the trees are green?" I assured him that's why all the trees and plants were green. Maybe this little guy, with all the questions, is going to be a botanist some day?

Bubba's next question was, "Nana, why do I have freckles on my nose?" I gave him the answer my Mom always gave me, "That's from the sun kissing you on your nose." That cracked him up. "Nana," he pointed out, "the sun doesn't have lips." I assured him the sun didn't need lips to kiss him. So then he said, "So why doesn't the sun kiss the babies?" I told him the sun usually waits until the babies turn into toddlers. He was satisfied with that answer. He hasn't yet commented on all my freckles, but I remember these same freckle questions when his Mama was about the same age. I also remember one day when my daughter was trailing her finger along my arm and out of curiosity I asked her what she was doing. "I'm connecting the dots," she said. So I'm wondering when the grandkids will decide "to connect the dots." Aren't freckles fun?

Anyway, as the day progressed, I fielded more of Bubba's numerous questions. "Nana, do your dogs drink out of the toilet?" Now where did that one come from? "No," I said, "I don't let them do that." It turns out one of Bubba's school friends has a dog who drinks out of the toilet and he thought that was pretty funny. He wanted to know if the dogs he had when he was a baby drank out of the toilet. "Nope." I explained they were Yorkies and too small to reach the toilet. Those Yorkies, by the way, found new homes when the twins came on the scene, because it was just too hard for them to have a household of three babies and four Yorkies. But all the Yorkies found good homes, one of them with Nanny and another with an Auntie and the other two to friends, so that worked out okay. 

Anyway, Bubba had a lot more to say on Saturday. He was acting silly and making the twins laugh and giggle. Then he turned to his Mama and asked, "What do you think?" And she said, "I think you're a silly boy." So Bubba pondered that and announced, "Well, since God made all of us, I guess he made me a silly boy." What can you say to that?

I came back home late Saturday afternoon with lots of questions of my own. What makes little kids ask such profound questions at such a young age? And why do little kids have so much energy? I was exhausted and went to sleep early that night and wondering what questions I'll be asked next.

My Summer Reads

Since this has been an extra hot, high humidity summer, I've spent a lot of time indoors reading. Of course, I'm also a night owl so I always stay up late and read. Soooo ... I've read a fair number of books this summer and, I must say, quite a variety.

June was primarily a Janet Evanovich month, a month to catch up on Stephanie Plum's adventures in Plum Lovin', Fearless Fourteen and Plum Spooky. I figured her books were a great way to start the summer off right. I also started catching up on my Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series by reading Flashback. Of course, I enjoyed every one of these books. Since June provided a few days with a cool ocean breeze I could also sit on our trellised patio to read.

On July 1st I got my Kindle as an early birthday present, as my birthday is actually later in the month. A lot of classic lit is free on Kindle, so I "bought" bunches of old classics that month and started reading: Alexander Dumas' The Black Tulip, Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, Willa Cather's My Antonia and The Song of the Lark. In paperback I read: Nevada Barr's High Country and Hard Truth, and ended the month with Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes. Obviously July was a very hot month as I read a lot of books.

August was an even hotter month, but I didn't read quite as much. This was an all Kindle month. I started with James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers, which is the 1st of the five "Leatherstocking Tales" which I never had gotten around to reading (I'd only read the 2nd, The Last of the Mohicans, way back when). I followed that up with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: a Novel, which I had read many years ago when it first came out. The cost was only a few dollars on Kindle. Then I read Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and The Reef. I finished up August with Robert Louis Stevenson's essays: Across the Plains. What a wonderful assortment of reads.

We're only halfway into September and summer will be officially over in another week. On my Kindle I've read Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth and just last night finished her classic, The Age of Innocence. Obviously I'm on an Edith Wharton kick. In the meantime, I've dug into my TBR shelves and am re-reading James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Jane Austin's Mansfield Park. I'll probably finish up the summer with Edith Wharton's appropriately titled book, Summer. I have to admit I've had a rally enjoyable summer reading lots of great books.

***ALERT -- DO NOT BUY A KINDLE! PLEASE READ MY POST DATED 9/18/10 REGARDING THE PROBLEMS WITH KINDLES. Note - a Kindle is fun while it works, but when it stops working, you're out a lot of money. So please read my ALERT before you consider buying a Kindle.

Books, Books and More Books - Part 2

My TBR Bookshelf

Last night my Mom asked me what I was going to write about next. That was an easy question. Books. I've been chomping at the bit to get back to "Books, Books and More Books." So here goes.

This particular bookshelf is in the guest bedroom. It used to be filled with paperbacks of historical and contemporary fiction. But those got moved to another place and classics and history books pretty much took over. Every Christmas and birthday I order some books from Amazon.com as a present to myself. That way I know I always get something I really really want. So my last couple gifts to myself have been Wordsworth Classics (those are the books with blue covers) and some history books that caught my eye.

Though the classics can be purchased in a variety of editions, Penguin Classics, Barnes and Noble Classics, Oxford Classics, Dover Classics Bantam Classics, Signet Classics and Kindle Classics. I recently took a liking for the Wordsworth Classics. Though I have to admit I have a fair number of Penguin, Oxford, Bantam and Signet Classics too. Hey, remember, I love books? I buy what I can find. Sometimes from Amazon, and other times from local bookstores. In Pensacola we have Books-a-Million, B. Dalton and Barnes and Noble. I frequent them all. Pretty much nothing compares to holding a brand new book in my hands. Although I have to admit that now that I own a Kindle, it's really cool reading classics on my Kindle too and I've downloaded lots of them, many of which are freebies. Anyway ...

Now back to this particular bookshelf. These are all TBR (to be read) books. Old favorites I read years ago, usually back in my college days, and want to re-read, or classics I never got a chance to read. There's also non-fiction, autobiographies and history books that I've stumbled across from time to time. I probably have a lifetime's worth of reading on that one bookshelf, as the shelves are packed two rows deep with more books cross-wise on the top. I worry that if a hurricane comes along I'll have to evacuate with all my books.

This wicker bookshelf has moved back and forth across the country, first with my Mom and then with me. So it's been in California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Texas and back to Florida, just to name a few locales. On our last move, from the Texas Hill Country back to the Florida Panhandle, I think I counted 27 boxes of books. I have to add that my husband was more than willing to buy me a Kindle for my last birthday in hopes that I don't add any more boxes of books to any impending moves. Though I think we're pretty much settled here near the grandkids, so my husband probably won't have to lug any more of those boxes of books. Besides, the paperbacks aren't all that heavy, It's the art books that are the heavy ones. Anyway, as I was saying ...

This particular bookshelf has old favorites I'm anxious to re-read, like Mary Stewart's The Moonspinners and Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet": Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea. There's also Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War and Peace; D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, Women in Love and Sons and Lovers; Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities; E. M. Forster's A Passage to India; Jessamyn West's The Friendly Persuasion; Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica; and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

As for books I haven't yet read, but have always wanted to, there are many on this shelf: Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice; George Elliot's Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda; Charlotte Bronte's Villette and Shirley; Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, Under the Greenwood Tree and others of his I somehow missed through the years. Also, there's D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow; Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe; and Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask. So I've got a lot of reading to do.

As for the non-fiction/autobiography/history books I've got quite an assortment: Queen Victoria's Little Wars by Byron Farwell;  Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell; Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott; The Pirate Queen by Susan Ronald; The Oxford History of the French Revolution, 2nd Ed. by William Doyle; The Valley of the Assassins and A Winter in Arabia by Freya Stark; Savage Kingdom by Benjamin Woolley; 1453 by Roger Crowley; The Blue Nile and The White Nile by Alan Moorehead; The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk; and Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone. I could go on and on.

Some contemporary paperbacks I recently bought made their way to the TBR bookshelf: Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin' Fifteen (I've read all the way through 14 & the "Between the Numbers" books too), Mary Alice Monroe's Swimming Lessons (I love her books); Daniel Silva's The Defector (this is a great series of espionage/international intrigue), and Bernard Cornwell and  Susan Kells' The Fallen Angels (a sequel to A Crowning Mercy, which was great). Anyway, I'm nothing if not eclectic in my reading. I just plain love books. I'm hoping that you do too and that some of these gems will be added to your TBR bookshelves too.

A Dog Named Gnarly

My Auntie B's dog, Gnarly, passed on to doggie heaven today. He was one of those special dogs, a Pitt mix, who wandered into their lives sixteen years ago as a stray puppy and who decided to stay. Gnarly didn't have a clue what it meant to be a Pitt mix. There wasn't a mean bone in his body, just all doggie smiles and a tail that wagged his whole body. He lived with his family on seven acres of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.

No fences kept Gnarly from wandering. He knew the boundaries of his property and patrolled it faithfully. He'd long since learned to make friends with the deer, raccoons, squirrels and other critters that visited his acreage. He reigned supreme over the fish pond and made sure nothing ate those pretty orange-gold fish. From time to time he had to run off a stray skunk or a snake encroaching on his property, but all other visitors were welcome. The postman and UPS man knew, when delivering a package, to bring a dog biscuit for Gnarly.

When Gnarly first entered Auntie B's household, their cat, Goodyear, took the puppy under her tutelage as her "kitten" and taught him good cat manners. Which is probably why he had such a sweet temperament. Goodyear and Gnarly were together all those years until Goodyear passed on to cat heaven last year. Since that day Gnarly has mourned the loss of his "mama cat."

Through the years Gnarly helped Auntie B raise numerous grandkids and great-grandkids. He did a superb job teaching them to "sit" and "stay." He was also more than willing to share their food, particularly the treats. In later years Gnarly developed arthritis, which slowed him down some. Then he went blind from cataracts and in the last couple years was deaf. He never considered any of those afflictions a disability. He continued through life with a sweet doggie smile and plenty of doggie kisses. Gnarly will be dearly missed by Auntie B and Uncle R, and all the rest of his family and friends, including his two younger cats, Furball and Trouble.

You can visit Gnarly's beautiful home at Hazlwood.com where he lived for sixteen years and was the official greeter of all who came to visit.

My Mom, Jean Ruddell

My Mom is Jean Ruddell, that's her "nom de plume" of the moment. To me she's just Mom. Well, she happens to be one of the most interesting and adventurous people I know. I'm sure I got being a Dreamer from her. She's a story teller from way back. Where other kids were read Faerie Tales at bed time, my brother, JR, and I listened to colorful tales told by Mom, tales of when she was a child, or tales of colorful ancestors, because we have a lot of those.

Me as a 2 wk old preemie & Mom at 21

Anyway, after years and years of trying to get Mom to write down those stories so they can be passed down to the grandkids and great-grandkids, she's finally doing just that. The stories are every bit as wonderful as I remember them as a child. And the crazy thing is, those stories are true. It was like having Robert Louis Stevenson or O. Henry as my Mom, because her stories are every bit as good. So be sure to check out her blog "Journeys of a Lifetime" at jeanruddell.blogspot.com.

Now on to the adventurous part. My Mom lived all over the place, in the Philippines; Point Barrow, Alaska;, France; and Kuwait. At the age of 60, following the end of the first Gulf War, Mom moved to Kuwait for ten years and was a journalist for the Kuwait Arab Times. Talk about adventures! Not only did she live in cool, interesting places, she traveled so such locales as Japan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, I could go on and on. Though she moved back to the states nine years ago, when she retired at the age of 70, her stories are told as if they happened yesterday. I'll let Mom tell her own stories. So please be sure to visit her blog.

Two to Tangle

To continue my Sunday with the grandkids, I can't forget to mention the twins. At 18 1/2 months old, the girls are growing by leaps and bounds. Already, the baby fat is starting to slip away. So they're a little taller and a little thinner and no longer look like babies. They too love art. I spend much of my time with the girls drawing for them on their drawing boards. Baby1 will say, "Here, draw."  Baby2 will say "draw dog" or "draw car." Those are her favorites. I draw an assortment of things, dogs, cats, cars, houses, flowers, trees, birds, butterflies, an elephant. They repeat all the words except for butterfly and elephant. They'll save the harder words for later. The only new "big" word they learned on Sunday was "bubbles." And they danced around singing "bubbles, bubbles."

Now on to the "two to tangle" part of this story. It turns out the twins got in trouble at preschool earlier in the week. They got into a knock down, drag out, cat fight. Apparently both were kicking and scratching and each one ended up with a scratch, hence the "green slips" that were waiting for their parents when they came to pick them up at the end of the day.

In explanation, the twins are very competative with each other. If one has a treasured toy, the other pulls it away. Then the other pulls it back and that usually results with some shoving or maybe a kick or two. The tussel is pulled apart and a few words of "you need to learn to share" and "don't push or kick your sister." The response is always sweet little smiles and sparkling eyes. Yeah right, they'll pick up where they left off later. So this is a constant thing between the twins at home. After the tussel they end up patting each other on the head or hugging. The next thing you know the two have their heads together and they're working on the same puzzle or playing with their Little People or blocks together.

At school, the teacher says the girls are very nice to the other toddlers and never push or shove or kick anyone. They only fight with each other and only now and then. I imagine this sisterly competition will continue on through their school years and into adulthood. I have two aunts who are also identicle twins, and they say they're the best of friends, but still argue with each other to this day. Since I don't have a twin, I'm rather envious. I would really love to have a twin sister to argue with now and then.

A Colorful World

Bubba's 1st Watercolor Painting

I spent Sunday with the grandkids. Bubba, my grandson (the twins still call him Bubba), wanted me to see his latest artwork, three pieces on their refrigerator. This grouping was all crayon drawings. Bubba explained the first one is "A Colorful World," the next "The Letter U" and the third "A Colorful World Too." Bubba's vision of the world is definitely beautiful. He loves color, his favorite being the color green. But for this grouping he chose a variety of colors, except for the "U" drawing. That was a big letter "U" in a pale orange color.

At age four and in PreK4, Bubba is still working on the alphabet. He tells me, "Nana, I know almost all of my letters now." I'm sure he'll have the rest of them down in no time. He tells me that "U" is his current favorite letter. Bubba is also anxious to learn how to read, as he loves books and wants them read to him over and over again, just like his Mama did when she was little. When I read to him I'm supposed to point to all the words, so he can follow along. That's the way Bubba says I'm supposed to do it. He's a bossy little guy and things have to be done his way. Ah, another budding "Alpha Male" in the world. So I understand the rules. We have to do things his way. He'll learn to read, but only in his own time.

Well, back to Bubba's artwork. Since I'm an artist myself, or at least I like to think I am, then I'm elated that my grandson loves to draw and to paint. I remember last November when he wanted me to work on his school art project with him. He was to decorate a big "turkey feather." So we used markers, stickers, pipe-cleaners, feathers, etc. (all supplied by his Mama). His Mama helped out and used the glue gun on the feathers and pipe-cleaners for us. Anyway, Bubba was very proud of the end result. A few days later I was able to see his turkey feather, along with all the other turkey feathers done by his classmates, gracing a big wall art of a turkey in the school hallway which was festooned with turkeys from every classroom. Wow! What a cool concept. I never went to a school that did cool stuff like that.

On our refrigerator we have two earlier pieces of Bubba's artwork. One is the first watercolor he did with the paints I bought him last year. He did four watercolor paintings that first day. He was careful to paint just about every square inch of the paper and he had an interesting use of color. The other painting on our refrigerator was done sometime after Christmas, using a gel-paint set he'd received from Santa. The colors he used that time were more pastel. I'm going to have to get a bigger refrigerator, because I refuse to remove those two early works of art any time soon.

Beach Umbrellas

My beach umbrellas at Pensacola Beach

For some reason I love beach umbrellas. Maybe it's the bright, festive colors and the variety of designs? Maybe it goes back to my childhood? I don't remember having a beach umbrella when I was a kid, so maybe I always wanted one?

Currently I happen to be the proud owner of two colorful beach umbrellas. I had a third one last summer, but on a blustery beach day a gust of wind pulled it out of the sand and sent it somersaulting end over end down the beach. In no time at all it was out of sight. My umbrella was only one of several that were blown away that day.

On the sugar-white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle, beach umbrellas are a must, along with plenty of sunscreen and lots of cold drinks. I prefer icy bottled spring water, but alcohol is allowed on most of our beaches. Though glass bottles are not allowed. The white sand is so intense that it's easy to get sunburned from the reflected light. So you can get sunburned under your nose and chin, the backs of your knees, even behind your ears. When not swimming or picking up seashells, I'm sitting under an umbrella and usually reading a book. Though often I just sit and gaze at the water. That's probably the most peaceful moments in my life.

Growing up in southern California I never wore sunscreen. I guess we didn't know about holes in the ozone and skin cancer back then? So I grew up being suntanned year around, with a liberal sprinkling of freckles. When we moved to Florida I didn't use sunscreen then either, though we did have a big beach umbrella. It was a giant, heavy, unwieldy thing with a metal post and a drab shade of green. Our next umbrellas were smaller, lighter weight and with triangles of primary colors. It wasn't until a few years ago that we bought our bright, festive ones. The one with the flowers is my favorite. Given a choice, I'd have a dozen assorted beach umbrellas, one for every occasion or mood.

Somewhere along the way we finally learned about those ozone holes and the risk of skin cancer. Since then sunscreen has been part of our regular beach paraphernalia. These days I'm only lightly tanned, but I have even more freckles than before to made up the difference. The dermatologist I went to a while back said, "You might as well get used to being spotted." Gee thanks! It's a good thing I happen to like freckles.

Through the years I've taken numerous photos of beach umbrellas. It's just one of those things that catches my eye. Most of those old 35mm photos are now packed up in boxes in the laundry room closet or on disks tucked away here and there.

A photo of  beach umbrellas and unknown people

I  do oil paintings now and then. So maybe one of these days I'll search out those old photos and do a series of beach umbrella paintings? I think that would be a fun series to paint.

I'm reminded of beach umbrellas today, because of the holiday weekend. For someone like me, this is the perfect time to wander down to the beach and photograph umbrellas. My husband, on the other hand, says beach umbrellas are the last thing he looks at on the beach.

Learning New Things

I was going to title this post "Learning New Tricks," but my brain rebels against  the word "tricks." So I settled on "things." Anyway, here's the "thing." The older I get the harder it is to learn something new. Take creating a blog. This doesn't come easy to me. I'm not a "techie" like my grandson and his daddy. I'm having to struggle to learn some of the jargon and often have to read and reread the "How To" directions for doing things  like creating pages or customizing my design. I spent hours last night trying to switch the design of my blog. After much trial and error, it's still not quite the way I want it, but I'm getting there.

I'd ask my husband to help me out on this, but he's a "classic grouch" and isn't happy when I ask for his help. Just this morning I finally asked for help in resizing a better photo for my header. "Not now!" He not only didn't want to talk about it, or do it for me, no, he didn't even want to listen to my question in the first place. I told him it makes me so mad when he does that. He never wants to listen. I told him I'm going to start calling people on the phone until I find someone willing to talk to me. His response, "Why don't you blog about it?" Of course, he would never think I would dare to say something negative about him.

So here I am writing about this, the frustrations of learning new things, when my brain only wants to deal with old comfortable things. I still keep notebooks and write stuff down, thoughts, notes, books I heard about, songs, maybe even a poem. I know I could do all this on my laptop, but I still like the feel of a pen and paper in my hand.

It's the same thing with my new Kindle (the 6" one) which I got for my birthday this summer. I really really wanted a Kindle. The thought that I could carry around hundreds of books in one purse-size, lightweight devise, was a concept I couldn't pass up. So I got my Kindle and absolutely love it. I take it with me everywhere, even when I go see the grandkids and know I won't have a moment to read while I'm there. It's just knowing that I have all these wonderful stories right at my fingertips. So yes, I do love my Kindle. It's everything they claimed it to be and more. Now I can't imagine not having it.

My daughter got her Kindle (the 9") months before I did. Now she's systematically going through her bookshelves and giving away bags of books. She plans to read all her books on her Kindle. Well, now when she heads for work each morning, her Kindle is in her briefcase along with her laptop and iPhone.

I wouldn't even consider giving away my books. The Kindle is great, convenient, mobile. But I need real books too. So I'll continue to buy real books along with downloading books on my Kindle. Some of the "old things" I just can't give up.

Now back to learning new things. I have a laptop, a camera phone and a digital camera. I've learned how to use them. I really like this latest technology. But I've only learned how to do limited things with them. I know they have capabilities I haven't even dreamed of attempting. I'll just learn this new stuff a step at a time. Training an "older" brain is at times a slow process.

Building Sandcastles in the Air

I guess we all do this now and then, building sandcastles in the air? Huge, imaginary dreams that we play up there, way high up, and hope that someday they might come true? I think of what it might be like to be "rich." Not wealthy rich, just comfortably rich, where I wouldn't have to count pennies every month.

I often say, "when I win the Lottery" I'm going to do this or that. But I don't even play a Lottery, so that won't ever happen. My husband buys a Florida Lotto ticket every now and then. So maybe he'll win the Lottery? Not likely. But if he does, well, heck, then I guess I will have won the Lottery too?

My husband says that first off he'd buy a red Corvette. I'm thinking more along the lines of a house on the beach. It wouldn't even have to be all that big, just a little roomier than the 1570 square feet we have now, which is a bit cramped with our years of accumulated "stuff" and two dogs. Yep, I'd want a bigger house with lots and lots of windows and a view of the Gulf. Of course, while I'm dreaming here, I don't want any of that oil on the beach or in the water. Yeah, like that oil is likely to disappear completely anytime soon?

While I'm dreaming about relocating that sandcastle in the air down onto some sugar-white sand beach, I guess I would need a new vehicle. I'm thinking more along the lines of a brightly colored H2 Humvee, maybe canary yellow or terracotta orange? I'm really not that much into sports cars. I'm a 4-wheel-drive kind of girl.

Anyway, while I'm dreaming here, how about a boat of some kind? Not one of those high-speed streamlined boats. Nah, just something big enough to tool around in the Gulf with some of my family and friends. I don't want to fish or anything, just to look at the turquoise colored "oil free" water, because in my dream there's no oil out there.

Then ... just to add a little more to my dream, I'd like a little "modern farmhouse" in some pretty spot, say on 20 acres or so, with some horses and cows and pigs and chickens. (My dad was raised on a dairy farm, so I guess the farm thing must be in my genes.) Of course, I'd need to have a bunch of "barn cats" and some big, fat, lazy, house cats too. Oh, and more dogs, definitely more dogs. There are so many out there needing to be adopted, that I'd have to make the rounds of the animal shelters. Hmm! Maybe I need to be dreaming more in the line of 40 to 160 acres instead of just 20?

Oh, and I don't want to forget that both of my houses need to have libraries with lots and lots of shelves full of books. I just couldn't have a "sandcastle" without books. An art studio would be a nice touch too. So I wouldn't have to do my oil painting on my kitchen table?

Okay, so the likelihood of my sandcastle in the air ever becoming reality is unlikely, to say the least. But that doesn't stop me from thinking about it every now and then. In the meantime, guess I need to head down to the beach and build a real sandcastle in the sand?