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.