Meet Rae, my granddog, if she must have a title.  She is a member of my daughter’s family, rescued as a puppy from an accidental litter of racing dogs.  Even though I don’t see her very often, I think Rae remembers me – or at least quickly accomodates to my presence. 

By nature her breed tolerates limited activity and being housebound quite well. Strange when you consider they are also built for such extreme activity as racing.  Rae stays home while her family goes to work each day. She sleeps and waits (and who knows what else, since no one is there…) When I’m around she likes to be near me and “dogs” me everywhere I go.  She even prefers to sleep with her humans and in the few days I’ve been here she is already habitually following me to bed each night. 

A greyhound is a different looking dog, being alarmingly skinny and bony.  You have to get used to them looking more like a deer or some other long legged creature with a pointy nose.  They are not very hairy and they get cold easily.  Rae likes soft, cushy places and doesn’t mind having a blanket or two. 

She had a childhood accident which left her with a twisted front leg.  We think it probably hurts her a little, but in spite of it she loves to play fetch and run for short periods of time. I like to take pictures of her.  She is prone to “red eye” and a glowing countenance which I think makes her look spooky, like the hound of the Baskervilles.

She is a sweet, gentle dog.  She remembers me and I like her a lot.

I’m here in Seattle, and of course I’m sitting in a coffee shop looking out at Puget Sound. The ferry is crossing my view, people of all ages are running, biking, walking with their dogs on the street.  It’s supposed to be a record high temperature today, maybe in the 90’s, but it certainly is not like any 90 degree weather back in Florida.  This cool breeze off the water will make wearing long sleeves comfortable most of the day.  I’ve spent half an hour with my coffee while looking at bus schedules online.  I’m going to meet my daughter this afternoon in the downtown area and we’ll go to one of her appointments together.  I want to go early and pick up something at the famous Pike’s Place Market. 

I spent yesterday getting used to being here and resting from the trip.  I left the house only to take the granddog for a short walk.  Rae has been my little buddy since I got here, “dogging” me as I move from room to room.  She crept in and slept with me the first night and we’ve taken several naps together too, something we both seem to love to do.  Even though she does the alone thing pretty well, she seems glad to have my company. 

The mountains in the distance to the west look so inviting.  I have not been that far yet but hope to do it sometime soon.  Tomorrow I will be traveling an hour east for an adventure with a friend – maybe on a bike if my painful shoulder isn’t too affected by riding.  

Lots to think about here, and to look at, maybe to write about.  but for now my battery is getting low and I must close out this session.  Just sayin’ it – from Seattle.   

I love field flowers. I’m thankful for the time I spent in Wisconsin this summer, which is where this picture was taken.  I’m thinking about that family reunion Wisconsin trip and there were several happenings that I never mentioned that were very good.

A very satisfying element of the reunion was that it centered around my grandfather’s farm which has undergone several major changes in the years since he passed away. My father and my youngest brother made a decision years ago to take advantage of the farm’s location, close to town, and built a very attractive nine hole executive golf course.  The farm house became the club house with some clever remodeling, and also had living quarters for my brother.  The barn became the workshop for the golf carts and lawnmowers.  All of us who visited got to golf in the evenings when the paying crowd cleared out.  Many of the cousins got to peddle soft drinks to the thirsty golfers, hunt for lost golf balls and other chores.  The farm had never looked so good, with it’s landscaped meadows and brooks and ponds.

My brother married and got tired of golfers looking in his living room window so he moved to another house.  The golf course hit a few bad years with weather, the economy, etc… and my brother built another business for his own income.  It was headquartered on the farm and largely internet based.  The second big change was made when the golf course was closed and the farm became Par Lane Condominiums.  My brother’s family remodeled the clubhouse again and moved back.  The energy efficient duplexes that he built and sold were very attractive and the abundance of green space left room for walking trails and picnic areas.  My parents bought one of the units and love living there.  It’s a safe and beautiful community where most of the owners know each other and socialize. Walmart moved in to the adjacent property and erected a nice, tall fence between them with a gate – it’s like having a shopping mall in the back yard whenever something is needed. 

Even with Walmart next door, the farm is still on the edge of town where the woods and the wild meet the streets and buildings of Hayward.  The old barn is still standing and functions to hold lawn maintenance tools and tractors.  As we gathered  in the evenings at the reunion we often remembered the places we had played, the spot where Grandma’s garden had been and where the chicken coop had stood.  The landscape is as beautiful as it ever was, even through all the changes.  One of the special occassions that my brother had planned for us was an afternoon photo shoot with a photographer.  She came and took photos  of all our families using the barn and the pond around it for backdrop.  In return for her services she had permission to use the setting for other photo shoots and I’m guessing it could become quite a popular place.

It was a good, good time.  And I’m thankful for family, for Wisconsin heritage, for all the memories that have been made in that spot. 

This is a picture of the Gray Kitty that lives at my house.  Putting up her picture, or any other picture, is what I must do to begin posting on my page since I still have an “error on page” that keeps me from entering the cursor until I put in a picture.  Just as I had to figure out a way to begin my posts, through much frustration, I must also figure out a way to begin THE BOOK.  Every day at work I look at this month’s calendar page with it’s wisdom from Mary Engelbart “begin anywhere, just begin”. So I think it’s talking about the book that I’m supposed to be writing. 

Tonight on Facebook a friend back in my northern home town mentioned that she was working on her book.  She’s an ambitious sort but I didn’t know she was writing a book and telling people about it.  She sounded sort of confident and it made me think maybe she knew how to publish as well as write. ” No”, she said,  She didn’t care if it ever got published, she was just determined to write it. That might be the right attitude and I’m going to try it on for starters.  Forget publishing for now. 

Tomorrow I’m going to make a plan, with deadlines and defined tasks.  I’m going to attempt to do at least one thing every day, no matter how small.  One of the small things that I did today was to address the confines of my paying job.  I requested a change of status – from full-time to stand-by.  Nothing will happen quickly, since we have to find a replacement for me and nothing of that sort seems to happen quickly if at all.  But once I am working less it will become more important that I work on the book as a job, regularly, with other people keeping me accountable.  I think that’s what real writers do. 

I hope I don’t regret this post in the future when a reader asks me how the book is coming along… I’m just sayin’ it’s a little scary making public committments, but it’s a beginning, right?



the storms gather…



and I get to watch for the 4 hours I’m traveling

I have had a few days off this week and decided to take the time up in Jacksonville with the daughter who doctors horses and other larger quadripeds. My history with veterinarians has always been on the client side, meaning that I see them come out, do their work and leave.  Now I have seen the practitioner side where they go from one job to another with multiple phone calls in between, maybe a meal, maybe not, and arrive home late with equipment to clean, supplies to restock, notes to record and file, and their own animals to tend.  This is not a job for the faint of heart.

Dressing a bad leg wound

Her canine assistant sleeps on the floor behind her seat (nervously because articles in the shared space keep shifting and landing on top of her).

It rains almost every day lately and much work is done outside. Getting wet is common.

Most of the patients are large, frightened to the point of needing sedation, and non-English speaking.

I didn’t get a picture of it (aaaarghgh… should have!) but frequently saw Dr. Jules’ hand disappearing up to the elbow inside a horse’s mouth to check a tooth.  Dental work is done with a grinder the size of a machine gun. I “got” to hold the tongue aside (grab it in whole hand and pull to the side, yuck) and keep the horses’s head up in the air.  I also got to mess up an appointment on the computer, drop some papers in a large puddle, and get us lost driving to a farm – good job VetMa!  All in all, an interesting couple of days and I’m looking forward to a next time.