Archive for the ‘Laughter Makes the Best Medicine’ Category

Wildlife

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Walking the dog yesterday, I heard a woodpecker testing it’s stereo system. Seriously, this big brown bird was perched on my neighbor’s roof, tat-tat-tat-tat-tating away at his metal chimney pipe. And it echoed.

Then, there were the two little Junko birds in the back yard. They were practicing synchronized flitting. Hopping along in tandem, stopping at the same time, pecking the ground a bit here, flitting on to a more likely spot in the grass– and carefully checking to make sure they were always exactly 14 inches apart. At one point, they turned opposite directions to peck, and accidentally wandered about 2 feet apart. The one who noticed first went RACING back to his position, 14 inches from his partner. Now I understand where ballet came from.

We also get a lot of deer and skunks out this way. Herds. Of skunks. My partner has a theory that they are wandering around together, because every time he takes the dog out for one last tinkle at bedtime, he sees a herd of deer, and smells a local skunk. I think the deer just got sprayed by the skunk at some point, but I don’t want to spoil his theory.

Speaking of wildlife, our neighbors have an interesting sense of humor. I was driving past a big empty field recently (neighbors– in Boondockia) and glimpsed a large fox running for all it was worth. A second LONGER look (that almost landed me in the ditch) clarified that I was seeing a planted metal cutout of an oversized fox running at full speed. In the middle of an empty field. In Boondockia.

And every time the dog passes the place where my cat is sleeping, a long declawed paw SHOOTS OUT and whaps him once or twice, and disappears again. But the cat is sleeping, so we still don’t know whose paw that is. Of course, the dog manages to get really excited and accidentally stumble over the cat in his excitement that HEY– THE HUMANS MIGHT BE GOING TO STAND IN FRONT OF THE DOG TREAT BAG!!!! at least twice a day. But, seriously, it’s an accident, so you can’t be angry at him for that. …I figure if the cat had claws, things would be a little more even. But she doesn’t. Thank goodness.

That was my weekend. Lots of little mysteries to enjoy, and lots of opportunities to laugh at the way my world works. How was your weekend? How is your world working these days?
Be Well.

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Winterriffic

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Well, it’s snowy on the west coast this week. Especially in the “back country” as one news reporter put it. (Of course, the ski resorts are open for business and very accessible, not “back country” at all, really.) I think we live in a place that might well qualify as “back country” just now. And yes. It’s very snowy.

Yesterday, we had about four inches on the ground. The dog was ecstatic. He’s old, rickety, fairly deaf, and bull-headed. So when I take him outside, it’s ALWAYS on a leash. Because he still thinks he’s 2, and wants to take on the world, with giant leaps for dog kind. All four feet off the ground at once, while twisting in ecstatic circles of joy.  Seriously. He should go out for figure skating. And he loves snow. LOVES IT. So yesterday I took him out for his first morning “dooty” and it looked like this:

step in snow, step in snow…
downward-dog-and-freeze…
LUNGE! to the end of the LEASH!
….aaaand recover his dignity.

step in snow, step in snow…
HEY! IT’s SNOWY OUT HERE!!! downward-dog-and-freeze…
LUNGE! into the snow, to the end of the LEASH!
…aaaand recover his dignity.

Today, when we went out for his first morning “dooty” of the day, well, the snow was a bit deeper. Several inches higher than the top of my snowboots, in fact. And that puts it about tummy height or so on the dog. So we shoved our way through (or well, *I* shoved my way through, and he followed behind in my footprints because he may be a dog, but he isn’t stupid). And I stomped and shoved clear a few snowy spots with low bushes so he’d have a place to stand, and a thing to target, while he did his thing— and he could actually get his leg above the snow height in those little stomped areas. Which he definitely appreciated and quickly made use of.

EWWW!!! Yellow Snow!!!

My partner got home from work at noon today. Apparently, they’d been released at 9am (And WHY did they have to go in to work to begin with??? Even the freakin Public Library is closed today!), but nobody could find the (gravel, off-grid, drifted over, hilly, curving, unmarked) road out from his work site, so they all took turns driving their work trucks into the ditch that lines both sides of the road, and using that vehicle as a marker for where the road REALLY was. Like I said, it took him three hours to get back home. It would have been even longer, but he got lucky and found some abandoned plywood on the side of the road the last time he got stuck.

(When we get out of here, I’m buying us both collapsible snow shovels for our vehicular emergency kits. Seriously.)

At which point, we both suited up in our snow gear (Mom, remember those blue zip-over “water-resistant” pants we used to wear skiing when I was a kid? Yeah, I’ve still got a pair, thank goodness. They even seem to still repel snow fairly well. And I can wear them over my pants, so hey– no frostbite, AND no hives!) and pushed about a ton of snow off our two vehicles (seriously, there was over a foot on each one, heavy, wet, compacted, heavy snow. Did I mention it was heavy?) because –hey!– it’s winter, and they say we’re getting another foot of snow tonight.  And all that heavy snow might be bad for the car’s shocks. Here in the “back country.” With a mop, a broom, a two-by-four and a stepladder because the snow was THAT HIGH on the vehicles. Seriously. I had to go up two steps on the ladder just to be clear of the snow already on the ground, let alone the piles we made from what was on the vehicles. Which we then had to shovel out, because we have to take the dog on another “dooty” walk before bedtime. Past the vehicles and through their piles of snow to the tracks the garbage truck made this morning, which are still less deep than everything else, after it continued to snow all afternoon.

Well, okay, the two-by-four was for knocking the snow off the trees because a whole lot of branches had already broken under the weight– two-hundred-year-old THICK branches– and it’s going to get icy tonight before it starts snowing again.

SAVE THE TREES, that’s us.
And, oh, joy, it’s 7:30 pm, and looking out the window… the snow has started coming down again. As sleet.
And to be honest, it is a FAIRYLAND of beautiful and clean and cold and stillness out there. And I love it. It’s like meditating with your eyes open to walk through falling snow, in a world blanketed by snow, to the sound of snow. I actually had a BLAST shoveling out our half-way-around-the-house walkway (for the dog) this morning so we could get to the nice wide tire tracks the garbage truck left on its route today, and take a bit of a walk after breakfast. In the tracks of the garbage truck. Because, hey, we live in the “back country,” and they only plow three roads in our area. And ours ain’t one of them. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so happy to see the garbage truck before. FREEDOM!!!!! Of course, the dog wore his quilted red doggy coat that we got at the specialty organic dogfood store in North Portland two winters ago. The year it just rained the whole time.

So. How was your day?

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