Slipping the Trolley Tracks

To say that we love our place in the middle of nowhere is an understatement.

There is wildlife everywhere.

We had a mother and four pups of the California Gray Fox variety in our backyard for two evenings.

Melvin regularly makes friends with the birds.

Zelda plays hide and seek with the gophers.

Flowers bloom in profusion.

But best of all, is the solitude and quiet.

You see we are on a small offshoot of a dirt road. The road goes on but to get to us you have to veer off. No one even sees the little offshoot. And, I must add that you have to go about a mile on the dirt road to get to our little offshoot. No one comes here.

It is a 20 minute drive to a town with a decent grocery. Our mail box is a mile away.

At night there is little, if any, ambient light and the stars are....well, they make you feel very, very small in the grand scheme of things.

So we tend to ponder things. The Spouse works in the yard.

Watering here and there. Checking the bird feeders and the bird baths.

I have to go to work and deal with insane people.

He stays here and ponders.

But I am beginning to worry about that.

After all, too much time to yourself can lead you to, well, live where you are pondering.

I think he has slipped the trolley tracks.......

===sigh===

Style By Zelda

Zelda had surgery yesterday. A large unknown type growth on her gums and a lot of warts. She also had her teeth cleaned.

It took longer than the Dr. expected so we got a couple of phone calls in the afternoon about the progress.

But at @6 she was ready to leave that place.

The doctor doesn't like the plastic dog collars. So while I was trying to figure out how to keep her from licking the sutures on her belly the assistant walked in and said she should stay warm for the next couple of days.

It is still freezing up here at night.

The solution?

Style By Zelda. Of course!

Style By Zelda

A white T-shirt and hair ties....Simple.

It took a little custom fitting but she was too stoned to care at that point.

Zelda Doesn't Feel Good

Zelda the Gopher Hunter

Zelda has never caught a gopher. She smells them. She digs for them. She stares at the gopher hole.

But never a gopher.

She is very patient. She will sit there for hours. Through rain, snow and heat. Waiting.


But in the last two weeks or so she hasn't much wanted to go gopher hunting. Odd behavior for our Zelda.

In the last month or so, she has moved off our bed to sleep on the cold floor. Odd behavior for our Zelda.

In the last few weeks she doesn't want to go outside or go for walks. Odd behavior for our Zelda.

In the last few weeks she has had a ravenous appetite. She will eat anything. Odd behavior for our Zelda.

Then yesterday one of her warts (she is prone to them) swelled and burst.

NOT GOOD.

Off to the vet.

We were a little apprehensive about this vet hospital. We had taken Mohawk there once a year ago for an emergency.  We did not know how they would be with Zelda over just a swollen wart.

Well, we needn't have worried about that.

We should have been worried about her little pot belly, her lethargy, her appetite, her disinterest in exercise.

They found a growth on her gum that we are hoping is benign. They say the warts have to be excised and, oh, by the way, Zelda has Cushing's Disease. Usually caused by a microscopic tumor on the pituitary gland it causes an over production of steroid hormones.

It is literally poisoning her.

And, as a side effect, she has a urinary tract infection.

If you want to know more about Canine Cushing's Disease go to www.kateconnick.com/library/cushingsdisease.html .

So on Monday, Zelda has a date with the dog surgeon to remove and test the growth on her gums and remove all her warts. After that she will get antibiotics and then we decide how to treat the Cushing's Disease.

It is so hard to think of her as an older dog. But she is 10 now and she has experienced a lot of change this last year.

I hope she feels better soon.

She needs to catch a gopher.

Collections and other Odd Things

A long while ago, over 30 years if my memory still serves me, I fell head over heals in love with Opus. Doonesbury was my favorite cartoon and Opus was the wisest of waterfowl. I especially loved him when he was a lawyer. "I object! I object to the question, I object to the form of the question, I object to object!" Or something like that.

I had that cartoon strip taped to the inside of my storage closet at the Public Defender's office for years.

To get an idea of how long this has been going on, the volleyball team that I played on in law school was called Penguins in Bondage and our shirts had Opus with a ball and chain around his neck. We thought it was hysterical. Others didn't share that opinion.

Anyway, one of my public defender colleagues took a shine to my fascination with Opus and bought me a wonderful Opus t-shirt. 

And my collecting life began.

One glass penguin here, one china penguin there. A little Waterford crystal, a little cloisonne there. And it just sort of grew. And grew.

At one point I had toy penguins. But as the artistic collection grew the toys were abandoned.

We bought some really incredible sculptures, too

These were done by an artist from Monterey, California. We got them on one of our first trips to the Defense Bar's Death Penalty Conference. We bought the Dad and egg the first year and the family on the second year. When we went back to find out if there were more, he had passed away and the molds for his sculptures had been destroyed.

But I kept on getting penguins. My brother found a little tiny one at a truck stop. He had one made out of a pine log. It fishes in my living room to this day!

The Spouse was always finding odd and unique ones.

And this is the collection (the most part-they are all over the house) today.


Except for one more addition. A Valentine's Day present from my sweetie that he found in Monterey while we are at the conference. 

I did tell you that I went for the odd or original, didn't I?

A Little Winter Trim

If you read this blog much, then you are familiar with the Spouse pictures. My favorite is Mel the Bird Man.

To say that I love his beard is an understatement.

Probably a result of growing up in the sixties and listening to too many songs from "HAIR". (Something about a nest for the bees...)

But it was getting a bit scraggly as winter wore on. And a bit unmanageable.

And people were beginning to think he had lived in the woods a little bit too long......
After all, our neighbors would probably think he owned a banjo. (We are sure that they do!)

His hair now is to pony tail length but needed a bit of a trim to keep it in order.

So off to Amy he went.

She is a miracle worker and now he looks almost ready for prime time! Well, he can go into court without the weird looks from the defendants!

She even trimmed his mustache! I can see him smiling!!!

What a little winter pruning can do.

Handsome, isn't he!!

FOG!

When I moved to Bakersfield in 1986, I considered it a short term assignment until I found a better job. As it turned out, THAT was the job that was meant for me. So I remained a transient resident. I could not call the place home. It was a place where I worked and lived.

My home, to me, in my small pea brain, was still Lindsay. I hadn't spent a night there since I started law school, but it was still "home".

One of the things that I remembered most fondly from Lindsay (remember a child's magical thinking here) was the fog. I remember seeing Christmas lights shrouded in fog and warm fires in our fireplaces while the outside world surrounded itself in quiet mist.

All very romantic.

Then I grew up and moved 60 miles south to Bakersfield.

Fog is not, I repeat, NOT romantic.

Yesterday, The Kid and I went over to Bakersfield to see old friends and do some business.



And we had an encounter of the second kind. FOG.

Now I have seen it worse. Or should I say I have tried to see through worse. But it was slow going in any case.

Off the edge of Highway 58 you wouldn't know there was a 500 foot drop.

But once we got there we met with some of my old friends. The warmest, most wonderful people on the planet. We had a wonderful day sharing stories and food and more stories and more food.

It was food for the soul.

And I stopped to see the resting place of a very good friend and mentor.

I miss you, Your Honor. 

Fog, past and present.

mighty fly

My daughter sent me this after my GREAT lunch pun. She never appreciates my quick wit and gentle laugh.  (==snort==)