Celebrating the birth of American independence this year of the COVID with one wet dog (one is afraid of the water hose), lots of sunshine, and a bald guy with mad grilling skills!
The dog that is scared to death of water coming from a hose isn’t afraid of fireworks. The neighbors had a ton — they were amazing — and Merida watched them from the window. Today, she’s chillin with a stick and staying dry.
Dharma, on the other hand, didn’t care for fireworks and hopes the neighbor’s shot off their entire stash last night. But hey… she LOVES romping in water and being sprayed by the hose.
COVID info: Found a cool site with metrics that let you know how your state or county is doing insofar as spread of the coronavirus. The Path to Zero tells me that right this second, Jackson County, Indiana, isn’t a bad place to be.
And finally, TIL (today I learned): Harry Truman refused corporate money after his presidency because he didn’t want to diminish the honor of the office. For a while, his only income was his $112.56 army pension. Click to read more about our 33rd president…
Dogs are work. No doubt about it. But my hound? I think she does certain things simply to watch how I will react. Take for example the act of bed making…
When I change sheets, Dharma gets in bed so I can’t complete the task. Once a bed is made and all the pillows are carefully placed, she jumps in to wrinkle everything up.
Of course, once she gets up, I go back in and tug around on the bedspread so it again looks freshly made. And then… yup… she’ll jump back up on that bed.
Dharma poops at 7:30 AM and doesn’t care if it’s weekend and I could sleep in. After throwing grass clumps at least 5 feet in the air, it’s then time to lie in the grass. This is a ritual. My dog manipulates me and my day.
At almost 28 years-old (4 in people years), Dharma’s perfected the ‘make human do whatever you want’ sequence of activities. And just like when you have a spoiled child, I (the parent) just smile and think about how darned cute she is.
Dharma is on my bad list. She wasn’t feeling great last night and after going out a bajillion times, I awoke to find she’d had an accident in the house. Neither of my dogs EVER mess inside!
Not her fault, I know. But when you have a house with hardwood floors and the accident happens on a $500 rug from Macy’s? C’mon. That’s on purpose. 🙂
I’m pretty sure it was a revenge poop because I left her home with Gracie during the day to buy flowers — and she didn’t get to help plant them either. She sure showed me!
I found a recipe for doggie ice-cream. If I’m not still mad, I might make her some this weekend…
3 ripe bananas 32 oz plain yogurt 1 c peanut butter Blend, pour mixture into ice trays, freeze for 3 hours before serving.
PS. This is my last big dog. Little dogs have little poop.
Never one to go to bed early, this whole shingles thing keeps me up even later. At around 3:00 AM this morning, I let the dogs out for the last time before sleep.
Because it’s been in the single digits and I don’t want to walk across the COLD sunroom to the door to let them out, I’ve been leaving that door cracked just enough for a dog’s butt to pass through. This was error #2 in the perfect storm.
Because the outside door was open, a bird flew in. Warm and agile Dharma caught that cold little birdie in about 2 seconds flat with me yelling barefoot from inside the house for her to stop. Oh no!She didn’t stop.
Not only did she not stop, she crunched on the warm carcass while ignoring me.
A quick Internet search will reveal a bajillion articles that list tips to be more productive and get more done in less time. A few of the popular tips are:
Don’t multi-task. (Not to be confused with #2.)
Multi-task.
Do your important work before lunch. (I wonder if this is really suggesting we eat lunch at 3:00 PM.)
Form new habits to improve efficiency and focus.
Give yourself solid “me” time.
Yes, I wasted time reading those tips (instead of being productive), but I did come across a pretty crazy concept along the way…
There was a study conducted by Lucre that concluded taking a shower break during each work day increased productivity and creativity by over 40% — and 23% of those showering indicated their mood was improved.
Those stats were enough to convince Dharma to give it a try. She reported her mid-day shower gave her a sudden burst of energy, but after circling the room about 25 times she was sleepy and no longer cared about productivity at all. She also stated it made her hair curly and she feared colleagues would ridicule her.
Tomorrow, Dharma plans to give herself more “me” time to see how that works out.
