my puppies missed me

my puppies missed me

Although Mr. Peskie and Perry took good care of my hounds, they sure were happy when I returned home from Disney. THEY MISSED ME!! I’ve been home over a week now and they’re still following me around. Not gonna’ lie, it’s making me a bit crazy. When experts claim that a pet can lower your blood pressure and offer other healing attributes — they don’t know my Merida. At least Dharma is a sweetie. 🙂

Dharma is a sweetie!

Gearing up for the holiday, I’m looking forward to seeing my favorite brother and sister-in-law. It’s sort of mixed up with Coco at her Mom’s this year for the first week of Christmas vacation, but we always make it work. Another Walmart discounted shopping spree with Katie is in the books. Jerilyn accompanied us this year and brought rain with her. We saved around $500 off our total bill thanks to Perry and Walmart!

Walmart shopping spree

Other positives include one friend that recently got a new job, I’m caught up on my work, and Perry’s up for a promotion. (Cross your fingers for him, please.) And then, I bought a scratch off lottery ticket…

winner!

TIL (Today I Learned): Death by Boiling is a method of execution where a person is killed by being immersed in boiling liquid. While not as common as other methods of execution, boiling to death has been practiced in many parts of Europe and Asia. (Sheesh… not much worse than that.)

it’s fall today… or maybe winter

it’s fall today… or maybe winter

It’s officially Saturday but I’m not even thinking about sleep yet. I’m such a night owl, you guys. It’s rained off and on all day but the temps remained in the “late summer” range. This evening, we started dropping into the “fall” range and it’s finally below 60° F (barely). The neighborhood’s lights are all aglow with the foggy air hanging so closely to the ground.

still dark morning

The high today is forecasted to be 64° and I made chili for later. Perry’s first day of vacation was yesterday and we were supposed to be in Disney this week. It makes me sad that we aren’t… but I still feel ok about rescheduling. Read a tweet from a guy in Victoria, Australia who said he’d left his house 3 times since the start of the COVID pandemic — one Dr. visit and 1st and 2nd vaccine appointments. I can’t even imagine. 🙁

No Brian Laundrie sightings around here throughout the day yesterday… but Dharma was still on guard.

Dharma on guard

She plans to keep watch today too. She LOVES rain and LOVES to get wet. (Merida hates water… odd since she’s also a lab.) And… Dharma loves to smear that fat, wet body against the walls so I have to scrub them too. ARG! Windows open at almost 3:00 AM, she’s barking at something outside like it’s her job. I’ll bet my neighbors hate me.

TIL (Today I Learned): The Nordic countries dominate coffee consumption and are all within the top ten countries worldwide of coffee consumers. Further, Finland (the highest consumer in the world) more than doubles the annual consumption of Italy.

For the record, I’m doing my part to boost the US and I know Mr. Pesky is also doing his part. What’s up with all you slackers??

Dharma celebrated her uniqueness

Dharma celebrated her uniqueness

Yesterday was a near perfect day in southern Indiana. Not too hot — a high of around 80°F — and sunny. I had to mow and weedeat the yard (storms are coming later today), clean the sunroom, spread a couple bags of decorative rock and various other ‘outside the house’ chores. I checked email often but didn’t do much in the way of “work work.” It was a good day.

But Dharma’s day was even better! She got to do her favorite thing in the whole world…

Dharma LOVES water. She wants in the bathtub the second the water is turned on. If the hose is on she’s in it. No way I can water tomato plants without her charging in. Besides the video, of course, I had to take around 100 photos. I’ll just share the one that made me smile when I saw it. 🙂

Please notice that Merida is absent while Dharma is celebrating her uniqueness. Merida is the lab that HATES water. Turn on the hose and she runs for the back door. She wants nothing to do with water other than what’s in the bowl to drink.

TIL (Today I Learned): President Trump’s grandfather made his initial wealth by opening a dead horse meat (oh my!) tent restaurant and brothel for miners during the Gold Rush in Canada. He died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Read more interesting stuff about Frederick Trump>>

Where else do you get to provide advice and someone listens?

Where else do you get to provide advice and someone listens?

Always complaining about Merida and her quirky behavior, I’m even more aggravated at Dharma this morning than I am her. Dharma has this thing about doorways. It’s like she thinks the floor is going to fall out from under her. At times, she gets on her belly to crawl through to rooms or even outside. Other times, she starts slow then does this burst of “get my butt through there QUICK” scrambling that makes so much racket it startles me.

This morning, it started with her pestering me to get out of bed because she just had to go out. Then she expected me to stand with the back door open for 20 minutes (it’s 20 degrees out there) while she mustered the courage to go through! Laying a sweatshirt across the threshold was the key this time — she FINALLY made it. And then, we repeated the process to get from the hallway into the office.

Reading online about why dogs do this and how to ease them through the anxiety and in/out of a door was not helpful. The suggested training/reward regimen (reward her, stand on the other side, etc.) doesn’t apply. Seriously, Dharma’s gone through these same doors since the day she came home.

Dharma has issues.

Pretty sure BOTH my dogs have mental issues.

And finally, I’m thinking about a color theme for whatifitdid.com for 2021. I simply can’t decide.


60 quarts vs 4 singles

60 quarts vs 4 singles

I was SO excited to get REAL TOMATOES — you know, those out of a garden in Jackson County, Indiana. I’ve been waiting since last summer for this delicacy because everyone knows hot house tomatoes are gross!

Those pesky neighbors made sure I had some because they obviously know how much I love them. But when talking to a friend that always gardens, she let me know she canned 60 quarts of tomatoes this week alone!

The Peskies need to step up their game!

Busy week with Katie here after surgery since she has exercises she must do several times a day. Since my work days go on (and on and on) it’s a good thing I had help to keep her on schedule!

Dharma helping Katie exercise

Without the assistance of our personal in-house, very tan physical therapist, there would be way too much of this going on…

Exercise therapy without supervision

Daily new COVID-19 cases (7 day moving average):
Indiana-11.3 (up); Jackson Co – 8.1 (up); Florida 58.6 (up and still topping as the worst of the worst); Nevada – 38.0 (still going up)

TIL (today I learned): The top 10% of American drinkers consume nearly 60% of all alcohol sold – averaging 74 drinks per week. If that might be you, read more details here…

I’m willing to bet my friend didn’t have to wait for days just to eat a tomato before canning!

need to ripen faster