Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to be surrogate parents to our friends Mark and Sarah's dog, Ra'bano. After losing our dog Rigby, it was nice to have the chance to have one of our furry friends come by for a few days. I can only recall once when he kind of whined a little bit. As hard as it can be for people to be in unfamiliar places and uncomfortable situations, I can only imagine what it must be like for our pets. I know that not everyone has the luxury of leaving a beloved pet with a friend or neighbor when they have to leave for one reason or another. I just hate the idea of having to board your pet at a vet or animal shelter. Maybe I'm full of hoo-ha, but I feel like as much as possible they need to be in a loving environment while their owners are away. As you can see, Ra'bano (which means radish in Spanish) is feeling quite at home on our couch. He's really well trained, and though the food right there before him is enticing, he didn't once...

 A few weeks ago, Jan and I decided to send in our eleven year old daschund, Rigby, in to the vets. He'd been having problems with peeing on the floor, and getting up two or three times a night to go outside to pee. We noticed that he was drinking an uncommon amount of water as well. Needless to say, the interruptions played havoc with our sleep patterns. Jan was gone for a few weeks, so all the babysitting was left to me. I slept with the bedroom  door slightly cocked open so he could push his way in and wake me up in the night. It wasn't any too restful to say the least. On more than one occasion he pushed open the door after he had already peed on the floor outside my room. Lovely. Anyway, we finally decided to send him in and see what the vet had to say. I was reluctant to send him in, I knew the bill would be a doozy, and I also hate to put him through the trauma of going into a kennel and transporting him on the plane. I'd rather be in the cage myself. I know, I k...

Well, here I am again, in my usual state of confusion and uncommon frustration. I'm using a new laptop that I had purchased, or more accurately will purchase when I get the bill from my son-in-law. I needed the laptop for the boat so I can download a GPS program that is more up to date than what I have now. Anyway, not only am I trying to get used to this new computer, I'm having issues with  the internet. I know, I know, it's shocking. Somehow I managed to get one picture downloaded for this blog post. I don't know what I did to download it, and I don't know where the other ones are that I took. I'm sure they're floating around inside this black  box, but I don't know the magic words to make them come out. Kind of like my brain when I'm searching for a word. Having a dictionary or thesaurus won't help at all if you don't know what word you want to use to begin with.   Some years back there was a movie called The Prince of Tides. I remem...