Experiments in Life

I was thinking that it had been a while since the dogs had done anything post-worthy. That all changed this morning.

Warning: Grossness ahead.

Picture this:
It was about 8 AM. We were ready to leave for work so I was headed to let the dogs back into the house. Part of our morning ritual is letting the dogs romp and play in the backyard while we are getting ready. From time to time, I like to look out the window and watch them play without them noticing me. I love to see how they play together or just lie there surveying their backyard kingdom. Well, this morning, Dante was spread out in the grass. Beside him was some black stretchy material that I took to be a plastic bag. I just sighed and thought, “That crazy dog. He’s gone and chewed up a plastic bag. I hope he doesn’t get some intestinal blockage or something.” Just to let you know, plastic bags are not recommended for a well-balanced diet for puppies. But I digress. So, Dante finally saw me looking at the window and immediately headed for the door, so I went to let him in. He started to run inside but turned and made a circle for the bag. Rosie had already run inside at this point. So, I go out and try to convince Dante to give the bag to me so that I can throw it away.

Okay, it’s about to get gross now. Anyone with sensitive stomachs may want to skip down a few lines. You have been warned.

Dante is now dancing in front of me with the bag in his mouth. Me, I’m trying to coax it away from him. He finally comes within reach and I, with my super-mommy like abilities make a grab for it. I grabbed. And then I let go and immediately started going into hysterics of a sort. It was NOT a black plastic bag. What I grabbed was so the opposite of what I thought it was going to be that I totally freaked. Have you ever had the pleasure of grabbing what you think is plastic and finding out that in reality, it is tail feathers completely covered in dog slobber? Have you ever mistaken a dead bird in your dog’s mouth, for a stupid bag? Well, that was my pleasure this morning. I immediately started jumping up and down waving my hand around wildly in some crazy attempt to get the dead bird cooties off. Yes, I am an adult. Yes I am a biologist. Yes, I have disected animals bare-handed. But there are even limits as to what I will willingly touch. Dead birds do not fall into that category.

So, I come running in the house yelling “EWWWWW” and then run into Jonathan, who is looking at me like I’m crazy. (Not an uncommon response from him at all) Then he just kind of laughs as I head for the bathroom and wash my hands about a million times, using all the soap in sight. I finally managed to get Dante in the house without the bird. He tried really hard to get it in the house.

The bird carcass is currently lying in our backyard. The forcast for today is a high of around 95 or so. I can hardly wait to get home to the smell of dead bird. And of course, Dante will probably go straight for it. I have no choice but to remove the carcass before we let them out for the afternoon. But I imagine he will go to that exact spot and roll in it like it’s the best perfume in the world. I predict doggie baths coming soon. Or a nice little surprise on the carpet.

-Sigh- Is this what kids are like?

It’s just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
‘Cause that’s my funday
An I-don’t-have-to-run day
It’s just another manic Monday

But I can’t be late
‘Cause then I guess I just won’t get paid
These are the days
When you wish your bed was already made

Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an aeroplane
I still couldn’t make it on time

By: The Bangles

Yep, Manic Monday. That’s what today has been for me.

I feel the pull of Triple-Chocolate Splenda Ice Cream

The past couple of weeks have been very busy and rushed for me. It seems like time has really flown by. I didn’t quite realize how quickly or how much had gone by until a conversation I had with my husband on the way to work.

Jonathan: “Do you know what happens in 19 days?”
Me: Hmmm, what could it be. “Is it the vacation we are planning?”
Jonathan: “It’s 19 days until your birthday, you know your 27th birthday.”
Me: “Oh”

Turns out I had forgotten something. I can’t believe that I had already forgotten about my own birthday. What could be so important that I had lost so much time and forgotten so much?

That realization is partially responsible for my somewhat reflective mood at the moment. What else has occurred to jerk me back to reality and reminded me “to smell the roses” you ask? Well, it is something a dear friend of mine is going through at the moment. Her post on Limbo has made me pause for a moment.

Travel with me, if you will. While I have not experienced the exact situation my friend is in, I have experienced something similar. The day I heard the news is still a little fuzzy to me. I don’t remember a whole lot, other than waiting for what seemed like forever. In reality, I believe it was only a couple of hours. I got a phone call from my dad saying that my aunt had taken a turn for the worst. I knew she had been in the hopital for heart and blood issues, but she had just been taken out of the critical care unit and placed in a private room. She was doing better. He said he would call back and let me know what was going on. Well, I waited and I waited. Finally, I called him back. And there it was, the waiting was over. She was braindead….She was my only aunt…. It was right before Christmas….I did not get to say good-bye.

It took all I had to finish my conversation with my dad before breaking down. I think Jon was on the phone with someone at the exact time I finished my phone call and started sobbing. He must have heard because he was right there holding me before I could even take a breath. It was horrible. How could this happen? She was so full of life and had so much left to give.

I think a part of me has still been in denial about it, even though it’s been awhile. I’m not sure I’ve truly accepted her death. We didn’t see her very much growing up. Once my grandmother moved to town, we saw her a little more. Even though we didn’t see her often, her passing really hurt.

At least my friend was able to say good-bye, I envy her that.

So, where am I going with this post? I’m not really sure. All I know is that a good friend of mine is going through a hard time, and I’ve had a similar experience. Is it really like what she is going through? Maybe not. But I’d like to think that sharing my story has helped her in some way, or someone else for that matter. Maybe by posting this, I’ll have caused someone else to slow down and see the little things in life.

In loving memory: Aunt Freddie
I miss you.

This past weekend was just a nice quiet weekend. I got some much needed yardwork done — mainly, I trimmed all of the hedges around our house because they needed trimming quite badly. Looking back, I can honestly say that would not have been done if it were not for my new riding mower. I was happily able to mow my back yard in around a half hour without breaking a sweat so I felt like I had plenty of energy left over to do some of those every once in a while tasks like hedge trimming.

We also were able to get a quote for removing our broken tree that came in under what I thought it would cost, which made me happy. It is going to get taken down and hauled off at some point during this week. After a long and tiring day Saturday, Ashley and I wound up watching Pirates of the Caribbean after which I promptly fell into a deep sleep.

Sunday was a day of movie watching for me. Since we had some rain during the afternoon, I spent most of the day laying around on the couch watching movies we had gotten in from Netflix — namely, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which was an all-around, creepy, good movie, and The Terminal, a suprisingly entertaining movie. I crashed hard again last night, but I woke up this morning feeling very refreshed from the weekend and ready to go after the week.

After a month of mucking around with our push mower and not getting the grass mowed, I finally broke down and purchased a riding lawn mower. Why not just get my push mower fixed or buy a new push mower? Both of those options would definately be cheaper. However, neither option would give me the satisfaction of sitting on my rear while getting the lawn mowed without breaking a sweat. Granted, I only mowed the front yard last night due to my needing to clear tree bits out of the driveway, but getting that front yard finished in less than a half hour — including weed-eating the portions that I could not get to with the mower — was a thing of beauty.

Well, I cannot answer that question, since I was at the house when our Bradford Pear split during a particularly nasty storm last Saturday, sending a rather large quarter of the tree crashing down onto our roof. First and foremost, no one, including the pups, was hurt. Secondly, it appears that the only damage done was a bent-up gutter. That is pretty amazing considering that the branches were laying on the roof of the first story and continued up to the roof of the second story.

Sunday, I had Tim and Stephen over helping me to cut the tree down from the house. That was going ok, if somewhat slowly due to the lack of power tools, when it started storming again. Monday morning, I had Stephen back over at the house, this time with a chain saw that we borrowed from someone at church. We made fairly quick work of the tree at that point, getting the rest of it down in just under two hours. Most importantly, we managed to get the rest of the tree down with a minimum of excitement, which is what you want when cutting down a large chunk of tree with a chain saw.