So many things

Last month was a whirlwind of stuff. Wait! Last month wasn't May!
Let's see...May and June were whirlwinds. Okay, that's better.
And here we are, in the throws of July.
I have been sick for seven of the eight days of July. Today, my oldest daughter yelled at me for not going to work. I have been at work all of fourteen hours this month. Counting today I would have perhaps 46 hours of work, if things were normal. I had taken off Saturday and Sunday so I would have four days to spend the 4th at Clearlake with my dad. I got sick Friday before I left and took part of that day off work. Wednesday I went in to work and lasted all of two hours. Today I didn't even try. So the kid is telling me she doesn't want to hear about it when I can't pay the bills. I told her I was sure she wasn't worried about me paying bills when she was off gallivanting with friends for extended weekends and camping trips to Southern Ca. or buying bridesmaids dresses when she's on unemployment, or the gifts she bought for friends and their kids when the utility bill was due. Mean words. I am feeling mean.
Then after she came out of her room, she was all, "What meds have you been taking Mom? Are you drinking water? You need to keep yourself hydrated." I replied with a "Harrumph!" and she said, "I'm only trying to help!" Yes, I feel so helped.
The lake would have been great, except that I couldn't eat much. When I did it was all I could do to get to the bathroom on time. It was hot, I didn't sleep well. But I did get to spend some time with my dad. My youngest daughter along with her boyfriend, his daughter and her friend had fun playing in the water and eating Popsicles. (Their basic diet for the weekend) Really it was a better weekend than staying here and listening to all the neighbors shoot off their illegal fireworks in an attempt to burn down the town.
The new dog had some fantastic firsts this weekend. I was really pleased at how he has come along. He was loose...actually free to run, run, run all weekend. We have an acre up at the lake. It isn't fenced in, but the dogs can roam without running into trouble. He wasn't really into swimming at first, but learned to love it. All the other dogs play in the water and fetch balls, so Trey learned what fun that was. He met a few other dog friends and got along with them all really well. I learned that at times, it does take a community to train a dog. Everyone worked at his training which made him understand that much more that he is a loved member of the family and in turn behaved as such. It even went well for him when he grabbed the whole chicken off the counter right next to my dad. He was soon surrounded by everyone as someone pryed his mouth from around it. The chicken still tasted good, and now we have another story to tell.
Oh Yea!
In other news...MD's father finally stepped up to the plate and took over parenting of MD! It only took him twenty four years. Better late than never, as they say.
She had moved out, stayed with a girlfriend, and at the beginning of May got herself into more trouble than ever. She ended up coming back here much to my chagrin. The dad stepped in. He has now moved her to New Mexico to a rehab house about an hour and a half from where he lives. She will be there for six months to a year. She seemed to be okay with it. In fact, from what the dad said the last time I talked to him, she was excited about starting her new life! I know before I took her to the bus depot on the 29th of June, she was looking up jobs that were available there and looking at housing. I am happy for her that she has this opportunity to be away from the influences of friends here who are not really good friends. I can't wait to see how her new future unfolds. She has such great potential, I just couldn't get her to see it.
I think that should be it for now. I need to go see if there is something I can put in my stomach that will stay there. Wish me luck.

Oh No You Di-nt!

For Atreyu, it's balls off Wednesday.
I was up at 4AM this morning. Played hooky from work and took my newest family member to the free Spay/Neuter Mobile Clinic. I was the third person there at five this morning! The woman on the phone thought I was nuts when I said I would be there at five. Who's nuts now?!? (Not Atreyu)
I waited two and a half hours, then at 7:30 the mobile animal hospital pulled up. The vets came out and set their hospital up...leveling it, putting the chocks in front and in back of the tires. Getting out the steps and clipboards, lining us up in the order we arrived. About 8:30 they started calling each individual dog's name. When we were called we loaded up and went through the question and answer period. Most of my answers were, "I dunno" Geez...I just got him, I didn't ask enough questions when I took him. That's just how I roll.
We tried to put a muzzle on him, but that wasn't happening. The vet just asked me and the other vet to distract him and she popped him a tranquilizer shot. Then it was time for me to load him up in the cage and be on my way.
I cannot believe how attached I have become to this dog in such a short amount of time. I kept missing him once I got home and kept looking at the clock to see if it was time to go pick him up.
Just before three we got in the truck and went and got him. The vet explained everything to me...for all the "just in cases". He was happy to see me, but soon realized that, "Wait, you're the one who brought me here to this!" GAH!
We're home, he is passed out in the middle of the floor, far away from the dog bed we put down for him. I think he doesn't care. He's tired or depressed, or maybe a little of both. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Well...

After much searching and pressing buttons and linking to www help sites, I finally called India and they helped me. I have to say Ashish Kumar was a wonderful woman who took me through the problem of why my computer was not talking to my camera. It was all on the computer side. Some fouled programs or something. Ashish took over my computer remotely (this feature still blows me away) and cleaned up the little glitches here and there and my computer is running fine now.

The picture above is the little Kindle cover I made a few months ago.

I've been busy with many things lately. I manage to read everyone's blogs, and comment on most. I just haven't been able to sit and type out anything.

One of the things keeping me busy these days is this little guy...


Meet Atreyu.
My YD and I were looking at a car in San Jose for her boyfriend. (A car that we immediately decided against) The family who had the car also had this dog who was chained up and going nuts. I kept going over and petting him and talking to him. The kid who was selling the car said they were moving and couldn't take the dog..."Do you want him?" Of course. I never think these things through to the end...I just jump at the chance to have a new cute little guy in my household.
Yes, he is cute, little he is not. He has never been socialized. Never had his shots. Was never neutered. All he was trained to do was sit. ACK!!!
Next week we get to go get him "trimmed" if you know what I mean. He will have to get all his shots before then. I think once that is done and he doesn't hate me anymore for it, he will calm down a bit. Then we can start the real training. He is learning some now. He no longer jumps on us. He has learned to hop right into the back of my truck. As long as the days are cool, he will be sitting in the back of my truck while I am at work. It sounds cruel, but it's that or he spends his day howling in a small kennel at home. This way he gets to walk a few times a day and I am there to give him fresh water and loving. I have to cleanout the big kennel so he can live in there when the weather warms up. (Can you say, I gotta get it done today?) He just can't be loose to do as he pleases at home. He likes to find things and chew them up. So far, he has eaten some of my yarn, a few pairs of socks and a wrist brace.
He's about thirteen months old. Since he is of the Shepherd (Belgium) line, he will reamin immature for another few years. It will take a bit of work to get him to stop eating stuff. I am thinking that he will be a good service dog...maybe search and rescue.

Other things to keep me busy are many, many DR appointments. I am still seeing the Psycologist, and then my regular DR because of some allergy and breathing problems I am having. I had chest XRays last week. Still waiting for the results there. And then I had the regular Women's checkups which turned out all clear. (Yea Good!)

My MD is still making bad choices. Actually her bad choices got worse. She is begging me to let her move back home, but I can't do it. She needs to learn that her choices directly affect her life and I should not have to deal with the consequences.

I had better get going on that kennel. That is while it is still cool and hasn't started raining...nice spring we are having here, rain, cold, wind. I think there is going to be a very short summer here this year.

Fort Bragg, California

May 1st was my birthday. So I gave myself a birthday present and took two extra days off from work. My oldest daughter and I drove up to Fort Bragg. (CA) We spent Sat., Sun., and Mon. morning there. We camped. We borrowed my dad's (new to him) 1982 VW Vanagon Westfalia. Talk about road trips!!!
It was fun, relaxing and I got more exercise than I have in a while. We basically looked for places to look at...walked on Glass Beach, which is a long stretch of beach that is literally sea glass tumbled over and over until it is just bigger than regular sand. There are bigger pieces of it too. We are not supposed to take any, so we (ahem) didn't.
We took in an old historic lighthouse. We had to walk a half a mile to get to it. Which meant I walked a mile longer than I normally would. Nice lighthouse.
It was windy the entire time we were there and cold, but it was still more pleasant than working through my birthday!
Today I feel all rested up from my vacation. There's a million and two things to catch up on at work, so I am busy doing that now.
I wish I could tell you I had pictures, but the damned batteries in my camera went dead on me the first day and wouldn't you know, I didn't have spares with me!!!
So typical...