Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

I help mom out any way I can.

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Hey, Penny here again. 

Mom says you guys don’t need to hear from me so often. She says it’s her blog and shouldn’t be all about me. I like to point out regularly that her life is all about me. 

Ahem.

Mom took me to a new park last week before the snow.

Anyway, she’s had a couple important thoughts on her mind and has been meaning to blog about random stuff for awhile now. As you may or may not know, she’s meaning to do a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t get done. So I decided to help her out by putting together a random blog with some of her thoughts and some of my thoughts. 

You can judge which thoughts are most important.

Don’t worry mom, I’ll write your blog for you!

No pressure to vote for mine or anything. 

So,anyway, she watches a lot of HGTV. Mostly because there isn’t any violence or scary stuff and no one looses anything most of the time. Mom doesn’t like conflict. But she knows that most of it is staged, ’cause there’s no way all those couples can like totally opposite stuff and still be together. One wants to live in a city high-rise and one wants to live on acres in the woods? How’s that supposed to work out?

Me, I think we should all live in the woods!

Don’t you wonder if some of them are still together?

And how come so many of the women come off as so controlling and well…b****y? Sometimes mom has to turn it off because the (mostly) women annoy her so much. And how come the closets are always hers? Where’s he supposed to put his cloths? In the kids’ rooms? Maybe the garage? 

Of course mom has her own closet drama. We won’t go there.

Maybe you could store your shoes in here, mom!

I on the other hand wonder why people’s dogs don’t get to decide where they’re going to live. I think any dog would opt for lots of fenced in land to run on. I don’t know a dog around that likes to go on a walk by first getting on an elevator. And those high-rise balconies? You call that an outside space? What if a little doggie falls off? Huh??

Now THIS is a good outdoor space!

Mom also wonders about this open concept thing. It seems to be what almost everyone wants and she wonders if these people, particularly the young people, have ever lived with other people in that kind of space. 

Is this open concept?

Mom and Dad’s house is open concept. They remodeled it long before that was a thing, and in general I like it cause I can run really fast with no walls to slow me down, but mom says if you live in an open concept house you have to listen and watch whatever the other people want to listen to and watch. 

I’m a big help, right mom?

Sometimes mom would just like it to be quiet. She says she’d advise all those people looking for open concept houses to make sure they each have somewhere of their own to retreat to when they need a little quiet. 

Just image if there were a bunch of kids too! Kids and dogs racing around a big open concept house. Yep….I think that would be perfect, but mom says it makes her head hurt. What do you think?

I think having some kids to play with would be just fine.

And mom’s been thinking about the cable/internet bill. She hears so many people talking about streaming stuff, and she’s not sure she’d even know how to do that. We don’t have any of those subscription things, and sometimes something she’d like to watch is shown only on Peacock or Hulu or Netflix or any number of other services that she hasn’t even heard of. 

Is that a peacock over there?

The cable bill is big enough, why would you want to pay for more when we don’t even watch all the channels we have? Yet….maybe it would be nice to have some other options. Still, shouldn’t we be satisfied with the stuff we already have? Cause mom says we have a lot. 

Personally I don’t care one way or the other. It’s all noise to me. Just don’t have any doorbells or dogs barking on there. And nobody up on that screen better move too fast either. Cause I’ll be on guard, yes I will. I’m watching you all the time, even when I’m sleeping. Constantly on guard to protect my people, that’s me.

Always alert!

In fact, mom and I just came in from a neighborhood walk and about the time we got back to our driveway four trumpeter swans flew over. They sure make a lot of loud, weird noise when they fly! Mom thought it was cool. I just stood very still and watched. 

I’m not always brave.

After they were gone I pulled on my leash and stood up on by back feet and barked very loudly in the direction they had gone. I told them! They won’t be back any time soon! Don’t come near my mom you guys! Yes I can make myself very big, like a grizzly bear, when I want to scare something off.

Mom says I’m nothing like a grizzly bear, and I’m only brave after whatever riled me up is gone. Big brave girl, she calls me. She says this habit of mine doesn’t bode well for future camping.

Gotta keep an eye out all the time around here.

I say she needs a grizzly bear camping with her to keep her safe. What do you think?

Signing off from all this randomness,

Your clerical girl, Penny.

Author: dawnkinster

I'm a long time banker having worked in banks since the age of 17. I took a break when I turned 50 and went back to school. I graduated right when the economy took a turn for the worst and after a year of library work found myself unemployed. I was lucky that my previous bank employer wanted me back. So here I am again, a long time banker. Change is hard.

37 thoughts on “I help mom out any way I can.

  1. Well pawed Penny – well pawed!

    HuMOMS have to have our – I mean THEIR priorites in order!

    And I can see hers/yours are now MODEL SHELTIE AT WORK!

    H&K&W,
    Willow
    PeeEssWoo: I know the struggle – it goes on here too!

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  2. It’s so good of you to help your mom out, Penny. About the TV viewing – we have DirecTV because son-in-law likes all the sports packages, and sometimes I watch news on it – but mostly I stream. Because I can, and so when a steaming service has things on that look good to me, I subscribe. I like being able to binge shows I want to watch rather than waiting for new ones to come out each week. As to those house hunting couples, I often wonder how they manage to be together, but then again before my husband died, we were a lot like that when we went furniture shopping.

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  3. This was great, Penny, and it got me thinking. How come all those people looking for homes on HGTV never have dogs? What do they do with all their free time? Sit around in their open space? You raise some pretty good questions. Tell your mom that you definitely need to blog more because we all need answers!

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  4. Yes, the HGTV people all want open concept, farmhouse style houses with their obligatory sinks and elaborately tiled kitchens and bathrooms. Of course they couldn’t be satisfied without a huge mud room with a built in doggy bath/shower.
    Someone on Pinterest complained that everyone wants to entertain, and why doesn’t anyone ever say they don’t entertain and would like a lock on the laundry door so they’d have a place to cry in private?

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Penny, you are so smart and so beautiful. Your mom is wise to ask for “a penny for your thoughts”.

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  6. You sound very brave to me, Penny, and your mom is very lucky to have you as her protector. ❤ Guess what my Labrador girl, Bronte, likes to do? We have a long hallways that ends in an open space of the house – one big room – and Bronte likes to run fast along the hallway, then slide along the last of the hallway into the big room! I think you and Bronte would get on well. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Oh my, Ms. Joanne! I like to do that too! I run as fast as I can and then I slide across a room and then I run some more! It’s such a fun game. Daddy says we’ll have to refinish the floors before we sell the house.

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  7. Penny, this was hilarious!

    I watch international house hunters constantly (streaming on discovery+ 😀), and also roll my eyes constantly. You’re living in PARIS. Why do you need a “bigger” bedroom or a “better” kitchen?

    Also, will never understand the fact that some people think electric stoves are a deal breaker. 🙄

    Good job saving your mom’s life Penny! Sounds like those swans were extremely dangerous!

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  8. Great job Penny! I agree with your mom, a space to yourself is always welcomed.

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  9. Great job on discussing your (and your mom’s) random thoughts, Penny. Yes, I wonder about some of that stuff, too. Those high-rise apartments, especially, worry me because tiny dogs (the only ones it’s practical to have in one of those places) could easily fall through the slats on their balcony, and that would be tragic.

    Your photos are lovely, and so are your expressions. That head tilt gets me every time! Recently, we went to streaming because our cable company was planning to quit that service. I still don’t know what I’m doing with it (but I’m awfully glad we left our outside TV antenna up so at least I can get local channels!)

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  10. I used to watch HGTV a lot. Now, I don’t have the channel. Was at my sister’s on Friday and realised that I am royally being had as they have way more on their plan than I do. Time for me to get on the horn, tell you what!
    Lovely job, Penny. Was perfect blend of getting mom’s thoughts out there and sharing yours.

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  11. Penny, please tell your mom that she’s not alone in wondering how those couples (who have to be staged for the show) ever found each other in the first place, let alone agree on a space to live in together where they don’t each have their own space to go to. 🤣 It was fun reading your random thoughts – they’re delightful and full of dare I say, coddiwompliness. I love that!

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  12. Penny, you are such a good girl! I’m sure Mom loves all your help! xoxo

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  13. So good to hear from you, Penny. You are an adorable grizzly bear. I don’t know what happened but I’m not getting notifications about new posts and I thought maybe your mom was on a blogging break. I’m going to fix that while I’m here right now.

    I wonder a lot of the same things your mom wonders, especially about HGTV and open concept living and why are the women always so controlling? I know they think they need drama but wouldn’t it be nice to watch a show where the people get along really well?

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    • Yes, mom doesn’t understand why all the women are like that either. She’s always happy when the couple seem to actually like and respect each other, which isn’t very often in TV land! I’m glad you’re set up to get notices now, Ms Robin! Mom hasn’t gone o a break but she thinks about it sometimes. But she says where else would she record my craziness if not in a blog! Hmmmm, wonder what she means by that?!

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  14. I loved your meandering thoughts and photos Penny. Reminded me of Ms. Robin’s Monday meanders just sharing what’s on her mind and the pictures she chooses, like you did. I do hope you can come to peace with all the wild things you protect your mom from – getting to go camping is worth it!

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    • I hope so too, Ms. Karma. She keeps talking about this camping thing, and I don’t understand. But I sure love to be outside, and I would probably like to sleep outside as long as mom was right there. She says she’s putting up something called a tent in the back yard this summer. We’ll see. I didn’t like it last summer, but I was just a silly baby back then. Now that I’m a grown up silly girl. Who knows!?

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  15. I am enjoying Penny’s wisdom and words and her photos. I have been forwarding the posts to a long-time friend, former co-worker and dog lover. My friend tracked dogs for many years and many years ago she taught the Windsor Police Department how to track with their dogs – the first police dogs in their department.

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  16. Penny, you are one smart doggie. Also protector and very good as an assistant. I so agree about House Hunters and why do the women all want their way. What about the poor guy who barely gets space for his clothes? 🥺I think if he complains, he’ll be in the doghouse. You are very good at just being you. Lovable Penny. 😊

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    • Why thank you! I work hard at just being me. Mom wants me to be obedient (yea right) and dad sometimes wants me to be quiet, but I’m just gonna be me which is neither of those things!

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