I have lots of stories to tell you. A visit to the family farm (barns!) and a bike ride in the park. But I’m back to work now and I’m behind again. Well. I guess I could blame being behind on work but the reality is I’m just behind in general.
So stay tuned. I promise barn photos are coming to a blog near you.
Maybe a bicycle photo or two as well.
Maybe.
Sneak peek.
You coming?
Follow me!
Just resting a moment.
More please?
It’s been a busy weekend here. Friday night I played with the community band as the warm up act at a local park.
Playing in the park.
The main act was “The Magic Bus,” a group of guys playing 60’s and 70’s music.
Member of the Bus.
We stayed and listened to them play…
Dancing to memories.
…and watched the happy dancers of our generation feeling the beat once again.
Giant dancer puppet
Saturday Katie’s Aunt B and I took Katie to doggie school where she got to practice heeling and jumping and circling and such.
Exercise over!
There’s another sheltie in class now and they seem to like each other pretty much. As much as shelties like any other dog I guess.
Toby and Katie
Saturday afternoon we got Katie’s agility stuff out and she ran and jumped some more.
Heading for the tunnel!
She doesn’t like teeter, but the rest was pure fun.
Jump!
Sunday morning we went to the farmer’s market, Katie tagged along and she got lots of petting.
Walking at the park!
Then we went to her favorite park and had even more fun!
Sharing the park with my Aunt B!
But Sunday night Aunt B found a tick on Katie! OH NO! This is her first tick ever! So now we know we have to be vigilant. Katie was so good, sitting still while her Aunt and her Dad put alcohol on the tick and pulled it off.
She’s such a good girl. She wants to know what we’re going to do for fun today!
Sunday husband, sister and I went to visit husband’s Aunt V. She probably deserves her own blog post…so I’ll write that one later.
At the park
Katie here. Guess what? My Aunt B came to visit me! First thing we did (after I sniffed her a bunch and approved her) was go out in the back yard to play! (Mama says you can click on the photos to see more details.)
This is my tunnel. But I’ll share.
They got my tunnel out! I haven’t seen it in two years! I got my Aunt to go through it first, just to prove she could. But after that it was all me!
This is my Aunt showing me how it’s done.
I remembered all about the tunnel. Mostly I remembered that if I ran through it when my Mama yelled “TUNNEL!” I got a treat. So I ran really fast.
Then you know what they got out? My CHUTE!! Heck I haven’t seen that in like forever! And I wasn’t scared at all. Nope, not me. I ran through it right away and then every time they said “CHUTE!” I ran through it again.
Here I come!
Then I got hot and ran through it and then ran over under a tree and laid down. I was done!
I love this game!
No more playing for me today! I need some serious ear scratching and tummy tickling and I know just the Aunt to do it too!
Aren’t I cute?
See you guys later….we’re going to school tomorrow and my Aunt is coming along to see how spectacular I am.
Smile!
But for now I just can’t stop grinning!
The traffic was stop and go on my way to work today. So I had a lot of time to contemplate the license plate on the car just in front of me.
IOALOT
Say it out loud. You’ll get it.
After I got it I started looking at the car itself. Was it a Lexus, a BMW, a Cadillac? No. It was a very very old Oldsmobile. They don’t even make the Oldsmobile anymore…and this wasn’t one of the last ones built.
It was big as a tank, square, low. Probably rides great and still looks pretty good except for the rust around the bottom of the trunk lid. So. He owes a lot. Obviously not on this car, so must be somewhere else. Which made me wonder. Aren’t vanity plates expensive? If you owe a lot why would you spend money on a more expensive license plate?
Oh. Wait. Maybe he compulsively buys things. Like vanity plates. Maybe that’s why he owes a lot.
You know, I bet there’s more to this story.
Wildlife watches each other.
My sister is coming to visit us!
She’s certainly visited since this was taken!
She hasn’t been here in many years. Katie was just a youngster during her last visit.
Katie and her Aunt long ago.
Katie is waiting impatiently.
I find my self doing something my mother used to do when she was preparing for a visit from us northerners. I always seemed to arrive just after the azaleas were in full bloom. Or after the dogwood or wisteria was finished for the season. She always told me how beautiful they were and I tried to imagine it.
Today as I was weeding I wondered if our Koosa dogwood would still be in bloom when she arrives.
Prettiest this tree has ever been.
Will the clematis still be as spectacular?
Pretty in purple
Maybe the poppies will be opening.
Getting ready to burst!
Hopefully the begonias will still be beautifully orange. She says orange reminds her of Mom who had an orange front door and when we were kids an orange kitchen sink. I hadn’t thought of that when I picked them out for our front entry. But I think of Mom frequently as I come and go now.
Remembrance orange
Katie says I should stop worrying about what will be blooming. She says whatever is blooming we’ll all have a great time together. Katie has all sorts of plans for things to do with her Aunt. She can’t wait.
I’m waiting…..
Me either.
Hey Mom
If work last week was difficult, this week it is impossible. Since mid February there have been three women in our department whose husbands have died unexpectedly overnight. This past Sunday it was the husband of someone in my region. The resultant pain and grief among our small group is overwhelming and we all feel so helpless. Each of us wants to help her. None of us can. The work must still get done, and the volume of emails and phone calls has intensified as people hear and want to know what happened. And, of course, how to help. Today is only the third day of this never ending week. We were exhausted before. Now we are plodding, a painful slow hobble; we’re just getting through each day. Our exhaustion and pain is all consuming but nothing like what she is living through right now.
So it surprised me a bit tonight to find I could still smile and sing, even tap my fingers on the steering wheel. The CD from our spring concert arrived last night and I listened to it on the way home this evening. What a great concert; it was full of happy, fun, upbeat music. Stuff you can sing (or at least hum) along with, sway with, nod your head with, snap your fingers to. Good fun, great memories, heart singing music.
Here’s a sampling of what we played (found on youtube and played by other groups for your listening pleasure). For Lassie and Benji’s mom I give you Lassus Trombone. (She plays the trombone so I figured she’d get a kick out of this.) And New York 1927 was really fun to play. We featured the trumpets in Bugler’s Holiday …including one of our oldest members at over 70 featured as one of the soloists. We even showcased the clarinets with Pie in the Sky Polka…a piece I spent way too much time practicing.
The whole evening was really fun, and the memories of that concert kept me smiling tonight on my long commute home after another very long and sad day at work. For the concert we invited 10 or so 7th graders to play with us on a couple of the pieces. The kids looked so young. The young man sitting with us in the clarinets said as he took his chair that he was nervous. We said that was OK, we were nervous too. Afterward his grin, and the grins of most of the other kids went from ear to ear. Amazing what music can do.
I wish it was this easy to lift my friend’s spirit.
This is all mine!
Katie here….Three day weekends should be the norm because then I’d have my Mama around more and we could do more fun things. Like going to my park! Mama kept promising me all weekend that we’d go to the park. She said that a lot while she was weeding and hauling mulch and stuff. After awhile I didn’t believe her anymore.
So when Dad said “Hey Katie-girl (I was sleeping and he woke me up!)…do you want to go to the park!?” I knew something was up. He never asks me that. So I got all excited and missed the evil look my Mama gave my Dad, cause I guess she was busy with something and now she was going to have to stop doing it and take me right away because Dad got me all riled up. It worked too! I should probably pay Dad a commission or something.
Come on Mama, hurry up!
We had the park all to ourselves. I guess Mama had planned on taking me to a bigger park, but then she realized that those parks would be full of people doing Memorial Day stuff so we just went to my local park. I didn’t care, I was so excited to be there I didn’t even want any treats when Mama offered. I just wanted to sniff!
Every year Mama takes me to this park to take my picture with the pretty yellow flowers. I don’t know why, I always look the same. She says this year we were a little late. I don’t know what she’s talking about. I still look beautiful even though I am six and a half years old. Little late. Sheesh.
A Sheltie is never late.
We practiced some obedience along the way too. And of course Mama did that distracted recall thing. I’m really really good at that. I love running back to my Mama when she calls.
Coming Mama!
Toward the end of our walk the sky got dark and it started to sprinkle. I don’t care so much, but Mama said we had to get back. You see, we tried camping last night in the back yard for the first time this season and Mama said we needed to get back to the house so we could get all the camping stuff back inside. Whatever Mama. It’s not like we spent very long out in the tent last night. It was stinking cold! But I’m not worried, I know there’s going to be plenty of camping nights this summer.
Here’s me being ‘dramatic’ before the rain.
I had a great weekend. Too bad Mama has to go back to work today. On the other hand, I could use a nap!
What are we doing next weekend Mama?
Katie here. So the weather guy this morning says that the sun came up at 6:03. I figured I had waited long enough so I got my Mama up at 6:06. I didn’t want to rush her out of bed. But on the other hand, no sense wasting a day of this glorious three day weekend either!
So as my Mama was stumbling around the kitchen making her oatmeal (notice she did not make me anything!) she noticed there was steam rising from the pond across the street and the sun was up and it all looked sort of pretty. She stopped mumbling about bad dogs and hustled me outside. I noticed she had her camera and that always excites me because I know it’s gonna be another “beautiful Katie photo shoot!”
We got to walk down the road, and she never lets me do that! It was so much fun! We went down our road and around the corner to the neighbor’s pond. I love going there; I get to sniff where frogs and turtles and other dogs have been. It smells heavenly! You should try it some time.
But I didn’t get to smell too much this morning because my Mama stepped on my leash to keep me near her and was taking pictures. But not of me! Can you believe it? She was taking pictures of the pond!
Early morning.
And the moon.
Hello moon!
She doesn’t take long when she’s out in 37 degree weather, sunshine or no sunshine, so soon we were off on my real walk. I got to sniff a lot of great stuff and she didn’t hurry me at all. That’s why I love my Mama. After awhile though we were both pretty wet and cold. So we headed back to the house where I got my breakfast. Wow. I got to go on a walk and it’s not even 7 a.m. yet! This has been the best weekend ever!
I got a little damp.
Mama promises that on Monday we can have even more fun. She says she has to weed more gardens today though. Well. That’s fun for me because I get to be outside with her all day. Weeding is fun. Not as fun as the park but pretty close.
I’m going to take a little nap now. All this early adventure is exhausting.
shhhhh……
Change Is Hard 