We had several inches of snow today and are expecting up to 10 inches total by tomorrow.
When I let Kashi outside after work today, he saw the fresh snow and took a flying leap off the upper deck to land in what thought was a great snow pile like when we had the 2 feet of snow last week. He hit the ground and skidded halfway across the yard. He didn't know that under those 3 inches or snow of fluff was the same ice-hardened foot or so left from our "blizzard."
Boy...was he disappointed. Toes splayed wide, he quickly did his business and joined me back inside. He wants his playground back.
For myself, I like the snow, but would like a good thaw first. That is because my backyard could serve as a course--albeit a flat one--for the next Olympic moguls competition! All that tromping thorough the piles of snow created deep impressions that iced over. Each time I go out to chase Kashi back inside when those vicious dogs are about, I slip, slide, and fall repeatedly even with my crutches.
Neither of us are enjoying the backyard just now...
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Ways in Which You Know You're Turning into an Old Maid:
1. You no longer toss out the doggie toys in your bed before you go to sleep.
2. Your parents stop asking about who you're dating and grandchildren are never mentioned.
(I thought I would try for a "top ten," but I'm too tired. Any suggestions?)
1. You no longer toss out the doggie toys in your bed before you go to sleep.
2. Your parents stop asking about who you're dating and grandchildren are never mentioned.
(I thought I would try for a "top ten," but I'm too tired. Any suggestions?)
Monday, February 24, 2003
Caution...not for the squeamish...
Kashi wanted me to put an update in here because he's been so brave of late.
You see, last month he was injured. Several of my new neighbors seem to believe that the county leash laws do not apply to them. One neighbor in particular allows her two rather large dogs out to run every morning and every evening. Each time I saw them out I would wonder what would happen if Kashi were to be in the back yard when those two monsters came bounding down the alley/easement behind my new home. I have a fence, but it is only half-high and chain link.
Sure enough, when those dogs were let out one morning while Kashi was doing his business, the came running up to my back gate. The fence is leaning crookedly in the back corner and there is a substantial gap between the gate and the fence. I keep a board in the gap, but one of the dogs knocked it out of the way and tried to get through. I ran to the fence and started kicking my foot at the dog. When Kashi ran up to join me, he go to close and he was injured.
His long suffering came with his wretched mother not noticing his injury right away. I saw the bite on his nose and cleaned it off well. But I failed to notice that the other dog had ripped off Kashi's left du-claw (or however it is spelled), that small claw that is high up on the paws of dogs (and other animals). A week of isolated cries of pain and me not being able to figure out what prompted them went by before I saw him limping. I was horrified to find this bloody stump of a claw.
The stump bled and oozed for what seemed like forever. Each time I looked at the red and swollen claw, my stomach roiled with guilt. Each time he whimpered because something touched the area or limped in the backyard, I felt even more guilty. And angry. I should not have to worry about Kashi in my own fenced backyard--albeit a somewhat old fence.
[Note: Putting Neosporin on his injury as the vet suggested DOES NOT WORK with this dog of mine. He would lick it off immediately and sometimes the medicine never made it off of the q-tip!]
He's FINALLY much better and my guilt has subsided now that I know he is not going to be permanently maimed. And I take my pepper spray outside in the mornings and the afternoons when he is likely to encounter those dogs again.
While I rather like dogs and believe quite strongly that people should be allowed to have them as pets, I am beginning to very much dislike their owners--especially those who seem to have no regard to others when it comes to letting their dogs off the leash. Since I moved to this state, I have been bitten and knocked to the ground and my mother was knocked down by the same dogs that injured Kashi.
With each incident, animal control was of no help. Each time, the officers said they had to witness the event. What good are leash laws if they are not upheld?
Kashi wanted me to put an update in here because he's been so brave of late.
You see, last month he was injured. Several of my new neighbors seem to believe that the county leash laws do not apply to them. One neighbor in particular allows her two rather large dogs out to run every morning and every evening. Each time I saw them out I would wonder what would happen if Kashi were to be in the back yard when those two monsters came bounding down the alley/easement behind my new home. I have a fence, but it is only half-high and chain link.
Sure enough, when those dogs were let out one morning while Kashi was doing his business, the came running up to my back gate. The fence is leaning crookedly in the back corner and there is a substantial gap between the gate and the fence. I keep a board in the gap, but one of the dogs knocked it out of the way and tried to get through. I ran to the fence and started kicking my foot at the dog. When Kashi ran up to join me, he go to close and he was injured.
His long suffering came with his wretched mother not noticing his injury right away. I saw the bite on his nose and cleaned it off well. But I failed to notice that the other dog had ripped off Kashi's left du-claw (or however it is spelled), that small claw that is high up on the paws of dogs (and other animals). A week of isolated cries of pain and me not being able to figure out what prompted them went by before I saw him limping. I was horrified to find this bloody stump of a claw.
The stump bled and oozed for what seemed like forever. Each time I looked at the red and swollen claw, my stomach roiled with guilt. Each time he whimpered because something touched the area or limped in the backyard, I felt even more guilty. And angry. I should not have to worry about Kashi in my own fenced backyard--albeit a somewhat old fence.
[Note: Putting Neosporin on his injury as the vet suggested DOES NOT WORK with this dog of mine. He would lick it off immediately and sometimes the medicine never made it off of the q-tip!]
He's FINALLY much better and my guilt has subsided now that I know he is not going to be permanently maimed. And I take my pepper spray outside in the mornings and the afternoons when he is likely to encounter those dogs again.
While I rather like dogs and believe quite strongly that people should be allowed to have them as pets, I am beginning to very much dislike their owners--especially those who seem to have no regard to others when it comes to letting their dogs off the leash. Since I moved to this state, I have been bitten and knocked to the ground and my mother was knocked down by the same dogs that injured Kashi.
With each incident, animal control was of no help. Each time, the officers said they had to witness the event. What good are leash laws if they are not upheld?
Saturday, February 22, 2003
It’s been the longest of days…and I’m glad it’s nearly over.
The day started out pretty well…sleeping in…a bowl of Raison Bran Crunch…snuggling on the couch with my foot propped up and a book and Fancy perched on my cast.
But then my mother called crying because my sister had just been taken away in an ambulance and she was left there with my 3 day old nephew and while I was on the phone with my mother someone knocked at my door and I opened the door to find my neighbor asking me to call 911 and then passing out. I called 911 and didn’t get an answer for 10 rings and then faced so many questions I couldn’t answer that after I determined that an ambulance was coming, I hung up since I need to get dressed (I was in my pajamas) before the paramedics came. I propped my neighbor in my green chair, put fancy in her cage and Kashi in my room, and jumped into some clothes. Kashi got out so I put him in the basement instead of hobbling up the stairs again. I sat in the green chair holding onto my neighbor who slipped in and out of consciousness and who, when awake, was crying, begging me to keep him from dying, and trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. After the paramedics carted away my neighbor, I let Kashi out, but became alarmed when I saw that he was all wet. I looked down the steps to see water.
My basement was flooded.
Sopping up water on crutches is as difficult as shoveling snow on crutches. I did get some help, though...
I am ready for this day to end...but I wonder what tomorrow will bring...
The day started out pretty well…sleeping in…a bowl of Raison Bran Crunch…snuggling on the couch with my foot propped up and a book and Fancy perched on my cast.
But then my mother called crying because my sister had just been taken away in an ambulance and she was left there with my 3 day old nephew and while I was on the phone with my mother someone knocked at my door and I opened the door to find my neighbor asking me to call 911 and then passing out. I called 911 and didn’t get an answer for 10 rings and then faced so many questions I couldn’t answer that after I determined that an ambulance was coming, I hung up since I need to get dressed (I was in my pajamas) before the paramedics came. I propped my neighbor in my green chair, put fancy in her cage and Kashi in my room, and jumped into some clothes. Kashi got out so I put him in the basement instead of hobbling up the stairs again. I sat in the green chair holding onto my neighbor who slipped in and out of consciousness and who, when awake, was crying, begging me to keep him from dying, and trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. After the paramedics carted away my neighbor, I let Kashi out, but became alarmed when I saw that he was all wet. I looked down the steps to see water.
My basement was flooded.
Sopping up water on crutches is as difficult as shoveling snow on crutches. I did get some help, though...
I am ready for this day to end...but I wonder what tomorrow will bring...
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
I'm finding it difficult to be thankful for snowplow drivers since I have had to dig my car out four times already and the spot I saved (after digging out the second time) by marking it with two plastic deck chairs twice.
That probably did not make sense, but the short of it is that somehow the drivers on my street seem to think that the spot in front of my house is a great place to shovel more snow.
Kashi is have a tough time since the snow is crusted. He will spread his toes as wide as he can and mostly manage to stay up on the crust. However, he does fall through from time to time much to his utter dismay. And he has this horrible habit of deciding he's had enough of braving the wild and will sit down on the snow and cry pitifully, picking up one front paw after another, trying to avoid the cold.
I end up schlepping across the two foot deep snow covered yard with just one crutch so I can carry him back across the artic zone to warm sanctuary of my home (my bed).
I suspect that tomorrow's visit with the orthopedic surgeon with not fair well between digging out my car, rescuing Kashi, and digging out my gutters (tonight's endeavor after hearing dire predictions of flooding should homeowner's fail to clear their downspouts).
The good news is that my back is recovering from all this shoveling. While I am struggling with thankfulness for snowplow drivers, I am brimming with thankfulness for the makers of motrin and celebrex!
That probably did not make sense, but the short of it is that somehow the drivers on my street seem to think that the spot in front of my house is a great place to shovel more snow.
Kashi is have a tough time since the snow is crusted. He will spread his toes as wide as he can and mostly manage to stay up on the crust. However, he does fall through from time to time much to his utter dismay. And he has this horrible habit of deciding he's had enough of braving the wild and will sit down on the snow and cry pitifully, picking up one front paw after another, trying to avoid the cold.
I end up schlepping across the two foot deep snow covered yard with just one crutch so I can carry him back across the artic zone to warm sanctuary of my home (my bed).
I suspect that tomorrow's visit with the orthopedic surgeon with not fair well between digging out my car, rescuing Kashi, and digging out my gutters (tonight's endeavor after hearing dire predictions of flooding should homeowner's fail to clear their downspouts).
The good news is that my back is recovering from all this shoveling. While I am struggling with thankfulness for snowplow drivers, I am brimming with thankfulness for the makers of motrin and celebrex!
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Could there ever be a time when there was too much snow?
I used to think not. I reveled in the Blizzard of '96. I had snowdrifts over four feet high in the alleyway where my apartment was. Kashi adored frolicking in the snow, and I spent an entire afternoon wading through the waist high stuff to get some milk from a 7-1, relishing the arduous journey as if I were Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Long Winter.
Of course, back then, I was a professor at a college where safety of the students and staff was paramount and there was no thought of going to work until the last vestiges of danger brought by the storm were conquered by the snowplows. I was actually scared driving to work today (seeing a car careening around on my street just as I left was not very comforting).
And... back then...I was not a homeowner. A homeowner with no significant other to shovel snow for me/with me. A homeowner with no significant other and with a fracture cast and crutches for the torn ligament in her left ankle.
Yesterday, whilst balancing on my crutches and digging out my car, straining my lower back wherein lies the worst of my arthritis, I came to the startling conclusion that even I had to admit that there can actually be...too...much...snow!
I used to think not. I reveled in the Blizzard of '96. I had snowdrifts over four feet high in the alleyway where my apartment was. Kashi adored frolicking in the snow, and I spent an entire afternoon wading through the waist high stuff to get some milk from a 7-1, relishing the arduous journey as if I were Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Long Winter.
Of course, back then, I was a professor at a college where safety of the students and staff was paramount and there was no thought of going to work until the last vestiges of danger brought by the storm were conquered by the snowplows. I was actually scared driving to work today (seeing a car careening around on my street just as I left was not very comforting).
And... back then...I was not a homeowner. A homeowner with no significant other to shovel snow for me/with me. A homeowner with no significant other and with a fracture cast and crutches for the torn ligament in her left ankle.
Yesterday, whilst balancing on my crutches and digging out my car, straining my lower back wherein lies the worst of my arthritis, I came to the startling conclusion that even I had to admit that there can actually be...too...much...snow!
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