Let's Go For Two

A couple of you asked about the dog, which would have struck me as a perfect reasonable question nine years ago but now that I've lived here for a while you should know that I am looking at you like you have two heads - pretty much the same way Ol' Neighbor I-Don't-Want-To-Know-You looked at me way back when. The dog? The dog was fine, of course, and became one of the many numerous hazards around which I eventually learned to navigate. Deer, longboarders, turkey, bicyclists, opposum, those people who ski on dry land... any one of them might pop out in front of you at any moment and most/many/some dogs roam like roaming hordes. I never figured out where that particular black lab lived (that way somewhere) but I did come to know his summer schedule, which involved him taking himself for a brisk walk down our road followed by a swim in Whosits' pond. In time I also realized that telling Mr. Wilson that there was a dog in the road was like dropping the shocking news that we have squirrels in our yard. Not Done, Dear.

Oh see, hey now, how nice. I just got a text from one of my new friends (a text. I told Steve that I needed a smartphone despite all evidence to the contrary and now just look at me - all texty) saying that they are meeting out for the birthday of one of her friend's tonight and she'll send me details if I want to join them. To continue with my point from yesterday, how amazing is that? To be completely honest I am not sure if I am going to be awake and mobile by 8:30 (what is this? Chile?

total digression:

Steve and I went to Santiago to visit friends once upon a time and we were appalled to discover that the locals don't eat dinner until ten o'clock and then they go dancing. We tend to keep country hours so by 7 o'clock we were gnawing on our own arms whimpering with hunger and by 9 we'd be curled up into sleepy balls. We were a lot of fun.

Which further reminds me: Steve and I went to Maui for our honeymoon and somehow managed to never adjust to the time change. Feel free to interpret that in a suitably risqué way, all waggling eyebrows and twirling mustaches and fortune cookie entendres - why yes, we had a lovely time in Hawaii... in bed ho ho ho. So we would call for restaurant reservations and it would go like this, "Oh. OK. Well, when do you open for dinner? Fine. Two people at 5 o'clock then." I think the reason we never saw any whales is because they aren't nocturnal.)

Anyway. I have been invited out for drinks later and I am very pleased although in the time it took me to type this she has changed the time to nine so... we'll see.

I opened the front door last night and discovered this on the porch.

Patrick. Of course. And if you require a frame of reference he named this charming tableau "Crime Scene". 

Comments

[Scheherazade]

Love the snowmen!
Completely agree about bedtimes - we were on a ski trip last month and used the hour's time difference as justification for being in bed at 8pm pretty much every evening!

[Kristin]

Patrick's snowman scene reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes snowmen...love it.

[Lou]

How very Calvinesque of Patrick. (Calvin is what my eight-year-old is, at this very minute, laughing about for his bedtime reading.)

I understand what you mean (regarding the entry prior to this one) what you mean about needing large spaces in your togetherness, even with your best beloveds. I often must weigh my need for companionship against my need to spend some time alone, thank you very much, especially when my work entails actively attending to and interacting with groups of people all. day. long.

[kara]

CSI: Minnesota! Oh, the pathos..

[Cathy]

Has he been reading the Calvin and Hobbes? :-)

[Noelle]

Haha! Ellie & Ben are both currently upstairs reading Calvin & Hobbes in bed. ;-) I believe Patrick spent good time & energy explaining an earlier variation of snowmen crime scenes from prior to this recent snow. Haha :)

Going out for drinks at 9 o'clock?? And on a SCHOOL night!? ;-)

[a]

There is something about black labs, I think - when we were building our house, a black lab wandered up and hung out at our house for the day. First, it was facing off with the horse in the pasture behind our house. Then it wandered around and ate Doritos and drank our water. Finally, I went to the neighbors house because a package had been delivered to us by mistake, and the dog followed me. Since my job was tending the fire to burn leftover wood scraps, I was dressed in a close approximation of a homeless person. So, I made an awesome impression on the neighbors (who thought I was the UPS driver, apparently), especially since the dog walked into the neighbor's house when he opened the door. The dog had a tag with a website on his collar, but we didn't have internet access at the house (or electricity, for that matter). Fortunately, the other neighbors were nice enough to let the dog stay in their garage overnight, so it didn't freeze to death. We never found out where the dog lived...

[Noelle]

Wow, a, a roaming dog with a *website* on his collar? Sheesh. Talk about ignoring the digital divide. I hope the digitally connected pooch found his brick & mortar home!

[Hetty Fauxvert]

OMG, the snowmen!... the facial expression on the upright snowman is priceless. Sorrow, the dregs of anger, just a hint of a shrug. All in sticks on snow. Kid's got talent! LOL!

Our rural neighborhood here in NoCal is not exactly touchy-feely but a bit more in touch with the neighbors. (My favorite was when a breathless, agitated female voice called on our phone one afternoon, demanding, "Do you know what he's doing down at 6201 (your street)?!" I'd met the man exactly once when I was searching for a stray cat, so I said, "No, I don't." She said, "Oh. Well, never mind," and hung up. I STILL want to know what that was about! LOL!)

Favorite animal neighbors right now: The people across the street have a daycare center and a boatload of various animals to amuse and educate the small fry. Their peacocks have discovered that we set out food for the (fixed) feral cats, and they drop by almost every day: Mr. Peacock (with the HUGE tail you'd expect), Jr. Peacock (apparently a juvie) and the two Mrs. Peacocks that we can't tell apart. They enliven our back porch enormously on a daily basis, which is why we never complain ... but did you know that peacocks are ENORMOUS birds and deposit enormous poops everywhere, much like geese? Yah, I never knew that before either.... ;o)

[Anne]

Just go, it is amazing how just being out of the house and away from the little ones can wake you up!

[Arnebya]

At least the snowman looks apologetic at his murderous snowy ways. We eat late (according to people who visit/talk to us) and dinner is rarely available before 7:30. The only time we make an effort to eat earlier are holidays and that's just to leave more time for drinking (it's really to accommodate older guests who eat earlier.) Oh, we've tried to remedy this but it's just not hapnin. If we eat at 5 all of the children will come back at 7:30 saying they need...something edible.)

[JuliaH]

I moved to northeastern Minnesota from the Twin Cities (this was more than twenty years ago, now) and was also unfamiliar with the rural convention regarding pets – specifically, that they roam freely. One day, I spotted an elderly dog walking slowly by the side of a road several miles from our house. The dog had no tags and I immediately assumed someone had abandoned their unwanted pet on a country road out in the middle of nowhere. I was furious. I bundled the dog into the car and took it home…where my husband immediately made me turn around and bring it back. Having grown up locally, it seems he recognized the dog as belonging to a farm about a mile from where I had picked it up.

Dog-napping. It happens to the best of us.

[Tine]

Patrick should change his name to Calvin.

Hetty, do your neighbor's peacocks make an ungodly noise? Once upon a time some good friends of mine lived out in the country next door to some crazies who kept lions & tigers & bears oh my -- and peacocks -- on their property. The peacocks were constantly squawking, and their calls sounded exactly like wailing babies.

[ememby]

The snow crime scene made my day.

[winecat]

Snow man, Calvin and Hobbes, priceless

[Julie James]

Sometimes bed can seem so alluring..but push yourself to go out and get into the swing of things. Sometimes we forget how the other half lives! Hope you have a fun time :-)

[Terri C]

Definitely a Calvin come to life. Awesome.

[Hetty Fauxvert]

@ Tine ... *When* the peacocks make noise, they will Definitely Get Your Attention, but they don't do it often. And they have never sounded to me like a screaming woman or a wailing baby ... just a huge HONK or sometimes the classic aww-AAAARRRK! which sound very "jungle-y" and makes me feel that I'm in the middle of a Tarzan movie. Which I quite like!

The neighbors also have guinea hens, which make me want to go over and throttle them. (Hens, not neighbors!) The guinea hens make an ungodly racket and NEVER shut up while they're awake. They took to visiting also (that cat food is a real draw!) and I kept chasing them back across the road, hoping their pea brains could take a hint. One day a guinea hen met its demise on the road (not my doing! really!) and after I called the neighbors and told them about the dead one, the rest somehow quit turning up over here. Apparently the neighbors can take a hint. ;o)

[Pru]

That reminds me of when I was traveling around Spain, they all get dressed up & go for a walk around the village square at 9pm, have dinner no earlier than 10pm & then stay out till 2 or 3am dancing!!
But then nothing opens until after 10am anyway & everything shuts at 2 in the afternoon for siesta, & often wouldn't open again!...made it tricky to buy stuff sometimes!

[Katherine]

Please mail Patrick to me - I just LOVE that kid.

[Julie]

Julia, what is the link to Patrick's website? I got a new computer when my old one decided to die and had it bookmarked on the old one. I'd like to see what he's doing and I'm especially interested to see if he's posted anything about the license plates I sent. I sure hope they were helpful for him. I probably overloaded him with way too much info about my state and the "history" notes I sent alongn with it! HA My mom got sick around the time I sent them and I "think" I remember you emailing me saying he'd gotten them but I can't be sure. Hopefully he did. Anyhoo, I'm anxious to see what the little booger is doing on his site.

Thanks,
Julie

[eileen]

I laughed out loud at your sleep woes, mainly the way you paint such a gorgeous picture of Edward. I'm not sure I've ever commented before, but I read you lots, and also, hey! I live in Santiago. And yes, they do eat late and go out later. Which is perfect for me because I don't, and I like my alone time, too. Though sometimes I can be swayed.

Thanks for entertaining me, yet again!

[fogoupJow]

You will find some interesting points in time in this write-up but I do not know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I appear into it further. Beneficial post , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner at the same time


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