dec 31

All I can say is wow,  I am flabbergasted.. with the sellout of the henny penny board... that certainly is a game  changer. and my head immediately went to now we really can concentrate on finding another crazy fool to go with us on these trips  to daycare centers..  We can start immediately at figuring out which facilities can cope with---  for the first thing the trailer---  I can think of at least two places where I could not even begin to get the trailer close to the facility.   and how does the world feel about parking where it clearly says fire lane....  And then do they want us to bring other animals.  I know that the concept of just even walking through any facility leading a well behaved mini donkey...... would do an unbelievable lift to the spirits of the staff working in some of these places... And let me tell you from seeing some of these places these activity directors definitely need  help---  ..  they work extremely hard with little if any budget and 99% are just plain worn out.  Hopefully we can provide that “lift”. Thanks to all the Goldy Warriors who support us...  you all have now caused us to rethink the process. of delivering smiles to those in need.

 

 And in the process I have discuss the process of sticky buns... and how they might entice people to come and join our happy tribe... I have spent at least 5 minutes trying to remember and list the things I need to buy to accomplish this sticky bun project..  and immediately I remember my mother saying you need just a little bit of sugar to activate the yeast..  and whatever you do never let the  yeast. Cool off... ,,, so based on that I will try and get someone off to the market for the basic ingredients for dinner rolls.. to stary the project... test drive....    heaven knows we have eggs which I do like to put in it because Elizabeth's chickens have begun laying eggs all over the place so we have eggs if we can find them.  I  am on it !

.

yesterday Tommy Nugent came to visit--- he gets the DD--- Tommy Nugent was slightly older than Janine and worked around the farm in Lynnfield Because he was desperately interested in the race track and encouraged by my husband who also was interested and spending money on  horse racing.----- some of you may have heard these 2  stories but --------I have forgotten why our horse named gal  Friday hurt her foot----but for some reason tommy put her in our cellar which had six inches of water in it from the flood so she could soak her feet ----and then----I was in the process of teaching Tommy to drive a horse trailer... and there was one day when the back of my car had two televisions in it going somewhere...   and I had just cleaned out an old jewelry box which had many old timex watches in it.. so the process of trying to get the batteries for those timex to see which ones worked I had strapped six or eight of them on my arm... and Tommy and I were out with the trailer...  Tommy driving----- a policeman stopped us because I had the wrong sticker on the back of the license plate... and as he scolded tommy  for his lack of paperwork-----  I could not resist sticking my arm out in front of him and saying.  ” wanna buy a watch ?”-----Tommy remembers that day clearly also because he was terrified he was going to land in jail as being the driver of this vehicle loaded with hot items.  Tommy is now giving up horse racing thank heavens it is now a highly respected medical doctor in Kentucky...  but he is and always will be a very independent thinker who.  loves to argue. .... as do I..  so we spent three hours discussing some really interesting concept I hadn't maybe thought of

----he said from his experience---the last thing you want to be in a hospital , or doctor’s office ,   or emergency room is any kind of doctor ,politician, noted actor or any of those things because it changes the attending doctors approach to your medical problem.----  he went on at great length about this with all sorts of stories to verify his theory.    I know full well that there is an expression if you are a doctor's family something medically will go wrong ..  I heard that for years and I've also seen it relatively true. ------so I think he has a point to ponder there.  He said he personally never tells anybody he's a doctor-

That concept went along with mine of it is far wiser to own a Ford or Volkswagen bug than to own a Rolls Royce or Bugatti.. because the guy in the corner gas station can fix the other ones without having to send way for a spark plug,--   From DNA to The Big Bang theory to mike rowe,,,he and I covered a lot of territory and had a good time.

interesting also-- both he and janine have given up riding risky horses- where once they could fall off and hit the ground and nothing hurt or  broke.   not true anymore.

 

Back to work.... The henny penny board--I tried to shut it down last night and get the next one open and the whole website had been so busy that it basically was shut down and I couldn't do anything----- I hopefully can work on it this morning and get everybody thanked and on their way and on to the next one ------that sell out has been great for my general mental  being...   Many thanks to all of you.

 dec 30

I could not make this up---100 years ago when I started service dog project ----maybeeee... like year 2002 or 3 --- someone came to my front door and said she heard that I had puppies to be trained for service dogs and they must be making an awful mess and she had just bought her mop and bucket with her. would I be insulted if she mopped my floor...  I of course said I'd wouldn't mind at all which she then did and continued to be around for several years...

 

 yesterday Janet came in the door and asked if I would mind if she tried to change the filters in my vacuum cleaner because she couldn't figure why my carpets weren't better looking it must be the fact I hadn't cleaned the filters...  once again I of course said by all means have a good time--- so she proceeded to take the vacuum apart and clean and shake out and dust and put all back together again and my carpets have never been so clean.. she also had to comment that the receptacle on the vacuum needed dumping often only because my carpets hadn't been properly vacuumed for quite a while because of these clogged filters.. I'm delighted to have her do that----- of course.!  . she said she would be back on occasion to redo the filters... REALLY !

 

then I got a phone call from a woman who asked if there was anything she could possibly do to help out my situation of being plunked down in a relatively inactive way... so I told her that at the moment what I needed would be for her to come and make herself a cup of coffee and hang out while I took a shower.. she was thrilled to be able to do something to help and hoped that she would  earn a yellow monkey fist of her very own.

 

Judy tells me that somebody came in the day I left for the hospital and cleaned...the oven..   now how many other places in the whole country/ world.   did somebody offer to go in  somebody else's house and clean their   oven... but this happens around here...  crazy acres has always been. #1.  CRAZY. And #2 FUN....

Could we possibly once again achieve that  fun status?   I am sure with your help-----    and IF YOU ALL continue  to   keep the henny penny board going we could quite and be able to serve the community

In creative ways and  KEEP CHAOS ALIVE !!  --

 

Into my head has  flown..... STICKEY BUNS !!!   --- endless possibilities.....Wow---.  there are things I would love to do and just now cannot do it but I can certainly show somebody else how um a few very unique things that I've learned in 80 some odd years----- like making sticky buns..  I am a super sticky bun maker and I would love to have somebody decide to they could help me do it and see how I I had been trained to do it so long ago...

 

More possibilities???   ---backing up a trailer or splicing rope are just a few things-for all the weird things that I can do that others cannot do there are thousands of things that everybody else can do that I now--- or always did---- find impossible.... like  piano playing.  ...

Now... it’s “ ALEXA...PLAY. MOZART.... or scot Joplin..”

 

SO----if you can,   go and finish out the henny board for the month. it has been a strange month.... and we will work very hard to keep one foot firmly planted in midair.

 dec 29

Dec 29..

I am back... 3 ambulances two hospitals about 10 MD's and 4 RN’s and about two dozen monkey fists later...  I have returned... I was very impressed with the Beth Israel hospital in general which was connected to Beverly hospital which is where I started in Beverly they decided I needed the special care of doctors who specialized in things like blood and breathing... So landing in the emergency room of Beverly hospital quickly moves me to the ICU in Beverly who then quickly put me in an ambulance the transport to Beth Israel in Boston where they had actually when I arrived it looked like they had already assembled a group  in the er,,,,,of blood and breathing type doctors---about six of them at that point. they all looked about 12 years old-- so I was concerned that I'd landed in the middle of some lecture for students...   but I carefully went over the tag they all wore which clearly stated MD... So I basically decided to rely on whatever they had stored in their heads to make them MD’s as I really had little choice..  I dished out a monkey fist to everyone, and let me tell you that was impressive.  first of all those things are cute.. and the comment about “when you think you've lost your mind you have one left”. got a chuckle out of everyone and I continued my monkey fist distribution for the next 48 hours with huge success.... Has anybody who came along and poked and probed and chased my oxygen level around in circles----  I could not see the logic of what they were doing sometimes but then again I don't have any MD after my name...  I just did what I was told.

 

Well I had to keep myself entertained---and Janine came to visit with both larkey and my Walker and on the Walker she had a huge spool of half inch cotton rope---apparently she had been to her latest meeting with some people who are getting donkeys from her who also have Hunt horses that they ride--who have all decided that those animal handlers that I make are The Living End and she had about 20 orders for those 10 to 12 foot--combination halter lead rope----with a few orders for the 18 foot combination halter lead..

so as I sat there on my bed with nothing to do I spliced the rings into one end and splice the ends so they didn't unravel.... which then left me with a glue gun so I could cut the edges off... I found out that you should not use a glue gun in a hospital bed---- it seriously burned my third finger everybody got a kick out of that and I didn't even try to glue anymore I brought them home I'll finish them here those lead ropes are very nice---- they'll handle almost any animal from cats to cows,,,, which is why I designed it that way—

 

So I am home-- pushed up the hill in a wheelchair with great difficulty by Janine and nick...  I can see all kinds of problems in the future with this arrangement.. but I'm warm I'm dry I'm fed I have entertainment I have my dogs what what kind of problems do you see with this arrangement ----next is dictated by Janine. Coming down the ladder from th r loft bedroom........“ mom what's this what kind of problems do you see with this arrangement well I'm stuck yes well no I'm stuck whether you're getting that in there oh I know but I'm I'm stuck you're in the way ohh I'm in the way yeah oh couldn't that is that better well you're lucky I'm very thin that's true you are that's all in the daily doggy you wanna that stay there too.

We are operational--- stay tuned –

26 Dec 2023

 Good morning eveyone!

This will be a unique Daily Doggie as this is Judy. I hope you all had a wonderful and healthy Christmas with friends and family.

there was a bit of excitement here yesterday afternoon. Our fearless leader took a ride to the ER and was then transferred to Boston to spend the night. We are texting and talking, nothing will keep her down. I only wish I had exciting or comical things to entertain all of you.

 dec 25 

Wow do we have food !! thanks to the goldy warriers...... from soup to nuts !!  including shrimp scampi and LASAGNA ! ALL EATEN OFF PLATES GIVEN TO US BY  ANOTHER GOLDY  WARRIER.. TO BE CONTINUED TODAY—AND PROBABLY FOR THE NEXT WEEK IF WE CAN FIND CONTAINERS TO FREEZE SOME...AND ELIZ DID A WONDERFUL JOb OVERSEEING while I “stayed out of her way” ..

 

Stove still bashes onward.... doing a fine job....now to organize the pellets---- I have plenty of those bulk milk containers ( like ?12?)  just need a cleaning....

 

My early morning burst of mental energy---- you know those ideas you get before you've actually gotten out of bed ---what was it going to be wires..  the wire situation around here is absolutely dreadful and I had waited to get the alien tape to be able to glue up some of these power strips so now I have the alien tape and the power strips and a lot of good intentions we'll see how far that goes today ---if I could just get the wires off the floor we could clean we could roll things ...  I love furniture that rolls out of the way so you can clean under it and I do have a lot of rolling furniture..

There must be some way to straighten this mess out and get the wires off the floor.  As I sit here at my desk there is a power strip with eight wires going to it and I have a feeling about half of those wires aren't attached to anything else.

 they're ones you inherit with time and  you're afraid to unplug..

 

Elizabeth and nick are really enjoying the new house---- I suffered with it for 40 some odd years and never got anywhere ---the interesting thing about that house is that the electrician who wired  it drank. the kind of substance that blurs your judgment..  I had to laugh yesterday when I heard  nick had flipped the switch in the in the cellar intending to cut the power to the living room and the bathroom light an outdoor light and a garage light all went off

The worst switch is the one in the living room which controls the outdoor porch light that you  Like to have on when you go out the door so it is on a motion detector... I believe that that motion detector light is controlled by a switch in the upstairs bathroom and in the living room.... so by the time you add a motion detector it's hard to figure out what's going on..  it makes life very exciting..

 

That was the old building inspector who  finally okayed his wiring as not dangerous just very strange..  that is also the building inspector that stuck his finger out at me and said I was ” out of my league I was only a woman”--- he's no longer around---but there are a lot of strange stories about him.

 

I did see a photograph of jiminey playing with my nieces dog... so I can assume that Janine has gotten to Arlington VA... where I believe she was staying overnight.. last time she stayed overnight there she had a trailer on behind with a donkey that somehow got out and fell asleep on a neighbor's lawn and then didn't really want to get up... making Janine very worried the the donkey might have expired on their lawn... saying it was one she just got out of the auction and it was in terrible shape..  The combination of Janine and Debbie can be frightening....arlington is not the kind of neighborhood to  willingliy accept a dead donkey on the lawn...... but it was live... eventually....  

 

I think it is about an 8 hour drive from dc  area to boston....

have a merry......

 dec 24

I think I approve of this pellet stove.. it did so well last night that it turned the other thing on air conditioning----- so we had a an argument there for a few minutes, between the thermostats however we fixed it. 

i have seen this before... larkey does not approve of my falling asleep in a regular chair... twice now dozing in front of the stove he has come along and poked his nose to wake me up i think this is related to "alerting someone" in the process of having a seizure they are aware of an altered state????!

The pellets It's seem to multiply themselves all over the floor .... As the 40 LB bags have to be broken down into a dumpable size.... I hope I can get one of those milk cans operational as a pellet supply With the Sierra cup that I ordered .

 

Janine plans to drive tomorrow from so carolina--- which would hopefully avoid a lot of traffic-- I think she will be pulling a trailer but it will be empty ? maybe who knows. I will be very pleased to see both Janine and my dog back again... I have a feeling he could get very used to having Janine wait on him... much the same as Wanda demands some attention on occasion.

 

The TV is reporting that volunteerism is down---I don't think we find that true-- but at the bank the other day I watched so many people come in and start chatting with the bank tellers... it was so obvious that I wondered if that was in any way related to cell phone usage and they don't actually have a person to talk to until they get to the bank in which case they hold up the whole line showing pictures of their dog last Christmas at their uncle louie's house or whatever.  the bank is certainly not my favorite place to find human contact.

 

I am told Elizabeth has things planned for today and tomorrow.

Have a happy----- 

 dec 23

A Ghillie kettle ! –  I am now told--- scottish !.. it was extremely cheap when I bought one years ago—like $20--- now made in stainless steel it is more like $100—however the concept of a kettle with a fire chimney  INSIDE THE KETTLE  Is interesting and works.

 

ANOTHER BRand: https://www.campingkettle.com/

 

As for the topic of heat... I woke up to my  normal electric heat producer  on the wall pounding away and I was chilly..... with my new pellet stove....leaving me running for the three page set of directions that came with it--I opened the back and there was only about 1 cup of pellets left so I thought maybe it shut itself off--I knew it had two buttons in the back so I pushed them both.. my directions clearly said the red light meant that the thermostat was calling for heat.. and I sat down with my second cup of coffee ------in front of my antique Glenwood cast iron solution to heating problems......  with that one you need a piece of paper couple sticks and some wood and you have heat.. but this is a new pellet stove..  it has its own rules and regulations and one of them is even if you push all its buttons and the red light does say it's calling for heat it has to think about it for a while... so as I sat there in front of my instantaneous Glenwood it took about 1/2 an hour to get a fire started and another 10 minutes before the blower came on once it did I'm laughing...  but it was a long ½ hour –

 

couple thAT  with.... I dropped my cell in the dogs water bucket--- and it refused to work... and it refused to be charged either....eliz said she had the same problem once.  but it was better when it dried out...  ... so we sat with that during mail call... we could still not plug it in.... we had all kinds of reasons why we thought the dog water would prevent us from charging--- to no avail....  then nick came home and took my phone to his house where he had a magnifying glass--- and  he said there was a small rock in the charging port..... ???? from the dog water???? At any rate he picked that out and it worked..

 lesson of the day....when confused do not eliminate all ridiculous  possibilities....

 dec 22

Dec 22

150 years ago---  well maybe 50 years ago I went down the Colorado River on the   raft.... white water three day trip.. in among other things like the magnificent view and all that sort of thing I was totally fascinated with the fact that they gave us a Sierra cup and one blanket and we were expected to survive with those meager supplies... I can remember shoveling the sand into a curved shape to accommodate my various body parts because we had no pillow or anything like that..  but I survived for three days cooking   eating drinking   out of that Sierra cup..  so I have always sort of semi guarded it in my possessions and I do think it's probably the one that we are now scooping dog food with is still the original....as it hangs on the side of the milk transport tanks or whatever they are..

 it never occurred to me the good old Amazon would have them but now that I have pellets to scoop along with dog food to scope I did reach out to Amazon and by golly they've got all kinds of Sierra cups...  but there is one standard size and shape..  

that really fascinated me the fact that the one slightly different thing which was something I could have used out there on the Colorado was a strainer the same size and shape as the Sierra cup... So I have now ordered a packet of two cups with one strainer. now camping in the cabin I am assuming that I once again will manage to survive cooking eating drinking etcetera with one sierra  cup. Bet it is a super noodle strainer.....

 

I don't know why I'm so fascinated with temporary living...   And I cannot remember the name of this thing but there is a camping equipment teapot== somehow I think it's Irish and it begins with a Grulllie pot?-it is a flimsy metal thing that unfolds to a chimney shape thing -Where it is possible to boil One Cup of water with one piece of newspaper ----I did buy one of these things and play with it and it was possible with this very strange chimney affair where one piece of newspaper would get One Cup of water boiling..  Somehow I think the thing was Irish so you could make a cup  of tea out on the hills----I wish I could remember the name perhaps you people know it---- after I played with that I played with making a chimney affair out of bricks that was very efficient where you let a little bit of air in the bottom .. I got That idea from the handheld charcoal briquette starter where a couple pieces of newspaper we'll get the charcoal briquettes going.. 

And now I sit and watch this pellet phenomenon.   sparkes do fly around a bit== I don’t know why they are not drawn out the  side wall by the fan..

 

I called the  fire department to see if they wanted to inspect... they said “ We don’t inspect those”. So it sounds like .... they are safe and are not prone to screwing up????

\

I hear janine will drive home on Christmas day to avoid traffic???—I should not say “home”—that is what she is building down there....

 dec 21

My last article in the Ipswich news was a pretty good one I think.. ..  another in my series of lazy dog training.      it had humor, facts, educational facts, suggestions and things like that...  Critical in my dog training process is now going to the Beverly train station and sitting there drinking coffee in my heated or air conditioned comfort with the puppy in the back who's just getting used to all those noises without anybody getting excited or moving quickly or doing anything except just sitting there.---- no walkabout's  just heated and a/c comfort.

 

 I remember --- I think it was due to the publicity George had gotten for being service dog of the year ---in I believe 2015... I had a request to have a group of Japanese photographers and trainers come and watch me train the dogs -----so I of course said sure and they all arrived I think there were. four of them... with one speaking English we made it through the first day no problems...  I was doing my usual method of training which is for me to do a minimum amount  of  physical effort ----but by the time we got to the second day one of them asked “ when are you going to actually train the dogs?” and I said what do you mean and they said to walk around and make them walk beside you... they had no idea that the dogs already did that because of all these  semi natural things that I did with them - their whole philosophy of training was total domination.. so for me to present the fact that I expected the dogs to think was a whole new ball game... Well they all went back to Japan well the whole bunch of new ideas to share with people and that's the last I heard of him..... technically I think they thought I was crazy.  except they couldn't argue with the result.

 

that is so true with an awful lot of the obedience training that goes on for the AKC obedience trials..  absolute and instantaneous  obedience...   somewhere here I remember reading as a young child "intentional disobedience"..  as a child I thought that was wonderful idea but the concept does apply to my service dogs at any rate...  as it does to say the guiding eyes for the blind type dog...  if you tell one of their dogs to walk ahead... and there's an overhead awning that would hit their partner in the head.......--- the dog is expected to go round the awning...   for a dog to make that judgment always impressed me and I'm not too sure how you teach it ..

apparently elizabeth put a few carefully thought out  things on some wish list and last night’s mail call was the result--- you folk are wonderfully generous—and we/she ended up with 3 wheelbarrows—which I now --- at 2 am--- have put together...—and as I wandered back thru “my orders “ on amazon..... I see pictures of a delivery  of mine that got lost in her wish list----   amazon shows the picture of them being delivgered in ( now ) her doorway --- and she must have kept them----

 

 my 2 pounds of lollypops !!!~!~!~ ( for another project----)

 dec 20

Well I've just invited everybody in for the great push------ I have the area clear for the stove to be put where it's supposed to go but we do have some heavy duty furniture moving to do--- Elizabeth said she'd come back after she gets her kids to school and Carly and and Mike are trying to get themselves glued together and Eric a friend of Glens from way way way back high school um lives around the corner and made the random remark of if you're ever stuck for something give me a call I'm here so she's calling him poor Eric...   I need furniture moving..  having two huge reclining chairs has complicated my plan but it's not impossible yet so we're on it and also Elizabeth has just removed my absolutely perfect wheelbarrow those things are beautiful apparently I have three more to put together of that variety um and one of the of the four wheel wagon variety so it's going to take me a while..   but the dog bed which is also the twin size bed makes a perfect work table as long as I can stuff all the dogs on the queen size which is working until Jimmy comes home then it's going to get crowded but we will manage...  

 

fyi-----before I forget there is only one thing for those people putting together a wheelbarrow there's one thing they left out of the instructions you gotta tighten the four bolts on the square panel before you put the barrel in because once you put the barrel in you can't get a hold of the nut to hang on to get the thing tightened so I did have to take it apart put it back together again to some degree but it's together now and I know about that---- experience comes from bad experience..---

 

now my other fascinating thing of the day is the guy coming to put the stove in I have not met him but he is a retired fireman and certainly his partner is also a retired fireman and was absolutely delightful..   so I really would like to have a lengthy discussion as he slowly puts together my stove----- umm about the the problem that I really did just have a month or so ago about having a problem that I did call the police about -----and then having the police say I wish we didn't have to answer such silliness -----well it may be silly to them but at 86 when somebody is shoving you around and doing damage to your property, you have to call somebody and I called the police------- well somebody did make a comment about they weren't thrilled with that -----well that's that's really kind of too bad???--- what am I supposed to do the other option would be the fire department ( or the greek mafia??) well fire   arrive with great big red trucks and things and it really gets to be a horror scene and I have had to do that in my life when that that time when we had the roof fire I had Janine up on the roof and her Victoria's Secret underwear trying to put the fire out when the fire dept  arrived in their big trucks and black boots. actually they were thrilled to have answered that call and I did hear them say they wish that all their calls were the like that ... but towns do  have  a problem with there being no interim problem solver to help deescalate a situation that needs de escalating..

 

ok... I hated to call but who am I to call when something like this happens?  Elder services will get around to it in about 6 months. But this was a “NOW” problem... who to call?  Should there be a third service department ?===police... fire and general distress---  like a cat stiuck in a  tree???

 

thankfully Sunday the police answered the call and once again reminded all those at service dog project that in spite of the fact – we are told---their lawyer has told them to strip  all the assets lynn  could manage,----- this is perhaps not the correct thing to do----- she was supposed to not take anything off the property until it was run past a judge who would decide -----this is a mess going on here and we need some professional help deciding  what is what..... I cannot imagine any judge deciding that I would out of the clear blue sky buy a 14,000 LB dump trailer to help someone train a dog.  you just don't need to do things in that magnitude when it comes to dogs----- it is entirely different with horses where I was bringing in two tons of hay and taking out probably 4 tons of manure on  pretty much a  weekly basis there has to be someone in the legal system who would see the logic that somehow is missing in this mess...  along with the fact I never deducted anything...i am “overdonated “ for many years to come... I do believe....  nor did I receive the little thank you for donatng  it from anybody ...  there was a need and I filled it and never figured somebody would just try and take possession of something that has absolutely no use when  trying to train a service dog.

 

Keep in mind--- Ipswich arrested me for a leash law violation!!

 

ELIZABETH HAS JUS BROUGHT ME MY NEXT GIRRILLA WHEELBARROW TO PUT TOGETHER.    WHOOOOOOOOOO !  I AM ON IT.

 dec 19

i will pay attention big time to  try and see why constant contact is sending out wrong emails... cant be me ... not soooooooo  many times...

Not having a puppy to play with or to be my companion ---I'm trying to make do with the company of people and I can't say that that's working terribly well.  Dogs are far easier to get along with... if you take care of a dog and give it lots of  necessities like good food warm place things like that dog will be very pleased and will reward you with smiles and tail wagging ----do the same for people and you run into one here and there that will turn on you and tear up your very existence just for the pleasure.

gotta love  broadway music....  was it yul Brynner with  king and I “ if others have the power to protect me, might they not protect me out of all I own? “   

As mad as I can get at banks..... I have to thank them for copies of all the checks I have written-

 

Granted there are some people who will give you the shirt off their back and maybe even carry a bag of groceries in from your car....... with heavy oranges in the bag even...!!!!---- however there will be one or two in your life that will  try and run off with the  oranges ... or even the whole bag of groceries as they give you their opinion  about living... Twice now  I have been told “ you are lucky we let you live here” –  That is true-- and i am still here !!

Gracious living  here got shot down long ago.

 

Changing the topic to gracious living--- 

Colby college ( maine)—someone gave them a grant so that  the Wednesday evening meal in the dorm  could be  extra nice--- often lobster— and for that we were supposed to  dress up....wear stockings and high heels.... which we did---- but the rest of the attire left a great to be desired...

Colby--- they insisted every graduate should be able to spell 500 words correctly--- I think my parents paid to get me out of there...it wasn’t really my type place...  which is how I ended up in Edinburgh for my junior year...  Scotland was a whole new story....  logic with a zing to it...

And Elizabeth is a good representative—sparring with her can be dangerous to your(my)  health... as I have found out at mail call.. do not fall mentally asleep or you will be in for trouble !!

 I will be glad when she stops sneezing so we can  do mail call together again...

. deagle. house-- after

 dec 18

I sit here surrounded by 100 year old trees I only hope that they have been through as much wind before and that we can make it to 101 because it's really blowing outside and every once in a while a whole bunch of pine cones at once fall onto the roof it sounds like a herd of turtles I just emailed Elizabeth to see if it was happening over there too and she said yes it did why they decide all of a sudden to let go I don't know but it seemed to be true both in the cabin and the house interesting.

 

I have to hurry because the insurance company is due here sometime between 8:00 and 10:00 to survey the damage done to the deal house three   people  -. luckily we found a picture of what the deagle house looked like before it was ransacked and torn to smithereens.. the insurance company and police have interest in the fact that it was was once very recently used on a daily basis and now it is totally out of Commission.

 

And looking back through all my photographs on this damn phone,  I came to many which will be useful in the next couple months..

 

other than that I have to run 

deagle house before

 dec 17

Apparently Janine took jiminey thru a car wash..... And which was a good example of my Beverly train training..  she photographed him sitting quietly in the back of her car as she went through the car wash..  she was very relaxed so he was very relaxed and didn't bother him at all.. and she had to add the comment that she was sure he'd never been through a car wash before because her mother never washes her car.  dig dig dig....

 She  shouldn't say never--I do remember once throwing a bucket of soapy water on the hood and roof and going and driving down route 95 at 70 miles an hour -----the car got clean.

 

I love the picture of Janine supposedly training jiminy in Home Depot...  except....?training???  that hurt my feelings-----Let me be the first to correct that one she's exercising a dog who is very well trained already and is just being exercised.   How easily they forget.

 

Welllllll sometimes...? nothing to do... I had a new 47 pound bag of dog food----sitting there I had to wonder how many scoops there are in a 47 LB bag using our scoops... well there's 104..... and the 47 LB bag cost. $91 --- at about 5 cups per day(2 meals) I made that a bag and a half per adult dane... a month.    Just in case anyone needed to know that...

 

Ipswich is not a food delivery friendly town...   I must admit I was very happy with the open door program which apparently is going to give me a meal every Monday night...   however the restaurants in town don't come way out here to boxford Rd...   And if you even mention Ipswich to any of the surrounding restaurants it's too far the other direction so they anticipate delivery times of 50 minutes with an extra charge of $7.82..   so I'm stuck with Alex's sub shop--  even the Chinese restaurant won't deliver.. but you can hire one of those drivers which gets to be too complicated for my advanced age.

 

there was a wonderful show last night on about. AI....  I really wish I could have heard the whole thing but apparently it's something that  deserves some significant consideration..  they did have a man on who had been in an accident and severed his spine and therefore had no ability to walk..   until they put two funny little pancakes on top of his skull and he walked around with a computer in front of him and something would pick up one foot after the other and he could actually walk... however being hard of hearing I only heard about every third word and I really don't know what they said....  or if I could understand it if I had heard it... 

 I do find it amusing that dictating to this machine has taught it  to spell hay with an A.   because of my horse association  when it usually spells it with an E..... that's a very sophisticated bit of programming

 

it's almost as much as telling me there's traffic stuck a mile ahead on a back road On which I rarely travel..  They are watching whoever they are..

 DEC 16

It is the photographs that give me such a headache writing the news article...  I have a great article written about using the beverly train station to train service dogs for city life.... but I need to go take a photo... which will. Be on my phone, and I can’t seem to send it to my computer....  this is a serious problem and has stopped several great articles because... no photo... or permission to use photo//

The critical part of this article is that ... in my opinion....... pups and dogs in general ( and people too)are extremely motivated by food--- it is an addiction which , with the dogs, is like a savings account which must not be squandered un necessarily... I never carry treats... because their mind is on that pocket of treats and they miss what you are trying to do with their mind !!.. A pup has to like me- hence the can of wet food. ..... and we do fun things together....and I ry very harn not to scold them when they have done something wrong, because very often the dog misses the part of misbehavior and their mind goes to “I went to her and she was angry” ---They have a very close association between doing “A” caused “B”

 

So if I can this morning ... I must go to Berverly train station---  then pray someone can get the picture off my phone....

And I can not take Elizabeth (ET) in. the car with me..... who is still sneezing but better....

 

AND---- FOR ONCE... WRITING THE ARTICLE HAS MADE ME REMEMBER TO SEND THE DAILY DOGGIE..... (SOMETIMES DOING BOTH. IN ONE DAY IS A BIT MUCH FOR MY CREATIGVITY). SORRY... I WILL. TRY HARDER.   😊

 

In an effort to get back on my feet. I soux viee’d.   a piece of New York sirloin for breakfast which thanks to Donna’s warning.... I cut up into very small pieces which almost took the fun out of it but nonetheless I had a robust breakfast... now I'll go back to bed???  NO.....

 Judy is not here today it being Hanukkah or something um she's cooking so to set goals for the day I think today I will ride around on my golf cart that's a good goal it's been plugged in for couple of days now should be fine and I do have I do have one of those Blue Jackets which are tremendously warm thanks to Walt Disney for those of you who don't remember or know um somewhere along the line there was a surplus of jackets that we're not right for a movie or something of that sort a lot of them blew um and thanks to a contact down there they got shipped to us instead of thrown out so that an awful lot of people who work around here when I was running things and any rate have a blue jacket it was sort of a uniform they are tremendously warm double lined lining does zip out but I just zipped mine back in so you will see Blue Jackets around as it gets colder.

 

I have a window report from me sitting here watching what happens over at the  MAIN house----- Elizabeth is as of yesterday on her feet and in a car but not tremendously happily so ----she really is not feeling very well at all I haven't seen any activity over there yet and I probably should because it is it's is this a school day maybe they usually take the kids to school... Isn't it fun to have nosy neighbors with that an awful lot to do.

 

other than that I am ready with the E collar for larty----   although I haven't put it on him yet I'm waiting for Carly who usually feeds him at 7 and that should start the problem I had quite a few people telling me stories of their experience with collars most of them positive experience but every single one said you gotta be careful. There really is no substitute as witnessed.... by my friend Wanda yesterday at the nursing home if I picked up that collar and leash she would not come near me and I could insist all I wanted to and she would sit on something some chair right next to some guy and be very happy getting patted by him and totally ignoring my calling her regardless of how insistent I became then when I didn't have the collar and leash and she was fine she was just very definite she does not wear a leash what's going on---the dog action so my guess is somebody's getting in the car over at the house .. 

 

we did get 100 bales of hay –delivered by the “hay guy” in Salisbury—if I could get him trained to deliver it NEATLY  it would ....A. be handy, but ,,,,,B.... cost a few $$ more

and I have done the math----we save  enough to make it worth while especially when we go to some day care place in newburyport on the way to and from....

thee are a couple places “up there” which are “drop by anytime type places...  we like those....

HOWEVER.....most of the time... we have a set time. When they have a bunch of people all in a big room--- so it behoves us to be on time.....and we are... usually...

 

so no critter travels today--- but I know there is  BOOKING FOR TOMORROW....

 

CHEERS....

 dec 13 

I am very close to having to use an electric collar on larkely and it's a perfect place because it wouldn't require any great heavy duty shocking just a little jiggle might work

 he just cannot stop going after wandas food even though we do feed her inside a crate with a door just slightly open so she can get in but he is bugging her and she snaps at him she has bitten him yesterday his lip his lip was bleeding and it's only a matter of time before they battle it out so in order to stop the battle from starting see he's over there now checking it out all the time yeah so stop the battle before it starts thinking the electric collar would just a little bit of a ZAP to it might discourage him from going after her food.

it's the kind of thing where you use your expertise to stop a bigger event from happening and I can't help but compare that to the day so long ago when I stopped a fight from happening by taking a hold  of various parts of larcky when he was a little baby a little baby of still 130 lbs but a little baby and I at one point grabbed his ear 

so there were people online who turned that into how abusive I was of my animals and that turned into be a horror show thank you very much ----but I broke up a potential dog fight by doing so and it was my experience with dogs and dog fights that enabled me to do that ----for which I got no credit--- I got blamed for being abusive but now that people have seen a few dog fights around here lately and people are grabbing anything they can get ahold of and dragging dogs around by a leg and stuff like that you can see that if you can stop a dog fight before it starts you're way ahead of the game 

 that's what I would have to do with this electric collar which is a very very touchy thing to do and certainly electric collars do an awful lot of damage and people that are not used to using them and I'm certainly not used to using it but I can see if I could just have a little ZAP when his nose hits that dish of hers that he would blame the dish and not me and that would be a good thing so that may happen I've got it plugged in and we'll try again tomorrow so that's the excitement of the day

 

other than trying to go maybe get some hay that's the excitement of the day I hope.....  we do have a rehab place to go to rainbow in Peabody very active place the very funny lady who runs the show with a lot of volume and a license plate that says K9...  so I'll see you at mail call and on we go

ff

 Working on details this morning like business card and flyer and I'm still looking for help from anybody who has any suggestions the only name we're coming up with so far is my old name of 'animal episodes'.  which certainly does cover a multitude of sins but it's not very descriptive about going to daycare centers so keep your thinking caps on and if you come up with anything brilliant do let me know and don't be insulted if it doesn't get voted in.... to try and get three people to approve the same thing is damn near impossible.... it would be Janine Judy and me. but we try

 

we do have a actually 2 places to go this morning do it the 1st at 10:30 so we will be down the driveway sort of 945.

how this is going to enable us to get  hay is another problem... nothing is ever simple but if I manage to get up and out of here go to two daycares and get a load of hay I will be very pleased with myself.

I've also decided that around here I should stop using the Walker..    I'm not sure I need it...  ? a  mental crutch??  what I do need it for is to sit down when I get anywhere----- which is my only excuse for taking it with me..   this place we're going to 1st this morning is about a 40 foot walk in from the parking lot through the door and to the elevator... but it's the slowest elevator in Essex County... and there's no place to sit... these are the complications of trying to visit these places.. and that's why I have to take the Walker..   I should maybe line up the “UP” walker that Ann gave me  which lets you stand in a much more upright position... and still has a chair.

 

somehow me using a Walker is akin to a baby becoming addicted to a pacifier...  I never let my children have a pacifier---- In the process of raising children I had seen mothers absolutely frantic because they lost the baby's pacifier... and with my ability to lose and misplace things I thought it better to stay with the natural solution. ... they had a thumb,   use it. 

 

Wanda. Will of course be with us today--- and we are minus jiminey. – who Janine says is  proving to be a  wonderful dog....

Hopefully I am back on my own feet---   I should be able---let us pray/

 

p.s.  to have last night’s dinner  delivered  by “the open door”. ---was very nice--- there was a small ceaser salad- amer chop suey and a lovely brownie for desert !!