We can learn alot from our pets...

I don't really have much to report. Although I guess if I were to think about my week I could come up with a laundry list of little "oh really" or "huh...." moments - but I don't feel like it.

The new job is going fabulously, but as with all new jobs I have my unavoidable DUMB moments where someone asks a question of me and I can feel the vacant look come over my face like a cloud passing in front of the sun. Luckily, I have never been alone in the office when this has happened - but now that I have said that I'm sure today I will get the mother load of things that I need to ask about before delivering the correct answer.

It warms me to see some of the relationships between "man" and "pet" so far. We could learn alot from our pets, really. I have always found pets, dogs in particular, a necessity in my life. They accept us unconditionally and each day for them is a sea of exploration and wonder of "every day" things. Each ant requires as much inspection and wonder as the mail man that peels away from the mailbox every day.

On Tuesday a yellow lab came into the hospital with a shattered back leg. Hit by a car. We had him in a room in the back while the owner went home to discuss the options with the family. Amputation or euthanasia. The leg was too badly crushed to save. He was only 2 years old.

I got to know this dog a little that day - he was as sweet as they come! He managed to chew through his tie out at one point and wandered around the office until he found somebody. With broken leg swinging along as he hopped - I guided him back to his spot as he wagged his tail and gave me a look that said, "I don't plan on being here long...."

With great misery, the man came back and said they wanted to save the dog and the amputation took place yesterday. When I came in to work, surgery was done and he was laying in "the run", his back leg quite noticeably gone and a shaved thigh in its place. In true animal fashion, he awoke with a wag in his tail and a twinkle in his eye. He got a bath and a walk outside before going back to the run to rest.

At one point yesterday afternoon, I was there alone and my new friend began to whimper for his pain. I went back and held his head in my hands and talked with him for a little bit. His tail gave me a thankful thump, thump - he blinked and blinked and he stared right into my eyes. It was a very strange moment. I watched him as he kept trying to figure out how to lay down. He could tell something was not quite right as he circled the bed. I had to fight the urge to go in and help him - they need to figure this out early on I was told. And he did. Later he was given a pain killer and got a much needed nap - having figured out how to lay down sans back leg.

A family member came to see him, too. A young boy of about 16 or 17. He stood at the counter and asked with a hopeful smile, "My dog is here....can I see him?" I lead him back to the run and he stood and watched his beloved friend sleep and sleep. I was encouraging and assured him that his dog would recover fabulously as dogs do - and he will have his friend back home in a few days.

I have to admit I will miss this dog a little when he goes home. I admire his happy and trusting soul despite all of his troubles. Yes, we can learn alot from a dog.

Happy Thursday!

Happy Monday!

Well, the week was off to a rather slow start. Jack (german shephard) could not resist to urge to bark at what goes bump in the night, all night ...and Mark had to leave at 2:30 a.m. for Des Moines, so I awoke a little foggy. Then, I drank too much coffee for a non-coffee drinker and then I felt gross and tired. I finally shut the pot off, hello! and felt much better.

Made some progress with the lighthouse project. I got it placed and some rock moved and have left a few spots open in hopes I find that random neat thing to put in there. It was fun to see the light come on last night as it got dark. It is a solar light that charges daily in the sun, then shines at night! It has an option for a strobe action, like a real lighthouse, but that more resembles a prison yard to me at night, so I just have it on a constant light! I am getting there:




Our weekend was fairly uneventful and yet it seems we are busy both days, too! We went for a motorcycle ride Saturday night. Every time we go, the first 30 minutes I find myself wondering why we don't do it more often and I have all of these wistful inspiring thoughts as the scenery passes by so poetically. Then, 2 hours and 30 minutes later, my ears hurt, my back hurts, my entire body is vibrating and what skin that was exposed feels tingly and almost numb for the next 4 hours and I wonder what the hell I am doing out there! Oh well - I will go through that cycle 4,000 more times I'm sure!

Happy Monday!

Not so breaking news...

What a great evening tonight! I nice respite from the rain - but a rainbow left behind makes me appreciate the thunder!

At the moment, "weather" is the equivalent to a hot poker in the eye and the news coverage on it is almost too much to endure. As with most things in life as it pertains to human nature, the need to beat to death the story of the moment is too much to resist (yes, I know its NEWS but must we beat ONE angle to death?) Rather than asking John Doe in the boat for the 100th time about how much money this flood will cost him, how about asking him if this weather event has revealed anything awe inspiring about his life? No question this is devastating and the losses are great - I have a hard time tolerating journalists who ask the obvious. It's difficult to consider that on some odd plane - all events, good and bad, are purposeful events. I would like to hear more on that angle. It might make watching the endless footage a bit easier to bear...

Beyond that, it's Thursday and I am finding myself strangely bored this evening. Plenty I could do around here, I suppose - but I seem to have an itch I cannot reach. (NO, Mike - I don't need the spray on-antifungal-antigreenass-icky eww hole-deodorant....!) Mark is in Des Moines tonight so I am unable to finish some landscaping projects at the moment. Shoveling rock probably isn't in Mayo Clinic's Handbook, "101 Things to Help Recover From Major Surgery." I have been painting a solar Lighthouse to put in the Rock Project - I will have to take a picture of it when I am done....and more about Mark to come. I will get to something about my life in time. I need to meander for awhile.... ;-)

Instead, I guess this is a good time to step away from the screen and take the village idiots for a stroll. That usually reveals at least one light bulb moment! If it's anything noteworthy, I will be back to report.