Week Two: |
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Sn*w Dogs i - 2/10/07
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Since the snow isn't going
anywhere for a while, we have decided to just make the best of it. I
mean, I do still hear all these Ohioans complain about the snow
after all my years up here. If you don't like the snow (for just a
small part of the year), then you better not live here. If you love
the snow though, you could live just 25 miles north of here and have
about 2 feet of snow to be playing in.
Thanks, but I'll stay right here where we don't get as much snow as
that, and I'll enjoy it.
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We're enjoying a heat wave right now (it's up to 20 degrees and I'm
burning up.
 ), so Jim and I took the doggies for a big romp in
the backyard. |
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| Usually it's just Joxer
doing most of the playing, as the other dogz have never played with
any toys much. However, last Summer, Aries started taking an
interest in chasing after the tossed balls too. We've learned to
take at least two toys out to throw around now, so we don't have any
sibling rivalry clashes. |
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| It looks like now we'll
have to take at least three toys for the back yard romps. Not to be
outdone by his brother, Zeus is now chasing toys too - and he's much
better about bringing them back than Aries.
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Zeus took a shining to what was
formerly Joxer's frisbee. Luckily, I've got enough dog toys lying
around after all these years to have enough to keep everyone happy.
I just need to remember to replace Joxer's football before Summer
(he finally shredded it around Christmas time), so he has something
to fetch out of the pool. |
Look at this face! How can
I say no? Of course, I'll play with you too, Joxer!
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| Gabby never much cared for playing with
any toys. She's too much of a "cuddle-er" - she'd rather be in your
lap than playing with a ball on the floor. Outside in the snow,
she's adorable, as she bounces through the snow chasing after us and
the boyz. |
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| Zeus and I work on the
"Let Go" Command. It's one thing to bring the toy back; but they
have to let it go, if they want me to throw it again.
I'll play tug some; but we can do that indoors, so backyard play
time is for fetching. Joxer used to be terrible about not letting go
of his toys; but this Summer he learned "Let Go", so hopefully Zeus
will catch on quick too. |
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| After running all over the
yard, and thoroughly messing up the pristine snow with paw prints,
the doggies eventually wore out. Aries and Joxer took a break in
their frolicking to chew on the toys and Aries gave us a GBS picture
for this month.
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| Of course, we also took some movies of
me and the doggies romping through the snowy backyard. |
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MouseOver Special |
| Lately, I've been kind of bothered to
"not" be working. For a long time, I was really too sick
to work. When I was a little better, I had that job with Waikems for
a few years; but, as you know, in the long run that really hurt me
financially (just a little over two years to go now before my Social
Security check goes back up
).
Now that I'm really feeling pretty good though, it's been weird
seeing Jim off to work everyday while I stay in my new home.
Unfortunately, without a car, I can't really afford to try to get
more computer clients since I'm unable to get to their houses. And
I'm really leery of looking for a "real" job somewhere. I still
worry that I might have a "sick period" and that would screw up a
job. Plus I've already been burned (monetarily) by working, so I'm
kind of stuck. There probably isn't a job out there that would fit
with my situation - it needs to be flexible, in case I have too many
sick days; and it needs to pay me enough that, even if it affects my
Social Security amount, I still have enough money to cover my
expenses. I just don't know if that kind of job exists out there for
me. I'll just keep trying to snag a client here and there and wait
to see what the future will bring.
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But, on the other hand, I'm also kind
of glad to not be working. It seems that everyone has been having
work-related problems recently. First, Carolynn and Trent spent a
day handling a gas leak (boy, is this the wrong time of the year to
have a heating problem!), a freezer problem (though that might not
be such a problem for them. It's only 10 degrees out today, that
should keep any of the Dairy Queen products from melting.
)
and then on the following day, a woman was found dead in her vehicle
in the parking lot behind the DQ.
All this in the middle of them getting things ready for the DQ store
to reopen for the 2007 season. (It's a smaller store and closes for
a few months in the Winter.)
On a totally different note about Carolynn real quick here. She's
been chatting with guys on the Internet for years now. Sometimes
she's dated them for a while, and sometimes she's quit chatting with
them quickly. You know how crazy those people are on the Net.
She's got one of her new friends coming in to visit from California
this week - the same week that they are re-opening the DQ. She'll be
busy this week.
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My friend, Mike Poland, finally had to
quit his job as a Trash Collector. You'd think those companies would
be nicer to these poor guys going around in the snow and below-zero
temps, picking up everyone's garbage; but, nope, those companies are
as crappy to their employees as every other company. Mike just
couldn't put up with the problems of his company anymore, quit and
had another job through a temporary agency two days later.
Another friend of ours, Sean, probably will be looking for another
new job soon too. The new job that he got just over a month ago has
already been sending him home early and calling him off due to their
lack of work. |
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The last person I had to mention
having work-related problems is also the most important to me. At
the end of this past week, Jim was laid off (permanently) from his
fairly new job.
 For all the talk on the national news, things
just aren't good up here in Ohio. Sure, we've got a few rich people
hanging around; but the vast majority of the people in Northeast
Ohio are poor and getting poorer. Jim has been working at a National
Cash Advance (a check cashing, loan establishment). The kinds of
institutions have been springing up like weeds around here for some
time. (A decade ago, we had a glut of drug stores being built. Now
most of those places are just empty buildings.) All these cash
advance places are starting to feel the pinch now, as people in this
area aren't even making enough to not default on those small loans
against their next paychecks. Because Jim is not pregnant, as his
co-worker is, and has one day less in with the company, when they
lowered the axe it was Jim that got cut.
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So when I mention about how bad the
economy is here, don't think I'm just blowing smoke. Just look at
how many of my friends are trying to find jobs. Let's wish them all
luck that something comes along soon.
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Sn*w Dogs ii - 2/12/07
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| The weather forecasters are calling for
7-14 inches of the white stuff to fall tomorrow. I don't know how
much I believe them. They've been predicting it a lot this winter
and we only had about 3 inches though. We thought we'd head outside
with the dogs for some afternoon fun before we get snowed in
tomorrow. |
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Such a sad sight!
The ladder is up, the pool water is frozen,
and the deck is covered in snow. |
| But look! Who is that up on the deck?!?
MouseOver and you'll see that I'm not even pretending to wear a
speedo to get a silly picture. I just wanted to get some pictures of
the FROZEN pool - and then to get back inside fast.
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| Spreading across all three
monitors that I use, I have two very special desktop pictures that I
put on a lot. Both are pictures of the pool. One picture is of the
pool filled with beautiful shiny blue water on a nice sunny
afternoon, while the other picture is very similar except the pool
is filled with all the toys and floats. I'm not certain that it'll
ever be hot enough in the Summer up here (though we sure do love it
when we get a stretch of 90 degree days) to feel that I need this
chilling picture of the pool as a desktop picture.
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| These aren't quite our
special "pix2pix" pictures (that's where Jim is taking a picture of
me, while I'm taking a picture of him) but it's close. Jim was busy
taking my picture, while I was taking pictures of my babies. |
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As you can see in these
pictures, the puppies have their own area of the backyard fenced in
for their safety (and my sanity!). Believe it or not, this area is
almost the same size as the area I had for the dogs at the old
house. Since I moved in here as Winter was moving in, we came up
with a temporary method for letting the dogs outside. We removed
some lattice and screen from the side of the patio, and viola! the
doggies have a door to their area.
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| I love getting all these
puppy kisses!
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Sn*w Dogs iii - 02/13/07
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| Our first really big Winter storm is
moving in on us now. They are predicting snow all day and this time
I think they are right.
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| Looking out through the
kitchen window, we can see how deep the snow is getting in the
doggie's yard. |
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| The blowing snow, stuck to the patio
screen, makes it hard to see the pool just a few more feet out in
the yard. |
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What a sight! MouseOver this picture
and see the difference from half a year ago. The MouseOver picture
was taken at Pooltag this past summer. |
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| The doggies really do seem
to enjoy playing in the snow. It's so funny watching them as they
bound through the snow-covered yard, with their ears flapping in the wind. |
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| I took these pictures from
the Driveway Cam, as Jim was out using his snow blower on the
driveway. As the snow continued to fall, even I got a chance to blow
away a driveway full of snow. In total, we cleaned off the driveway
three times during the day (each time with 3-4 more inches of snow);
but still had to do the drive one more time the next morning. |
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Sn*w Dogs iv - 02/14/07
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The dogs weren't certain what to make
of the much deeper snow today. They didn't go very far out into the
yard; but tended to stay on the side of the yard that the pool had
sheltered from so much blowing snow. |
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As soon as Joxer hit a patch by
the blackberry bushes that was deeper than he was tall,
he popped
back out of the snow and was ready to head back inside. |
| Using a two liter bottle as a
reference, you can see how deep the snow is. For you folks who are
planning on building a float for Pooltag this summer, you should
know that a two liter bottle is 12 inches tall.
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| Always trying to make this
comfortable for my babies, I had to shovel some of the snow out of
their fenced-in area. I know I sure wouldn't want to go outside and
potty if my butt couldn't even get about the top of the snow. BRRRR
The snow isn't damp enough, or maybe it's still too cold; but I
couldn't make any good snow balls. That didn't stop the doggies from
chasing (and eating!
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the handfuls of snow that I tossed around the yard. |
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Ah, Jim thought he'd be safe from the
snow staying indoors! MouseOver for a good snowball hit!
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| After the snowplow finally
came down our street, I took my turn at running the snow blower,
when I discovered my first problem at my new house - our mailbox had
been whacked!!
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It wasn't just our mailbox either. The neighbors on either side lost
their boxes too and another one a few houses up the street. I think the snow plows did the damage as they raced
up the street throwing the heavy wet icy slush from the street. |
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We've at least temporarily fixed the mailbox; that is, until the
snow finally melts away and the ground thaws out enough that we can
really fix it. Using an old plant bucket (from the dogwood I planted
at 14th that died), which for many years was Ritchie's toy box at my
house, along with some rocks that I had brought from the fountain at
the other house, and a whole lot of snow thrown up from the snow plow,
Jim and I got the mailbox standing again.
It'll probably still be there until the April thaw!
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Ah, the difference of living in a nicer neighborhood. When Jim
called the city about the mailbox, he was told that not only had
another neighbor already called with this issue; but the plow driver
himself had notified his office! Wow!
And to make the
situation even nicer, the city will be out in a week (when some of
the snow is gone) to replace the four mailboxes on our street that
were whacked by the slush.
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mIkIE clearing the
driveway |
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Switching from the subject of snow; but staying on the subject of
the dogs, first, I'd like to show you this picture of Aries. He had
another big seizure earlier this month (1/06); but is doing okay
otherwise. Actually, except for the seizure problem, he's been doing
so much
better here than at our old house. He's more even-tempered, although
he still has quite a few of his moments, and a lot more friendly
since we moved. |
MouseOver
to see (and hear)
the mighty Zeus |
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Speaking of doggies still,
DO and Cliff will be getting a new one soon!
 Rosita's sister,
Marley (owned by Mike and Bob), had a small litter and the little girl is going to be living
with her Aunt Zita when she gets a little bit older. So far, they
seem pretty sure to be naming her "Rosebud".
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Marley (Mom)
and
Rosebud (Pup) |
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The proud papa, Mike, shows off how tiny the new little girl pup is. |
Sn*w Dogs v - 02/15/07
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Although it's only ten degrees outside
today, the sun is shining and it's really quite a nice day. No,
really, I mean it.
A hat, good gloves, a scarf, a thick jacket, long johns, a sweater
and some boots is all it takes to go out in this great weather and
enjoy the snow!
Keep an eye out for Joxer in the background of these next few
pictures!
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Joxer is still chasing down that basketball
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The Boyz |
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Aries seems to have found
something interesting under the snow. |
Zeus came over
to see what Aries had found. |
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Joxer even stopped rolling the ball around the yard to wonder if he
should check out what Aries was doing. |
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Eatin' Snow! |
Even though all my dogz are from the same sire and dame, the two red
spaniels are from the same litter, and the sibling rivalry runs high
between those two. Oh, Zeus realizes that Aries has issues, and will
still frequently antagonize him on purpose. While they don't quite
look like two loving buddies in these pictures below, if you could
have heard the snarling and growling, you'd know the boyz were
having a good time wrestling with each other.
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And Joxer is still chasing the ball!
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WooHoo! Click these pictures for more movies! |
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