Walking With Daisy # 2

 Here I am home another day with Daisy and Mate. What an exciting time we have had since we last wrote. Horrible fires in our community and we are praying for rain. During the heaviest of the fires we had friends call who were being evacuated from their home. They asked if they could come to our house with their dogs. Of course we said yes.





One of the dogs is an Irish Wolfhound, named Fen.  To say the least, this was the most dog that Daisy (and Mate and I) ever saw.  Daisy was  fascinated and wanted so badly to play.  Fen would have none of it.  Daisy as you can see is about as big as Fen's head.  When he came in the house I heard her bark an octave higher than ever before.  Luckily they got an all clear and did not lose anything.  But it was an adventure for all of us.


Then on Monday, April the 18th, my office mates took me to lunch at Pasqualls (which has the most wonderful soups in the world)I think it may have been a combination of birthday and retirement.  Brad gave me a gift card from Amazon so that I could buy books for the Kindle.  I got it loaded in and all I have to do is chose a book.  There are several I want to buy but I am having a hard time using the card.  I figure when I use it up it will be gone (which if you think about it makes perfect sense)   Never had a gift card before except to eat.  I have learned it is much harder to buy something with a  card than it is with cash.  This is exciting for me.  ......  Took me a few days but I purchased a book recommended in our Sunday paper.  Don't know the author, but it sounded like a good read.  Emily and Einstein.  I have  now  almost finished the book.  It is about a young woman in New York City who is married and her husband is killed in an accident.  He is then reincarnated into a scruffy dog who of course winds up with her.  She thinks it is just a dog. Versions of this story line have shown up in books for years and this one has some unusual twists.  Fun read.  I recommend it.  Wonder if Daisy is reincarnated?   I think not.

My daughter sent me a flower arrangement.  I am not usually a fan of cut flowers but how can a dog lover not love a flower that looks amazing like Daisy.

All in all a grand birthday.  Being 75 is another road to travel toward 76.  Occurs to me that I have been on the journey toward 76 years all of my life.  I just didn't know it would happen this quickly.  

Walking with Daisy #1

Part time retirement (PTR) has taken its toll on Daisy.  She is off schedule.  When I worked from 8:00 to 5:00 she would get really excited when I came home in the afternoon.  Breathing hard, running from the front door back to me then to Mate, talking Schnauzer talk.  She knew as soon as I headed toward the bedroom I was going to change clothes, I was going to get the halter, hand it to mate and she was going to "get dressed" for the favorite thing in her small life.  A walk through the neighborhood!  You might say she lives for those walks.  I of course had to get a sack and a rubber glove (since I am a good neighbor and pick up behind us) and she sits almost quietly in Mate's lap waiting for me to say "Okay".  Then its off to the races.

Daisy, Mate and I attended obedience school this past spring and early summer.  Our main purpose was to train Daisy to walk on a leash.  Not that she doesn't know about a leash, and not that she doesn't know about a walk, but putting them together is difficult for her.   I know you have seen those wonderful movies, or true life stories, about the Iditarod and the beautiful Eskimo  dogs that pull the loaded sled, along with the master, for miles and miles over frozen Alaskan terrain.  When we were looking on Pet Finder for a rescue dog to adopt, we came across Daisy's picture and she was described as mostly Miniature Schnauzer, weighing approximately  15 pounds.  We never found what else was in her background until we went for our first walk.  Obviously somewhere in her background was a sled dog pulling for all she was worth.  Daisy still does it today.

Despite the best efforts of the several trainers at the Obedience School, we did not quite master the walking on a leash part and we actually never missed a session.  Now we did learn about snacks (her favorite part)  and how she could wait patiently for one.  She even learned to get down when you put the snack in front of her nose and went down to the ground.  She still follows right along with you and lays down, never taking her eyes off the snack, to the point of almost looking cross eyed. She will wait patiently til you say "Okay" before she nicely takes the treat from your hand and lays there and devours it. Mate and I have not found an actual reason for this but she does look cute doing it.

But back to the walk. I often wish I had better balance and could ride a skateboard as it would be a wonderful exercise for Daisy to pull me. We have one of those leashes that you can let out and pull back in. She strains so hard I am often worried that if the leash would snap she would be in Archer County before she ever slowed down.

But back to confusion..... PTR (part time retirement) is giving me all sorts of different times to chose from for our walks and just this morning (Thursday, I don't go in til 1:00) we walked beginning at 7:00. She is trying to adjust. One thing for sure she is excited to go no matter what the time. Daisy may never be the dog that stops and smells the roses. Oh she smells all right, she has certain blades of grass and certain poles that she will at least slow down for but even when she squats she just keeps on going. I am thinking at this time in my life, going along with Daisy, straight ahead, looking neither to the left or to the right may be a good plan. The difference in me and Daisy, is that she looks down and I have to remember to keep on looking up. That way I will be sure and make home.

ONE MORE TIME

Here it is again.  About time for my birthday.  Three Quarters of a Century !! Now thats old.  Of course it sounds more when you say it that way than if you just say I will be 75.  No...I heard that and it sounds old either way.    I am doing something I have always said I would never do.  But then you know when you get a certain age changing your mind is about the only work your mind gets.  I am officially retiring to part time status. 

I began working when I was 14,  After school at S. H.  Kress in Downtown Wichita Falls.  That ill fated job from which I was fired for stealing  (see prior blog, Danger Liberal at Work).  I have loved working and have been blessed with having jobs which stimulated my mind, which stretched my abilities and where I have been free to use my considerable imagination.  I only went into this last job as a stop gap measure while my former job came back open.  This was after we had moved to California when Annde was ill.  I was going to work for a period of probably 10 days, doing them a favor, I thought. That was over 6 years ago. It has been a happy time.  I believe we have mutually benefited by our association but more so on my part.  Now they give me the opportunity to work part time.   I  love both of the Altmans, father and son, and have been blessed by working there.  My hours will probably lessen as I get used to this retirement thing,  but I will look forward to a day out now and then.  Have to admit I never did master the secretarial part of my job, but the younger one has figured out I only make a mistake every 1000 characters typed.  

Last year as I was about to turn 74, I did a blog entitled "I Never".    It was about the things I never got to do.  Still have not gotten to do them and of course won't.  Especially that thing of sitting on a piano with high heels and black stockings, legs crossed singing Cuddle Up a Little Closer.   BUT...  Kids are safe and sound along with grand children and great grandchildren;  Nephews and Nieces are relatively contented and happy;  My sister is still my best friend;  Mate still tells me he loves me every day.   But admittedly the high light of this past year ....  We got Daisy.  The little schnauzer who has brightened our lives and who makes every day an adventure.  What fun she is.  Our Church family is more precious than ever and so I can truthfully Thank God for this past year.

See you about this time next year.....Assuming the Lord is willing.