Rion, our Miniature Schnauzer puppy spent a relatively quiet night. I, on the other hand, was too jazzed to sleep more than a few hours. Although he is really too small, he somehow manages to get up the stairs out of our sunken living room. He flows up them, rather than climbing them. I am trying to avoid the temptation to carry him everywhere: he needs the exercise, even though he is very cuddly when I lift him. I also need to get him some smaller toys: all our existing dog toys are bigger than he is. So are my Crocs, though he is perfectly willing to try to chew on them, especially if my feet are in them. He seems to have the appropriate instincts about not soiling in his crate, and let me know emphatically that he needed out about 11:30 pm last night. So far, the one thing that seems to worry him is doors slamming. He must not have heard that noise where he lived with his litter mates.
Orion
Orion (Rion for short) was born on October 20 and joined our family at 6 pm this evening, more or less. He came from Pikes Peak Humane Society, where he and his litter mates were born to a Miniature Schnauzer in foster care. He is currently sleeping in a crate on my bed two feet from me. Lody, unaware that he is not just passing through, seems to like him. I would say that his arrival was unpremeditated, except that when you are checking out under year old dogs on the website every few days it is inevitable that sooner or later you are going to end up with a young dog. I just thought it was going to be one of those dogs who had reached the adolescent ugly “you mean we have to train it?” stage. It has been eighteen years since we’ve had a baby anything around. And yes, there are eyes in that face.
Jack and Lody
Yesterday, Jack commented that our elderly Collie, Lody, no longer seemed to hear him call when he was ready to leave the horse field after feeding horses in the morning. While we feed, we allow Lody to wander around the horse field. Trust me, you don’t want to know why she likes to accompany us.
I responded that she still seems to hear me, though I have to pitch my voice a little higher than my normal speaking tone. I suggested he try pitching his voice higher when he wanted Lody’s attention.
So this morning, I heard Jack coo in a squeaky falsetto: “Lody wanna go feed horses?” It must have worked, because then I heard Jack coo “Good girl, good girl!” in the same high tone. I don’t think I had ever heard Jack’s falsetto before, though in theory I guess I knew he had one.
It was scary.
Healthy Colorado
According to Healthiest, Unhealthiest U.S. Cities Colorado Springs is twenty-two in the list of 184 cities as far as health of inhabitants. Colorado usually rates pretty high compared to other states: I wonder if the unhealthy go other places as the altitude here is a challenge for those with cardiac or respiratory challenges.
Book Burro
I haven’t shilled for the Book Burro Firefox extension recently. Once you install Book Burro, it pops up a little window in the upper left hand side of your window when it detects that you are looking at a book on the web. (I notice it most often when I am looking at Amazon Books. After you tell Book Burro your zip code in the preferences, it will use World Cat to find the closest copy of that book in a public library. If the closest library happens to be your library, you can click on the link and it will allow you to place a hold on the book. (Of course, this assumes that your library is using SIRSI, or some other system World Cat understands.) For bibliophiles who are trying not to spend all their money on books, this is very useful.
Bitter Cold
The high today was 10F. Days like this make me even more grateful for having electricity (to heat the stock tank) and a cold water hydrant in our small barn. It was brutal taking care of horses without either during the blizzards of 1997-1998. We installed electricity to the barn a year or so later, and kept running hoses out to fill the stock tank in the barn for another winter or so. That changed the day I went to water horses one morning when it was significantly below freezing, and I discovered that Jack had not drained the hose properly when he topped off the spa. (It took several hoses to get to the barn from the house hydrant.) Since we had discussed The Proper Draining of Hoses on several previous occasions, I told him I felt it was only fair that he water the horses until such time as we had water to the barn. I think he found the plumbing contractor within a week, and we had water to the barn within two weeks.
On days like this, it helps a lot. Keeping stock watered properly during extended cold snaps is brutal without running water and stock tank heaters.
Breakfast?
Full Moon
The full Moon will loom larger in the sky on Friday than it has since 1993, as it will be nearly as close as it ever comes to Earth in its orbit.
Wish List
I don’t know where this came from originally, but someone on one of my email lists sent it to us.
Mindless
This little Flash program called Grid2 provides some mindless diversion when you start realizing how close we are to Christmas. (Move your mouse cursor over the grid to see how it works.)