Farewell Diva and Coping with COVID19

Diva died last week. She had turned fifteen, which is ancient for a boxer, in December, and we've known for the last few years that every day with her was gravy. She'd lost her hearing, developed arthritis, and was prone to have pee accidents after long naps if we didn't quickly hustle her outside, but she remained sweet and loving and even had some frisky moments until days before her death.

We made the choice to let her die at home for several reasons, not the least of which is the current situation with folks social distancing and limiting exposure to the public to trips of bare necessity. The vet's office and people who work there are probably fine, but Diva wasn't experiencing pain, and having her put to sleep would have been more convenience than mercy. Also, since Diva's arthritis worsened over the past year, she really hated riding in the car and couldn't seem to ever get comfortable in the back seat. The last time we offered to take her for a ride, she wouldn't get near the car.


Jack dug a nice grave in the front yard, and we buried her next to Jimmy. The friendship those two shared is the reason she ended up being our dog, so laying her to rest beside him is appropriate.

There are already some clumps of daffodils and narcissus planted nearby, and later on we'll add more bulbs to the soil - hyacinths and tulips would be nice.

Everyone is trying to cope with the realities of staying safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and our whole family is taking care and following guidelines for social distancing and avoidance of public gatherings. Mom and Dad are holed-up at the farm, but we've done "driveway distance" visiting with them a couple of times. The Vernons are safely sequestered in Franklin. We're all thankful for decent weather which includes some warm sunshine this afternoon.

Since the call to socially-distance, Jack and I have discovered checking out library books on our Kindles. We got library cards nearly two years ago and have had Kindles forever, but we've, for whatever reason, not gone to the trouble of figuring out how to use things together until now. I - both of us really - mostly subsist on magazine articles from The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper's and standard national newspaper fare, but with the news what it is right now, my brain needs a break from most things coronavirus, so we're reading for leisure. Thus far I've finished David Sedaris' Theft by Finding, which was expectedly excellent, and started both Becoming by Michelle Obama and a book of short true-crime pieces by Michael Connelly. Jack has been checking out magazines, and fortunate

At first I was skeptical about reading on the Kindle mostly because of feelings that electronic reading is a betrayal of the "real books" I've loved forever. While I still love and prefer everything about paper, I love my Kindle, too. Being able to have two or more books going at once is like a magic trick, and so is having the ability to set multiple bookmarks and notes without committing a whole pad of Post-It notes to the effort. If you don't know what a word means, press it with your finger and a dictionary box pops up to tell you what it means. If you don't understand a literary or historic reference, the same action gives you the 411 from Wikipedia. I know I'm late to the game, but I finally got there.

Jack and I want the daily *daily* of how many COVID cases there are here in Tennessee and more specifically here in DeKalb (currently 1) and anything new or meaningful, but opinions and speculation and the politics of contagion are exhausting and unhelpful.

Friday Funnies #2

Here's another Friday Funny -- 

The photos I take with my cell phone are automatically uploaded and backed-up to my Google Photos, and occasionally Google will send me an e-mail letting me know that they've added a "goodie" to my storage on the cloud.

Whatever is used to recognize subjects and settings is quite intuitive, but sometimes it swings and misses.

This video compilation was sent with "Your Dogs" in the subject line. Yes, there's a dog or two in there, this is not about dogs. 

Dinner Company

Last night we had another wild critter visitor.

And before anyone asks - no, we haven't started feeding raccoons, because that's trouble with a capital everything.

With the arrival of fall, we've seen increased activity from the squirrels and chipmunks in our yard, and that bowl of walnuts, which neither smell nor taste like something people should eat, was placed on the deck to draw them close to the sliding glass doors for the amusement of the dogs and cats. And us.

One brave chipmunk has entertained us the last several afternoons with his scurrying about and insanely expandable cheeks. Watching him is like having a hamster, but there's no smelly aquarium to be cleaned of urine soaked wood shavings and hamster turds (hamsturds?) every four or five days. Jack and I are, quite seriously, as fascinated by him as the pets.

Last evening, as Jack and I were winding down and thinking about heading to bed, Jack suddenly said, "There went a raccoon," and pointed toward the door.

As I looked over, sure enough, a little raccoon carefully walked out of the shadows and approached the chipmunk bowl. He looked at us through the window and was unconcerned when I approached to take his picture with my cell phone camera.

Diva wandered up, and we stood there together as the raccoon checked out the stinky walnuts and tried to figure out what kind of creatures we are. 

Diva didn't know what to think. She'd just had a bath and endured the trauma of me trimming her soft-from-the-tub toenails. I believe she thinks she was seeing things.

The chipmunk station is getting moved for the evening, because we can't have this, but it was still really cool to see.

No Chipmunks Were Harmed in the Creation of this Blog Post

Fall is really here. Leaves are everywhere. Jack and Pam at the Lake have our work cut out for us in the coming week getting on top of them, cleaning out the gutters and winterizing the house, which around here means making sure our windows are closed all the way.

The weather is chilly out, so we have a fire in the stove this evening. According to our thermometer, the temperature in the house is a balmy 83 degrees even with two open windows and an open back door. Some people have a home sauna. We have the ability to turn our whole house into a sauna.

The dogs have heat issues. Moose can only tolerate so much of the Orvis stereotype of "dog and hearth" before he starts begging to go out for chill-time on the porch, and even cold-natured little Dudley has sought the comfort of various cold spots on the floor. 

Fall sports are in full-swing, but none of our teams have done well this season. Even the Anderson Dogs are sucking wind. They lost another round to the Pates Ford Chipmunks in a fun to watch, fruitless battle at the woodpile this afternoon. The offensive line still really misses Jimmy-Dog.

"Battle stations"

I smell chipmunks, or as I like to call them, rats with racing stripes.

Heart on a string?

Notice how Jack has "finished" the edge of the metal with old garden hose to prevent injury to both beast and man.

No chipmunk for you.

Rapture 2011: Diva's Close Call

If you've been keeping up with the news of the weird at all, you know that according to some "Christian believers", The Rapture is scheduled to occur at 6 p.m. today. I don't know if that's Eastern time or Central time or if Daylight Savings Time figures into the equation - I just know that some folks believe it's going to happen. A man here in Middle Tennessee has permanently closed his lawnmower repair shop in Springfield, because he truly believes he's going to be lifted up to heaven today. When I saw the story on the Channel 5 news, I honestly wanted to feel sorry for him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Speaking of the end of the world - Diva came close to getting there yesterday afternoon when she got hit by a truck. Road rash, splintered toenails and bruises aside, she's fine, but we had some frightening moments immediately after it happened. 

Jack and I were outside with the cameras taking pictures of birds and squirrels and stuff, and Diva was hanging with us, not creating any trouble at all when one of our neighbor's friends drove down the hill. Diva took off across the neighbor's yard after his truck like she was on fire (see photo), and the next thing I knew, she slipped under it and was hit. The driver of the truck, he's called "Big O" by his friends, had seen her and slowed way down, which is probably the only thing that saved her. There was nothing else he could've done to avoid hitting her - both Jack and I were standing there and saw it happen - damned car-chasing dog.

After getting hit, Diva sprang back to her feet and took off for our front porch. She was freaked out and shaking, but she was walking on all four feet, nothing was bloody except for a scratch on her leg and a couple of toenails, and there was no tenderness of her body. She's lucky.

Poor Big O was afraid he'd killed her. He came walking up the hill from our neighbor Frank's house with his head hanging low, fighting tears... Needless to say he was very relieved to see Diva frisky-ing around at the end of a leash. 

We had a terrifying few moments, but all is well, and perhaps Diva has learned a lesson about chasing cars. Jimmy never did, but we can always hope.

I love happy endings.

Sunday Lens

After a few weeks of "the blues" - violets and hyacinths - how about a flash of some hot color?

I absolutely love these tulips, which we planted in our front yard near the road at least eight, maybe ten, years ago. I know tulips lose some size and vigor as the multiply, but ours were sparsely planted enough that they've stood the test of time fairly well. We scattered a few here and a few there over the course of a couple of years, adding a LOT one year when we found bulbs on sale for 75% off at Lowe's.

Once the tulips have bloomed, we generally know that Spring is here to stay, and considering that it's eighty-something degrees outside on the tenth of April, summer feels right around the corner. Unfortunately this kind of heat this time of year can only mean that big storms are on the way, and surely enough, severe thunderstorms are on the docket for tomorrow afternoon. We just had some last Monday - that's all too frequent, if you ask me.

Wherever you are tomorrow, be prepared to batten your hatches and hit the ditch.

Earlier today we took Moose for a romp in the field across from the house. Since he was shot back in the winter, we've been very careful about his "outside time", limiting him to a few hours after dark, which is a changing variable this time of year. Coming later and getting shorter with the change of season, dark doesn't always come as soon as Moose would like, so for the last week or so, we've been carrying him to the Webb's field for supervised romping around of the variety dogs simply can't get at the end of a leash.

He's not big on playing "fetch" per se, but he does enjoy running around and giving chase to whatever is thrown. Unlike Jimmy Moose will pay attention to commands and come when he's called, but whenever we encounter temptations like the barking of the weekend neighbors' dog, we put him back on the leash. After all there's no reason to set him up for failure. I think he understands these romps are a privilege...

Of course Diva and Carlton were in on the fun, too.

This afternoon we took another of our Sunday photo safaris, and I'm sharing some of my better shots with you.

On the Sink Creek portion of our junket, we encountered these sweet-smelling little flowers. I'm not sure what they are, but they were growing in boggy shade and smelled delightful.

Phlox and fire-pinks are some of my favorite Spring wildflowers.

This violet growing by itself in a little pile of gravel was quite striking.

Mustard in bloom is one of the yellowest things in the world.

Sink Creek from the bridge at Barnes Mill.

Jack spotted a huge water snake looking for a place to sunbathe.

There's nothing like a country road in Spring.

One sees the most interesting things.

Yes, that's a guy playing drums.

Like I said, "interesting..."

Have a great week, everyone!

Out - With Camera

Jack and I took a short photo-cruise today, since the weather was so nice -- 

I'm a sucker for old barns... I love the roof-line on this one.

The graffiti on the bridge said "JACK IS BACK". I never knew he was gone.

Stop. And I'll shoot.

Spring has come to the countryside.

Kids were out doing their "spring things". We ran into this nice, young man walking along the road by Sink Creek. He'd caught three fresh trout, and let us take his picture, but he didn't offer to share his catch.

This kid was playing in the creek with his four-wheeler and his boogie board. In swim-trunks. Yes, today was warm, but the water had to have been breath-takingly cold. This is a young-man who is more than ready for summer-time. 

Yesterday was Mule Day in Columbia. In these parts, any sunny day is Mule Day.

Diva is enjoying warmer weather.

Our Japanese Maple is quickly putting on new growth, and upon further inspection, a tiny spider is taking a sunbath on the tip of one leaf.

Saturday-ing

First of all, and since I haven't posted anything sports-related on the blog in awhile, I'm extending the radio silence by not mentioning the Tennessee Volunteers or the horrible season they are having.

Jack and I did console ourselves by cheering for the South Carolina Gamecocks as they devastated the Crimson Tide this afternoon. How sad is it to get your football groove-on supporting whoever's playing Alabama and Florida any given week?

Fall is here, and throughout the day, we've been delighted by showers of beautiful autumn leaves spiraling through the air to our yard. There's no way people who don't have trees in their yards can truly appreciate the splendor of this season. Sure, they don't have to worry about raking or getting the leaf-blower cranked, but they're missing out on a lot.

Notre Paquet de Chiens, namely Moose, enjoys the cooler weather and has spent the day napping about the yard in all of his favorite dirty places. He rolls like one of Hell's Angels at night, patrolling the field across the road like it's full of sheep to be protected from wolves. Unlike Jimmy, and quite fortunately, Moose cares nothing about digging up moles in the neighbors' lawns or making friends at the marina. Poor thing. He's been waiting for cool nights for months now...

Our hummingbirds are gone. One day last week they were swarming our feeders as they had been for a few weeks, and the next day they were noticeably absent. We've seen one or two hitting the two feeders we've left hanging, but only one or two. When Jack and I were out earlier with our cameras, Jack heard, then saw, one zoom past him, but it was only for a moment.

They will return in the spring. We will be waiting for them.

The lovely berries are Hearts a'Busting - a native Appalachian bush that grows in our yard.

Share love.

Indian Summer Sunday

It's been another lovely Indian Summer day here in Middle Tennessee --

I've almost completely recovered from yesterday's photo angst and am simply looking forward to the next opportunity to hit a fair or local street festival to make up the ground I lost at the push of a button yesterday. Everyone worries so much when Lucia is checking out my camera and pushing around on the buttons - I always have it "off" when she's doing that, just in case. I'm obviously far more dangerous...

Here's another handful of photos for your enjoyment.