Saturday, February 02, 2008
Jake says, "Thanks"
Thank you all for your concern and good wishes for his recovery.

Emma's shelf
Emma wanted to play on the unfinished shelf. I was mean and would only let her play on the bottom. As soon as Daddy came in she was allowed to play in the second story. It's his shelf, he can make those judgment calls.




Serious trauma today...
Ever since the Dish Network installer finished our installation I've wanted to move the box from where he set it. I wanted to move it up a couple of shelves because the dust and dog hair are thick so close to the floor. This afternoon I decided to go ahead and move it up.

I moved the entertainment center away from the wall and started the shuffling. I put our upconverting DVD player on top of the DVD/VCR Recorder and planned on moving the Dish DVR box up to the empty shelf that made. There's a big warning on the Dish box that it must not be moved while it's plugged in because the hard drive can be damaged. They make it seem like a very delicate item. I moved it ever so carefully and put it into position on the new shelf. Everything looked good so I started to pull the entertainment back against the wall.

As I'm pulling, the shelf at eye level in front of me collapses and the Kenwood tape deck falls onto the shelf below it, which starts as cascade of falling shelves and components. The tape deck, our CD player, two DVD players and three shelves came crashing down on the Dish DVR. Then the shelf it was on gave way and crashed down onto the Bose speaker underneath it.

I couldn't believe it. I was trapped there holding up two shelves with a CD player dangling over my arm by its cord. All the blood rushed to my head and to my heart. Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no! Basically without a brace the side of the entertainment center was able to pull away from the center enough to allow the shelves to fall out.

I was in a total panic, trying to get the entertainment center put back together and put the components into place. I'm thinking...oh my God...Super Bowl tomorrow...Dish DVR just pancaked...M will never understand...he's psycho when it comes to his TV fix...I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead. Emma was watching me trying to work frantically, I'm sure she said something but I didn't hear her over the roaring in my ears.

I got everything back into place and some components were already turned on when I checked them. I grabbed the Dish remote and turned it on. Nothing. Then a few seconds later it comes on and makes this Rrrrrrrr-rrrrrrr-rrrrrr sound. It does this for several seconds then all the lights on the front panel come on and then go completely dead. I hit the on button, repeatedly. Nothing. I leaned back against the wall and sank to the floor. "He won't understand," I was thinking. Emma knew I was traumatized because she giving me hugs and telling me it was going to be all right.

I was thinking, how am I going to tell him no Super Bowl tomorrow. What are we going to do? Watch DVDs? Why did I have to move things today? How much is this going to cost me? How long will it take a new DVR to arrive? Can we install it ourselves or we will need to get another installer out here? How could this happen to me? How can I got to town to the Groundhog supper? When will my heart slow down?

I seriously wanted to cry but no tears would come. I got up again and went to the couch. I looked at the TV and the Dish message was on there "Press select to view your Dish programming." I lifted the remote and hit select and the TV came on. What? I don't get it! You were just dead! Aaaaargh! And hallelujah! I checked the channels, the HD, our recordings on DVR, it was all there. I was saved.

Hours later I'm still not right. I had to tell M all about it because he needs to know about the entertainment center being another accident waiting to happen. He said we'll put some braces on it.
Groundhog Supper
Another event that marks our trip around the calendar each year. The Lions Club serves turkey and oysters, stuffing, green beans, cole slaw, mashed potatoes and a roll. Then you have a variety of pies to choose from for dessert. It's held at the local school cafeteria.

Emma was pretty well behaved. She's been pushing her limits frequently lately. But tonight she kept it on the down low and no one was the wiser. We had lots of people stop by to comment on her. The question we get most often is "Where did that blond hair come from?" We always blame M.


Friday, February 01, 2008
Jake update
He's still disinclined to get up from his bed. Once he does get up he moves around more than he had been, but he's still wobbly in the hindquarters. We're pretty sure that ending the pain medication perked him up a bit and made him more willing to move around once he was up. He still whines occasionally and has difficulty finding a comfortable position when he's trying to sit down. It would just be nice if he could tell us what exactly his problems are now.
Tonight's new synonym...
"I'm not splashing you, I'm just exercising."
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Emma, master of synonyms
"I'm not hitting you, I'm just patting you."

"I'm not poking you, I'm just touching you."

"I'm not climbing on you, I'm just laying on you."
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Vacation is booked!
For August, sigh. We're getting a beach house with the family again. The house will have a hot tub, a pool table and a private pool. Woot! We're going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina again. Unfortunately it's a long daggone time till August. Meanwhile...

The winter is starting to press in on me. The sad part is historically I'm at my worst near the end of February, so if I'm feeling it now then it will, indeed, be a long winter.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Update on Jake
He's still not doing so great. As a matter of fact, he's laying here at my feet whining at this very moment. On the other hand, he's been up more today than he has all week. His accident happened a week ago tonight. He even went up the stairs for the first time since his injuries. He does the same thing he's been doing when he walks; it's like he can't bear to put either of his back feet down. He does favor one side over the other, but it still looks very painful. I know he's an old dog and it should take him longer to recover, but it's really taking a while.
How to take off a decade or more...
Doesn't he look about 21 years-old?

Republican Family Birthday
Gun.


Beer.


Good old fashioned butt whoopin'



Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, but it's a BB gun and imported beer. I'd hate to lose Republican cool points.

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