Gizmo-less

After two months, we are finally "Gizmo-less." Ashley said she had a family interested in her, and would I mind meeting her and the family at Petco on Sunday afternoon. So Giz and I hopped in the car and drove to Petco, where we met a family that had obviously already fallen in love with her from her pictures on Petfinder.com

(Who couldn't fall in love with that face?) I notice that even since that picture was taken, her fur has filled in a lot more. She's really changed a lot since she first came here. This was the photo I took just before she left for Petco:

She's found herself a great home. A family with two young children and 2 or 3 other dogs at home, Gizmo size. Ashley brought up all of her foibles -- not totally housebroken, high pitched bark, need to be with you at. all. times., etc. At everything, they nodded -- that was their dogs too. Not a problem.

And so they wrote the check and signed the papers and I said goodbye to little Gizmo. No tears. I was happy to see her going with what looks to be a perfect family for her.

Scooby seemed a bit confused when I came home alone. The two had become wonderful friends.

They played together constantly and both slept on me during the night. But Scooby recovered quickly enough and was out chasing Lizzie and Sheila around the yard before long.

It seems strange without Gizmo around here now, but there are things I don't miss. Mostly I don't miss her scratching at the recliner to be allowed up (see video of the day). She could, if she wanted to, easly jump into the chair. She'd done it with the chair empty, and she'd done it with me in the chair, but mostly she would stand on her hind legs and just paw and paw and paw and paw to be picked up. And when you have sharp claws and it's hot so that I'm in shorts, it gets downright painful. Half the time picking her up meant disrupting Scooby who always sleeps on the footrest. If I lowered the footrest partway, Gizmo would just walk up the incline to the chair. Damn dog.

But the plus about the puppy is how loving she was. Just one big bundle of "love me! love me! love me! I love you too!" She loved to curl up in the crook of my arm and would stay there all night--and all day, too, if I didn't get up out of the chair!

Of course I won't miss her looking out the back door at the dark night and then running into the living room to pee because she didn't want to deal with the black outside.

And this is the goal of the SPCA fostering program -- to give the puppies/dogs good, loving homes so they can move to forever homes with the least possible trauma. Even Russell, who first came to live with us on March 31 and moved to another home when I hurt my back, finally found a home on Sunday.

It makes me feel good knowing that I've had a small part in making a happy future for these little guys.

Close, but No Cigars

We said our goodbyes to Gizmo today before taking the two puppies up to Petco. Ashley said she had a "very good" application for Giz, in a home with two other dogs and she thought it would work out well.

At 3:30, we went back to Petco to pick up Scooby (I was not optimistic about his finding a home today) and discovered that Gizmo had not, in fact, been adopted. The family fell in love with some other puppy and so instead of coming home with only one dog, we brought them both back home again.

Gizmo is ripe for finding a home. Her fur has grown out finally and she's become a real cutie. She loves everybody, is a great cuddler.

We're going to need someone a bit more patient for Scooby, who is still skittish, and slow to warm up. He's OK of you let him come to you, but if you try to approach him, he runs away. He will finally let Walt pet him, if he's in my lap, but if Walt tries to force friendship, he ducks and runs. Heck, even I don't try to lean down and pet him. He's just too scared for that.

So it's one more week without homes for my babies. Maybe we'll have better luck this coming week. In the meantime, the little four-footed family seems happy to be back together again.

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Doing this 65x365 project has memories swirling around in my mind like never before. I decided when I started it that I was NOT going to include people who appear in this journal regularly. So you won't see the Cousins day folk, or Char, or Peggy, or Steve or my family...at least not now. I'm up to posting day #22 (which is definitely an interesting entry!), but I've actually written over 60 entries, just waiting to be posted.

Some people doing this project have grouped their entries into grammar school friends, high school friends, work friends, etc., or other arbitrary group labels. I'm trying to do exactly the opposite. I am trying to mix it up a lot so that you may find someone I knew in grammar school sandwiched in between someone I know today and someone I never really knew, but encountered.

The one thing that surprised me is how many well known people I've met in my life. It's really kind of humbling, in fact. This list isn't just of people I know well (I certainly hope not when I added #22!), but of people I have encountered in one way or another, whether intimately or casually, or just barely. The criterion I set was that it had to be someone with whom I had at least a face-to-face encounter and who left an impression on me. I think you'll see that #22 definitely fits that description.

But when you start mentally checking off people who know and other people you know because of those people, it takes your mind in strange directions and can have surprisingly pleasant results.

I had added a performer I met once to the list and then started thinking about performers in whose presence I have been. That led me back to a taping of The Don Sherwood television show back in the 1950s, sometime (but I never officially "met" Sherwood, so he doesn't go on the list).

That led to checking to see if there was anything on the internet about Don Sherwood and that led to this treasure trove. Those of you who did not live in San Francisco missed out on a lot. Don Sherwood billed himself as "the world's greatest disc jockey." He would not only become the biggest radio star in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, but would also be the highest paid radio personality in America. His popularity was so great (he had a 25 percent share in his time slot--one in four people were tuned to Sherwood!) that when he left the station, they paid him NOT to work for any other radio station.

But as with most creative geniuses, he had his share of problems, in spades. He was a heavy drinker and he died too early of lung cancer, hooked up to an oxygen tank, and still chain smoking.

I was a young impressionable grammar school kid when I first became a fan of Don Sherwood and I attended Catholic School, so I was really into the power of prayer and offering things up for the betterment of the world.

My mother and I attended the aforementioned taping of the short-lived television show that Sherwood did and he was obviously drunk. And getting drunker as the show progressed. He had a bottle hidden under his desk.

I decided I was going to "save Don Sherwood."

I went away to Lake Tahoe for a couple of weeks with a couple for whom I did babysitting. The thing I longed for each day was the arrival of the mail, but when the mail came, no matter how much I was longing to read the letter(s), I put off reading them until night and offered up my pain and suffering of having to wait a few hours to read my mail in honor of Sherwood quitting drinking. Instead of reading the mail, I would pray for Sherwood.

Amazingly, within a couple of weeks after I returned from Tahoe, Sherwood decided to stop drinking. I don't know how I knew that. I don't know if he mentioned it on his show, or if he went into rehab or what, but all I know is that I was convinced my prayers had "saved" him.

(Of course it didn't last and he was drinking again very soon...but it would be nice to think that all of my sacrifice amounted to something after all!)

Cold Gruel World

Gizmo and I are weird today.

Last night Gizmo didn't eat her dinner, after the first couple of bites. I expected her to be starving this morning, but we had moved from couch to recliner at 6 a.m. (to see Meet the Press) and when the other dogs were leaping about crazy for breakfast, Gizmo just continued to sleep. I got all the bowls fixed an woke her up, brought her out to the kitchen and after a sniff, she turned and walked away.

That's when I realized two things about me.

1. I seemed to be covered in insect bites. It was hot last night and I didn't use any covering at all, and boy the mosquitoes must have had a feast. I could post a photo here, but it's MUCH more impressive if you look at it

here

The photo is only my legs. The bites covered my torso and back as well. Hard to know if they were on my scalp or not, since my scalp itches most of the time anyway (and has all of my life).

2. The second thing I noticed as that my stomach wasn't feeling any too good. I fully expected to be hunched over the kitchen sink before the morning was out, so I just got into the recliner with groggy Gizmo and turned on something boring--probaby another Tim Russert retrospective #1,009 and woke up around 10:30. The nausea was better by then but I had a pins-and-needles sensation on the skin of my stomach and I thought I should eat something.

I fixed myself some oatmeal and ate it while hunched over the kitchen counter (because it was uncomfortable to stand up), while Gizmo finally ate her breakfast.

But the oatmeal didn't really feel all that good on my stomach so I only had a few spoonsful and went back to the recliner, again with Gizmo, who also was ready for more sleep, and we both slept until 12:30.

Somewhere between 6 a.m. and noon, the itching had stopped and the welts went away, thank goodness. I was also starting to get hungry by 12:30, so I ate the rest of my oatmeal, even though it was cold, and that seems to have stayed down.

There is also a bit of a desire to run to the bathroom periodicaly, but fortunately the problem I had a couple of months ago has not resurfaced. So far.

I don't know what is causing MY problem. I bought some blackberries and some lamb chops at Costco on Thursday and ate both yesterday. The chops were on the rare side. So it may have been something having to do with that. Or maybe I picked up whatever Gizmo has.

Someone from the SPCA dropped off some specialty dog food for dogs who aren't eating, as well as some medicine for her, but I don't think I'll fix myself a bowl of dog food. I'm just being very careful with what I eat (and you know that if I'm not fighting food cravings, something is seriously wrong!)

There is one advantage to this condition, however mild it is. Not being able to stand up straight without pains in your stomach or a feeling that you need to run off to the bathroom is a legitimate excuse to give up the treadmill for the day!

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Why I'm voting Republican this time

Thanks to Gabi Clayton for the heads up.

Miscellaneous Sundries from Longs

Walt and I rarely have arguments, either because we agree on everything, or because we are both dedicated passivists. I'm not sure what his upbringing was, but mine was "don't rock the boat" (or, more specifically, "don't upset your father"). To speak out was often to anger my father and so speaking out (face to face) has always been the hardest thing in the world for me to do. I can do it a bit better in print, but face to face is the worst.

However, our "moments," if you want to call them that, invariably came around the charges at Longs Drugs. I will admit that I occasionally got carried away when shopping at Longs, but the bulk of my purchases at Longs were for such frivolous things as dog food, people food, snacks, cleaning supplies, toiletries (bearing in mind that I don't do face creams, make-up, or anything else of the expensive girly toiletries type) and office supplies. Yeah, there were frivolous things, but it got to the point that when the credit card bill came at the end of the month, we would have "words" about my extravagances and I always felt that the bulk of our money went for "miscellaneous sundries at longs," as Walt always referred to them.

This was a very long time ago, and the problem took care of itself when I finally got a full-time job and my own credit card. I just started buying all the "miscellaneous sundries" on my credit card and paying for them myself and all "words" stopped.

Over the years, the charges at Longs came fewer and farther between, as I seemed to reach saturation as far as "stuff" that I wanted to buy and I rarely go into Longs any more.

So today, when Walt got home from the office (yes, he went to work today), I said "I bought something I haven't bought in a very long time." He asked what I had purchased and I said "Miscellaneous sundries at Longs."

I went to the writers group this morning, without Joan, who had a mild heart attack over the weekend and is now (thankfully) recovering at home.

Women take note. This is Joan's description of her symptoms: I'm witness to the fact (and I want to warn you) that women, at least this woman) have different heart attack symptoms. I would not have identified my early symptoms...a fist-like grabbing excruciating pain of my right jaw, which with my usual self-diagnosing problem, immediately thought I must have had an abscessed tooth that I hadn't recognized as needing help because I have no feeling in that side of my face." However, I then got the worst hot flash imaginable - wanted the air conditioner on even more -- and got so weak and nauseated I wanted in my bed, immediately. By the time I got up and went to my bed, a had a sharp pain under my left arm...that I then felt between my shoulders in the back...and then a bit into my left breast. By this time, Ed was calling 9-1-1...Two firetrucks were at the door in 3-5 minutes...

Anyway, when I left the meeting, I decided to stop at Long's to see about getting a camera case for my new camera! (Yes, I finally got the replacement for my stolen camera!). Of course I couldn't just walk in and buy a camera case. I also had to pick up a few "miscellaneous sundries." For old time's sake.

What I ended up buying was:

- the camera case (on sale for $7)
- a carrying case for my new cell phone (not on sale)
- aspirin
- medicinal ointment
- dog food
- sandwich bags
- some packaged food for dinner
- nacho cheese sauce
- bread
- a flashlight for my office, to replace mine which is always "somewhere else"
- lights for the dark wine closet (the closet is dark, not the wine, which is only sometimes dark!)
- batteries for the lights for the dark wine closet, and...

- a Secure Digital card for the new camera (my one wild and frivolous moment, but it was on sale, half off).

I hope that I didn't go too overboard with the miscellaneous sundries. So far, there hasn't been any unpleasantness about my brief return to my former bad shopping habits.

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Gizmo is a bit difficult to photograph because she's so quick, but I did take this as a baseline photo. Note that her fur has a mottled appearance, both on her face and on her legs. She has a perpetually surprised look because of the lack of fur around her eyes. We'll see what a month or so of medications, baths, etc. will do to make this little girl ready for adoption. She's very sweet and has already fit in here beautifully.