Sorry I haven’t written anything recently… I have been kind of living on a high from recently being the featured cover-girl on The New Yorker!
As you may have noticed, the make-up artist gave me some ear-extensions (presumably to protect me from having the ‘rents from identifying me and therefore having to share my modeling salary with them…since my natural ears are perfect (see photo below)).
BTW – I do have the “audition” photo somewhere, but my IT department is letting me down once again. Maybe I’ll be able to share that photo with you soon if they get their &%!$ together soon!
Of course we (Zoe and I) have had many other unbelievable experiences in the meantime, darling. But my manicurists and spa attendants have told me I need to relax and enjoy what Fellini called La Dulce Vita – which obviously was rightfully anointed upon moi.
But as I am relating this tale to my scribe, I have begun to reflect on what I am missing with my new found “celebrity status”. BEING ME! Which, if I am to be honest with you, is most of the stories I have been remiss in publishing on our blog (Zoe does do her fair share – albeit it way less then me
But what I really want to know is why during my hiatus the Scribe hasn’t baked more recipes in the book he got from our fav neighbors* around the end of last year…something called a Christmas Present maybe?
The Tempest
*More on them soon…
PS – I thought it poetic, that the date they chose to publish my cover photo was the birthday of our friend who convinced dad (at the time, now the Scribe) to start a blog about Montana’s adventures. Happy belated birthday MF!
Yesterday, we got to go with Dad on some errands which included a stop at a Supercharger to get our car charged back up to 80% without using any of our solar power … which is now charging our Powerwalls which recently got installed (finally!). There was some discussion about us being able to go with Dad instead of staying home with Mom who was on multiple Zoom calls in our absence. Why this had anything to do with us staying at home or jumping in the car with Dad was beyond me at that moment, but whose complaining about going for a drive!
On the way to the Supercharger, Dad slowed down (there were no cars behind him) and came to a halt. Zoe lost her mind and I first I wasn’t sure what was going on until I looked out the front window (and got a good whiff of a breeze which suddenly entered through the car window).
This was what I saw from the backseat…sorry I couldn’t figure a way to add the scent – it was something special.
This stupid bird not only walked RIGHT IN FRONT of our car, but then stopped and just stared at us! Zoe was all over the car barking like mad but Dad held onto her leash so she was unable to get out of the car and chase the thing.
Interesting aside, Zoe has recently figured out a way to roll down the passenger side window…I figured out the back windows long ago but all of a sudden my trick stopped working. I did see my parents fiddling with some controls that “locked” the back windows but they were unable to find one that would lock the window of the one riding Shotgun – not sure why that is but it has enabled Zoe to roll her window all the way down if our parents aren’t paying attention. Hey! Come to think of it, my windows never rolled ALL the way down. Hmmm. Seems like a conspiracy against back seat drivers!
Eventually, the thing moved on (back the way it had come) and we were able to continue with our errands, but Zoe took awhile to calm down from all her excitement.
While the car was charging we took a walk around the mall where the chargers were located. Lots of interesting sniffs at such a place…food courts, dumpsters, bushes that hide food people have tossed aside and the critters that eat the food. Since we were busy sniffing around, Dad apparently sent Mom a text saying he almost died when Zoe saw the turkey and included the above picture.
After our car was sufficiently charged we were off to do some shopping. We stopped at a few stores to pick up some items for dinner, etc…Zoe and I staying in the car with Dog Mode on…before proceeding home. On the last leg of of our drive, Mom called and said we shouldn’t come home yet as our front yard had been invaded:
As Dad took some detours, we could hear Mom talking to something – encouraging them to move along in a sweet tone, then a shriek as one of them apparently made itself really big (those turkeys are HUGE when they fluff up all their feathers!), then back to the cordial coaxing. At last, Dad was given the green light to return home as the intruders had mozied (SP) off to a neighbors yard.
Zoe and I didn’t hear what it was that was in our yard but as soon as we jumped out of the car we pulled Dad (and then Mom, who came to help Dad in case her intervention wasn’t fully successful) across the yard zig-zagging back and forth as we smelled all the places the turkeys (that was who had been in our yard) had walked. Needless to say, we were right back to being super excited and wished we weren’t on our leashes so we could chase these birds down for a special dinner.
Running around our neighborhood off leash later that evening is a story for another day, but was part of our last week or so. More soon,
This week was GroundHog week at our Carlisle Chateau!
Turns out, that groundhogs really hibernate until mid-March (i.e., – now) which would explain why that guy in Pennsylvania always looks so cranky when they pull him out of his burrow on the 2nd of FEBRUARY!
But I appear to have gotten ahead (or behind?) the story I wanted to tell in today’s blog entry.
Earlier this week, Dad ran some errands without us while Mom was on one of her many Zoom meetings, when Zoe and I went CRAZY. She was trying to hear what the other participants were saying but with Zoe barking incessantly and me picking a fight with her (Zoe)…not over her interrupting Mom’s work call, but over who got first dibs on the critter in the backyard…Mom had to cut her call short by like over 30 minutes as she was not able to hear anything*.
When Dad returned home, we gave him an earful too…neither of our parents were apparently understanding that our backyard was in Code Red lockdown!
Until today, when we were resting quietly on some of our favorite living room furniture when Dad spotted this critter walking, nay strolling, through our yard:
This is when the dime dropped (I’ve heard this phrase used on some of the old shows we have watched but it makes very little sense to me…is this a bitcoin reference? Who uses metal coins anymore…except the jars in our house that accumulated these relicts until one of our parents return them to the bank for serious cash…or really credit card currency).
After they saw Phil, our parents wouldn’t let Zoe or I out until they did a perimeter check to make sure the invader was off our property. When we were finally released, we sniffed ever step s/he made (as in fact, Phil may be Philodendron) in our yard…not once but probably 3 or 4 times (gotta get our steps in).
At last, we were brought back inside and given a Greenie as a reward for all of our efforts. The big question now is where “Phil” has set up their den. If they are residing inside our fence, which continues to be re-enforced on a seemingly daily basis, how will our parents find them a new home in which we (Zoe and I) will not have an altercation with the beast…which is really what we would like, to be honest.
The Tempest
*Zoom now has a filter that blocks most extra-diegetic noises so the other people on Mom’s call had no idea why she was unable to follow the conversation. I hope to post more on Zoom filters in the near future.
Recently, I was looking through cartoons featuring us dogs. It started after reading an issue of The New Yorker which often has good…and insightful ‘toons like the one below.
Screenshot
I then realized the people down at The Google probably have a collection of them from a variety of artists. This is when I learned about this guy named Gary Larson who had a regular comic called The Far Side which ran from 1979-1995 and according to Wikipedia was “carried in more than 1,900 papers and translated into 17 languages”. Unfortunately, this was well before my time and did not feature translations into my native tongue…luckily I now am pretty good at English and have been working on my Portuguese.
So I found a 2019 website that was established and randomly posts the thousands of his awesome work (thefarside.com)…including many showing just how well he understood us pups. I think the comic and article below are good examples of his gift!
Not so long ago, my parents were gone for a what seemed a really, really looong time. Fortunately for Zoe and myself, our favorite puppy sitters (D and A) spent the time that Mom and Dad were gone with us. In fact, when Mom arrived home with the two of them after their plane flight into Boston, we both ran out of the house and jumped up on them giving them many kisses, tails a-waggin the whole time (apparently while ignoring Mom who had been gone all day at work).
To be fair, we were even more excited when our parents returned from Florida! We brought them gifts and made special noises along with the wagging and jumping.
Our sitters stayed a couple more days after Mom and Dad returned which allowed us to go on some different walks in the woods than the ones we had taken with D and A. There was also a lot of chatting and eating during those few days and evenings. As per usual, I would head of to bed around 8:30 PM – something that they had noticed I was pretty consistent with during their stay…even if everybody else was staying up.
Their stay unfortunately finally ended and Zoe, Dad, and I dropped them off at the airport after visiting a couple of beaches (even though it was spitting rain and quite windy). We got out of the car at the airport trying to convince them not to leave, but alas they entered the terminal and we got back in our car and drove away.
During the following few days, I continued to maintain my bedtime except the one night I stayed up until 8:35 PM!
And then this Saturday, I went to bed at 7:30 PM since I knew we were “losing” an hour of sleep due to the biannual time change.
Daylight savings time…what a joke
The Tempest
“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” – Plato
When we returned to Carlisle from California, we made some new friends. They stop by about once a week and vacuum up all the dirt and stuff our parents bring inside and make our house smell a lot better too – they even wash and refill our water bowls!
Since they are trying to grow their business, they have created accounts on a number of different social media platforms and have featured us in some of their posts.
The one above shows me “Saying Hello” to Ana. She is trying to teach me this phrase in Portuguese as she is from Brazil and this is the language they speak there. I think I’ve learned it and in any case greet her whenever she comes over with a good paw shake.
One phrase we have all learned is “Muito obrigada”, which translates to “Thank you very much”…something we always say when they leave because they are so nice and even send us holiday greetings like the one below. We also learned “tchau” – which is the last thing we say to then as they walk out the door.
This afternoon things got really interesting for us here in Carlisle for 20 minutes or so.
It started with Dad deciding to final attack a stain in the flooring at the top of our stairs that has been there since we moved in. There were discussions about getting the entire upstairs floors done before we moved back from California and all our stuff was delivered. Well, that never happened so Dad broke out the belt sander – a relatively new addition to his set of power tools (and one which he has already gotten in a fight with…and lost) – to see if he could get rid of the stain and then apply some polyurethane to protect the wood.
This was all going to plan – at least the stain, which happened to basically be under the smoke detector was removed – until said smoke detector started going off. I stayed in my chair while Zoe went running over to the noise to see if she could help. Unfortunately, Dad had misplaced his eyeglasses while sanding and couldn’t see which button to hit to turn off the alarm. As he was punching buttons at random with his left hand, his right hand wiped his nose and came up bloody! Since the alarm was still blaring Nurse Tempi did not move. Now with a handkerchief pressed against his nose he went downstairs to the ADT box, hit a button, entered a code and the alarm stopped – as did his nose bleed.
Back upstairs, he found his glasses and got back to work on the floor…while Zoe and I sat on the screened in porch and shook off the ringing in our ears.
Maybe 10 minutes later – again we are not so good with time unless Zoe is “on the clock” as her Zozymes coat her food for 15 minutes (this duration she has down pat) – we started barking. Dad figured it was another one of the neighborhood dogs walking down the street but was surprised to see a policeman walking up to our front door. Forgetting about the alarm incident (which just happened), he was sure it was in response to Zoe’s incessant barking the day before*.
Instead, the kind man in blue asked if everything was alright as a fire alarm had been recorded and the fire department was on the way. Embarrassed, Dad had to tell him he set it off while sanding the floor and didn’t turn it off in time. The officer confirmed that we were the owners of the house and left.
Just a short time later, Dad had to repeat this unflattering story to the Chief of the Fire Department who had driven into our driveway in a smallish truck minutes before the large fire truck parked in front of our house – all of whom were graciously welcomed by us pups!
Turns out the Chief was a great guy and gave us pets during Dad’s confession…and while Dad updated the fire departments record of who owns our house – and most importantly entered that two dogs also lived at this address. I think this might be linked to me finding that sign the other day that should have been in the window acknowledging that this was our residence.
After he left, things quieted down again and we returned to our respective seats and got back to our naps. Meanwhile, Dad had to tell his story to Mom who called after having seen texts from neighbors asking if everything was alright. And then there was the texts back to these neighbors explaining everything was indeed ok.
The floor turned out better than it had been but probably really needs professional help as there are other discolored spots, and even more places where there are dings and scratches. Until that happens, this is what we will be living with.
The Tempest
*On Monday Mom had the day off to celebrate (?) President’s Day. Since it was sunny out, we decided to have a bonfire to burn some of the fallen branches that had accumulated in the more then 2 years since we last could burn. This meant we were all outside all afternoon, which meant Zoe saw all the people walking their dogs, all the delivery trucks, all the deer passing through the woods, etc. However, there were a few occasions my parents couldn’t figure out what she was on about. Turns out, two neighborhood dogs (Norman and Bertie) were out of leash enjoying the woods. Dad found this out when we were on a walk and ran into the pair. Fortunately for Dad, a couple of neighbors were also out and provided enough distractions that we were able to get home without getting into a fight with them…or with each other.
It turns out, I have been doing a lot more reading recently – other than my Mother’s address book.
The room at the end of the hall did have a number of titles I found interesting and took off the shelves when Zoe and I were left alone (a rare occurrence) or unattended (a more common experience with Mom being on Zoom and Dad doing some shopping at someplace other than a hardware store – those shopping trips we gladly go on since there is almost always a treat behind the counter for us).
As you can probably tell, it’s been largely a non-fiction winter, but I am sure you can see why these titles caught my eye.
And then there was this interesting thing I found tucked between a couple of books and brought out to the living room to question my parents why this was not in a window? Do they not care about us? Should I run away again to go on another deer hunt?
The Tempest
PS – the reorganizing Dad did the other day was to move the books off the shelves on the floor to ones higher up on the wall. It may take me awhile to get at them, but if they really think they are safe from me…well they should have learned by now not to underestimate me!
Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. It isn’t for a lack of stories. In fact, it is the opposite: I have so many stories stockpiled I haven’t been able to pick which one to tell. Which one has the most intrigue or humor? Which one ties to previous posts that I’ve hinted at and haven’t blogged about yet? And by the time I try to get one down some new adventure crops up and distracts me once again
For instance, yesterday I was finally going to sit down with The Scribe and post something that happened this weekend as soon as he was finished moving some things around (we are constantly trying putting things in better places – in part to keep me from “shopping”. After the shoe closet was closed off what is a girl to do?). But before he could finish and start the original story I was about to tell, he found me on the couch reading a book I found on one of the shelves he had been clearing.
So, for the near future, I will keep my stories short in order to chip away at my backlog – I realized I could even take some of the texts that my dad sends to friends about Zoe and my adventures as the entire story…these are usually only a sentence or two and some pictures. Maybe this strategy will help me focus and possibly return to some more in-depth blogs.
More soon,
The Tempest
EDITORS NOTE: The book Tempi was “reading” was actually an address book I have had since high school. For those youngsters reading this, there was a time when you had to write peoples phone numbers and addresses on pieces of paper which were put in alphabetical order (based on the persons last name) and then bound together resulting in a: Address Book. And when you wanted to share this information with friends or family, you would have to write it down and give it to them so they could write it down in their own address book…if they could find it.
Before I start, I want to say I hope you all had a great end of 2023 and had a Happy New Year. Also, best wishes for the rest of 2024 – hope everyone stays safe and enjoys all the seasons of this new year.
So, as you may recall, we spent the last two winters in California where we experienced some atmospheric rivers resulting in a lot of rain, but we didn’t have temperatures cold enough to produce sleet let alone snow. 
A few weeks ago, we took a road trip up to the King Arthur Store in Vermont where we got to “experience” snow again while there.
But look at this sad scene! It is hardly what I would call snow. In fact, we saw that the nearby ski hill in (or near) Hanover New Hampshire (the home of Dartmouth College) had barely any snow – although there were a few sad souls trying to generate some speed on the bunny slope…pathetic really.
Back in Carlisle, we haven’t had any snow what-so-ever…resulting in a non-white Christmas for us. Likewise, New Years Eve was equally lacking flakes of white falling from the sky.
That all ended today…well actually it ended late last night, but we were snuggled down inside in front of the fire (and then in our parent’s comfy bed) so really didn’t notice/interact with it until this morning.
But once we were awake…we were so excited by the snow! Maybe we’ll get more presents soon since it is definitely “white” outside now!!!
Below are a few pics of our neighborhood and yard I had my parents take for this post of mine. And a few more of Zoe and I enjoying the winter wonderland view of our yard from our couch as we stay hygge inside.
Montana Moments 