Soap

Now some of you out there of a certain age might be thinking I am going to opine on the television show that kicked off Billy Crystal’s acting career. Now don’t quote me on that since I didn’t have time to Google it and I don’t want my blog to be the source of misinformation. Although my parents did watch this series in its entirety when they were living in Illinois, it was before my time so I have only seen clips on the YouTube.

Soap, in this instance, is what you people are obsessed with spreading around your person when showering or rolling around in your hands after picking up after us dogs following our walks. Turns out, Zoe and my Dad have other experiences with this product and my Mother was trying to tell me that I too had this experience shortly after I joined the pack – back when I was a mere pup – but I find this hard to fathom.

Yesterday, Zoe had a 4 PM vet appointment for an ultrasound so we could hopefully get an idea of why she still has the scoots on and off which has caused her to lose quite a bit weight recently – something my parents say the rest of us need to do (? I am the perfect weight!). Prior to her visit she was not supposed to eat anything (well, my Mom negotiated a small breakfast for the poor thing) so they could get good images of her digestive track. Poor girl was STARVING – and didn’t understand why she was not being fed. This led to her hunting for anything to satisfy her rumbling tummy.

Just around 3 PM, Dad was starting to get things set up for the drive to the vet when he heard something hit the ground in another part of the house. Upon inspection, he found that Zoe had pushed open the shower door and the mostly full bar of soap he had used that morning was gone. Zoe looked up at him with her big brown eyes imploring him to not be mad…a girl just has to find food if it is not being provided for her, after all.

Once at the vet, Dad informed the vet tech that this had occurred and then texted some of his family and our Mother. In this text trail, I found out that when he (Dad) was a mere pup, he had gotten into the family bathroom, somehow locked the door, and then munched down a bar of soap – this was while his Mother was on the phone with a good family friend. Apparently it took her awhile to find a neighbor to help her get the door unlocked whereupon she found her son feeling a bit nauseated from the soap he ingested.

In Zoe’s case, her doc induced her to vomit up the soap prior to the ultrasound. They then gave her an anti-emetic and a camel pack of fluids (which settled strangely down along one side of her chest due to her being so thin).

The ultrasound found that her adrenal glands were slightly on the small size, and her spleen and one lymph node were slightly enlarged. The rest of her looked normal so no obvious reason for her weight loss…which means on Thursday she has to get a fasted blood draw. Luckily, it is at 9AM!

She ate readily when we got home and had dinner. She was a bit groggy from her meds but seemed pretty much herself throughout the day and during our afternoon walks. I did try to get her to play chase in the afternoon but she wasn’t having any of it this time.

Overall through all of this she had been herself; food motivated, good energy, up for a wrestle or two with me, loving a walk. With COVID, vet appointments are different where the humans (and me!) stay outside, so it is hard to get the vet the information before the exam. To rectify this, before the visit leading up to the ultrasound, Mom typed an email to the vet letting them know what was going on with Zoe. The vet, having read it, expected a pretty lethargic dog even though Mom said Zoe had her normal energy. When the vet called Mom he said something to the effect of “she really is a bouncy happy dog!” So while we don’t know what is going on, she is still having a great life with me.

In fact, the other day when visiting the cows she redirected her anger at me when one of them approached us. I think she may have thought I was going to try and have a that steak for myself – talk about a high reward treat! The commotion caused by this interaction was not greeted warmly by the residents of the ajoining house so we are avoiding the cows from then on.

I’ll keep you posted on how she is doing and we’ll see if she is up for finishing a movie she has been working on for my blog. I am sure she will be once she puts some weight back on!

The Tempest

I thought it would have been funny if she blew bubbles again like she did after stealing some food off the counter back in Illinois!

Not in a box, not with a fox

The other day we got another package in the mail from our good friends at the Amazon. However, I struggled to get comfortable in this new bed.

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Thankfully, my Mother intervened and got the one end of the box that I had been working on, out of my way so I could comfortably sit on the bed in such a way that Zoe couldn’t interfere (although she was certainly jealous as you can obviously see).

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After a short while of sitting there, I got to thinking that our other beds (and couch, and chairs,…) were actually more comfortable to lie down on. While on this train of thought it occurred to me that I did know someone who may actually find this thing really comfortable. So I got Mr. Squeaky Pig:

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Sure enough! He fit in with plenty of room to spare. That is until the Scribe got involved and broke down the box to put it in the recycling bin. Hearing the tearing of box seams I immediately got off the couch and ran to the kitchen – much like I do when I hear our food being dished out or someone cutting a slice of dad’s sourdough bread (especially when it is still warm!). Turns out, the box in this new incarnation was perfect for me to lie on!

The Tempest

BTW – in regards to the whole Dr. Seuss racist imagery in a handful of his books, I say take them off the shelves and retain all his other wonderful works. In doing so, the Dr. Seuss Enterprises, is acknowledging that our society (in part) has evolved our sensitivity to other cultures since his books were originally written. With the removal of these books from the bookstores, children of certain ethnicities can read his other books and feel part of the great world of inclusion and environmentalism that he created in the remaining books.

The only downside is that my aunt didn’t get to the library in time to “check out” these books to sell on ebay or Amazon.com for $1500 a pop. Imagine the profit margin from such sales versus the late fees at the library! Seems someone responsible for well being of these books thought of this too!!

Power Up

What a week! Well it was actually a little more than a week if you count the guys who came last week and shoveled off our roof…and then shoveled off our shingles. Then they had to come back this Tuesday because they didn’t do “fascists” to Tesla standards – at least that is what I heard. To be honest, that didn’t make any sense to me since I think I would have sniffed out Mussolini but apparently it was true – and it didn’t make the subcontractors happy to be back…even though this gave them a chance to pick up a shovel and rake they left behind the previous week. But I did learn that the problem was with the fascia which makes SO much more sense.

Anyhow, this week our street was lined with many cars (and even a motorcycle) as a myriad of gentlemen commenced to work on our roof and lower level – some of the electricians mostly spending their time down low installing the converters and other electrical connections…they being electricians and all – but come to think of it, one also did some painting so most of the conduits were the same color as our house.

Our stylish new solar inverters

By Sunday afternoon they were almost done with our new solar roof – except it started to snow and apparently the tiles are slippery as snot (not sure about that simile) when they get wet. So they had to return on this Monday to finish the job.

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And then the very next day, we received a box of diodes. Our parents weren’t sure if these were “backups” or a mistake. When one of favorite Tesla staff returned to take some pictures we found out that this shipment should have arrived a week or so earlier. Apparently the postal service is still not back to peak form (?).

Oh! Did I mention that same day, the window guys were back to replace a couple of our sliders!

The new “slidahs”

What fun!!! All these new friends to hang out with! And Dad even made the window guys a loaf of sourdough bread for their break on Tuesday…which meant we got some hot out of the oven bread (Zoe’s favorite – which is why the loaves are always scored with a capital Z!).

Before they were done, The Scribe tried to get a pic of our house without the “Johnny on the Spot” in the background which resulted in Zoe’s nose being a bit cropped and the “pisser” is still slightly in frame.

Although the work is completed, apparently we can’t start generating our own juice until the inspectors and electrical company give their thumbs up. Boy, I hope we don’t have another big storm that cuts off our power until we are approved! I guess until then we really aren’t “powered up”…yet.

Best to all,

The Tempest

Totaling Puzzling or Puzzling Behavior

Recently, my parents unloaded a box with a bunch of small pieces in random shapes and mostly in the … what should I say…my coloring – tans, blacks, reddish and white hues, etc.

But what was the whole point of this activity? I observed, participated (where I could) and then went back to the couch in front of a good warm fire.

Due to all her Zoom calls, when Mom came up from work and looked at what Dad was up to her eyes crossed and despite her best efforts – which included completing the border – she called it a day and left the completion of the “puzzle” up to me and the scribe (which, by the way, is why I haven’t been able to get his attention lately for what I’ve been up to and all the great stories I’ve had to tell).

After a few days of on-and-off work, creating a bunch of “islands,” Dad looked at me and said: “I think we need to consult the box.” The box? We’ve been slaving over this thing in which all the pieces are basically the same color and the same shape – trying to put them all together and there was a template on the table which we could use to assist our efforts? What kind of masochistic activity was he engaging in? Then he told me it was a demerit within his family (thus my peeps) that looking at the cover shot was a form of…well maybe not cheating – but at least less challenging. What kinda family is that? Just sayin’…

Anyhow, after consulting the picture, the puzzle (eventually) came together:

Interestingly, there was one piece that was strangely missing on the bottom left-hand corner. We looked all over the dining room (where we were working on the puzzle) but alas the piece was not found.

I am thinking the movers probably lost this piece. See, we had this box back in Illinois but never opened it until we got to our new house in Massachusetts. Ray our truck driver was great (we LOVED him), but we are missing this piece and a chicken pot!

Sure, I did gobble up a few pieces at one point but Dad pulled them out of my mouth – which was fine with me – since it tasted horrible…basically cardboard. But then again, I do like shredding a new cardboard box brought to us by one of our best friends – UPS, FedEx, and Amazon!

The Tempest

Another Dog Bed?!?

So yesterday afternoon one of our favorite UPS drivers dropped off a package for us. Zoe, as always, welcomed him as he walked down our driveway and to our front door with a package we presumed was for us…and it was one BIG box.

Turns out, it was another dog bed which I quickly realized:

Zoe – being Zoe – did not let me relax on the new bed for long before she took over:

I decided it wasn’t worth a fight so took refuge on the couch where I squeezed up next to Mom in front of the fire – actually a much more comfortable spot as it turns out.

After dinner, the new bed was tossed out the front door as we had decided it was no longer a dog bed but a tasty dessert which was fun to tear into 🧁!

Luckily, we still have a lot of Big Barker beds dispersed around the house – and of course the bed in the master “suite”, the couch, and some comfy chairs nearby the couch where we spend a lot of our time in the evenings when our parents take over the couch.

The Tempest

PS – the new bed came with some bizarre stuffing that my Dad removed before I initially laid down on it:

Apparently, our old “telescoping” cobweb remover didn’t work as well after some of my modifications so they ordered a new one from Amazon which came in that oversized box (Dad was disappointed because he was hoping it was a TV! Not a dog bed with a brush in it).