I Count 3030

SUMMARY: I've blogged how many times?!

Backfill: date

Yesterday, blogger friend Dawn posted on her Change Is Hard site: Time Warp. In it, she muses on her history in blogging, and how in July of 2014 she had already posted 1500 times. Which got me thinking, which is always dangerous.

Like her, I have met many people through their blogs across the continent--reading, commenting, conversing, reading their comments on mine--and eventually meeting three of them in person, including Dawn. Seems so recent, yet that was 10 (ten!) years past. I need to jump into my Winnebago and start driving for more visits!

If only I had a Winnebago.

A friend's equivalent, when I visited in 2018

But I digress (as is my wont).

This makes my 3,030th Taj MuttHall post. Is it cheating to get to that number with a post about the number? I claim Not Cheating: All's fair in love and blogging.

3030 is a lot of blogging.  From my first post on August 5, 2002, when Remington earned his NATCH (his only championship), to the next post on August 26 in which Tika has her first-ever competition run and Remington exhibits sickness for the first time (won't know it's cancer for a couple more months), and I was off and running as a blogger of dogs and dog agility.

Not being one to miss an opportunity, I started rescuing text about my dogs and dog agility from old emails and Backfilling them into the blog-- for example, this post dated May 5, 1994, which looks like the first post, but I actually posted it on October 20, 2004  from an email from 5/5/94.   (Once upon a time I created the tag #backfilled for all posts that I've done like this--but I've never applied it to all the really old ones! Another blogger project for my imminent retirement.)

I don't know whether there is a way to count back to find my 1000th or 2000th posts, but I can count back using my fingers and toes and my fingers again to my 3000th back in April, discussing divesting myself of agility equipment, which dovetails nicely with the first posts in 2002, as it's where I'm really realizing that I'm transitioning out of agility. ...Probably.

Along the way, I also started posting about my past, my photography, my travel, my food (!so cliché), my family, health, hiking, happiness, my rewritten lyrics to songs or poems, and so much more. Invented my alias Human Mom (first occurrence in June, 2006). Created around a thousand tags (see sidebar). A real olio.

I'm not sure where this blog will head from here on out. Will I find a better way to tag or organize things? Will I start a different blog for travel, for photography, for humor...?

Unknown. But I hope to see you all here, there, or anywhere.

Having an Old Dog Means--

SUMMARY: Prepare to smile and weep.

By my friend and fellow dog blogger: What it means to have an old dog

My Jake at fifteen.
January, 2007

The Happiest Day of Your Life

SUMMARY: Which day was it?

Inspiration: Facebook June 22, 2021

A friend asked: "What was the best day of your life? You cannot count the birth of your kids."

I thought for a long time.

I'm not sure that it’s possible to define that. It would have to be something so amazing that nothing like it has ever happened before and nothing like it has ever happened since. But that would be just kind of sad, wouldn't it? Just one day like that? 

But maybe I simply haven’t had astounding-enough life-changing moments. Such as suddenly being freed from prison after having been wrongly convicted? Or someone you loved dearly was presumed dead and then suddenly you found them? Winning a presidential election? Didn’t know.  Would those be the happiest day of your life or would they be merely be anticlimatic or a huge relief after everything leading up to it? 

How about ending up with a house full of bendy aliens? Oh--well--that's pretty fun, but over and over. 

I can think of many days or times where happiness and contentment welled up within me and stayed with me throughout the day:

• Lying against a warm granite boulder in a sunny high Sierra Meadow next to a stream.(Picture me here (lounging and holding camera). Paradise!) 

• Sitting on the grass at an agility trial with several friends and laughing so hard we couldn’t stop. 
• Completing an important title in agility with one of my dogs that had been a struggle for us. 
• Arriving at Disneyland. Spending time there. Even just strolling. 
• Going on trips with my camera as companion and taking photos and just spending the time looking around and taking things in. 
• Learning that I was accepted to the Clarion West writers workshop. 
• Pulling off a successful surprise party.
• Winning a debate in a competition against a top-level opponent. 
• Watching an amazing sunrise or sunset with a lovely foreground as well.
• Walking or hiking early, at dawn, with my dogs and no one else around.
• Passing clever notes back and forth with a friend between classes as we walk past each other.
• Rereading something I've written and realizing that it's very good.
• Spending Christmas Day with my large family.
• Solving a problem at work that others weren't able to.
• Helping a dog learn something new and useful and cool and suddenly s/he gets it.

Once I started thinking, more and more things came to mind. Lots of happier-than-everyday days in my life. But I don’t know if any of the hundreds of days like that stands out from the rest. Which is fine by me: That means that I have had a steady influx of happy days over my many decades.

How about you?

• When I completed my college degree. 

I are bachelor of science!
No more pencils, no more books...
Sister is also happy with me.

Second Annual Chip High-Heat Ice Cream Wake

SUMMARY: This could become a tradition

Chip left us last year, on June 17. It's been really hard for me this week.  

Also I can't believe that I've gone an entire year without  a 2nd dog. Zorro just turned seven last week, and for the last couple of months, he hasn't been so cavalier about jumping up into his crate in the back of MUTT MOVER. I have to do things to give him extra space or gear to help him get up. 

But that's a different story.

Last year, on June 18, Zorro and I headed down the street to Baskin Robbins to have some memorial ice cream in honor of Chip.  In 100+ degree heat.

I don't know why blogger accepts videos, uploads them, and then displays what looks like a control pane--but it's just a PIC of a control pane. And then says video not available.
Sorry for now, folks.

So, this year, we did the same. In 108-degree weather. And so is born, ta-da:

Annual Chip High-Heat Ice Cream Wake

Wasn't going to leave Zorro in the car while I got ice cream unless (a) I could park in complete shade and (b) Baskin Robbins didn't have a huge line.  Turns out, yes! Full parking spot in the shade, and yes! no one else at BR! Freaky.

And then all this happened.

Empty Baskin Robbins! In this heat?

Still wearing masks to be safe. Plus my buttons saying I'm not one of the unvaxed.

It leaked all over my hand just walking back to the car, no matter how fast I licked.
Had to keep licking to try to take photos.
Now my phone/camera is sticky.

Rest assured, Human Mom ate almost all the ice cream.

I was glad that I kept his crate door closed and latched, because right about then a huge Standard Poodle trotted up from behind us and tried to stick his nose into our business.
Zorro was not pleased.
Owners did not have him on leash.

Biting through the wires is strenuous!

Fun with animated gifs, part 1
Wagging tail, hard-working tongue
(from 6 photos; need to figure out how to crop it more betterz.)

That was TOTAL nom-nom-noms!

Took the rest home because in the heat it was liquidating beyond  control.
(Fortunately only 5 minutes away.)

The last bite.

Fun with animated gifs, part 2 (from two photos).
Guess who gets to lick the bowl.

P.S. 

I do have a history of drowning my dog grief (or sometimes celebrations) in frozen concoctions that help me hang on. (No--not margaritas--) .--in addition to 2020 and this year-- at least the followings:

• June 2019
• April 2018 and 2015

The Dangers of Dictation

SUMMARY: Don't let this happen to you

My comment responding to a friend's comment on FB June 16, 2021

I almost did a terrible, terrible thing. 

Background: 

After I have finished eating something, depending on what the food was and how much is left in my dish or bowl or plate, I might let Zorro know that it is available for him to lick.

Also background: 

I typically dictate into my phone rather than trying to type responses. 

So I was about to respond to your comment here. I had just finished the last of the ice cream.  After I finished scraping as much as I could out of the ice cream container, I set it aside until Zorro should show up at some point. 

Then I sat back to respond to your comment. I hit the write-a-reply spot and clicked the dictation microphone. That was about the time Zorro appeared and looked expectantly at me. So I stood up with the ice cream container and wandered off to set it down someplace for him to enjoy. 

A while later, I wandered back and picked up my phone and saw that there was text waiting for me to send to you; I do this too often: put in an answer and then don't hit Send. So I almost hit send until I realized that the text said--

 “hello do you want to lick my thing”

My head just about exploded thinking: Had I been hacked? Someone playing a crude joke on me?  And then I realized: Yep, forgot that dictation was turned on and started talking to the dog… about my ice cream container.

------------------------------

Technology is a dangerous thing.

I have avoided or not quite avoided similar issues SO VERY MANY TIMES.  There was the time, for example, that I think I actually clicked Send after dictating something like, "I want to wish luck to all my agility friends this weekend" and discovered to my horror that it had turned into "I want to [something that rhymes with luck] all my agility friends..." and fixed it before (I think) anyone noticed.)

Waiting for that Lifetime Platinum...

SUMMARY: It's tiny in the grand scheme of things, but still--

--I did so want to get there. Particularly now that I'm unlikely to compete again, ever, let alone enough to earn all those Qs with a single dog. [I'm not heartbroken about that not-competing thing. But, you know--yes, about that award. ]

  Tika was only a few short of the 500 required when her heart decided that she was done. 

Tika's LAA Bronze (150 Qs)

But then, in January 2020, USDAA announced:

With new crossover rules in effect, these qualifications [counts for Lifetime Achievement Awards] may come from either the Championship or Performance program, and are limited on a combined basis to no more than 3 qualifications per class (the number to earn a class title) for a maximum of 15 qualifications at each level (i.e., Starters and Advanced), for an overall maximum of 30. This is in keeping with the definition of “Lifetime” and recognizing performances from the beginning of a dog’s career to retirement. This change will be reflected at a later date, following implementation of other programming changes. (https://www.usdaa.com/regulations/upload/USDAAChanges01_10_2020_announcement_Update01_23_2020.pdf)

Translation: Starters and Advanced Qs that didn't used to count towards LAA awards now do. And they'll retroactively update the records and titles for all affected dogs... and Tika had 13 Starters  and 11 Advanced Qs!

Tika's LAA Silver, 250 Qs

And then--COVID hit. So, I waited.

A year after that announcement, I finally asked USDAA In January 2021:

Did this actually go into effect? Specifically, my dog Tika had to retire just 12 short of her LAA platinum, but I see that none of her Starters or Advanced Qs are applied to her award.  Is there any action that I need to take?

Tika's LAA Gold (350 Qs) 

The response was:

Thanks for your patience  - we are still completing the work to update the formulas from the January 2020 updates. The pandemic and cancellation of events nationwide required that we shift all programming energies to the USDAA@Home platform.

LAA awards formulas should reflect the change this quarter. Dogs that were competing and earned an LAA at the time of the change will be awarded their plaques automatically.  We are working on a case by case basis to recognize dogs that have earned these retroactively and are no longer with us. Certainly a great accomplishment in either case.

Last year was a rough year for everyone, I understand that. Her record is still not updated on their web site. I am still trying to be patient. Sigh. I wonder how very many dogs are in a similar place with their LAAs of all 4 levels? (oh--wait--now there are 2 levels even higher!)

She was an amazing dog and gave me just about everything I could've imagined in agility.  But, yes, I greedily want just that little tidbit more.

-----

(See previous blah-blah-blah-agility-awards posts on the topic of Lifetime Achievement Awards)

Tika, 2006
Photo by Erika Maurer

Zero Point Snooker Runs--the Epilogue

SUMMARY: I'll probably not compete again. Who knows. But, for now--

Backfill: Post & comment on Facebook, June 15-16, 2021

This is sort of an epilogue to Zero Point Snooker Runs from June, 2012 [hmm, my stats from that post don't match the stats here; there, I say *two* with Jake...].  I competed only another two years, and that last year, 2014, was sparse. But--here's my agility competition tracking database's info.

Posted June 15 on FB;
> Theory #1 from another discussion was that anyone who plays snooker is bound to get 0-point Snooker runs;
> Theory #2 is that no one else has ever gotten two 0-pointers on the same day with the same dog on different Snooker courses, like I did with Tika:

OK, those of you who play Snooker in agility, two questions:

1)  Estimate how many snooker runs you have done.

2) Of those, how many do you think have been zero points: A. At least one.  B. none. C. [Fill in whatever number you estimate you’ve done]

3) Have any of you had two 0-point Snooker runs on the same day with the same dog (on different snooker courses, not just reattempting the same one)?

I blame Julie Rice for taunting me into posting this!😉

A Snooker course. Snooker has three  (or more) red jumps worth one point (red flag). 
You have to start with a red jump, then take a non-red (e.g., the tunnel for 3 points). 
Er...you have to start with a correctly executed red jump.
So, if you knock the first one, you have to take a different one before you take the #3.
If the dog hits #3 after a knocked red, oops, all done.

I received several comments, including some people who've never had a 0-pointer, or maybe dogs with no 0-pointers, which astounded me. Until I looked at my own stats, which I posted in response on June 16:

Here are my stats (except for the last year or so [of competition]). Because, if I'm going to have kept track, I might as well use the info. Envy me, database mortals! 😉

• 15 out of 530 snooker runs were 0-pointers 

• 1 with Jake, 

• 3 with Boost--2 comments that I thought her first bar stayed up-- 

• the rest with Tika [who is still the #11 all-time USDAA Snooker P3 22" dog despite that]

• None with Remington! out of 46 runs--but he did get one 1-pointer. (He hardly ever knocked bars and, if he did, he was slow enough that I could redirect him.) 

• My comments on those 15 runs:
• kn[ocked] 1st bar & I didn’t realize it soon enough.
• kn 1st bar & I didn’t react
• 1st bar ticked, thought it was staying up, fell as she took next obstacle
• knocked first bar & I didn’t react quickly enough. A billion [people got the full points of] 51s...
• knocked first bar and while I was stunned he went into next obst [Jake *never* knocked bars!]
• set her up to go past 1 rather than over. Very amazingly stupid [Human].
• Ran past 1st (angled) jump & into tunnel before I could stop her.
• Knocked 1st bar & hit tunnel before I could stop her.
• Tried to do angled lead-out pivot & she ran past first jump. Dagnabbit. But a nice SL[start-line] stay!
• kn first bar & couldn’t react fast enough. Sigh. Nice SL stay, too
• thought she had gotten 1st jmp and heard it fall just as she was making perfect wv[weave] entry...
• kn first bar and I just quit crap
• moved at SL so kn 1st bar, veered to right instead of “come” with me standing still & facing her
• kn 1st bar.
• kn 1st red & over next jump before I could move.

Tika taking a 4-point obstacle.
(Brown flag = 4 --flag colors are consistent no matter where you go.
MOST flags also display the number on both sides, not just one side.)
Color rules and numbers match actual billiards-type Snooker! (except agility has fewer Reds)

Happy Gotcha Day Toys

SUMMARY: Zorro's 6th anniversary

Six years ago, I drove 4 hours home from the Sierra Foothills with a year-old pup named Luke in the crate next to Chip in his crate.

Five years ago, he became Zorro. And his favorite toys are Jolly and Squeaky Snake. He shares them with you for this anniversary. With his favorite game--pretend to fetch but instead tease Human Mom by showing, from a distance, how rewarding it is to chew on it.

Wooden things in the kitchen

SUMMARY: Keep? Give Away? At least sometimes dust?

sparked by a discussion on FB: May 23,2021

I have a few wooden spoons of different sizes. I cannot remember the last time I used any of them. Of course, I haven’t done any real baking in years, either. Just mixing eggs and water into mixes and such. For which you don’t care about what kind of spoon you use. 

At least, I don't. Except I prefer things that can go into the dishwasher.

I also have a wooden meat pounder, which I don’t think I have ever used! --hmmm-- Just now I can think of a couple of uses for it that could’ve been handy through the years! And they've been right in front of me on the counter the whole time.

And wooden spatulas. Don't recall ever using those at all.

And a wooden fork?!

And OMG what is that big wedgy thing with a hole in it?

Fascinating to be reminded of things that are right in front of me all the time and I have stopped seeing. 

What do you have in your wallet kitchen?  Anything that your brain has stopped acknowledging? Anything of wood?

Tribulations of Planning Agility Trials

SUMMARY: How to organize walk-throughs and runs for multiple dog heights?

Backfill: My responses to FB question on May 28 '21. Something that every trial chair has to wrestle with.

My first three agility dogs. All different heights, of course.

From Facebook (Cynthia H):

At AKC agility trials in the Utah/Idaho area, at the Master/Excellent level, we would usually split the walkthroughs for the small/tall dogs by using the walk/run, walk/run method.  This seemed to be highly popular in our area.  Lately, it seems clubs have changed to walk/walk, run/run.  With not much of a break in between, just to switch out workers.  I guess the theory is that it saves time, but it only saves about 5 mines per class, so maybe 10 minutes a day, which doesn't seem to me like it's worth it.  I'm wondering, in your area, what do the clubs do?  And what do you prefer?

Many comments about pros/cons of each. I'm picking this one:

Hmm good question. We typically do walk, walk, run for 24-20 then 16. Walk 12, walk 8-4 run all. So it's split tall and small.. I hate it personally because I have a 16 and a 20/24. So sometimes I have to cut my 16's walk short to get my 20/24 ready to run cuz he's often first dog on the line. 

Taj MuttHall says:

I had two 24-20 dogs for years (er... 30/24... er, 26/22...LOL!^note) with different needs and capabilities. So if it were walk/walk I'd sometimes sneak back out with the small dogs to figure out my 20" dog's plan--then cut that short and rush to get my 24" first on the line. But if they did walk/run walk/run (or only one walk for everyone), I'd have to cram two dogs' plans into one walkthrough. Or when running three dogs... [trembles with terror]. 

After several years of USDAA Nationals, where everyone walked all the courses early in the morning and you really literally might not run for hours and have to remember several courses, I learned that I can handle any variant.  

For handlers who are novices, though, arrangements that are easier on the handler are better.

I've been in on the planning and there's never a perfect answer for every issue, curse the agility gods! [Oops, sorry agility gods, I was joking...]

---

^{note 
About jump heights, if you care --
darn it, I might pull this into its own blog post. Later. There's never a perfect answer for every blog issue, curse the blogging gods! [Oops...]}

When I started, Remington jumped 30" and Jake jumped 24" in USDAA.

Shortly thereafter, that became 26" and 22", which lasted for years, so Tika jumped 26" and Boost jumped 22".

 

More recently, they dropped to 24" and 22"... or something... I've not kept up with it all. (In all cases, dogs in Performance jump one height lower so, for example, when I switched my dogs to Performance, Tika jumped 20" and Boost 16".) 

 

(I've not even begun to mention all the jump heights for all sizes of dogs. Here's page 1 (of two!) for USDAA this year.)

More about the T-Shirt Project (Update)

T-shirt tales—Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Tell me more. or Read all t-shirt tales

SUMMARY: A couple things.

• I rearranged and added astonishingly useful links to this post: T-Shirt Tales Introduction. Take a look.

• I've also redesigned the astonishing t-shirt page banner (as above) to take up less space and give more astonishing useful link names--and will eventually apply it to all previous posts, too. Probably.
  
   (Sigh--I wish I could create a macro that would just reference the appropriate HTML so I wouldn't have to update it everywhere. Dream on...)
• In the process, I discovered my astonishingly random way of "consistently" titling these posts, so I might go back and fix them the way my greedy little heart wants. I won't change the current links, which means that you might not be able to invent a link to previous posts based on their titles. (I doubt anyone cares.)

Old banner:

T-shirt tales? Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Whaaaaat??

All T-Shirt Tales

Remembering Señor Hot Tub and Sir Shed

SUMMARY: Flashback Pre-Pandemic

Rollback to September, 2019.

I had grown tired of a hot tub that I hadn't used for several years because of [scary music] Drought, and finally couldn't use after our old frenemy Entropy entered the scene.

And of a pre-existing wooden shed whose condition had been iffy when I first moved in 18 years previously, and by now it visibly consisted largely of rot and rat debris; door no longer opened or closed (so I left it open, so really the shed provided no shelter and I no longer used it for anything).  

When Zorro finally started dismantling the shed in July to get at rats or squirrels or capachubras or whatnot, I had had enough of it. 

When Zorro finally started dismantling the hot tub's pump housing in September to try to get at rats or squirrels or capachubras or whatnot, I had had enough of the hot tub, too.

Zorro is so useful at helping me make decisions like these.

Despite knowing that all of my dogs had loved it as a sunny, soft pillow with an expansive view of the yard (see June 9, 2019,Vantage Points) I finally decided that I wanted that hot tub space back. And Zorro would be perfectly competent at finding things to rip apart other places in the yard.

After I returned from Walt Disney World that month, I found a handyman who would haul them both away. For not too much money. (The hot tub was lightweight vinyl and styrofoam.)

Squim (Or Sequim if spelled correctly)

SUMMARY: What you see is not what you say.

My seester and I did a driving scouting-of-locations around the Seattle Area May 8-18. But not actually in Seattle. Where could we retire to? Since I'm almost there this year, it's kinda important that I know what the heck I'm doing. Or going. Sequim is very nice. In May.  We thought that a nice quiet small town near sailing for my B-I-L would be good.

I learned how to pronounce Sequim (the name developed from the Klallam language) when a couple I know moved there in 2019. And also when another couple I know moved there in 2019 (actually to Port Angeles). And also when a couple that Linda knows moved there a couple of years ago also (actually to Port Angeles, too, but who's counting). And they all love it there.

All from our general area in California. 

An exercise for the student: what will Sequim look like in 20 years??!

Another exercise for the student: Find Sequim on the map. Or use your favorite maps app.

NOTICE: Sadly, if you subscribe here by email, that Blogger feature is going away by July 2021. Until I figure out another solution, you'll need to view this in your feed ... somehow ... .  The official notice from Blogger:  "Recently, the Feedburner team released a system update announcement , that the email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. After July 2021, your feed will still continue to work, but the automated emails to your subscribers will no longer be supported. If you’d like to continue sending emails, you can download your subscriber contacts."  [I'll try to do this before july, also.]

Originally posted May 4, 2021. Reposting May 26.

T-Shirt Tuesday Tales: Apparently Movies Aren't My Big Thing

T-shirt tales—Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Tell me more. or Read all t-shirt tales

SUMMARY: Not a guilty pleasure. But then, once, I gave in.

Remember my unduly long post from a month ago,  T-Shirt Tuesday Tales: My Guilty Reading Pleasure...? The first-ever guilty pleasure t-shirt that I can recall buying about a book--or about anything, for that matter?

So, abandoning all hope at a good segue, here I am to discuss 50 Shades of Gray. Which, back in 2011, I had hoped would be a guilty pleasure. But the book--erk. Couldn't stand another word after about the 3rd chapter. Ever. My curiosity completely extinguished. And I didn't even feel guilty about it (see what I did there?).

But then they made a movie. And you know how I am about movies.

Screen Rant Pitch Meetings, three years ago, showed how the Pitch Meeting for the three Gray movies probably went. I loved the post back then, and I just stumbled across it again. So I watched it again and said:

I might have commented 3 years ago, but since these movies are some of my "favorites" and Pitch Meeting definitely highlighted some of their highlights, I'm commenting again.  

(1) I tried to read the book but my brain imploded by about chapter 3 and I never wanted to try again. 

(2) I figured the movie couldn't possibly be as bad as the book, so on a dull weekend when I had seen all other movies that were playing, some of them more than once, I went to this one.  Turns out I was wrong. So so so so horrifically wrong.  

(3) When the 2nd movie came out, a couple of critics said that both actors had improved since the first one, and for some inexplicable reason, probably brain damage from the 1st one I decided, I went to see it, too. I'm so so so so sorry, everyone, for tossing my money their way for content that would be lucky to ever be elevated to even "pure junk" and I regret every penny even though it was a discount matinee. So-- 

(4) --you nailed it again. Thank you, Pitch Meeting!

Therefore, Gray never became a guilty pleasure and I never (duh!) bought a t-shirt for either the book or the movie. (I'm glad, because my Captive Prince guilty pleasure is so so so so much better. IMHO.)  

In fact--to use another poor excuse of a segue--to the best of my recollection, I had never bought a t-shirt for a movie or movie characters at all, ever.  Until last year when, apparently, I started buying "first-ever" t-shirts.

 And it's because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Loved. Those. Movies. Saw most more than once. And yet, couldn't find a shirt that rang my bell until I found this one. It particularly appealed because I've often commented about how, maybe, if some of those female characters had been prominent when I was a kid, maybe I'd have grown up not quite wishing I were Batman so much. And about how lucky girls are now, to have these movie characters.

... And I strongly recommend that no girls use the heroine in 50 Shades as a role model. What a milquetoast, idiotic, poor excuse of a character. 

IMHO.

All are characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Black Widow.
Captain Marvel. Valkyrie.
The Wasp. Pepper Potts. Mantis. Gamora.
Scarlet Witch. Nebula. Okoye. Shuri.

Appendix: 

Me hangin' with my favorite buds... because my real guilty pleasure here is that I have crushes on most of the male characters (Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston (not included here), Chris Pratt (ditto), Benedict Cumberbatch (ditto))... I mean, who wouldn't?

Some Things We Looked Up While On Our Trip

SUMMARY: We both have curious minds.

So, this happened:  Seester and I headed north to western Washington to investigate possible future retirement locations. Driving is the best! Lots of time for conversation and asking questions about--anything! [yeah, will probably get around to talking about the trip at some point.]

• Can we reasonably make it to our first area of exploration (Silverdale, WA) in one day? Answer: Yes, if we're willing to drive for 14 hours. Not including rest stops, food stops, gas stops....  Final answer: No.

• Where should we stop our first night? (Checking distances from our starting location to Portland, Crescent City, Eureka, Ukiah, and some other places.) Decided on Crescent City but I insisted on not making reservations until we were well on our way, and glad about that because we made it only to Eureka for dinner with a friend.

• How to pronounce Puyallup?

• How does tolling work for non-Washington residents crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge? (Apparently they'll get our address from CA DMV via our license plate and send a bill.)

  

  When we headed home, that was really the only day with dark foreboding clouds.
  Which pretty much cleared up by noon.

  
  

• Did L. Ron Hubbard *really* have more published works of fiction than Stephen King? (Guiness World Records says yes.)
  
  
• If I wanted to pick up Zorro the day after I got home instead of Friday night, and he was in Sonora, how long would it take? (Gulp--4 hours round trip. Answer: No. Fortunately arranged a pickup in Tracy, only 2 hours round trip.)
  
  
• Which rest areas (er, "safety roadside rest areas") are currently open on I-5? On US 101?  (Didn't have much luck finding those answers.)
  
  
• Where exactly is Trees of Mystery and what are their hours?
  
  
• What's interesting about Port Angeles?
  
  
• Rainfall averages for various places in Washington?
  
  
• Lots and lots and lots and lots of queries in Google Maps for how to get somewhere or how long it would take or where it was.
  
  
• Where's the nearest AAA office?
  
  
• Tsunami Hazard Zone Maps for WA.
  
  
• Exclusion zones for Mount Rainier eruption dangers
  
  
• Iceland isn't on the Ring Of Fire, so why does it have volcanoes?
  
  
• How did prehistoric irrigation work in the Americas without the wheel? Was it all gravity-based? (Apparently, yes.)
  
  
• Calories in a Wendy's small chocolate Smoothie?
  
  
• Common name for Humuhumunukunukuapua'a? [Yes, I could remember the Hawaiian name, but not the common  English name.]
  
  
• What is all the white stuff growing next to  101 around Eugene? [Answer: Meadowfoam. OK, what is Meadowfoam?]  

  

  Meadowfoam, by phone from a moving car.

  
  
  
• Is there an airport near Labanon OR? (Yes, the Labanon airport.)
  
  
• Are wild pigs just domestic pigs gone feral?  (Maybe in some cases, but actual different species. They are a likely ancestor of domestic pigs.)
  
  
• Are wild turkeys just etc etc. (Domestic turkeys are descended from them.)

• ARE there so many songs about rainbows and what's on the other side? (Interesting and funny blog post about this.)
  
  
• List of fictional characters with stars on the Hollywood walk of fame?
  
  
• Does EVERYWHERE WE GO have a Safeway?  [It sure seemed like it. I think we saw more safeways than anything other than trees.]
  
  
• Can that photo of our hotel on [something] Bay [which appears to be mostly mudflats] in the far background of an orca leaping into the air be real? For that matter, do orcas really breach often? [I said, yes, they're basically just big dolphins.] 
  
  
• What's the best Incorrect Quote we can generate for our favorite fictional characters?
  
  
• If someone says their dog is a Service Dog (and the person is disabled after overseas service), but the dog is badly behaved, can it really be a Service Dog? And how is that defined?
  
  
• Where is the wooden ship Tally-Ho being rebuilt in Sequim? (All that info has apparently now been hidden and we couldn't find it.)
  
  
• Rules about capital gains on primary residences.
  
  
• Dimensions of a king-sized mattress?
  
  
• Actual name of the Klamath River bridge that washed away, and is it the same name as its replacement?

  

  Site of the old bridge. Seester taking a photo.

  
  
  
• Earthquake and liquefaction hazard maps in and around seattle?
  
  
• Did our favorite hotel Candy Cane Inn in Anaheim survive the pandemic? [says it's currently "under renovation"... whatever that really means]
  
  
• Kaiser locations in Washington and Oregon?
  
  
• Nearest Wendy's?
  
  
• We're alongside the Salmon River -- want more info.
  
  
• What causes nighttime leg and foot cramps?
  
  
• Where did the city name Cotati come from? (Coast Miwok)
  
  
• So much more--but I didn't save everything... and sorry I didn't include all the links (sometimes searched a lot for an answer). 

Does Your Dog Bite? Redux

SUMMARY: I might have mellowed a bit--

--since this post in 2008--

In recent years, in situations where someone asks, does your dog bite?, I'll likely modify my response to something like:

"All dogs bite. He hasn't bitten anyone yet, and as long as you're not trying to hurt him, he's unlikely to bite you." 

Or variations such as:

"All dogs bite. These dogs love people and have never bitten a person. Are you asking whether it's OK to pet them? If so, please do, they love the attention."

Sometimes I'll leave off the "all dogs bite" part, but it feels a bit like a lie.

A game of bitey-face-hand. 

Someone's post on Facebook today - I promise this isn’t another usual  my-dog-on-leash-other-dog-off-leash type of post (however long it remains available) about "my [loose] dog is friendly"-- and the human's response is priceless. I'll have to remember this.

Foxtail Tales

SUMMARY: So small, so dangerous

Started with my response to a Facebook post about dogs wearing anti-foxtail covers over their heads.

They can be beautiful, early in the morning, glistening with dew

I've experienced two unpleasant foxtails encounters, and others not so bad, with my dogs. In the early '90s, one evening while out in our big yard, my husky Sheba started sneezing and couldn't stop, and then started sneezing blood. Ran her to the nearby open-at-night emergency vet , where they sedated her and found and removed a teeny tiny foxtail way up in her sinus. Expensive. And of course the toll on the dog.

And Jake, in the late '90s, we were out of town at an agility competition--we went hiking at a nearby lake one evening and the dogs went swimming [this is where I discovered that Remington loved loved loved swimming; that's a different story]. Foxtails in prime sticking form surrounded the trail to the lake. Back at the car, I must've spent half an hour trying to get them out of Jake's long silky coat and tail.

A trail like this: Narrow; foxtails ripe and abundant.
All it takes is the dog to stick his nose into those for just a moment...

There they are, almost ripe and each
seed ready to torture a dog

The next morning, before the agility competition began, he started scratching at his ear (he had long floppy long-haired ears) and shaking his head. He was prone to ear infections, so I always carried special goop from the vet.  I figured he'd gotten water in his ear while swimming and an infection was starting.  Applied goop per the normal schedule. We went to the vet when we got home--actually the next morning when they opened. Vet said, nope not an infection, but was able to pull a foxtail out of his ear fairly easily without anesthesia--he said that's because the goop had softened it so much that it couldn't stick in anything and he could just grab it with long tweezers(?) and glide it out, no anesthesia. Disaster averted.

So, not too expensive, but of course going to the vet just costs.

Tika had extremely dense fur. Like a husky's. Fun fact: Dogs have, on average, 15,000 hairs per square inch. A husky can have up to 83,000.  (Otters have even more!) Tika had such dense hair, particularly with her winter coat, that I'd have trouble seeing even a speck of her skin.  Her hairs were not particularly long--in memory, I think 1-1.5 inches. But they were perfectly straight and, as it turned out, exactly the length and texture of a foxtail seed. When she managed to dash through a field of foxtails, you couldn't *see* whether she had any in her coat, even though she'd have dozens and dozens.  You'd have to hunt. Wrong kind of treasure hunt, but it was what it was. (Not something I encouraged, I assure you.)

Once, when petting her at home, I found a foxtail halfway embedded into her skin. Fortunately, when I tugged gingerly at it, it pulled out fairly easily with minimal blood. I cleaned the spot and added a little neosporin, and no infection. I tried not to think about what might have happened if I hadn't accidentally found it.

"Bubble head" protectors--friends have posted about their dogs wearing them for several years now. Two people today recommended OutFox brand. Expensive. But compared to some of the horror stories shared in comments to that post...

Note: I have so many photos of foxtails! They are gorgeous, actually. These photos came from different years and locations.