Category Archives: My blog
Dog gone dog home
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Things were somewhat quiet at the MIL’s house today. We should’ve figured it was too quiet and was the hush before the next squall.
Five this afternoon I was out weeding the gardens when I saw DH hobbling to his truck. “Where are you going? It’s almost time for me to start dinner.”
“My mom’s again.” This would be trip number three for the day. “The dog got out.” His mother has an elderly Border terrier who, like most terriers, even at his old age is still fast on his feet. She should have some old roly-poly dog that can’t get out of its own way.
“Want me to come along? Drive you over?”
“No. Go ahead and finish what you’re doing.”
“I won’t start dinner until you get back.”
“Okay.”
Three hours later, he came dragging in the door. He hadn’t found the dog. His mother was in hysterics and we both knew she’d make his life hell if the dog never came home. The poor man was distressed and beyond tired. It was late, I made dinner, we ate, and soon afterwards, he went to bed.
Around ten p.m. the phone rang, it was the MIL, some woman showed up at her door with the dog. DH mustn’t have been sleeping well worrying about the dog, because as soon as I hung up the phone, he called downstairs and asked me what was up. He knew it was his mother, she has a special ring on our phone, and it sounds as frantic as her constant calls.
“The dog is home.”
“Thank God.” He went back to bed.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
How to repair a hole in a wall
Posted by doggonedmysteries
There’s a hole in the wall behind Patty’s crate.
How did that get there?
The idiot dog put it there.
Sure, blame the dog.
Really, she did it. No, she didn’t use a hammer or put her paw through it, she used her crate.
Patty is a high energy Bull Terrier. Patty will run full tilt into her crate and slam into the back of it. One of these days, I expect to find her unconscious in there with that I-meant-to-do-it look on her face. The last time she ran full tilt into her crate, it hit the wall so hard that it knocked a hole in the plaster. It’s not dry wall this is an old plaster and lath wall.
I will clear away any loose dust and plaster and undercut the edges. I’ll dampen the hole and edges, fill it with patching plaster, not quite even to the wall, and then score the surface of the patching plaster. Let it dry for 24 hours. Then I’ll apply joint compound even with the rest of the wall. This doesn’t have to be perfect since I painted the wall with textured paint, which I’ll apply after the joint compound is dry.
Have I done this before? Oh, yeah. Many times, between DH’s frequent falls and two high energy BTs I’ve become an expert.
Posted in Dog related, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, DIY, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Home repairs, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, the dog did it, Writer, Writing
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest and I’m sure it was my MIL
Posted by doggonedmysteries
One a.m. thunder and lightning along with pouring rain. DH’s cell phone rings, waking him out of a sound sleep, and the police are on the other end of the line. I found all this out when he came downstairs set to drive across town to his mother’s, for the fourth time in nineteen hours. It seems that my MIL’s power went out for a few minutes and she felt the need to report the fact to the police. They in turn called us. Thanks guys.
The woman is going to be the death of him. Either that or she’s going send him to the funny farm post haste. This, by the way, is where she should be.
I swear she is certifiable, has been for at least 40 years. In fact, for 37 years her lights were on, nobody was home but the cuckoo, and he’s been screaming CUCKOO! Where’s nurse Ratchet when you need her?
The woman is nucking futs. I’d reserve her rubber room for her but the way things are going poor DH would probably be next door to her and I don’t think that would work.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, crazy, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
The klutz was out and about again
Posted by doggonedmysteries
So there I was running the trimmer around the edges of the yard and the garden when I ever so neatly landed on my butt. Yep, the klutz was out and about again today. This time I tripped over the two bricks and the hose that extend from the filters for use while back washing the pond filter. The hose spewed a bit of water so my pants were also wet. I looked lovely.
Yes, there are bruises. I have one on my butt, and another on my arm that I have no idea how I got one there. I’m betting by tomorrow there will be more. Not to mention the stiff muscles I’ll discover that I never knew I had. I narrowly missed spraining an ankle, again. I’m ever so glad no one saw me fall it couldn’t have been pretty.
Falling once was bad enough, but not five minutes later, I almost repeated the same pratfall on the same two bricks and hose. By now, I think I hold the klutz queen crown firmly within my grasp. Next time I’m moving the bricks and hose before I begin to trim.
However, with my luck I’ll find something else to fall over. I’m taking odds on that.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
The psyche of a character
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Sometimes your readers see your characters clearer than you do. How often have you gone to a critiquing group and had them ask you, “Why did your character do that?” Your first response is the childlike, because ___. To which they say, “Your character wouldn’t do that.”
Baffled you stop and think, Huh? I know my characters. I know what they’d do. But wait, what do these people see that I don’t? Did I forget something?
You know your character’s inner workings but have you read the story with the eye of reader? You have revealed something to the readers. Somehow, by the character’s thoughts, words, deeds, and emotions, you gave them something and you missed it. However, you have a success because they feel that they know your character.
Quit writing for a day, do something else, then go back, print it out, and read what you have. Don’t read it with your little editor, don’t read it as the writer, read it as a reader.
You may find the little quirk you gave the character that made your critique group tell you the character wouldn’t react the way you wrote it. If you don’t, don’t worry about it. What you wrote made them react by them reacting in the way they did it shows that your character came to life for them. Use it.
Posted in My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Remembering those who have fallen and those who still serve.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
My nephew in Afghanistan
May you all come home safe and soon!
Posted in Holidays, In memory of..., Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, Memorial day, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, service men and women, Writer, Writing
No more robbing Peter to pay Paul
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We went through years of where we thought we’d never see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’d get close but then someone would move the end. We had those calls from creditors where you want to scream at them, “How do you get blood from a stone?” You knew it was bad when you’d cringe at the ring of a phone. We lived in creditor hell for a while and it is the worst place to be. I’m not going back there.
I never thought this day would get here. One more check to write and we are debt free. We can pay our regular bills as they arrive.
No more loan payments! We cleared that last week. We’ve always had a loan payment. 20 years ago when we paid off the mortgage, we still had car payments, and there was a home equity loan we had to take out when most of our major appliances committed suicide on the same day. Like anyone else, we kept refinancing that loan to pay for things we needed.
We don’t owe the credit card companies a dime. I’ve worked hard to keep them clear by only charging what I knew I could pay when the bill came. Believe me that wasn’t easy.
We’ve paid our oil and cable bill for the year, the car insurance too. Holy crap, we won’t know how to act. We might even be able to build up a decent savings account. Wow.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Debt free, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
I began to write again
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I always danced to a different drummer. I never fit in with the ‘in’ crowd. I wasn’t a nerd, I wasn’t an athlete, and I wasn’t a straight A student. I barely cracked a book and was happy with A’s and B’s giving me a high B average. I was bored and ignored in school.
I did a lot of daydreaming and spent most of the time with my nose in a book. I wrote bad teenaged angst filled poetry and short stories. I loved my art and English classes.
My junior year of high school I had an English teacher that managed to light a spark. At first I frustrated her because I’d read every book on her book list. Then she made another list. I messed her up on that one too since I’d already read over half of those books. She didn’t give up. She saw something in me that most teachers had overlooked. She’d never had a student quite like me. I had a passion for reading and writing. She never stopped pushing and prodding me the whole year.
For years afterwards, I put that passion for writing aside, busy with working and keeping house. Then one day I began to write again.
Posted in My blog, My books, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Passion, Writer, Writing
Is it a bear or Sasquatch?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
There’s a man, who walks his dog past our house. Sometime in the future, he will be a character in one of my books. He wouldn’t be a main character or even a minor character. He’d be a walk on.
He’d be one for one reason only and that is for the way he dresses or…um…doesn’t dress. The only reason I dread hot weather is that this man wears teensy shorts and goes shirtless or he wears a tank top with his shorts. It hit 92 degrees here yesterday. Someone gimme some bleach because I need to scrub my eyeballs.
Gentlemen, if you have more hair on your back than your Pekingese has on his whole body, wear a shirt. If you are hairy enough all over to be mistaken for Sasquatch when you wear shorts and go shirtless in the summer, you need to put on long pants and a shirt in public. Please not a tank top because that only emphasizes your hairiness.
If in addition to the hirsuteness, you have a beer belly that extends so far out you haven’t seen your feet in at least ten years, cover yourself.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Too hot too soon
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Wow, did it get hot today. The temperature leapt to ninety-one. If you add to that a lot of humidity, you can be sure that DH was miserable. He turned on the AC.
The pups were happy since they like the AC and they squabbled for the best place on the floor in front of the unit. Share? Are you kidding? It’s like living with perpetual three-year olds.
I like the heat so it didn’t bother me. I did some work outside and then took advantage of the heavily shaded hammock. All was fine while there was a breeze, but when that stopped, I decided it was time to retire to the house where it was cooler.
I hadn’t realized how hot it was outside until I walked into the kitchen. The cool non-humid air hit me like a tall ocean wave and felt as refreshing. However, I do hate sitting in the house all the time so I was soon back outside.
I harvested the rhubarb and took some over to G. Then I baked a rhubarb custard pie for tonight’s dessert—pure heaven. DH was more than a little delighted.
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Something special
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Occasionally you need to treat yourself (and your best friend) to something special. G knows I hate to shop and I really hate to shop alone. Today we went shopping for a few items I needed to pick up. We found all but one but that’s okay. I’ll find it elsewhere.
On the way home from the conference I’d spotted a sign for a new restaurant’s grand opening and thought of G right away. After we finished shopping, I rather surprised her by making a right turn where, to go home, I would normally turn left.
I further surprised her by pulling into a shopping mall parking lot, parking the van, and telling her we were having lunch. G was delighted. She told me she was glad she hadn’t had any before we left. That was the idea I’d had when I dragged her out before noon.
Of course, after shopping, by the time we did get there for our lunch it was after the lunch crowds had left. We had a wonderful lunch and a lot of fun. By scoping out the restaurant first, we know we’ll be able to take the DH’s there too.
Posted in Food, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Food, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
There’s still romance
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Thirty-seven years and there’s still romance in our marriage. Life has been hectic for both DH and me over the last several months…um, years even. We haven’t seemed to have much time to take a breath, relax, and simply enjoy each other. However, once in a while….
It had drizzled all day but around seven, the sky cleared. After weeding the gardens, I set the new hammock up since the weather reports have indicated several dry days heading our way. DH came out to see what I was doing.
The hammock is a huge rope one, almost as wide as I am tall and quite long. DH decided to try it out. He sprawled out in it and looked deliriously happy and comfortable.
“Move over,” I said and joined him.
“The pillow is too small to share.”
“That’s okay I’ll use you.” I rested my head on his shoulder.
He snuggled closer and we scanned the sky to catch the first star.
After a while I said, “I like this.”
“I’m glad you bought the hammock.” He kissed the top of my head. “I missed doing this.”
“Me too.”
We stayed there until all the stars looked down at us.
Posted in Misc, MS related, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Romance, Writer, Writing
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