Blog Archives
April 13th again RIP Mary
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Dearest Sister,
Although years have gone by, your passing feels like yesterday. It wrenches my heart.
At times, I still reach for the phone to share something exciting, joyous, sad, or what has angered me. Then I remember you aren’t there. I miss that sharing.
No one knows me as you knew me. We shared our deepest and darkest secrets. We didn’t judge. We accepted and loved each other warts and all.
We cried together. We laughed together. We shared joys and sorrows.
I will always miss the sound of your voice, your laughter, and your wonderful humor.
A part of me died with you and yet, a part of you stayed with me.
All my love…
Me
Posted in In memory of...
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
A weakness for plants
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Saturday I received one of my favorite spring treats—the flyer from a local farm and greenhouse operation. ‘They offer thousands of healthy bedding plants, annuals, and perennials. Vegetables including over 75 tomato varieties and 68 pepper varieties and large selection of herbs and scented geraniums. They have blueberry and raspberry bushes along with 52 hosta cultivars and 48 different hemerocallis.’ In other words, they are a gardener’s paradise.
G and I will pay a call there after the Pennwriters conference next month. By then, we can safely plant tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, and the many other floras we’ll buy that day. We will load the rear of her hubby’s SUV to overflowing.
Last year I spent more than she did. We’ll see who gets off cheapest this year and I’m betting it won’t be me. I have a weakness for plants, an addiction if you will and not unlike my addiction for books.
I’ve perused their lists and marked what I want. This year the gardens will have, vegetable plants intermixed with flowers. The tomatoes I tried that way last year grew well. I’d sure like a nice variety of vegetables this year.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
When words fail
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I have days where I spend more time deleting what I’ve written than writing. It may be pure, unadulterated crap but it is my crap and I’m allowed to mess with it. At least I’m writing. The best advice I ever got was ‘write every day, no matter how poor the writing is, at the very least, you are exercising that part of your brain.’
Poor writing, sort of what I’m doing here tonight. It has been one of those days. Nevertheless, I am writing—a good thing. Am I writing well? That’s another question.
Tim Esaias says to keep moving forward don’t stop until you hit the end. I wish he were sitting on my shoulder at times if only to slap me in the head when I go back and re-read things. I have a devil of a friend who constantly sends me back over what I’ve written. I re-read chapters I shouldn’t. All of which leads to deleting words, sentences, dialogue, and sometimes scenes.
That’s when words fail. They fail to mesh, they fail to make sense, and they fail to move forward. I need to stop re-reading.
Posted in My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, 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
Clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It was bad enough that I had to put a band-aid on the lower half of my left thumb to cover the open blister I got from all that raking. Then there’s the Goliath bullfrog bite on my right index finger. That also required a band-aid because the scratches run the length of my finger. They kept reopening and bleeding every time I bent it. Now, I have another band-aid on my left index finger where I cut that while opening the box in which my new vacuum arrived. I am the klutz queen.
Yes, my new vacuum arrived today. It purrs like a kitten and doesn’t require ear protection. Holy crap does it ever clean! It weighs less than a third of my old vacuum too. It came with a free steam-cleaning mop.
I could possibly go into spring-cleaning mode. My house might go from slovenly to sparkling at this rate. I can picture it featured in House Beautiful. Hah! Whom am I kidding, with two dogs and DH the slob? Surely, I dream. The house doesn’t dust itself or scrub bathrooms. {Sigh.} Knowing me, it will be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.
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, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Bullfrogs can draw blood.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Yes, I do think that most of the people around here are convinced I’m crazy. You should have seen the looks I got from a few cars that passed me tonight when I was picking up night crawlers in the alley. Hey, I’m a gardener. I also have fish and bullfrogs that love worms. Who am I to pass by the hordes of huge night crawlers that were wandering out onto the street because we had rain?
One person understood. A woman about my age pulled her car up even with me and rolled down her window. “For your gardens right?”
“Well, yes. And for the frogs and fish—free food you know. Commercial Koi food costs plenty.”
She pointed back down the street from the direction she’d come. “I saw a bunch of huge ones back there.”
“Thanks.”
She waved and headed on her way. I went looking for more night crawlers.
Goliath the bullfrog was pleased with my midnight snack offerings. Although, at one point, he thought my index finger was more food. Ouch! I actually bled. Ungrateful sod.
The Koi were happy too. I only gave them a few worms and then the rest went into the garden.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, bullfrogs, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, frogs, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
The boys in blue
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Some idiot drove around and around the block down on the next street. He was honking his horn and yelling like a banshee. It might not have been too bad except it was 2:15 a.m. I figured someone down there was going to be very angry at the ruckus. I only found it to be annoying but then I wasn’t sleeping. I turned on the police scanner. I heard the dispatcher report a man with a gun at that location.
Nothing gets the boys in blue’s adrenalin rushing quite like a man with a gun call. I heard the, “on location” come within a mere two minutes. It was funny how the yelling and the horn honking stopped so abruptly. The sheer temptation to peek out the front door to see down the street was strong. I stole a look although DH would kill me if he knew. There were five cop cars at the end of our street. I ducked back inside, closed and locked the door, and double-checked my back door to make certain the lock was on. Then I sat back to listen to the scanner.
Twenty minutes later, three of the five cop cars drove up my street heading back on patrol. Two others were still busy at the end of the block. I guess a walk past the neighborhood gossip’s house might give me some fodder for another post or a scene in one of my books.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: adrenalin rush, Author, Beads, Bones, Books on writing, boys in blue, Bull Terriers, cops, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
The magnolia tree is lovely but…
Posted by doggonedmysteries
If you don’t want a lot of work, don’t put one in your yard. I spent a few hours today raking up flower petals from the tree and it’s not finished yet. I filled the wheelbarrow so many times I lost count. There are still tons of blossoms on the tree…yikes. I spent another half hour skimming petals off the pond. Is all the work worth it? Yes, I think it is. Deadheading all the daffodils gave me another wheelbarrow load.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my knee suffered no ill effects from contact with Gavin’s hard head. It’s my guess that all the icing I did to it yesterday made the difference. I truly expected to wake up with it swollen to football size and then having to make a run to our doctor’s ER.
If I wake to another sunny day I’ll cut down the dried out zebra grass. Then I bet I’ll rake more petals up from under the magnolia. I wonder how many times I’ll empty the wheelbarrow into the compost bin this time.
The tulips are blooming. The splashes of bright red and yellow around the pond and the tulip poplar are lovely.
Can two objects occupy the same space?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Today Gavin proved that the answer to that question is no. How did he prove it? Well, that’s the story for tonight.
I had Gavin out in the yard. He was behaving, sniffing around looking for a place to mark, when the kids across the street began doing a mad dash up and down the sidewalk. Gavin got excited and began to bark at them. Me, being the idiot I am, decided it was time to leash him and take him inside before he became too wound up.
He was standing still at the front fence barking at the kids. I reached for his collar to snap on the leash so I could drag him away from the fence. At that moment he decided to dart to his left. Where was I standing? I was at his left.
Now if you’ve never met a Bull Terrier in person you have no concept of what their heads are like. Think cinder block and you’ll have a decent idea.
Think fast, if I was at his left, and he dashed to his left, can two objects occupy the same space at the same time? The previously mentioned objects being Gavin’s cinder block head and my freaking knee, I say NAY. I also said ouch, and many other words in a sailor’s vernacular that tinged the air around me a lovely, bright shade of blue.
Yeah, go ahead and call me a klutz. You can even call Gavin an idiot for not looking where he was going. Now, if you all will excuse me, I need to pack my knee in ice again.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, can two objects occupy the same space?, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, relative theories and all that stuff, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
How to bathe the dog
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Gorgeous weather today made the pups miserable. Actually it wasn’t the day itself it was what I did to them. Smelly Gavin and stinky Patty got baths. I am on their LIST. After they had their baths and were dry, their majesties did their utmost best to let me know that I’d gone to the top of their LIST. I rose higher on the LIST than squirrels, annoying kids, strange dogs who pee on their fence, and a late dinner.
I did not apologize to them. They reeked and were in dire need of baths. You’d think they’d want to be nice and clean sweet-smelling dogs. Nope, they’d rather smell horrible. It’s a dog thing.
How to bathe Patty: A) Keep her from hiding in either crate by closing the doors. B) Drag her upstairs to the bathroom. C) Lift her 65 lb limp, dead weight into the tub. D) Begin the torture of bathing. E) Spread a towel on the floor, drop a cookie, and back up. F) Dry her. G) Release her from the bathroom to have her karoom down the steps and around the downstairs. H) Crate her with a cookie reward until she’s dry.
How to bathe Gavin: A) Show him a cookie. B) Tell him “Let’s go bed bouncing.” C) Follow him upstairs. D) Throw the cookie into the tub and watch him hop into it. E) Close shower doors so he doesn’t jump back out. F) Begin his torture—you mean get me wet all over? G) Hose him down, get soaked when he shakes. H) Soap him, get soaked when shakes. I) Rinse him, get soaked when he shakes. J) Step back, get soaked when he shakes. K) Dry him, get soaked when shakes. L) Release him from the bathroom. M) Crate him with a cookie. N) Go dry all the walls and the floor of the bathroom. O) Change into dry clothes.
Posted in Dog related, My blog, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
MIL is home again
Posted by doggonedmysteries
DH reported that he left a very happy mother in her home today. Her dog went berserk when he saw her come in the door. Happy, happy, joy, joy! Little old Lance was about doing doggie cartwheels he was so ecstatic that his Mom was home. MIL was thrilled to have her digs back.
I sent over some homemade frozen meals for her. All she needs to do is pop them in the microwave. Her freezer is loaded, and her fridge is resupplied with all fresh stuff. Her prescriptions are filled. She’s set for a while.
Now we hope we can get back into a normal routine again. She will have a visiting nurse come in occasionally and someone from some agency is stopping in tomorrow to see how she’s settling at home. DH will go over in the mornings and evenings to check on her.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
You will lose pounds and inches in just…
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Yeah, yeah we’ve all watched those advertisements. If I bought every miracle weight reducing, body trimming, tummy-tightening machine that came down the pike my house would explode. Then there are all those miracle weight loss pills, yeah I’d rather toss my money down the toilet it’s just as effective.
What works is less food and more movement. I can tell, now that I’m outside more and working in the garden again, my jeans are starting to fall down. Where did I put that belt? Sweat equity melts off the winter weight.
G and I are starting to do our twice-weekly mile long walks. The pups love that I’m taking them for an evening walk weather permitting. I walk them separately so that means I go twice as far as they do.
Warm weather meals are lighter and contain more fresh veggies and fruit than my winter meals. The last two days I had the grill up and running again so that means less fat too.
DH, otherwise known as Mr. Fluffy since I had to pick him up from the floor last week, will drop a few pounds too.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, diet and exercise, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, not fat fluffy, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Not duck as in dodge. I said Ducks.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
One must seek refuge in simple pleasures when the insanity gets too much. I did that today. I needed a stress reliever. Those who know me know I went out into the gardens and worked. There’s something soothing about digging in the soil and planting things.
I spent several hours weeding and planting. I took a break to feed the dogs and cook dinner for DH and me. Then I went back outside.
Speedy, one of our Koi had made a few spectacular jumps today celebrating the warmth. Therefore, at first, I didn’t think much when I heard a loud splash behind me. I turned to see if she’d jump again. It wasn’t Speedy this time.
My pair of mallards had returned. The female set right to the business of munching algae. The male played look out for her. I went inside to tell DH and grab a slice of bread for them. They looked lovely swimming around in the pond seizing pieces of bread that the Koi didn’t beat them to as it hit the water.
They stayed two hours. Then with a slight flapping of wings, they took off over the fence and were soon out of sight. I hope they come back tomorrow.
Posted in my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
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