Well, Finally!

It is raining! Really raining, not just a teasing sprinkle, but a good rain. It teased all morning, then an hour or so ago, it began raining lightly, slowly, the good soaking rain that everyone needs. It picked up a while ago and is raining good now, not pounding, but a nice steady rain. Ohhh, this feels so good.

I drove into Ruidoso this morning to buy a sprinkler hose for the back yard. I have soaker hoses for the flowers and bushes, and that works well for those. I've been struggling with the backyard lawn because I couldn't seem to get the sprinkler set right. The sprinkler hose will give it a gentle watering without so much problem. I felt silly buying a sprinkler hose when it was raining outside!

Before I left, the TV went wonky. During the president's speech, all the "local" stations out of Albuquerque went off the air, apparently. They had a huge rain with flooding in Albuquerque, and I'm guessing that had something to do with it. We didn't get the local stations back till about 2:00, and I don't know if it was a service/satellite problem or something in Albuquerque. I'll watch the 4:00 news in a few minutes and see what happened.

Since it was sprinkling enough when I got home to keep me from working outside, I decided it was a good day to watch a movie. One had arrived from Blockbuster, so I watched "The Secret Life of Bees." Wow! What an excellent movie! I watched "Australia" a few nights ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd heard some less-than-glowing comments on it, but I liked it. "Milk" is my next one to watch, and "Last Chance Harvey" should be arriving by tomorrow. I make sure to have a constant flow of movies in the summer when TV is full of reruns.

A new funny story about Lola. As I've told you, the dogs run through the house from the deck to the back yard all day long. Lola, with her puppy-curiosity, never misses a pass, because whatever is going on somewhere else has gotta be exciting, right? Before I go on to the story itself, I have to tell you another fact about her. She is a barker. Not like standing and barking all the time, but she has a tendency to bark more than the others. She barks for attention, she barks in play, she barks to order the other dogs around. I think it is because she is part Terrier. I've had terriers, and they are more "barky" than Shih Tzu, generally speaking. I've been working with her to decrease the barking, and it is going pretty well.

For the last month or so, I've noticed this happening. Lola will be in the back yard and see or hear something out front, and she runs through the house toward the deck. As she runs, it seems she has caught on that she isn't supposed to be barking, but being the cute little goon she is, she can't totally stop herself. So as she runs, with about every other step, a little "woof" slips out. As she move from front to back or vice versa, there is a little "woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof"!! It just cracks me up! The girl is who she is, and that isn't going to change! I was talking this morning with Allan about how much company these dogs are, as well as the total delight of their individual personalities, and how much they make me laugh!

I cleaned the carpets last weekend, but I'm not happy with the result. I'm seeing some shadowing, even in areas that I pretreated. I rented from a different source, one closer and more convenient, and it was a different brand of cleaner (Rus Doctor). I'm thinking it just didn't do as deep and thorough a cleaning as the other. I think I'm going to go in the next couple weeks to rent the ones I've used before and re-do it. All that work for nothing. Grrrrrr.

The next couple weeks will be busy anyway. I'm having a pot luck dinner here next Monday night. And the following week my daughter and her two children are coming for almost a week. I'm excited! I have several things planned for us while they are here. Part of it includes visiting some of the Billy the Kid historical places. I sent the kids a book about Billy, the Lincoln County War and the Buffalo Soldiers, all of which tie together in the history. I thought if they'd actually read some of it, the visits would make more sense and be interesting to them, and would certainly be more fun.

I guess I'd better get off my duff and do something productive!