I'm a little bit back

Here is a wee small post. I doubt it will be long, 'cause I'm still "recovering" from my anti-electronic-media hiatus.

A bit of an explanation .... over the past couple months, it has seemed that my communication was a mess. I was having difficulty in several areas (work, friends), and try as I might, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I was being misunderstood and frankly attacked in some areas, and nothing I did to try to set things right worked. It was difficult for me, because communication has always been a strength with me. I'm not perfect, and I've miscommunicated my fair share, but generally speaking, my skills are high level. I was really frustrated, spending hours going over emails and analyzing the syntax and context, reviewing verbal conversations as well as I could, looking for my errors.

I finally got to the point of saying to myself, "It might not be the rest of the world; It just might be ME." I used to say that to my husband when he was difficult; I guess it has come back to bite me! Seriously, when it seems that I am the one with misunderstandings in several arenas of my life, I am the obvious common denominator. But several people I turned to to help sort this out couldn't see the problem, either. I couldn't figure it out. I still can't.

I couldn't blame Mercury in retrograde this time, because although most of it became a problem around the time in July and August when he was coming into the stage, it all lasted loooong past. I will probably never know what was going on. I just have to rest my faith on the words of the few confidants who read and also heard my verbal communications and assured me that I wasn't obtuse or unclear.

The good news is that most of the problems areas have resolved or at least greatly improved. However, I was at the end of my rope and just couldn't deal with "the rest of the world," thus my sabbatical.

I've also been dealing with my emotional junk exacerbated by this. When things are not right in my life, I have no one to come home and talk it over. Yes, I have friends and family who are probably thinking, "I would listen," but the truth of the matter is that we all need that special someone who is present to hug or touch, someone who is on our side, even if we are wrong. I just don't have that. I'm not willing to "settle" for less than the right person, so I just have a big gaping hole in that zone of my being. Someday, maybe, but not now.

There is something about not having that "up close and personal" cheerleader that limits our ability to resolve things. I miss that.

So anyway, I'm back, sorta-kinda. I don't know how often I will post here, but I'm sure I'll be more active before much longer.  Sigh. Life is challenging at times, isn't it? As I tell others, the challenging times are the ones that make us grow and blossom. Guess I should listen to my own words!

C'mon, growth and blossoming! I'm ready to be all that I can be .... without challenge, of course!! LOL!

~    ~   ~   ~

Note added:

Isn't it amazing sometimes how things happen?



I just had an amazing, hour long conversation from a dear and respected colleague from "a different life," who called for my opinion, advice, and supervision about a tough situation. Talk about affirmation! Perhaps I'm not crazy!  :)

Hey, all, I'm feeling a bit more human, but I'm still going to take a few more days away from here and FB. Thanks for the good thoughts!

See ya later!

I think I'm going to take a break. I'm feeling overwhelmed with several things, and I just need to put some space around me. Don't know how long.

Peace to all.

Nice evening

The singles group got together tonight for a dinner. I am really enjoying being part of this group. We ate and talked for a couple hours. The food was really good, and I enjoyed the conversation a great deal. These are mostly bright, articulate people, some are deep enough thinkers to make conversations interesting, and while I don't agree with everything everyone says, no one is making un-thought-through rants. Even the occasional political discussions are rational and calm, so the content is interesting and informative, not-in-your-face arguments. Wow, that is pleasant! I dislike hostile discourses about anything.  I live in a county where the majority of opinions are largely different from my own views, so having this kind of opportunity is very exciting and pleasant for me.

We were able to eat on the deck, as the evening was very mild. By the time we finished dinner, the air was cooling off a bit, I'd guess it was probably about 65-68. It was still pleasant but it was tie to move in. Even I, who prefers the cooler weather, was feeling the coolness. But it was a pleasant, soft fall evening before we migrated.

After dinner, we played a game. Have you played "Buzz Word"? I had not played it before, and it was a lot of fun! It turns out I was very good at it, and that always makes a game a lot more fun, doesn't it? Anyway, it was a very good time, full of considerable joking around and silliness. I really haven't laughed so much in a long time.

Something that is very appealing to me about the group is that it seems everyone is there honestly for friendship, rather than looking for a "dates." I guess there was one couple who dated a while then broke up. Neither has been there since I've been going, but apparently, they are each out of town and plan to come back. It's just nice to be able to be friends, without worrying about being misunderstood. Lots of good friends, both male and female .... exactly what I wanted.

Well, I'm going to kick back a while with The Kids before time for bed. I've been away from them much of today, and I think some mom/pup time is in order.  :)

And here's Lyn's side of it ....

Well, Jazmyn had her say about yesterday. Here's my story.

Yes, I took her to work to be sure she was safe after her latest escape.

Jaz was amazing at work. She simply sat or laid at my feet, mostly dozing through the day. When someone came in the door of the building, she greeted them, and returned to my office. My office is right inside the door. Some days, I'm the only person in my building most of the day. There is one other that is is perhaps two days a week, and three others that are in just an hour or two. It is a very quiet environment, and that worked well for having Jaz there. I had a couple visitors dropping by, and Jazi was the perfect greeter-dog, welcoming them in with a wag and a grin (doggy gins, tongue out and eyes bright). One of my building-mates came in for a couple hours, and Jaz followed her to her office and sat under her desk for a while.

I walked to the other building several times through the day. Jazi just trotted along with me, pretty much at a heel. Twice she veered off the path to potty, otherwise her only sidetracks were to smell pine cones or wildflowers or rocks(?). And while we were at that building, she was well behaved, saying hello to everyone, only occasionally needing to be redirected to stay with me.

She would be the perfect "go to work" dog, and would probably be an excellent therapy dog, as well. However, I can't take her every day. On occasion, yes, but not daily.

When we came home, I stopped at the little store. I didn't feel like cooking, and I was hoping the owner had something comforting to bring home. (She does lots of baking, but her schedule is irregular, and she doesn't do much at a time to avoid waste, so sometimes she is out of everything near the end of the day.) I was elated to learn she had just made a couple chicken pot pies! These are regular 8" pies, so I'll get several meals out of it. And it was exactly what the doctor ordered for me last night!

While we were there, a group of bikers stopped and came in the store. The annual Aspen Fest Bike rally is this weekend, so there are thousands of motorcycles in Ruidoso. Everywhere you go in the county, there are bikes on the roads. Well apparently this group had tasted Dorrie's pies before and they stopped to get one. However they wanted pecan or apple, and she had none. She promised to make several for tomorrow, and they said they'd be back for one of each.

As this is going on, Jazi is running around the booted feet of these huge bikers (why is is most bikers are BIG dudes?). A couple had reached down and petted her. One guy just watched her run around with a puzzled look on his face. He saw me watching him, and he said, "Lots of little dogs are freaked by this many big people around." I said Jaz never met a stranger with two legs, although she might take on a four-legger much bigger than she. He said dogs reflect their owners' attitudes, so he guessed I was OK, too!  LOL! I told him I've learned that many bikers are retired or near-retired bankers and doctors and lawyers and accountants, and few are to be feared. He grinned and said "Yes, ma'am, but we like to pretend we're tough."

Upon arriving home, we could barely get in the gate because of her siblings clamoring around her to sniff the smells she brought home! In fact, not one of them greeted me! They all followed her around for a good five minutes, and you could almost see in her face that she was saying, "I got to go to work with Momma, ha ha ha!!!"

And she was as tired when we got home as you could imagine! Those pictures of her in the previous post .... yep, that's how she spent most of the evening, whether in that chair, on my lap or beside me on the couch!

Today I will begin searching for the place she escaped, although I'm very uncertain I'll find it. Two quick walks around the perimeter gave me absolutely nothing. Hopefully slow, rattle-the-chain exam will be more revealing. Wish me luck.

Jazi says ....

Today was a hard day. It wore me out!

I went to work with Mom. 

Making sure Mom did her job right was just exhausting!

I need to rest now. Go home.

Good news/bad news

The good new is .... I'm feeling a lot better. Not completely out of the woods yet, but much better than in my last post. The fog in my head is only light now and comes and goes. The pain has minimized to a tolerable level. All in all, I'm enough better to be fully functional, and reasonably comfortable.

Now for the bad news .... Jazmyn has found another way to escape the confines of the house and yard .... again. After leaving work I made a couple stops on the way home, and upon arrival, there were just four dogs on the deck. To make it worse, the weather was not good. It was raining pretty steadily. There had been an inch of rain, probably in the last 2-3 hours, and there was pea-sized sleet/hail on the ground, enough to nearly cover the ground and to pile in small drifts a couple inches deep in places.

As I carried groceries in and stuck the frozen things in the freezer, I whistled for her as I went up and down the steps. On my third and final trip, she came running up the driveway soaked to her skin and muddy. When I picked her up, she was shivering. It wasn't really cold, probably around 60°, but being that wet will do it. I suspect some of the shivering was from fear, too, because there had been some thunder in the hour that preceded.

It had rained enough that the back yard was muddy and had standing puddles, so I did only a cursory check of the fence, but saw nothing. A fairly thorough exam of the deck held no clues to her escape path. Once again I'm flummoxed.

I gave her a warm bath to soothe her and get rid of the mud. When I took her collar off, here is what I found.

Looks like her  escape was very tight. The spring ring that holds her tags was torn almost open, about half the ring was unwound. She is one strong little dog, because I couldn't bend it with my fingers. She was very determined to get out! Now another scary thought for me .... she could have hung herself on that collar! Not knowing if she pushed through a tight space or climbed over something, well, I'm afraid to think about it! But I have to, because I have to find and remedy the loop-hole.

Here we go again. And trust me, that is said with no glimmer of glee, but just a heavy sense of dread. For today, there are possible thunderstorms, and I will take her to work with me. I will try to remedy this over the weekend, then play it by ear. I may have to crate her for safety. sigh. I think I've said this before .... It's a good thing I really, really love this little dog, cause she's a pain in the tush some times!

Icky day

Today was a stinko day. I was in a fibro-fog from the get-go. I just couldn't seem to move as fast as I needed to. But I've been through enough of these sieges that I know the only choice is to change my own expectations and slow my pace, cause the ol' body ain't a-gonna do anything else.

The day was very challenging. Mentally, I was slow as molasses. I would look at something and know I needed to look at a file in the computer, but by the time I placed my hands on the keyboard, I'd forgotten what I was looking up. That happened not just once, but about 30 times, at least. I just couldn't keep my thoughts together more than a couple seconds.

Physically was, if possible, even worse. The muscles in the back of my legs, all the way from my ankles to my buttocks were having spasms. It felt like someone was grabbing them and squeezing them, stretching them and almost shredding them with every step I took. Geez, it was miserable.

I was walking to the other building today and had a start. There is a little lizard that scurries in front of me several times a day when I make that walk. I've become used to seeing him, as he seems to be defying death under a huge foot! But today as I walked down the gravel path, just as I stepped down one of the terraced steps, a snake slithered out of my way! GAH!! I detest snakes!  It was a small, harmless one, but I got the shivers, nonetheless!

By the end of my day, I was really looking forward to putting on some sweats, getting some herbal tea (a special mix for FMS), and snuggling on the couch with the pups. I was even thinking how good a nap would be. I changed into sweats, but before I could go farther with those steps toward comfort, I started to put my cell on the charger .... only to find it was not in my purse. I checked here in the house and in the truck, no luck. I called a coworker who lives in my direction and asked her to look on my desk for it. Then I asked if she would bring it to a intersection on her way so I didn't have to go back for it. She couldn't find it!

I was about to call Verizon to report it lost, and I cleared my head as well as possible. Then I drove the 17-18 miles one way back to work to look for the phone. Why? Why did I not just wait for tomorrow? Because if I happened to drop it outside, the rains would ruin it. By this time most if not all coworkers would be gone from the office, so no one to check for me. sigh.

There were some thunderstorms not far away, so I scooped up Jazi, my little thunderstruck baby and took her with me. She loved going for the ride! Of course, the other four were glaring at me from the deck! I couldn't sort out who else to take, knowing I definitely couldn't take Max who gets carsick, so I just took Jaz.

When I got to the office, there was my phone on my desk! I know now she was probably looking for a "cell phone" not a "smart phone." I didn't think to tell her it was different.

I'm glad to be home and to have completed the rest of that comfort routine. I'm almost ready to go to bed. I'm going to take a pain pill. Something I rarely do. But I need sleep.

Night.

Woe is me ... yeah, a feeling-sorry-for-me-and-getting-better post

My last few weeks have been less than fun. Work, which I really do love, became very stressful, and I was reaching the point of not wanting to go in every day. It's a long story, and I won't bore you with details, but suffice it to say that I'm just glad it is over.

A light overview .... There were two situations going on which were rough. One didn't involve me directly, but the ripples impacted on everyone in the office. It was ongoing for about three weeks, had everyone on edge because of the unprofessional actions of one person. This was punctuated with the death of a coworker.

Fortunately, that seems to be healing now with the absence (permanent) of that person, and general balance appears to be coming into the workplace again. There will still need to be some healing time for those closer to the core of all that, but hopefully it will come.

The second situation absolutely included me. I was under attack by one person who had called into question my professional decisions and actions, and who has chipped away like an ice carver with making a statue out of an iceberg! It was over petty things, but she hammered and hammered on them until I thought my head would explode. My decisions and actions were sanctioned by the administrator, but even that didn't resolve the issues. No solution passed muster with her. And of course, she did all this with the sweetest smile on her face and an "I just don't understand" about everything.

I have an open door policy. I invite anyone to talk with me about differences, things not understood, suggestions, etc. Repeated offers to sit down and work it out were ignored, but more than once a blind-side attack occurred, including mentions of how "others" felt about my method of leadership. Those "others" were never named; hinted at issues were never clearly voiced. I felt that I  was fighting against an unknown, and indeed I was.

I do things differently than my predecessor. But I've been careful to stay within appropriate guidelines. I've been a Social Worker too long to not recognize that change is difficult for some folks. It's damn near impossible for a few! But I am who I am, and while I try to be a true "team player," my style is to simplify, streamline, and remove as many stumbling blocks as possible. In doing that, I cause change, and even if it is simpler, some will push against it.

I frequently doubted myself during the past few weeks. Seriously, it became that strong. Coworkers and the administrator assured me that I was doing right, doing well, but you know how the chipping away can be. It undermines even the most capable after a period of time.

Today, it ended. Or I think and hope so. The administrator came to the meeting to sit in, to listen, to answer questions, and ultimately to say this is the end.The meeting ended on a high note, with the administrator and me talking about this putting misunderstandings and confusion behind us and looking forward to updating our guidelines as discussed (we found several outdated items in the policies and procedures). And when my antagonist raised (for the umpteenth time) her "concerns," I was able to point out that the issue had already been discussed and resolved.

Would you believe this person is a volunteer? I work hard to make volunteers feel appreciated and valued, treated professionally, etc. This was very difficult for me. I've felt she didn't like me; I learned in the last couple weeks that she was strongly attached to the previous coordinator, so it would make sense. Anyway, I'm so glad to have the administrator's support and the support of the rest of the volunteers. Well, a couple others are debatable, but they at least voiced support. I hope it will turn around now that the "questions" are answered.

Throughout this, I have been dealing with the worst siege of fibromyalgia (FMS) I've had in several years. It hasn't been enough to take me to bed, but certainly has been a constant discomfort. Of course, this makes sense .... a major trigger for FMS is stress!! I was having some active FMS symptoms before all this arose, but it exacerbated the pain many times over. I'm hoping that the release of stress will also function as a release for FMS symptoms. I'm already better; I would say my discomfort is at a moderate to light-moderate level, meaning it is pretty constant but light enough to be relatively unnoticeable while my mind is occupied.

I was just thinking about the past few months. It is mind boggling.

My year in review ...

• Jan - new job; two daughters in marital distress and would be over the next few months
• Feb - extreme cold spell and ice storm
• March - water heater leak destroyed my carpet, my house was in a mess until May
• April - stepson moved away; I disassembled my office so he could take a few pieces of furniture with him.
• May - mixture of things, preparing for trip to Mexico
• June - The big trip, a good thing, but also stressful; the deck roof blew off, then back on, many repairs and fixes ensued
• July - I spent the whole month trying to secure Jazi for her own safety (remember, she was a wee Houdini, escaping the confines of the yard for several weeks); we were in the throes of a drought and horrible heat spell, and I was exhausted
• August - the above conflicts began at work; I finally began to organize the tubs of office supplies and arts & crafts that resulted from disassembling my home office.

No wonder fibro is kicking my arse!!

Onward and upward now. [relieved sigh]

Random and odd

Random stuff ....

A while ago Jazmyn was scratching at the toy box, and I couldn't figure out what she was after. It is tucked under a drop leaf table. I went over and moved it out a little to see what she wanted to pull out of it. Well, she didn't want anything out of it; she wanted herself in it! She crawled in and sat down like she owned it. I have no idea what that was about, nor why she didn't crawl in it before I pulled it out. Silly little dog!

I walked away, and a few minutes later, I heard the very soft growling of two dogs. that usually mean Max and Sam are fronting, but it wasn't their "voices." Jazi and Lola were having .... a "growl off," I guess! They weren't very serious about it, but were rumbling at each other. If you look at the first picture, you'll see Jazi's mouth is slightly open, emitting the quiet "I am the Queen" noise!!

Jaz seems to prefer I'd go away!

And a few minutes later, Lola was completely conked out ! If you notice she took two of the toys from the toy box with her. Silly girl! She sleeps like this a lot .... her feet up against something and her upper body twisted to one side. It looks uncomfortable to me, but I'm not a dog. I can't argue it!

 A couple days ago I walked into the thrift shop to do my volunteer stint, and this item was there on a table.  I couldn't tell if it went this way .....

 Or that way .....












Because of the two screws in the base, I figured it went like this.

I have no idea what it is supposed to be for, or to do, but I liked it. I brought it home and screwed it into the wall, so I can use it like this .....

 Here's a close up of it.











 It's not signed, but I'm pretty sure from the style that it is a piece from a local wood artist that I really like for his quirkiness and fun ideas.  I can't afford many things of his, but I really, really like it! So obviously I aid the .... get ready .... $1 for it!! Whoever priced it, probably didn't know what it was or who made it! So I got a swinging deal!! And I'll admit, I titll don't know what it was, but I know what it is now!!

Here is another piece of his I picked up at the thrift shop. It's a toothpick holder. After bringing it home, I'm guessing the person who donated it, did so because it was a pain to load! It took me a good 20 minutes to put those toothpicks in!

The thing is, it was worth it to me, and I enjoy it as functional art. 

The artist is Mike Lagg. Most of the art by Mike is functional. He does decorative pieces, too, but the bulk of his work has purpose. I like that. If you'd like to see a few of his pieces, take a look at this. The paintings are by his girlfriend, Paula, who you will see in the video, too. All the wood pieces are Mike's. You don't see Mike, but you'll see his work, some frivolous and some gorgeous masterpieces. I love the shutters!

OK, I've been random. I'm going to sign out and go be odd for a while!

:D

Saturday lazy stuff

It's a grey, overcast day. Rain in the forecast at 30%, which means in this area, it probably will, but who knows how much or how long. After the last few months of drought, I welcome any rain that cares to bless the soil! I say that, even though I dislike this kind of gloomy day. I'm going to be spending most of today inside, anyway. The high is supposed to be 70°. It is 56° at 10:30, so I don't know if it will make that high. I've already put on sweats and socks against the chill 64° inside.

Yesterday was a less-than-great day for me. I had a pretty good flare up of Fibromyalgia. It didn't put me to bed, but it certainly interfered with how my day went. I had muscle aches that became spasms at times, and I was in a fog most of the day. Sinuses or hay fever were more active than usual. I went to work, and I actually accomplished a lot, but it seemed that I was moving in slow motion much of the time.

When I left work, I came home, got into comfy clothes and had a cup of hot tea. Then I snuggled with the Furries. That made life much better all around!

Today seems to be a better day already. I'm sill a bit achy, but nothing in comparison to yesterday. I'm not planning any heavy work today, although I have several tasks in mind that will allow me to be seated most of the time and don't require any heavy lifting or other strenuous activity. Some organization that I keep putting off, sorting and downsizing the craft supplies, art supplies and office supplies that are in storage tubs following the water heater debacle and Allan moving away at the same time (remember I emptied out several pieces of furniture so he could take them to his sister?). I know I will feel so much better when it is behind me. Sometimes I wonder if these times of physical limitations happen to force me to do what is so easy to put off otherwise!? If so, I need to have about two months of "sick days"!!!

I'm considering the need to begin moving my plants in for the winter. This always entails rearranging furniture to accommodate the larger pots. I might look for a medium large but shallow pot to put all my little succulents in. I don't know what would be easier .... caring for about ten small pots that will fit here and there between bigger ones, or caring for one larger pot that I might have trouble finding a place for. The small pots are a nuisance to water as they always overflow. I have to be sure there is a sufficient water-catcher under them, so their footprint is larger than the little pots they are in. Watering one big pot would be so much easier .... its footprint is only one, but a larger space. Sigh.There isn't a clearly "better" answer.

For now, I'm going to stay parked on the couch for a while and read. I've been reading since about 6:30 and hope to finish a book I've been reading for a couple months. It is good, but I've not been in the reading mood. Today, I am!! Sooooo .... Later!!!

Morning at my place

Good morning!

I woke achy this morning, then I saw this ....

Still achy, but this eases the pain.  :)

Have a beautiful day!

Reunions

It's nearly 9:00 AM, but I'm not ready to get out of bed. Sooooo .... what can I blog about to avoid putting my feet on the floor? Hmmm.

My high school graduating class is beginning to plan for the 50th reunion. Yup. I'm that old. I graduated in 1962, before some of you were even born! It is hard to believe it has been that long. But clearly, I'm deluded!

Anyway, the first step to a reunion is to update records (phone #s, addresses, email) of everyone and to locate as many of the "missing" as possible. I had offered to help with whatever, but since I'm around 300 miles away from "home," there will be limitations to what I can do. When one of the organizers sent out the database of address from our 2007 reunion, I knew I could probably do some work on the internet to help find those "lost souls."

So I began by running the names through Facebook. Lawdy! Who would think there would be that many people by those names in the world?? Some of the names are not John Smith, trust me, and yet there are many faces that pop up when I put in “Clarice Snebowitz.” No, that’s not a real person, although I’ll bet something would pop up if I googled it!! But none of those faces look like the people I knew “back when.” It’s hard to know how a person has changed.

It is especially challenging to find the women. So many don’t put their maiden names in their profiles, and married names? Hah! Even if you know the married name from the early days, so many are on a second or fifth marriage!

I have located several, however, and it is fun to catch up, pre-reunion. Emails and FB messages are flying back and forth, and it is so interesting to hear what people have been doing all these years!

I love these reunions! One of the things I like most is learning these things about people, where they’ve been, what they’ve been doing. The first reunion (10 year) was a farce. Not much had changed, people hung out with their old gangs, and there was little value in conversations, because everyone was jockeying for “my job is better than yours,” and “I have a bigger house than you,” or “my children are smarter/walked earlier/more beautiful than yours.” However, in the subsequent years those things have dropped in importance, the cliques have largely dissolved. I have friends with whom I would not have hung out back in the day. Oh, there are a few who remain in their ivory towers with their selected associates. They still are in pockets at the edge of the activity at reunions. But for the most part, we are all equals now. I love it.

So I will continue to search for the lost classmates between now and Labor Day weekend next year. I hope I find a few ore to place in my “new old friends” list.

Sunday smiles

Sunday Funnies!

And I have a headache this morning, so no comments.... you have to figure them out on your own!  hee hee hee!

Have a smiling kinda Sunday!

Overdue photos

Driving home yesterday I remembered to take some pictures that I've been promising some of you.

First, just to show you how green things are now, these are just up the road from my house ....

I love the little yellow flowers!

It's not the same place that someone commented a few weeks ago about how brown everything was, but this last photo looks about the same amount of green as the field with the horses.

I looked at my garden early this morning, hoping it would show signs of life with the $200-300 perennials I put out there last year and the year before. They were supposed to propagate and spread over the next few years. Sadly, it appears the extended hard freeze from last winter and the drought of spring and summer took a deadly toll. Very little of those seem to have survived. Even the marigolds I put out to deter the deer from eating the other plants aren't coming up. I saw just 3-5 plants, when last year there were hundreds of them. It appears the various lilies have survived and most of the iris, except what the deer ate during the drought. The bushes, Apache plume and Spanish broom seem to be fine, and the one cactus I brought from my sister's home in Texas is alive and well.

I'm really sad that I lost so much of the pretty colo from the slopes. I was really careful to pick plants that were drought-tolerant, altitude appropriate, etc. Even the transplanted wildflowers seem to have not tolerated the wicked weather conditions. I'm pretty discouraged, but I'll stick to the natural grasses and such to fill in, I guess. :'(   I hope that some of the seeds are just dormant and not dead, so possibly next year if we don't have the drought, it will have a recovery.

Another picture I've said I'd post. This is my neighbor's dog, Chomar. He is an adorable creature!

Every time I drive in or out of here I stop and we "chat" for a few moments. Sometimes, he just stands and looks at me like this with his tail gently wagging. Other times he "talks" to me, his jaw going up and down with little grunts coming out, and others, he throws his head back and barks, stops a minute and wags, then barks more!

When I have time, I get out of the truck for a couple minutes and pet him. He loves it when that happens! His owner says he waits for me. He has learned my general pattern around work, and he is almost always waiting for me long before I get there! He's an Anatolian Shepherd, and he is there to guard and protect the three goats, two small dogs and a couple cats who live there. He has already earned his keep, as he had chased of several coyotes that have come over the fence. But for me, he is just a big, loveable teddy bear.

Gosh, it is hard to realize that I will need to begin bringing my plants in from the deck. I can probably put it off for another month, but I need to start thinking about where to put all of them. That is a challenge every fall!

OK, back to work. Wishing everyone a good weekend! And don't forget to LABOR on Monday!!!