Dodger's First Broken Heart

Dodger is, in dog years, a young teenager now so I guess it had to happen sooner or later....he has his first broken heart.

For the last few months Doc and Dodger have been going nearly every afternoon to the house across the open space behind us for Dodger to play with Sammie, a cute little Corgi. Sammie would meet Dodger at the gate and they would wrestle and chase each other and play for a while and then they would chase after a ball together for as long as someone would throw it. About a month ago things started to change.  Sammie would still meet Dodger at the gate and play for a few minutes and then turn tail and go through the dog door into the house. Doc and Dodger started going less often, but the neighbors still called and asked them to come play. Now Sammie doesn't even come to the gate. She immediately goes in the house when Dodger comes into the yard, so they haven't been going at all.

Dodger is broken hearted. Every afternoon at the time they usually went to play he just lays at the back door staring into Sammie's yard. Sammie's owners don't know what happened, Doc doesn't know what happened and Dodger and Sammie, in the way of teenagers, aren't talking. I know his little heart will heal, but it is hard seeing him look so sad. As we all know, that first young love is a hard one to get over.

I will never tell Dodger this, but I think I know what has happened with Sammie. I think she is going into the house to look out the front and watch for the big, sleek, Black Lab that lives across the street. No, I will never tell that to our scruffy, scraggly, broken hearted little boy.

The Bootlegger

I grew up in Oklahoma and when I was growing up Oklahoma was a "dry" state, meaning the sale and consumption of alcohol was prohibited by law. Nevertheless, my parents were nightly cocktail drinkers, which necessitated one of the more scary memories from my childhood, The Bootlegger.

He came from Missouri on some regular schedule always on a Thursday night. He was a big, fat man and I remember him huffing and puffing as he carried the cases of Jim Beam and Gilbey's Gin up our front steps.  I was scared to death of him.

                                                          

He then went to the houses of  a few of our neighbors, delivering similar booty. After he left, my parents and their good friends from two houses down mixed and matched from their supply and were set until the next visit from The Bootlegger.

The Bootlegger drove a blue 1953 Pontiac, with the back seat and trunk filled with his wares. To this day his scary demeanor and his huffing and puffing come back to me when I see a car like that.

I'm not sure why I was so afraid of The Bootlegger or why I still have such vivid memories of him. It may be because even as a pretty young child I had a sense that there was something illicit about what he and my parents were doing. By the time I was a young teenager Oklahoma legalized the sale of alcohol and The Bootlegger disappeared from my life, except when I see one of those cars.

Checks

For sort of boring reasons I am changing the bank where I have my primary checking account. I have had an account at the same bank for lots and lots of years and for all those years I have had the same Plain Jane checks, no designs, no pictures, no cartoons, just checks.

Of course I have seen lots of fancy checks, but I had never given them much thought until the lady at the bank brought out the book of check designs for me to choose from. How did it never occur to me before that I need checks with Spider Man or Betty Boop on them?

Maybe I take my financial dealings too seriously, but I would just feel silly writing out a payment to the plumber for unclogging a toilet across Winnie the Pooh's face.

Yes, you guessed right, I ended up just getting the Plain Jane checks again, but now I am kind of wishing I'd gone for the M&M's ones.

What's your check style? Are you Plain Jane or do your checks express your personality?

Images from Google Images

Six Word Saturday....Please Support Mami

Please offer your support to Mami

A much loved blogger is going through a very difficult time after receiving Horrible News.

Please go visit Mami here and offer your support.

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Internet Naivete

I have never pretended to be computer savvy or internet savvy, but my naivete about "how things work" has been pointed out to me in the last few days. I have very recently written a couple of posts about having a new grandson, one of them with the title New Baby. Since that post I have received e-mail after e-mail after e-mail for baby products. I have been offered baby toys, baby shoes, birth announcements, baby blankets, baby shower gifts and on and on.

I know companies have programs that search for words throughout the internet that relate to what they have to sell, but I never expected that search extended as far as an obscure little blog. I have found it pretty funny and maybe a little disturbing. It kind of makes me want to post on some other specific topics just to see what new things I might get e-mails about. It is not likely that I will be writing about sex, but if I did I bet that would bring some interesting offers.

Does anyone know any more about this than I do or have you had a similiar experience after a post?

I've Been Busy.......Posted by Beck

Posted by Beck

Boy, I've had a really busy 2 1/2 days, and I'm only 2 1/2 days old. That hospital was a really great place to get born, but there sure was a lot going on all the time.

First, my whole family had to check me out to make sure I had all my parts. They found out that I have my Daddy's crooked toe and crooked little finger, and that, yes, I have all my boy parts.

Lots of people came to visit. Of course my sisters came a lot and Hope wanted to hold me all the time. E.J. mostly just liked looking at me.

All of my cousins came to see me. Jared said he wasn't sure he wanted to hold me, but I think he really liked it a lot.

Justin thought I was a football. I'm just glad there will be some boys around some of the time.

Aunt Jill thinks I am as cute as can be and I think she is the best, and I hear she always has great snacks at her house.

Then this morning Mommy and Daddy told me it was time to get dressed and go home. I really didn't like the getting dressed part very much, but I looked pretty good after it was all done.

After that was all done Mommy told me it would all be okay and she is pretty smart, so I believed her. Besides, she's where the food comes from.

I'm not so sure that I like this car seat thing very much,

but it's a good place to be to keep an eye on what Mommy and Daddy are doing.

I think Mommy and Daddy were ready to go home, so I said "let's go" and they did.

We get to go home and rest for a while before my sisters get home. I think once they get home things may be just as busy there as they were at the hospital, but I think I will like it there. I'll have to get back to you to let you know how it is going.

New Baby

Congratulations to my daughter Joanna and her family whose newest member, Beck Robinson Harper, was born at 1:17 this morning. The look on E.J.'s face may express a little bit of the uncertainty she is feeling about this little guy who has come along to take her place as the baby of the family. She gave him lots of kisses and immediately demanded to see his belly button. While I was driving Hope and E.J. to the hospital to meet their new brother Hope said "I'll probably never have my old mother back, she is going to be tired all the time."

Beck at about 20 minutes old.

Hats

My hat is off to you if you can wear a hat and look good in it. I love hats, but I can't wear hats. I look and feel like I am a kid playing dress-up when I wear a hat.

It's not that I attend a lot of events for which hats are de rigueur, but if the opportunity presented I would love to be able to don a chapeau without feeling like I look, well, just plain silly.



Remember Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. She had a hat wearing talent that I am definitely missing.



All those women at the Kentucky Derby have a way of making even silly hats look elegant.

Lady Gaga sometimes wears really outlandish hats, but I think she looks pretty cute in this captain's hat.

I don't think this hat that Aretha Franklin wore to the most recent presidential inauguration would be my first choice, but I give her credit for being brave enough to wear it.

                                                            

For my money, nobody did more for a hat than Jackie Kennedy.

As much as I would like to be able to be an elegant hat wearer, I guess I have to look on the bright side....I don't have to worry about "hat hair" and all the fashion concerns of being The Queen are not in my future.

                       

Another Year, Another Parade......Tradition Is Good

My family attended our little town's Labor Day Parade today, something we have done for well over 20 years. My youngest daughter, shown here with my oldest grandson who is nearly 10, was younger than he is when we first started going.

It isn't a fancy parade, but it is long. There are several high school bands, a lot of old cars, dancers, horses, politics and patriotism. It starts with police cars and fire engines and ends with big trucks representing the labor unions.

We get there early and line up with the kids in front so they can catch their share of the candy that is thrown by nearly every group that goes by.

The little girls like to dance

and show their babies all that is going on.

And my kids are not above using their kids to promote a little bit of sibling political rivalry.

Speaking of babies, we are looking forward to welcoming a new little one very soon.

Maybe our Mexican food lunch after the parade, also part of our tradition, will hurry him along.

Tradition is good

I Had A Dream......Again, But Why Now?

I used to have a recurring dream, but I haven't had the dream for years....until last night.

Image from Bing Images

In the dream I am in college and I am going to take a final exam for a Spanish class that I have never attended. Sometimes I woke up just as I was entering the classroom in a panic and other times it lasted through actually starting to take the test, still in a panic. The funny thing is that I never took Spanish in college.

I wonder why I had this dream again after not having it for many, many years. I am no expert in dream interpretation, but my best guess is that a dream like that might mean that I am anticipating something happening in my life that I am not prepared for. That could be a little scary, except I am never prepared for much that happens anyway. Or maybe I just shouldn't have had that extra glass of red wine last night.

Do you have a recurring dream?

Have you had one that stopped and then came back years later?

Do you think dreams have meaning or are just random?

Do you think I should just skip the red wine tonight?