Damn Dogs

Dog Print

That would be one of the multitude of huge, deep dog prints found in my garden beds this morning. Yes, at least one of the neighbors’ dogs has been over the fence again and stomping through my garden destroying stuff, and it wasn’t a chihuahua.

I am well beyond livid now, and I am tired of waiting for Lin to go “talk to them civilly” as he says we should. No, I will be handling it myself, and no one involved is going to be happy about it. I do my best to not give a damn what my neighbors do. I really don’t care. The only time I care is when what they are doing spills over onto my property, and generally, as long as there is no danger to me or mine and no property damage of any sort (and whatever it is doesn’t happen all the time), I still don’t give a damn. But I do give a damn about large dogs that have been aggressive toward me, have killed a possum (in my yard), and have attempted to claw through my kitchen window screen, and have stomped through my garden destroying things on numerable occasions being in my yard. Yes, I do have a problem with that, especially since I know they know the dogs are doing these things, and one would have to be completely lacking in brain cells to think it wouldn’t upset just about any neighbor.

Oh, so I hear something snuffling at the kitchen window just now and look … the damn dog is in the yard right now!

Damn Dog

I’d call animal control right now, which is what I plan to do whenever I see of these dogs in my yard, but I do like to warn people I will be turning them in on a regular basis before actually doing so. I’m trying my best to be nice when what I would really like is be a raging shrew bitch from hell. I think I am entitled to be a raging shrew bitch from hell about this too, because truly, the situation has become completely untenable, and I am seriously not putting up with it anymore.

I’ll be getting together all the photos I have taken of the dogs destruction and the dogs in my yard that I have taken all this time, I will be having them printed at Walgreens, and I will be composing as polite a threatening letter as I am capable of composing informing them that I will be calling animal control whenever one or more of their dogs is in my yard, and if they don’t arrive quickly enough to satisfy me, I will simply be releasing the dog(s) out into the street (which is what Lin did that night the one was trying to get into the kitchen window). These neighbors are excessively lucky I love animals and can’t find it in my heart to blame the poor dumb dogs for their actions, because other people less inclined to not give a damn about dumb destructive dogs would no doubt handle the matter in significantly less ethical ways.

It’s a good thing today is bread baking day, because I need to relax, and baking bread is truly one of the most relaxing things I do. I think I will go do that right now.

Don’t know where the dog went. I checked, and it isn’t in my yard or theirs. I guess it jumped the fence at the side of the house and now is out on the street somewhere. None of them are apparently at home, seeing as the cars are all gone, their gate is open, and the yappy chihuahuas are nowhere to be seen.

Footnotes
  1. Though heaven forbid one of these dogs ever manages to kill one of the neighborhood stray cats I am trying to give a better life too, because I am not entirely certain what I would do in that situation. I imagine it would start with me stomping through their yard full of yappy aggressive chihuahuas carrying a dead cat, and then, well, me totally losing my cool in a most unpleasant way. If you’ve never seen me do that, all I can say is … I can make people wish they were dead with only my words. []

The Pain … The PAIN!

I am beginning to see that as I get older my messed up neck is going to be a big problem. I am down and out today and almost incapable of moving my upper body, and it isn’t like I was outside hauling around big bags of dirt or anything yesterday. All I did was pull up some plants, weed, and plant some new stuff. Just bending, stooping, walking, and reaching –nothing at all terribly strenuous– and now my neck is completely out of whack and PAINFUL.

There really isn’t much to be done about it. I’ve discussed it with a doctor before, and the only options for improvement of the situation are pain pills or surgery. Pain pills are nice, but I wouldn’t want to be on them all the time, and with surgery, the odds of improvement are 50-50 … and I never bet on anything with those kinds of odds turning out in my favor, especially when large amounts of money and the potential for things to get worse are also on the line. I’m sort of stuck just having to deal with the fact that sometimes normal activity is going to leave me essentially flat on my back on a soft surface for a couple of days. Sucks, but it’s the body I’ve got, and I’ll just have to work within its limitations.

And, of course, thanks to being out in that wind yesterday, my allergies are driving me mad today too. I don’t know what pollen blew in from where, but my respiratory system is not happy today. I wish it would hurry up and rain, because that always helps, but it doesn’t even look like it’s going to rain like they said it would. Boo. Hiss. I want rain! My garden wants rain!

Since my back is killing me and my allergies are kicking my butt, I will therefore be taking an allergy pill and finding some comfortable position somewhere in the house and, well, doing very little of anything except having a tiny pity party for myself. Maybe once I can breath without sneezing and wheezing I can do some exercises to try and get the neck problem sorted out.

Really needed to make bread today. Hope I can at least get that done.

Guilty?

“If you aren’t a Christian, what does it matter if there’s a cross sitting in public, unless you feel guilty?”

I am hoping that is the most ignorant and annoying thing I hear today. I doubt it, but it will certainly be a contender.

The weatherman is saying it’s going to rain the rest of this week, so I am off to the garden to finish clearing out Bed One and planting some seeds and moving in some transplants. I’ll tell you more about the garden later. I want to get out there and get done before it gets too hot and humid, and I already need to unwind. This morning’s conversations have all been of the really annoying sort.

Day Off

I have had a nice day off. Didn’t do anything at all. No arts and crafts. No TV watching. No puttering in the garden. I played stupid little Facebook games, spent time annoying the cats, took a couple of naps, and mostly sat around watching time go by with my brain turned off.

It was nice! Always nice to occasionally do nothing at all. Tomorrow I will be ready to jump back into the fray of life and get stuff done. I feel energized and motivated! Good thing, seeing as that long list of stuff I need to get done is still sitting here on my desk taunting me.

Day is Done

A busy day was had. Many things got done. None of them especially fun.

Seeing as it’s after 3 am, and I am still awake, it’s pretty safe to say I will be taking tomorrow off to catch up on some TV shows, play some games, work on some art, and generally be a big lazy blob. Yippee!

Oh Drat! Monday!

The coffee drinking began earlier than usual. I have ten thousand things to do today, and I don’t see how I can humanly get them all done. My phone has already been ringing. I have a headache. It’s steamy inside and outside the house, and not in a pleasant way. Did I mention I have ten thousand things to do today?

What’s that you say? It’s Monday?! Oh, well that explains everything.

Well, at least I had a nice weekend. That’s not going to make today any more pleasant than it is guaranteed not to be, but I’ll have memories of a nice weekend to cling to until the next weekend comes along, though there is no actual guarantee next weekend will be nice at all. I expect it to be busy. Almost as busy as the week will be.

And you know, busy isn’t really all bad. It’s just really, really tiring. Since I essentially “worked” most of yesterday, it’s entirely possible I will declare tomorrow a day off, which really just means I have to get a whole lot of those ten thousand things done today in order to have a day of peace and quiet.

I hate love my life.

On a Personal Note…

Now for a more personal accounting of last night!

Lin and I had a blast! Well, I had a blast, and Lin was in fact smiling and being charming, so I assume he was having a blast too. We don’t go on too many date nights anymore, mostly thanks to austere limits on both time and money (and maybe a little bit due to having been married forever), but when we do, it always reminds us that we enjoy spending time outside the house with each other … and then we start acting like that couple that everyone hates. You know, the newlywed types that are all lovey-dovey ALL the time. It’s true, we’re one of those couples that can make old people smile and our peers sneer is jealousy. Even though familiarity does tend to breed contempt (and bickering), we are still madly in love with each other.

Though our interests are really somewhat divergent (opposites can and do attract), the one thing we both share a love for are the performing arts and ballet in particular. A night at the ballet is a perfect date night for us, and last night was even more perfect because it was at the Long Center. We’ve driven past the place so many times since it was built, but neither of us has had the opportunity to wander around and check the place out. All I can say is … lovely! Lovely buildings and oh so lovely grounds around them. We even found a wonderful little bench surrounded by bushes beside a beautiful pond. Kiss kiss!

The only disappointment of the night was that our plan to eat at someplace where people sit at tables and act like adults was foiled by the lateness of the hour. We did our best to find an actual restaurant to finish the evening off, but alas, all the good places were closed. We ended up at Sonic. Yes, Sonic. I am not at all complaining, because I do enjoy a good burger and cherry lime slush, but still … might have been nice to sit at a table and act like an adult.

Quite frankly, I didn’t want the evening to end, especially wandering around in the dark park with the big sky overhead and the city skyline lighting our way. It was quite magical and beautiful … all the more so, because I got to share it with my sweetie. Evenings do end though, but we had fun being sickeningly in love, I got to walk around on public grass barefoot, and all’s well that ends well, right? The evening started well, went well, and ended well. Can’t complain about that!

Date night needs to become a more regular event. It’s good to remind oneself why one is sharing an existence with someone else, and being silly and giddy in public is a great way to accomplish this (at least for us). I think an evening picnic downtown is in order soon. No reason date night always has to be a big production, and the location is just so gorgeous and ripe with romance!

One small discovery: I need to buy new shoes. Flats. I just can’t wear heels anymore. My back is a wretched mess today. Totally worth it though!