Category Archives: Family

Dreams

Posted on July 2, 2016 | 1 comment

I got up at four this morning. My husband actually got home by ten p.m. which is a miracle. At six in the morning the dog wanted to go out, walk, be fed and go back to bed.

She is a fan of sleeping atop our bed with anyone who is in it, my husband sleeping off a long week or flight, or me with flu and chicken broth. No, she only gets broth in her dish, after I’m done.

Of late I’ve been dreaming of family and good health. My husband spent 18 hours getting home last weekend to spend 24 hours with me and the dog, most of it snoring. This July 4 weekend we’ve a dinner, a couple of other things to do but it’s mostly down-time and he has three days!

I think he wants spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Too early to go to the store, but I can check out the pasta shelf in the pantry. How many tea towels and dog towels has he ruined with that sauce?

We’ve moved a few times and I know to use the pantry before we move it. If there are half-full or full spaghetti wrappers for which I use moving tape to seal, I will use them. It’s not as if we’re looking to move, it makes room on the shelves so I might make, when we get a new grill, Asian-inspired kebabs over marinated Udon noodles with perhaps marinated chicken, peppers, pineapple and onions. Radishes on the side? Perhaps cucumbers as well. We’ll see.

I’m set to make an English trifle for dinner on the 4th. Interesting that I learned on my own, not from Mom who switched from turkey Christmas to Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding with mincemeat tarts et al.

There’s the rub. I usually use pound cake, make whipped cream and top layers with various berries. Also lemon zest and juice. I was thinking of making a healthy one with angel food cake, low-fat vanilla Greek yogurt and berries. Yeah, I thought so too. Door #1 it is! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Family

Hello, is this Earth?

Posted on May 12, 2016 | 1 comment

So sorry, I thought I grew up here with family and friends and people who cared about each other.

Around seven this evening I heard a beeper that I thought was a neighbor’s phone with a busy signal. Then it went off. On again. I’ve seen both my neighbors this evening delivering them a package. This sound was loud and from our other building. I didn’t know how to find it so told staff about it.

All I was thinking was that it was an elderly person somewhere I never knew or met and they fell or had a heart attack and no-one would do anything. I took the dog out and asked immediately and staff had word out. Soon after the signal ended.

If a piercing sound was on for a long period of time with one of my neighbors I’d get in touch right away to be sure they’re OK. Here it sounded like my neighbors’ phone was left on the hook and I heard a mild beep.

That’s not what I do. I hope the person across the way is at the hospital and doing well. We lived out in the mountains and our neighbors were great. There were eight of us throughout the summer, fall, ski season and mud season and we had pot lucks every two months, host made the main course and others made sides and dessert. When an ambulance was called we were there and my tall husband helped a neighbor down the stairs to the ambulance.

Here most people are not so nice. I always grew up with the principle of being nice to everyone until they show they deserve otherwise, then ignore. Ignoring is worse than fighting back as they know they’re spineless turds and have no recourse. Bullies, a bete noire.

Here if you stay a millisecond at a traffic light you’ll have horns blaring behind you. No-one stops at a crosswalk even though it is state law. No-one picks up dog poop (I do). Forget about driving a car. Speed limit 50, everyone’s going 75.

In nine years I’ve driven my 2003 SUV 28K miles and that’s going across country twice. When I’ve heavy stuff to tote I drive to the grocery. Also because our feuding governments do not ever fix roads or sidewalks after harsh winters and road erosion.

Perhaps being out of jobs and not having paved streets and breaking car axles is part of the problem of people beeping at and being angry with people who just want to walk their old dog a few times per day, and clean up after her. Cheers! Dee

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California Dreaming

Posted on May 11, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hello, dear, stop and read it as this is about you.

It was nearing 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday. I poked you and said I’d taken Zoe out and fed her around 6:30 and it was your turn. You weren’t there.

I got up and went to use the restroom, checked the kitchen clock and it was 5:30 a.m. on a Wednesday and Zoe was sound asleep on the bed.

She was taken out in fog and rain anyway, and fed, now we’re going back to bed. Time to shake things up (rain off) around here! Love you, dear. D and Z

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Posted in dogs, Editorial, Family, Zoe

Losing

Posted on April 12, 2016 | Leave a comment

Mom always conveyed that I was loser, she was trapped, married to Dad and pregnant so stuck, back in the old days. Vacuuming in a dress and heels and high hair. She lost much but the year I graduated college she did as well. I was Deans’ List at 3.8 and she was summa and went on to accounting where she passed her CPA exam the first time. That was not a competition. I was very proud of her.

For several weeks now, and nearly all last year I’ve lost my husband to work everywhere. He always calls me every night but he’s overseas in India so even our new iPhone 6 S’ won’t work. Work on that, Apple.

It’s been a bit but I’ve got bruises that made it difficult to walk, sit and sleep. I couldn’t have caused them myself, maybe bruised a couple of ribs. Sleepwalking? Never did it in all my life. Maybe once I was tired so missed the bathroom by 10′ at age eight and tried to pee on a chair in the living room.

I’m also in the process of losing my right eye because of walking with husband and dog one sunny weekend afternoon and taking a spill on the very crosswalk I created. We are enrolled in health insurance but have no proof of it so no-one will see me. Pretty soon I won’t be able to see them.

Luckily my husband has a temporary international health policy for his journey. I don’t want to lose my husband, our family, our dear Zoe (the dog). No good deeds go undone. I need to do some research, pay some bills and finish our taxes. I don’t always win, but I do make things right. I don’t like losing and my husband says I even find my way through side streets to get around traffic. I do. Cheers! Dee

ps Love you, Dad! I miss you and hope you’re doing well.

 

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Posted in Editorial, Family, Travel

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She Sleeps

Posted on April 7, 2016 | Leave a comment

Probably 20 hours per day which is why she is so gorgeous at 84 in “people years.” People think she’s a pup because she’s so happy and energetic.

Zoe’s worried about me so will probably be a foot away from me any moment now in my office. She never stays this close. Worries about the food wench leaving earth must be there.

All I want is proof of health insurance we paid for, they haven’t cashed the check or given the broker a number or temporary cards. My husband leaves overseas tomorrow and he has a scan of a temporary international insurance policy that we purchased outside of health insurance. I asked him to print it and take it with him because he cannot use his new iPhone for anything over there.

We went through this health insurance debacle last month where we talked to the folks, submitted the information and we had to cancel the check because this employer would not answer our phone calls or cash our check or give us the insurance we agreed on.

I’m getting tired of trying to get COBRA or private insurance. The broker says they’re working on it but it’s too late to even FedEx my husband a temporary insurance card.

Zoe jumped off the bed (her front quarters are good, I have to “Otis”her back up in a moment.) She is a foot away from me again. Husband’s gone so she has to herd someone. That would be me.

This new ACA health insurance deal is being manipulated by insurance companies to gain health insurance for people who need federal assistance with payments, not for the private market. I couldn’t get anyone at a major company we’ve been with to answer the phone. It’s not surprising as that’s what they always do. Profits, no service. Par for the course. Hey, I worked insurance law back in the day. “Will Increase Premiums” was all they said. But we did get Well Baby Care done even with that caveat and it has helped families, and insurance companies, over many years.

Let’s fix it, not let things lie. Let Zoe go back and get her beauty sleep. I’m worried about things. She’s worried about me and we both care about my husband, the fun guy. I’m only the disciplinarian and food wench. Dee

 

 

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Posted in Editorial, Family, Zoe

What Goes Around

Posted on March 31, 2016 | Leave a comment

comes around. My mother never liked me, from the day I was conceived. The eldest child meant back in the day that she had to stick around and wear dresses, high hair and heels to vacuum. That meant no college until I went to college, of course she was Summa Cum Laude and I was Dean’s List with a 3.8.

Before hospice care at which all four of us were there along with my husband, Mom asked me to do something about tissue.

I arranged for her eye tissue to be donated after her death at her request. My siblings fought me on this again, as they did her priest for Last Rites, but she asked me to do this for her. They took her body just under the time wire and were able to gain tissue before she was removed from their facility and cremated.

I’m losing eye tissue now, Mom, due to a fall on the pavement last year. Thanks for donating yours and following my lead and caring for therapy dogs. Cheers! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Family

Pack Leader

Posted on March 31, 2016 | Leave a comment

I am the pack leader at home. Not when the “fun guy” my husband comes home for a day or two. I am the dog walker and food wench, and disciplinarian. She’s 12. 84 in “people years.” So, she’s older than me.

Zoe the dog is going in this weekend for blood tests and shots and a general exam from her vet who now does acupuncture. Cool, that’s why I chose this practice. Oh, Zoe had her hips excised as a pup, severe hip dysplasia in a 24 lb. pup.

I’m wondering how difficult it is for people, adults with enough money to afford it, to get health insurance through ACA, non-subsidised. Insurers we’ve had will not answer the phone unless one wants a marketplace plan with subsidies. After one company screwed us, accepting a check after several phone conversations, not cashing said check then never returning a phone call means there are holes in ACA. After we did much research we found a broker who is setting us up. Why is my dog’s lifetime, tattered health care folder larger than mine?

I cancelled that check and it’s back in our HSA account. As to the dog question, we pay cash and will do so this weekend for her senior blood panel and shots. No-one will offer insurance for our hip-less wonder dog. I think pet insurance is a crap shoot anyway. I chose her vet for a reason, acupuncture, acupressure as Zoe ages. Yes, research.

Do research for everything. I do it for a few things and my husband is the ultimate consumer. I find places to live and he vets things to buy. We’ve been married over a decade and he told his parents to get us a Kitchenaid food processor for an elopement gift because his detailed research said it was better than competitors. I agree and have been using it for years.

I have my pack. Keeping it together is stressful with my husband gone to work elsewhere all the time. I never know what to cook when he comes home. If he’s eating beef all the time I want to change it up and make it homey as he only eats in restaurants.

Zoe and I are home. We want him here. We miss him. Dee

 

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Posted in Editorial, Family, loving life, politics

What She Brings

Posted on March 28, 2016 | 1 comment

is way more than we ever could have expected.  Of course Zoe is a herder. She is so kind with adults, kids, other dogs and in her lifetime has always liked cats as well. Sorry, two mice digging out from winter snow out west.

She’s getting old but is healthy. I’m calling her vet to ask if she needs more that the kennel cough vaccine as to a postcard reminder.  Another senior blood panel may not be warranted as yet.

I’ll check my Dallas vet. She’s my husband’s cousin, who excised Zoe’s hips as a pup. Yes, our Zoe had the worst hip dysplasia in a 24 lb. pup she’d ever seen on an x-ray. She grew her own hips and at age 12 is 32 lbs. They never made hips for dogs under 6o lbs. back then so we had to give our girl a chance. I don’t know what she could do today but back then when she recovered she could corner around a tree, get a ball, bring it back to me and the Retriever or Lab would be looking around clueless. Who got the ball?

Hips from one’s own cartilage. It took a while to heal. When she stole a pound of prime steak off our counter I thanked my husband for putting it away because he doesn’t go into my kitchen except to get ice or Dr. Pepper and he said “I didn’t do it” then we looked at Zoe and she was licking her paws. We laughed.

Zoe brings joy to our days, life to our years. Everyone in the neighborhood knows her name (not usually mine) and they introduce their kids and dogs to her, knowing that she is cute and friendly.

In olden days she, at age 84 in “people years” may be called the Grand Dame, the highest status, but she is a dog. I prefer to call her my, our, Zoe and leave it at that. She herds us in the house and makes friends with everyone out on a walk. She brings love to our home and life and is family. Please adopt and spay/neuter. Cheers from D and Z

ps Thanks to Nathan, Chani and Mick Dundee (Mickey) as well. They were also my rescues over the past years I worked in shelters and spay/neuter clinics.

pps Someone asked me while I was volunteering at a community services event for a shelter showing a pup years ago why I was so mean that I couldn’t adopt this cute puppy. I told her if adopt all of the unwanted and strays that would be an untenable situation. I’ve had four wonderful pets over 30 years.

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Posted in animals, Editorial, editorial pets, Family, loving life, Zoe

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The Ladies of Oban

Posted on March 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

We lived in Scotland a while and went to Oban one day hoping to get to an island offshore. We missed the boat by moments and toured this lovely town, had lunch and found a knittery where local ladies knit fisherman’s sweaters for their husbands and others. I was lucky to find a dark pink hand-knit cardigan.

I’ve been saving it for years for special occasions and keep it safe in my closet. I’m wearing it now instead of a blanket. It makes me warm and cozy, oh, and rain-resistant. My husband doesn’t come back by sea, although we look out on one. He comes back by air and car. The wind determines his flight trajectory. but he’s driving up from another airport.

Yes, I’ve even written the shop a poem about it and the Fishermans’ sweater my mother knitted me when I was a kid. No-one in the family knows where it is. I’m wearing my pink cardigan from the Oban ladies now and am toasty warm. Thank you, all the knitters in my life from Scotland, New York and PDX-land. Dee

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She Sleeps

Posted on March 17, 2016 | Leave a comment

I mustn’t be away for more than a few moments. I love the fact that my husband and dog can go to sleep in less than two moments and go through the night and I cannot do so. If I leave dog Zoe for more than five minutes she’ll come to check on me and I don’t want to have to lift her up to the bed again.

Perhaps I’ve the herding job now, making sure they’re safe from the wolves and coyotes and wild pigs. Yes, in a high-story building with no open windows and no way to get up here. But they’re there on the ranch. All of them. Zoe is on a close leash all the time there. After years we’ve never had a problem, even with bulls or baby goats.

Husband will be home late tomorrow for a partial weekend with us but it’ll be business most of the time. No time to make Texas chili. I know what he wants, my spaghetti and meatballs but he ate that last weekend. I would love to make him something he loved from my childhood that I haven’t cooked for him for years. Perhaps that is for tomorrow. Tonight I’ve skirt steak with loaded baked potatoes and green beans. He’ll be in in a little over an hour. I have to work on his time, not mine. He’ll be fine. I’m hungry and will save the next for tomorrow.

I made up the recipe from my mom and will let you know if it works. She used to use canned orange juice. I start with the chicken floured with spices, a whole chicken or whatever you want to use, saute and remove. Add onion and garlic, you can make it spicy. Start off some rice. After the rice is nearly done add chicken and orange juice to the pan halfway in, or just place it it in the oven and marry the flavors the last ten minutes.

We never did orange zest because mom used frozen OJ but with all of these products, my butchers, my produce and deli folks give me ideas and I bring a taste test to them. Yes, I bring food into the grocery store to share with our purveyors.

Zoe’s not by my desk yet, yes she’s back sleeping soundly as I wish I could. Now she’s here, two feet away I must go. Cheers! Dee

 

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