Joan on the Road...of Life

So what have we been up to this week? First, I'm absolutely certain that returning Pauli to Basset Buddies Rescue was the right thing. Our life is back to normal. We were living life around the dog and that's not what retirement should be. So no regrets.

We've spent more time watching TV than normal because we tuned in to the Democratic convention and we'll be watching the Republican convention in MN. After two years of ho-hum campaigning I think this could turn out to be a great race, particularly with McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for VP. I'm sure I'll be a political junkie for the next few months.

I've been spending time with my Mom in the basement trying to make things more accessible and cleaning up a little living area so that when tornado warnings sound they can retire to some comfort in the basement. We built a little platform to hold storage boxes and spent some time searching for some treasures....and we were successful!

Harry picked a lot of peaches so Mom and I froze a few jars of this sweet gold for winter time enjoyment. I look around the yard and think of simple abundance. Fourteen years ago they planted four fruit trees that now overflow with apples, cherries and peaches. Harry enjoys sharing this abundance with friends and in return he gets garden produce. So we are also enjoying REAL tomatoes. What a joy!

Weather has been pretty nice although we finally turned on the AC in our little house when the humidity got really drippy. It's only 84 but the humidity makes us feel like dishrags. It's much better to just sit outside with a cool drink and book then retire to the cool MH for eating and sleeping. So that's what we're doing today. Relaxation along with a little crab dip, crackers and ice tea. I'm declaring this a noshing day...no cooking, no big meals.

Posted by Joan at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our dog adventure is over. I haven't been writing because we've had a lot going on. It's been an emotional time. Bottom line is that Pauli had a bad case of "separation anxiety" and could not be left alone for a minute in the MH unless he was crated. If we left he was jumping up at every window, running the length of the MH, jumping on the dash where our TV sits, leaping on the bed...no wonder his prior name was Flash. Having the crate out inside the MH was too space consuming and he barked incessantly when tied outside. Not a good thing for RVers.

Otherwise he was/is a wonderful dog. But we decided it was not a good situation for him or us so yesterday we returned him to Basset Buddies Rescue at their Basset Fest. I'll bet he found a home yesterday. If not, we met his foster mom and she was happy to include him in her basset pack for awhile. I was really sad to do this. We decided that having a pet is just not for us. (Maryann and Jim...you were right.)

Other excitement was that my dad had an emergency trip to the hospital. He's home and doing ok but it was a nightmare because he and Jim had to sit in the emergency waiting room for 4 hours waiting for treatment and admittance to the hospital. So everyone was up all night anxiously waiting. My Mom needs some help if Harry's not there so I was in and out. Pauli was going bonkers.

Then daughter Renee and family arrived for a long weekend vacation. It was so great for the grandsons, Bryan and Zach, to see their great-grandparents again. It had been years. We had some good visits and they've done the Chicago area tour including a trip up to Leon's in Milwaukee for frozen custard. A family tradition :)

The kids were fascinated by the fireflys and houses with basements. Funny. California kids don't have basements, see fireflys or snow :)

Today I think Renee will spend time with Grandma while the guys go to Six Flags Amusement Park. Then we'll go out and visit friends in our old neighborhood. The weather is awesomely cool and sunshinny. A great day for vacationing.

Posted by Joan at 07:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Did you hear me scream "woooohoooo"? I finally finished scanning 30 years worth of 35mm slides! It's only taken me 5 years :) Along about 1991 I got a point and shoot camera and we stopped taking slides. So now my task is to scan in those negatives up until 2000 when I got my first digital.

Speaking of pictures...our son Jim converted all our old 8 mm movies to digital and sent us 6 DVDs of old movies for our anniversary. Talk about memories. It is such wonderful fun to see our little kids in action even though there was no sound. ( He did add a "reel click" sound to the DVD making it a unique experience.)

There really are no words to describe what a great gift this is....so just thanks, Jim. It's wonderful!

Posted by Joan at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yes, I'm home and this will be a short entry. I can't believe how pooped I am after a weeklong gabfest and eating spree with five of my "girlfriends." We did have a great time with some fun entertainment. Took a few pix and a couple of movie vignettes that hopefully I can get posted soon.

But today....a day of relaxation, napping. :)

Posted by Joan at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last few days have been lovely midwest summer weather and it looks like this coming week will be pretty great too. That's good because I'm going to Door County WI with my girlfriends. This year there will be six of us on this annual trek hosted by Maryann at her condo. We all look forward to this week of talking, eating, talking, eating, sleeping, talking, eating....and here and there an evening of entertainment or a shopping trip. If Maryann is lucky she might get us off our butts and out on a hike :)

It has been a good week with our Pauli. Every day he seems to be a little more relaxed and into the routines of our life. Still anxious when we leave so we need to keep working on that. I'll bet he'll miss me this coming week. Maybe I'll have to talk to him on the phone :)

Thursday we took him on a play day to my friend Pat's house. She was grand-dog sitting with basset, Lola. I asked if she really wanted two bassets in the house. Her grandson said, "you bet!" Yikes! For about 15 minutes they ran wild and played. Then they calmed down and wandered around doing dog stuff. Sniff this, eat that. It was fun and we were pleased with how well behaved Pauli was in this new situation.

So today I'm packing my bags and preparing my contribution for our first evening hors d'ouerve meal at the condo. Tomorrow we leave at 9 AM and it's about a 4 hour drive...but it takes us longer as we have to stop and eat along the way :) I've known some of these gals since pre-grade school years. We go back a long way. We might not see each other for a year or more but it seems like we can just pick up the conversation where we left off last time.

Back in a week...!

Posted by Joan at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The next time I complain about dry desert air when we're in CA or AZ I'll just need to recall the dripping, sticky humidity of Illinois. Yikes! We've had off and on thunderstorms for two days with the temps hovering around 80. The relative humidity is 100%! Can't get much better than that.

This morning we walked Pauli and had to avoid downed branches and dripping trees. Guess there was an overnight storm. By the time we got home we were dripping wet. Then a slight breeze came up, blew the mosquitoes away and it was comfy while we sat outside to have our tea and watch Pauli's antics.

We're trying to get Pauli into a routine of sorts. He's settled in to eating good, doing his business outside and sleeping in his bed. But he's anxious when we are both outside and jumps on the dash. Now that wouldn't be too bad if we didn't have our TV sitting on the dash :) He also would love to "own" the sleep number bed but that will not happen.

We've been doing some reorganizing of "stuff" as we accomodate a dog again. Fulltimers will know the exercise. Empty out a compartment, lay everything out, sort, toss, look for new storage containers. We actually wind up with empty spaces here and there. Amazing.

I've been back into scanning the old 35mm slides doing 1990 when we had just 5 grandkids ages 1-10. Jeez they were so cute. They grew up into nice, handsome and pretty people but these little kids were really special. I get excited about doing the scanning wondering what the next box will hold. I can't believe that I only have 6 more little yellow boxes to go...and I'LL BE DONE SCANNING SLIDES :).

Posted by Joan at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK...just indulge me for one more day :) We have been totally busy with Pauli (aka Flash). If you know our Basset history you'll understand. (We had Rocky and Adrianne, now we have Pauli.)

We've had him out shopping and riding in the car every day. This morning Pauli went to Petco.

He caught sight of a butterfly and tried to capture it but only got close enough to smell the flowers.

Although he seems to be a pretty mellow guy he does have major anxiety when we are both out of the motorhome. This is day 4 and every day he's become a little calmer. His digestive system needs to settle down and he needs major leash training. But he seems to recognize 'sit, stay". After all the adventures he's had I think his little brain must just need time to remember the trainings he's had.

Did I tell you his story? He is a victim of the Iowa floods. Don't know what happened but he wound up in a rescue facility and was then adopted by a college girl...for a month. When that didn't work out she turned him in to Basset Buddies Rescue in Wisconsin. They were so overloaded with dogs that he had to go to a boarding kennel for 3 weeks until we found him. He's about 18 months old.

So our lives have changed. No more sleeping in until 9 AM! Got to put on the walking shoes and get out there bright and early and late and nght. But to have a hound dog sitting beside me so I can feel his ears....Priceless.

Posted by Joan at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)