A Week of Running

           We ran almost every day this week — not my favorite way to spend a day. And by running I don’t mean exercising, I mean errands.

          “What’s your favorite way to spend the day, Peg?” you ask.

          My favorite is long, slow days at home where I can wear my jammies all day, go barefoot, hairbrushless, putter aimlessly and do whatever strikes my fancy. Take care of the critters when it’s time to take care of the critters, cook when it’s time to cook, clean when it’s time to clean, drink coffee, and make art. And that art, for me, can take on many forms. From taking pictures, to glass work, to wire work, to tin can flowers, to making and painting clay projects, to writing. And frankly, my days are never long or boring! When I’m in the middle of creating, I can get lost for hours! Time just flies by!

           Our week started off with a trip to town. That means I had to put on clothes, brush my hair, and wear shoes. We needed milk and chew sticks for Bondi. I have a pack of the rawhide chews somewhere! I gave her two from the pack and now can’t find where I put the rest!

          “I’ll find them as soon as I buy a new pack,” I told my peeps in my morning love note but so far, that hasn’t proven to be true.

          Monday was also the day we welcomed the Kipps back from their beach vacation. Bondi was so happy to see Miss Rosie. She wiggled and squirmed her way to Rosie’s neck where she nuzzled and kissed her over and over.

          Miss Rosie was happy to see Bondi too and delighted at how much Bondi had missed her.

           Once Bondi finished greeting Miss Rosie, she made her way over to Lamar where she wasn’t quite as excited to see him. I think Bondi likes women more than men — she acts differently — but she was still happy to be cuddled.

           Bondi loves all the Kipps but Tux is her favorite. I can’t say that Tux was nearly as excited to see her but he’s very patient as she jumps all over him, wiggles and squirms around his legs, puts her head in his mouth.

           Monday was the day that Tiger brought a mouse in. He’d allow the mouse hope of escape only to pounce on him and bring him back out of the weeds.

          Secretly, I was rooting for the mouse but didn’t intervene. I left him to his fate. I have no idea who won.

           Monday was also the day that Mike went to work pulling the boards off the wall in the exercise studio in preparation for insulating. I was especially interested in the wall that housed the bees.

          Bit by bit, board by board, the whole hive was exposed. “They were honey bees!” I exclaimed. I really thought they were, seeing the honeycomb was just confirmation.

          The bees were all gone or dead, swept up and thrown into the weeds. The queen must’ve died and the honeycomb doesn’t look ‘healthy’ to me with that big black spot in the middle.

          “Maybe we can save it for the wax,” I suggested.

          Mike is a good and dutiful husband and cut the honeycomb out for me.

          There was no honey.

          There were, however, earwigs, ants, and some kind of little worm. I Googled it and found out they can be invaded by wax moths. I don’t know if the bugs came before the hive died or after, since it’s been several weeks now since the bees swarmed.

           We’ve had so much rain lately. Here the clouds are over the Lubys’ mountain home.

          Coming back from getting the mail I found a Monarch caterpillar. It wasn’t until I was looking at the picture on my computer that I see there are two here! I have no idea if the little one is still in my butterfly box or not.

           Every morning I need to go get them fresh food. I love all the dewy droplets in a row on this web.

           And I found more caterpillars! Often times I spot the frass, or poop, before I see the ‘pillar.

           Ever see a caterpillar pooping?

             My beautiful friend Jody brought me a caterpillar, too. I have nine caterpillars total with five of those being in the chrysalis stage. I caught this one mid-transformation. His skin splits and he wiggles and wiggles until he gets all of the skin to the top.

           Then he keeps wiggling until the old skin falls off. It only takes a couple of minutes from start to finish. Then it takes a day or so for the chrysalis to fully harden.

          Where there is frass, there isn’t necessarily a Monarch caterpillar. I don’t know what he is.

           At first glance I thought I’d found a Calligraphy Beetle. At second glance I realized he was too big to be a Calligraphy Beetle.

          “What is he then?” I know you wanna know.

          This is called an Anchor Stink Bug. Even though he does have wings and can fly, most of the time these guys don’t.

          I also saw this Flower, or Crab Spider who lost a few legs. It’s better to lose a leg or two then lose your life.

           I thought this was an interesting fungus. All dressed up in their pretty white-fringed skirts.

           Look at the Virgin’s Bower now! This bears no resemblance to the pretty white flowers they were before, but their other names of Old Man’s Beard and Devil’s Hair make more sense, don’t they?

           Oh my gosh! The Autumn Olive Bushes are just loaded with berries! I’ve never seen them so full! Do you think it’s a bad sign of the winter to come?

           I don’t think we went anyplace Tuesday…

“Yes, we did,” Mike said.

“Where?” I asked.

He thought for a minute but couldn’t come up with anything. “I don’t know but we went somewhere every day this week,” he defends.

“You can’t prove that by morning love note or my pictures,” I said. I generally tell my peeps the plans of the day and there was no errand running mentioned for Tuesday. And my pictures only show a few shots here around the house.

Wednesday we had a bright and early appointment to have our Explorer looked at —Oh! That reminds me. We’ve gotten the Explorer back. We hit a deer on May 2 and got it back July 10^th.

          While I’m updating, let me update you on something else I’ve been meaning to tell you. I haven’t had to get up and take Bondi out in the middle of the night in weeks! I only did it for maybe a week and half, two weeks at the most. She can and does hold it all night and has never messed in our bed.

          But, back to the Explorer. The airbag light keeps coming on. Sometimes it stays on, sometimes it doesn’t. We stopped at the place that fixed our car and he put the computer on it and cleared it. He thought the airbags would still work and it was okay to drive the car. After we left there the light came back on so we made an appointment for Ford to look at.

          We left the house early enough to swing through McDonalds and get Mike’s favorite Sausage Egg McMuffin. The next hour and a half were spent at Ford — and I forgot my phone!

          “Why is that important?” you ask.

          Because then I didn’t have my book to read. I was working my way through The Borrowers for a second time. There was a quote in one of the books that I wanted to remember but for some reason, didn’t find it. I don’t even know what it was, only that I liked it.

          Sitting in the waiting room, thumbing through old, worn-out magazines, I spot a purple plaque hiding behind the magazine rack.

         I picked it up and studied it. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland but don’t know if it’s a scene from that or not.

          On the back is some old mounting tape and a name signed on the bottom.

          “I wonder what this is all about,” I mused aloud. I knew Mike wouldn’t have an answer. But I did have a chance to ask someone else.

          “I think it’s something the school did. They had the kids paint up a bunch of these and placed ‘em around at different businesses. Ours was in the window until the window got broken,” the guy in Service told me.

          “Don’t let them throw it away,” I said. Ford is building a new building at the other end of Tunkhannock and I can see them going through and tossing this in the trash along with all their old fixtures. “Some little girl worked hard on it.” I assume K-A-Y-A is a girl’s name.

          “I won’t,” he promised.

          I soon went through the two ‘girl’ magazines and decided I’d go out and walk around and see what I could see to take pictures of.

          The back of the building still has the old Gateway sign on it. It’s not called that anymore.

           There were tons of flowers the whole way around the edge of the car lot, unfortunately they were all Touch-me-nots and Knotweed. I took a few pictures anyway.

Can you see an ‘eye’ in this shot? If you think I planned it, I didn’t. I only saw it while reviewing my pictures on the ‘puter.

Ford doesn’t know what’s wrong with the Explorer, only that they need to tear stuff apart. We’ve made another appointment for Monday and they’ll give us a loaner car.

          “That way if we have to order a part, we can keep the car until it comes in and won’t have to put it back together and take it apart again,” the service guy explained.

          Thursday was Mike’s checkup with the doctor. He’s doing well, has lost 20 pounds since the first time he saw the PA, and doesn’t have to go back for six months.

           Friday, we went to breakfast and I delivered the order of three giant ladybugs to a gal there. The white tabs are on the stickers where I put the screw holes. It’ll make them easier to peel back to put the screw in. 

          They’ve moved in the equipment to pound the pans in to keep the road from slipping again.

           Later in the morning we had a vet appointment for Bondi to get her last puppy shot.

          “Let’s take the back way to the vet,” Mike suggested.

          That was okay by me. Road pictures. We put the address in the GPS and when she wanted us to get off on a dirt road, we opted to stay on the blacktop. Turn after turn we ignored her directions and ended up who knows where! But it was way out of our way and instead of being fifteen minutes early for our appointment (according to the arrival time on the GPS), we were there only one minute early — but I’ve got new pictures!

          The bird nets are over the grapes.

          I didn’t know we had moose here!

          Sandhill Cranes!

          Bondi had her last puppy shot but it’s not the end of our vet visits. Since we’re going to have her fixed, they require a blood test. We had them draw the blood while we were there. They ran that blood for tick-born diseases and found Bondi has Anaplasmosis. That will require a round of Doxycycline but Dr. Lori has recommended that we hold off on that for now. Doxycycline causes teeth discoloration in humans so they believe it will also affect the dog’s teeth. Since she shows no symptoms, we can hold off until her adult teeth come in.

          “My kids were given that when they were young,” I told Mike, “and it did cause their teeth to be discolored.”

          “She’s never had a tick or a flea,” I told Dr. Lori. “Her hair is short and I’ve been watching.” Flea and tick season is almost over and I was trying to hold out for next year.

          Dr. Lori paused, trying to frame her response as nicely as she could, I guess. “I won’t debate that. Just let me say that some ticks are really little.”

          Even if it was a little tick, if it was engorged with blood, wouldn’t I still feel it? I didn’t say that but I did think it. Besides, she may have been bitten before she came to live with me.

          “When we get home,” Mike told me. “Put a flea collar on her.”

          I did.

          All that day Bondi scratched at it. That was to be expected since she had something on her neck that wasn’t there before. But that night she started acting weird. She was laying next to me and suddenly jerked as if she’d been bitten. Those kinds of sudden jerky movements continued the next day. Not constant but a bunch of times throughout the day. She’d be sitting on the patio and jump, then she’d make a few crazy jerky circles. I really became concerned when the whimpering started. Not all the time or constant, but occasional. I got a hold of Dr. Lori and asked if this was all behavioral or was she reacting to the collar — and I have to tell you that reactions to the collar are rare. Dr. Lori said to take it off. Since then, all of those things have stopped.

          Dr. Lori thinks Bondi is around 16 weeks of age because she still has all of her baby teeth and 16 weeks is when they start losing them.

          “I think I need a picture of Bondi for my story this week, Mike. Will you help me take a picture to show how long she’s getting?”

          My husband, the comedian, said, “How about if I take her like this (he put his hand on her neck) and this (used his other hand to hold her rump) and pull her out?”

          With that, let’s call this one done!