We Love Lucy

I hope it was a good week for everyone.  If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I'm sure you are still ready for a dinner of leftovers tonight even after all that feasting yesterday.  We had a quiet day and I fixed a whole turkey breast and a couple of thighs rather than a whole turkey.  It was moist and juicy (thanks, Ina) and we have plenty of leftovers.

We do not share any human food with Lucy except for the occasional treat of apple or carrots.  She is especially thankful when our little granddaughter visits.  She positions herself directly under the high chair and takes advantage of the errors a toddler can make in learning to use a spoon and fork.  Alas, no toddler yesterday and thus regular dog food for Lucy as usual.  She is now on a prescription diet consisting of both canned food mixed with kibble and she views each meal with great enthusiasm.  She never had canned dog food before this year so it is quite a treat for her.

I often wonder what sort of things go on in her head as she goes about her day.  As she ages, she seems to need more and more to be with us.  She follows my husband around all the time when he is home.  She follows me as a second choice.  She loves her big bolster bed in the den and often puts several tennis balls in it.  She rolls them around and also uses them as massage balls.  Although our Ellie loved her toys, Lucy never cared much for them.

Lucy in her bed

Stretching

And rolling

Back and Forth

You may notice there is a green bed next to Lucy's.  Yes, we still have Ellie's bed there and sometimes Lucy lies across both of them.  And yes, my preference would be to give the bed to the shelter, but it seems to mean a lot to my husband.

Today's quote is from Henry David Thoreau:

"I am grateful for what I am and what I have.
My Thanksgiving is perpetual."

Wouldn't it be great if we all were perpetually thankful?

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE!

We Love Lucy

We have had very weird weather, mostly rainy and cold.  But today brings bright sunshine and clear skies and we are thankful.

A brief health update:  my blood cancer markers continue to be low (and normal) so the new chemotherapy regimen seems to be keeping the cancer in check.  That is very good news.  There is not much available data on the long-term success of this drug for ovarian cancer because it was only recently approved.  But I'm assigning myself to be best of the statistics.  If that turns out not to be true I will have lost nothing by remaining positive.

Our sweet Lucy remains positive all the time, assuming that good things will always happen.  She had some really great days while our seventeen-month-old granddaughter visited.  At every meal she positioned herself right under the high chair and reaped the rewards of a little one feeding herself.

She is still moving more slowly but is ever so much better on her new meds.  She loved the attention of more people in the house, assuming each one was here to pet her,  Our daughter is visiting now so she is still enjoying extra attention.

She does not like to pose for pictures

Ready to go back inside

Our little Violet was so gentle with Lucy.  She would toddle over, slowing down as she approached Lucy and holding out her hand to gently touch her her.  Lucy loved it.

Violet is a mover and shaker.  She hardly ever walks; she runs everywhere.  My son snapped this photograph of her in her dragon pajamas crawling into a Nordstrom bag.  He said he feared his wife was a bad influence.  I told him to be glad it wasn't a Tiffany box.

I hope your weather turns better.  And we continue to send positive thoughts to those affected by the raging California fires.

Today's quote is from Carl Sandburg:

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, 

So live not in your yesterdays, not just for tomorrow, but in the here and now.

Keep moving and forget the postmortems; 

And remember, no one can get the jump on the future.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK

HELP OTHERS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN

A very interesting week here in the US to say the least.  I'm glad the election is (mostly) over.  There were results that made me happy and results that made me sad, but the overwhelming feeling is relief that it is finally behind us.

We had a most wonderful visit from our sweet granddaughter.  She is a very active little girl who sits still only when reading books or eating.  She rarely walks anywhere...she runs.  They flew this time rather than driving so we bought a lot of toys for her to have here when they visit.  She has a very sweet nature and was wonderfully gentle with Lucy and Lucy adored her.  She stationed herself squarely under the high chair and was well-rewarded.

Tall for her age with really long legs

Lucy smiles while the house is quiet

We had two good days with bright sunshine,  Lucy loved running free.  Her sprints are shorter and she is tired when we get back in, but we allow her to do as much as she wants.  Otherwise, we do insist that she gets plenty of walks to exercise her joints

Running like a younger dog

My dear beloved (and quite old) Nikon seems to be in the throes of death.  I shouldn't be surprised.  It is one of the first digital SLR cameras Nikon made.  I can't get any of my recent photographs off the memory card so I'll take it to a camera shop and have them take a look.  I will likely go with Nikon again for the simple reason that all the lenses are compatible.  Otherwise I may use my husband's camera or rely on the one on my iPod.

Today's post-election quote comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt:

Let us never forget that government is ourselves
And not an alien power over us.
The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not
A President or Senators, or Congressmen and government officials
But THE VOTERS OF THIS COUNTRY.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE

THINK POSITIVELY ABOUT THOSE SEEKING REFUGE

AND DO SOMETHING FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR

We Love Lucy

We've had some sunny autumn days, some very windy days, and now some very rainy days.  Like the old saying, "If you don't like the weather in the mountains, just wait another day and it will change."

Despite her age and arthritis, Lucy still loves a day at the park.  She doesn't run nearly as much, but she does trot often enough to get some exercise and then she rests.  When she was younger, we had to force her to to sit and rest but now she seems to know when to rest herself.  She is still a thing of beauty with her long floofy hair flying in the breeze.  She has always had a rather strange sitting posture and it makes her look much larger than she really is.

Sitting in the soft moss at the park.

We were all stunned at the shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue this week.  It was a hate crime and 11 people were killed.  The people were gathered for a bris of a baby boy.  The event shocked and saddened many of us.  The President of the United States indicated that outcome would have been far better if there had been an armed guard at the synagogue.  An armed guard at a bris?  Seriously?

I leave you with a quote from the late Haile Selassie:

"We must become bigger than we have been
More courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook.
We must become members of a new race,
Overcoming petty prejudice,
Owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations
But to our fellow men within the human community."

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY...VOTE

AND REMEMBER WE ARE NOT THE ONLY PEOPLE ON OUR PLANET

We Love Lucy

We moved with lightning speed from Autumn weather to down-right cold.  We are getting remnants of the recent tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.  So it is raining and dreary.  Temperatures will not get much above 40 today.  I am so not ready for cold weather.  On a positive note, we will almost certainly have some warmer days with sunshine.  Meanwhile, we will sit by the fire and read or knit.  And love on our dear Lucy.

Much like a child busy playing, Lucy pretends not to hear us call her the first, or second, or even third time we call to tell her it's time to go outside in the rain.  She hates it despite the towels we put in the dryer to have toasty warm for drying her off.

Even when the room is warm, she curls up into a ball when she comes back inside.

When we have the gas logs burning, her favorite place is near the warm hearth.

Early voting ends here in North Carolina on November 3rd.  If your state has early voting be sure to check the times and try to vote early.  If not, make certain you check your polling location for Election Day.  Many of them have changed locations and hours,  Make your voice count.  If you are turned away for any reason demand a provisional ballot.

Today's quotes are from my favorite philosopher,  Marcus Aurelius.  Reflect on the first when you are watching the "talking heads" on the 24/7 "news" channels.  And reflect on the second as you live your daily life.

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

"Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy."

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE

We Love Lucy

Lucy continues to be more active and seems to feel much better on the new medication.  It's an anti-inflammatory, similar (or perhaps identical) to one used for human arthritis and is worth every penny of its high cost.  She is clearly a more comfortable and happier dog.

We live in the woods and are used to wildlife of all sorts.  But we recently got a real surprise.  A black bear inside our garage!  We bring all our bird feeders into the garage every evening at dusk and put them in a closed container.  Some spilled birdseed had not been swept up and this bear walked between our two vehicles to get to the seeds.  Imagine my husband's surprise when he opened the door to the garage and saw the bear.  My husband made a loud noise, slapping the wall and the bear took off as fast as he could.  In an extremely frightening second, Lucy took out after the bear.  Fortunately the bear had a head start and Lucy quickly ran out of steam.  I shudder to think what might have happened had the bear turned around to face Lucy.  It all happened so fast my husband simply shouted at Lucy to come back.

Thank goodness it was a rather small bear, likely one whose mother had "kicked" him out in order to care for her younger cubs and prepare for the winter's new ones.  It seems this was its first encounter with humans so we are ever so glad it was very frightened.  Our new habit is to close the garage door at 4:30, and it will be earlier as the dusk comes earlier.  Obviously we are more careful to pick up any stray seeds that may have fallen.

Lucy looks pretty gentle to be a bear dog.

In our continued plan to make our home safer as we age, we are having decorative (but functional) fencing placed by the stone steps and walk you see in the photograph.  We already have a metal railing that lines the stones steps going from the back of the house down into the woods.

Early voting has begun here in North Carolina.  So it is appropriate that today's quote should be about voting.  It is a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was accurate for its time.  Sadly, it is no long correct.  And for that we can blame the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and gerrymandering.  And it is a shame.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Today we are seeing other ways to deprive Americans the right to vote.  If you haven't been keeping up, read about the voter suppression in Georgia, and in the Dakotas.  The SCOTUS opened the door for such massive last-minute changes to the voting process.  (And that was even before Kavanaugh was seated.)  Polling places have abruptly been changed, and many have been closed.  Registration requirements for absolutely identical information have been invoked.  (If you used a middle initial, your information must also include that initial.  Even an extra space between names could invalidate the information.)  In some areas university students were told how to register as residents of the town where they go to school.  Now those requirements have changed and those students who followed the instructions will no longer be registered.  They will have to reapply consistent with the new regulations.

All of these maneuvers are designed to make it harder for people to vote.  And every singe one of them are in GOP-held areas and are much more likely to affect the Democrat voters.  Surely you can see the unfairness of this even if you are a Republican yourself.

So it's up to us.  We cannot afford to miss this opportunity to exercise our rights to vote.  Vote early if you can.  Offer to drive a neighbor who might not otherwise be able to get to the polls.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE

VOTE AS SOON AS YOU CAN

We Love Our Lucy

Another week with lots of rain.  The ground was already soaked and then we got some rain from the edge of the recent hurricane.  Thank goodness the storm did not follow the initial path or we would have gotten even more rain.  As it is, we have lots of flash flooding, a few slides and some damaged roads.  But it could have been so much worse and for that we are truly thankful.

Lucy certainly did not like the rain at all.  Good thing we have accumulated a large number of "dog towels" for drying off wet dogs.  Yet another benefit of a long marriage.

After days of rain, the wonderful and welcome sun popped out yesterday afternoon.  The deck dried and we sat out enjoying the sun and watching the birds.  The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are migrating through and are such a delight to see.

She loves the sun, indoors or outside

Lucy had her annual checkup and we mentioned that she is moving much more slowly and groans occasionally when she lies down.  Our veterinarian recommended an arthritis medication.  We started it on Monday and we can tell a major improvement.  She no longer hesitates before going up or down the stairs and she jumps up to enthusiastically greet us when we come in from errands.  The medicine is quite expensive but well worth it.  She definitely feels so much better and we are grateful for that.

Today's quote is another from Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain):

The rain is famous for falling on the just and the unjust alike;
But if I had the management of such affairs,
I would fall softly and sweetly on the just,
But if I caught a sample of the unjust outdoors
I would drown him.

I suppose it's quite a good thing I do not have management of such affairs.  I can think of so many of the unjust I would drown.

HAVE A MOST WONDERFUL WEEK, EVERYONE

HELP YOUR NEIGHBOR AS MUCH AS YOU CAN