Saturday, March 30, 2013

I DID IT, ALL BY MYSELF!

Most of the things that I do, I do by myself
and I'm fine with that.
Just because I'm alone doesn't mean that I'm lonely.
I wish there were more things that I could do where I could take one of my dogs along.
Blue draws a crowd and Nora goes crazy on strangers and there's really not a lot of places that allow dogs.
But if I have to do something NEW, I like to have someone with me.
Maybe my sister or my nieces or one of my friends.
Last Fall I went to the Metal Recycling Center with my sister and then another time she went with me.
I really thought that I was paying attention as to what to do and remembered the procedure, the steps of scrapping metal.
So this morning I loaded up my van with every little piece of metal I could find.
The weather had decided to climb up to the high 50's.
With a touch of Spring in the air, I was revved up to start the Spring Cleaning Process.
So off I went.
I felt nervous but I was sure that I remembered what to do.
I drove up and went inside and the woman at the counter asked me which vehicle was mine.
I told her and she said she didn't have record of it driving through and I said it was still parked out front.
A guy waiting behind me started to tell me to drive out and around to the scale.
The woman said that they had to get the weight of my van unless I needed to go to the other special metal drop off area.
Did I have special metal?
I shrugged and said I had some rebar and an old bike and a couple of old dehumidifiers and...
She sent a guy out to look at my stuff and he told me to drive on over to the scale where my van would be weighed and then he'd meet me around back.
So I got in my van and started to drive to the scale when someone HONKED at me.
There was a truck on the scale and I needed to wait.
So I waited and when it drove off the scale I started up and someone honked twice at me.
I turned around and saw that there was a line of trucks waiting that I wasn't aware of.
So I backed up off to the side and let the trucks go.
Then it was my turn.
I slowly drove and drove and then I heard a voice calling out of the intercom to STOP and back up.
I did.
The woman's voice nicely told me to stay there while she got the weight and when she flashed the green light, I could go ahead.
I waited for the green light and then drove around to the back where men were hurling stuff out of their trucks onto a pile.
A worker came and looked in my van and threw a couple of things on the pile and then left me to continue.
OK....this is metal stuff, I don't have the strength to hurl it.
I pulled some of my scrap out and carried it to the edge of the pile and tossed it.
Some guy was aggressively flinging things out and I just keep gently tossing.
I looked out at the mound of stuff.
There must be something wrong with me but it made me kinda sad, seeing the old bikes and things piled up like that.
Then I got back in my van and drove up the scale.
I hesitated and then I heard the woman's voice again.
"Pull up a little further"
I inched forward and then I realized there was another intercom on that side of the scale too.
The woman told me to always pull up level with the intercom speaker so that if she had a question, I could hear her.
Then she got the weight again and I drove around and went back inside.
I hate being the new kid.
I felt so dumb but she was very pleasant and said "See, that wasn't too hard."
She asked for my drivers license and then gave me $37.00!
I drove home with a rush of adrenaline.
I had done it all by myself.
I went to the library and then stopped at the grocery store and came home feeling happy.
I looked around and liked that there was an empty space here and there.
I started cleaning and moving stuff around again.
Hmmm. I wonder if I have some more metal that I could get rid of?

Monday, March 25, 2013

Illustrations of TYKE and FRITZ

In my post before the last one I showed my completed commissioned paintings of Tyke the Eskimo Dog and Fritz the little Wirehaired Dachshund.
I want to thank everyone for the kind comments.
Some of you have No-Reply on your emails so I could not email you back my thanks, so I'm thanking you here.
(A LOT of  you have No-Reply. I wish you didn't but whatever you think best.)
Anyway, I've been sketching out illustrations for my book on Kanga and I just stalled.
Then I got to looking at my photos and these two little faces just called out to me.
 
So, I just did little illustrations of them, no pressure, just whatever I felt like doing.
I was experimenting, drawing out lettering and I decided to make little mini paintings.
This is what I came up with -


Now I need to get back to drawing that cat!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

I WANT A BLANKET FORT.

Just dropping in with a really quick post.
Lots of ideas about Art and about my Blog are swirling in my head
but I have no time or energy right now.
Last Sunday, Jimmy Chew was all hunched over and crying in pain.
ARE YOU GETTING SICK OF SICK DOG STORIES? BECAUSE I AM!
anyway, lucky for us I had some pain pills left from another time he hurt himself.
NEVER EVER give your dog IBUPROFEN or ALEVE or TYLENOL it could be FATAL.
Anyway, it helped him some and then I took him in for a chiropractic adjustment on Monday.
His neck seemed to be in bad shape.
We figured it's probably from him jumping up and down and up and down when I leave him in his kennel.
I rarely kennel him but sometimes I can't take him with me and if I left him loose he will chew my house into tiny pieces.
So probably the jumping ....and the fact that I'm always grabbing him by the collar when he's acting crazy doesn't help.
(I have now ordered him a harness instead.)
Doc gave him a chiropractic adjustment and then prescribed more pain meds and muscle relaxers.
On Tuesday Jimmy had a laser treatment.
Wednesday night he seemed better.
Thursday morning he was hunched over again, panting and crying.
I had to lift him into the van and carry him inside.
They did X-rays.
A slipped disc. Third one down in his vertebrae.
Another chiro, another laser treatment and meds refilled again.
Friday, another laser.
Jeez, I'm going to working there FOREVER.
Anyway, MUCH better TODAY.....Finally.
I myself, have been working everyday this week and this morning and tomorrow morning.
Lily helped me this morning. We were crazy busy.
So many dogs and so many more coming in...she said she doesn't know how I do it everyday.
Day in and Day out. I told her that I didn't know either.
I usually just try not to think about it.
I'm exhausted but it's Spring Break and it's going to be this way for a while.
Then it will drop off and then....
it will be Summer.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Finished the Paintings before the Crazy Weekend!

I thought I'd do a quick post before leaving to start my first shift at work today.
I'm doing the double shift thing, that's what happens when someone gets sick and you manage the place.
It's a VERY busy weekend and the kennel is at full capacity, actually overflowing because it's the start of Spring Break season. But I'm fortunate because my youngest niece Lily works with me and has volunteered to come help me on both shifts. Thank God for that kid! I adore her. She will be turning 18 next month and she's been helping me since she was 9 years old. When she was little she wanted to have a REAL job and Doc told her when she could drive, she could have one. So last year when she got her own car, she kept him to his word. She has been learning all my quirks and preferences all these years and she's dog/cat crazy just like me, So I am VERY lucky.

So...... I FINALLY finished the commissioned paintings of Tyke and Fritz for Anne!!!!
She wanted Bright and Folk Art, so I layered papers and paint in turquoise and bright green.
Then I layered up the dogs.
Below are the photos of the dogs and the paintings :
TYKE
 and FRITZ
 
 I'm off to work now! Have a Great Weekend!

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Deleting, Shredding, Reading and Painting

I deleted over 3000 saved emails on AOL last night, yeah.
Actually it was closer to 3400 and that's only one email account, now I'm off to do the other account with 2200?
It kinda made me feel panicky.
I thought I might need them, to refer back on? or some I hadn't read yet or....
I don't know.
I also have paper receipts for everything, everywhere.
Gas, groceries, stuff from Target. I save them forever.
Along with all my pay stubs and bank receipts.
I have a paper shredder in one of my closets. Somewhere.
I need to shred it all.
and books.
I have A LOT of books
and yet...
they know my name at the Branch Library because I order in books and DVD's at least weekly.
THOSE books I read because I'm on a time limit and yet I have my own stack at home that I never get to.
I need to read those
and then get rid of them.
Share them if they are good and donate the others.
Or cut them up and use their pages for projects.
Slowly but surely, I'm getting rid of STUFF.
I'd call it Spring cleaning but I don't see Spring in sight.
I call it "do something productive while waiting for paint to dry".
Yeah, I'm back to painting and it feels good.
 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

SNOW DOGS

Yep...it's snowing again!
Here's three quick videos of Blue, Nora and Jimmy at work with me.
Notice when Nora hears something and barks, Blue looks at her barking and starts barking too.
He turns around looking, not sure what he is barking at.
(Also, I don't know what happened to my voice. That's NOT how my voice sounds!)



Sunday, March 3, 2013

S A D

First thank you, thank you VERY VERY MUCH for all the kind and caring comments.
I thought I was prepared for Griffin's passing, given his advanced age and recent health scares.
but NO.

I felt overwhelmed by sadness...
Sad over his loss and apparently still
S.A.D.
that Seasonal Affective Disorder thing I had mentioned before.
I had to work everyday this week, including yesterday morning so I've been mentally and physically exhausted.
This week one of my boarders, a little beagle, who has gallstones, stopped eating and turned very lethargic. Surgery would be needed and there were no guarantees on the outcome. The owners felt that at her age, surgery was not an option.
So they had decided to let her go.
Apparently they called and told the girls up front that they were bringing her in but they wanted her to think she was going to boarding.
They said they couldn't bear to stay but they didn't want her to be scared.
They wanted me to come get her and sit with her instead.
So I did.
When they arrived I walked up to them and scooped her into my arms, I didn't even try to stop the tears streaming down my face.
I just didn't have it in me.
The girls went into the Comfort Room with me and everyone stroked her body and gave her kisses as she was given a shot to make her sleepy.
I held her as she fell to sleep and was given the final injection that sent her to Heaven.

Yep, it's been one big party around here lately.

It's made me question if I should continue working at the clinic but then I thought of other employment that I've had.
Where else could I go back to my desk after my own personal loss of Griffin and sob as I held one of my cats?
Where else could I sit and comfort and be strong for someone else's pet that was in need of someone who really cared about them.
Yep, my heart has had a work out this week. But I will stay as I continue to work on a career creating Art.
So... I've been doing pretty well except for the other night when I went into the dark laundry room to grab a load out of the dryer. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw Griffin laying in his bed. It was just a dog towel that I forgotten that I had tucked into it.
I started to cry again and when I walked into the living room, Blue was sitting up on his loveseat.
I picked up the camera, could he be feeling my sadness?
Was he feeling sympathy, empathy.
I know he didn't care about Griff. I doubt he even noticed him much.
But I FELT some energy coming from him and had to go sit with him and hold his big head against me.
I'm not surprised. Blue has so many times reflected my thoughts.
 
Yesterday morning as I mentioned before, I worked and then my sister and my youngest niece Lily and I went to an early movie.
A movie that I really wanted to see "Life of Pi".
I stopped at their house so we could all drive together and Lily handed me a wad of Kleenex as we headed for the door.
She said "Just in case".
What a visually beautiful movie. It's definitely one that needs to be seen on the big screen.
It leaves you to decide what really happened and I believe that I know but...
I won't spoil it here.
Anyway. Beautiful movie.
I came home, fed the dogs and fell to sleep on the sofa, something I never do. I woke covered in little dogs and got up and let everyone out for the last night time potty and then went upstairs to bed and slept more.
I can't believe I slept that much.
In the morning I noticed in the bathroom (which is currently crowded with container plants and flowers that didn't die outside) that a Gerber Daisy had bloomed!
I went downstairs and the strong sunlight on the snow was brightly shining in through the white curtains.
I made some coffee and started arranging furniture.
I do that often.
I sat down and wrote out on index cards the different areas of my life that need tending.
To help me focus and to kick this SAD crap in the teeth.
(I will share those in another post)
I got on the computer, which sits on my desk behind the loveseat and started surfing and then writing.
Blue raised his head from his usual spot and looked up at me.
"I'm OK, Blue. Don't worry. I'm fine"
and he laid his head and started his Sunday nap.
Yep. I'm fine.
and once again THANK YOU all so much for being there for me.
XOXO