The seasons of the chairs and here come the gophers!

Mid-winter
Very early spring
First fresh cut spring lawn

Six fricking days later!

So it's supposed to hit 82 degrees today! It's not even 10 a.m. yet and it's already close to 70! Although it's supposed to get stormy later as another cold front pushes in. No surprise there.

My grass was cut nine days ago when it was 50's and nice, even though skies were cloudy. Then the warm weather predicted? Actually happened! Yay! Then two days later I noticed the wee... I mean grass was getting long again. Very long!

So I put in a call to my godson... problem is, school isn't out for summer yet, so it would be the weekend before he could get here. We were also supposed to be getting rain. Two full days of 70 & above temperatures, one day of all day gentle rain then another warm day...

Waiting until the weekend to mow just wasn't going to cut it. (Of course the pun is intended! HA!) Besides, by this time the grass was close to four inches high. The weeds were considerably taller.

My neighbors secretly hate me and my lack of using weed control lawn stuff. I look it as an "Oh well!" That stuff is expensive! I can think of better things to do with my meager money. Like gas since it's raised to almost $3.00 a gallon again. Their story is it's because of 'summer demand' I think it's more a case of, "How much can we stick it to them before they stop driving to destinations for vacations?"

I also refer to my neighbor guys on either side of my house as 'Carl One & Carl Two' (Remember Carl/Bill Murray in Caddyshack?) We have gophers in my neighborhood. The Carl's use every means possible in an attempt to eradicate the little rodents.

Me? It appears my yard is a Gofer Refugee Camp of sorts. This annoys the Carl's. I guess that I would understand this whole, "Gopher Quest" if their lawns were among those eligible for a six-page spread in Better Homes & Gardens. They're not. I actually have greener, thicker etc. grass than they do.

So get a grip! So what if I just mow dandelions down and not gophers? You guys use the weed killer crap on your lawns anyway! As to their blood lust for the poor rodents in question... I can't help but wonder if the whole thing is a bit of envy on their part. My lawn, lush & green... theirs are just kind of green, scraggly...

Personally... I think my lawn is just wonderfully aerated by little gopher tunnels!

Reflection...

It's pouring rain today.

It's like a crisp pulsing against the windows. Little tics of sound. Rhythmic, soothing...

Sleep comes and goes throughout the night.

A flash that skitters across the white walls of my bedroom... A rumble, low and throaty... rolling away until the tics against the window are audible again.

After I get up I gaze out the window and across my back yard, I watch a cottontail taking shelter in my carport for a few moments. I'm simply amazed at how incredibly vivid the varying greens of my yard are in the gray, overcast and rainy day.

The rain brings fond memories to mind...

Out at the 40... cheap, plastic rain ponchos so we could play outside and not drive our mothers nuts.

Ponchos that had more duct tape covering the inevitable rips than there was plastic by summer's end.

A flash that suddenly bursts inside my mind...

Hanging upside down from the old swing set to determine if the rain would go up your nose and make you sneeze...

Discovering a true test could only take place without the rain poncho on.

Discovering that hanging upside down on the old swing set was fun in the rain...
with or without the poncho.

"Oh for crying out loud!!"

"Get off that swing set! It's metal!"

Never quite grasped the concept of why we had to get off... We weren't allowed to be outside when it was lightning out anyway.

"Oh gees! Was that the camper door?!"

"We're off of it! We're gonna go play by the tree stand"

"No! By the tree stand! Not in the tree stand!"

Hmm... in the tree stand?

"Hey you guys... first one in the tree stand gets the first `smore!"

"Mom!"

"Carol fell by the tree stand!"

"Mom!" Carmen saw some blood and I think she passed out!"

"No... we were just by the tree stand!"

"Let's go skip rocks..."

"Hey! Some of those were rain!"

"No way you got ten on that throw!"

"Guess what?!" "The bat's back in the outhouse!"

"Oh hi Mom... no, I meant there's one by the outhouse."

"Dad!"

"Mom said come kill the bat in the outhouse!"

"Hey Dad? If you put it out in the rain can it still fly?"

"Wow! Look how fast it flies! Daddy, where will it go?!"

"How come we can't come fishing too?!"

"Eat your lunch and if it stops storming out you can go play outside again..."

"Just crawl into your bunks for a little while until it passes."

"No way I'm taking a nap!"

The rain taps out a cadence on the canvas and aluminum camper. My eyelids grow heavier. I look at my Mom fast asleep. I hear the boat come back to shore with my Dad and uncles. I doze... I hear them talking as they clean the fish they caught.

I roll over and snuggle deeper into my sleeping bag. The rain is coming a bit harder now. A steady beat... lulling me into a deeper sleep.

I feel my Dad come into the camper more than hear him. I am aware he is taking off his shoes and getting up on the bunk fully dressed like the rest of us, to lie down beside Mom.

I open my eyes as he snuggles next to her, giving her a kiss on the cheek and a wink for me. "Go back to sleep" he whispers.

I couldn't stay awake if I tried.

Today, I stare out my window and my heart feels so peaceful. I remember 'rain naps' in the camper... I remember listening to the rain and watching my parents sleep. I remember playing in the rain... knowing that at some point we'd be called in to nap. I remember times I didn't bother to be called in. I just came in and curled up on my bunk to listen to the rain... and fell fast asleep.

I wish I were in that camper right now... Mom and Dad... nestled together on their bunk... I remember the sounds, the smells of the forest.... I remember how safe I felt... how happy, how loved.

I'd give just about anything to be able to open my eyes and be looking across the camper, seeing my Mom curled up in my Dad's arms yet again...

It's pouring rain today... and I find myself smiling at the memory rather than crying... and that's okay. I sit in my living room with no lights on, listening to the heartbeat of the rain...

"Hey! You guys! Let's go play in the bay!... we'll be back later Mom! Love ya'!"

The Puppy

Hey! Can I chew on that?

Yes... some friends of mine got a puppy. Meet Louie the Black Lab-German Shorthair mix. Louie is a "Happy Dog". Dealing with Happy Dogs can be tough. Dealing with a Happy Dog puppy... Cripes! What was I thinking!?

Louie joins my friend's home with two feline, fur-children. Long and well-established fur children.

Lainy is in the midst of planning Louie's untimely demise.

This is Jimmi... she's helping.

So I was in charge of the little darlings for a couple days. Mostly it involved not letting Louie out of my sight. Although it didn't help all that much. Once he peed while I was walking up to him to pet him!

It's not easy to deal with an animal who's entire thought process consists of, "What's that? What's that? Gotta pee, gotta pee! What's... you get it.

It's been quite awhile since I was around a Happy Dog puppy. First and foremost you try to avoid letting them get those, 'drop-like-a-stone-and-be-dead-sound-asleep' power naps. These are bad. As a puppy wakes up from one of those dreaded naps, it's not unlike letting a rabid badger out of it's cage.

Louie was a docile little puppy the first time I saw him... sleeping all curled up on his little bed, all warm and puppy-breath-ed. He's at the coltish stage where his skin is loose, his ears seem way too big for his head, his legs seem at least six inches too long for his body and of course... paws the size of snow shovels.

Yeah... Louie crawled right inside my heart from the moment I laid eyes on him.

Big mistake.

When I first met him, he was, for the most part... uninterested in the cats. That has changed. It is simple really. They want to kill him and they want to do it soon. Poor Lainy made the mistake of jumping over the gate to come into the kitchen to eat. Louie was curled up on his crate bed. The door wasn't closed. He'd just crawled in to nap.

He opened his eyes, saw her and charged up and out like a thoroughbred out of the gate... She broke the sound barrier leaping back over the puppy gates.

Yes. War has been declared.

Later that night, I laid in bed with Jimmi at my feet and Lainy was sucking on my hair, kneading my pillow and explaining the master plan as she purred the night away.

Louie should be afraid... very afraid.

As for me? The pup's exercise time will be doubled at the very least... a tired Happy Dog puppy means I can read more than one line at a time of my book!