This post was started weeks ago, so it'll seem strange (but then... aren't they always?) HA! :)
Boy, had it ever been! High temps, high humidity and thankfully a lake right out the back door. I love vacation time! (Even if fall is slowly making it's appearance in the Not-So-Great-White-North. Maple trees leaves are getting redder everyday, the box elders shifting towards yellow.)
Wow.
It's obviously been awhile since I posted, (Hmm… what was my first clue?!) So much has gone on, I'm not sure where to begin!
Okay, injury. I am almost as normal as I'm ever going to be. (Stop laughing.) I am hindered by the deviation of my chest, due to the numerous surgeries, so I've gone as far as I can without injuring the already 'bad' conditions of my upper body.
Although, my twisted sense of humor let me get a quick joke in on my physical therapist. I came back after my vacation, and while she was accessing my progress, she noticed me wince.
She said, "Oh! You've digressed a bit with lateral movement."
With a straight face I said, "Yeah… I probably shouldn't have gone water skiing."
As her jaw hit the floor, I couldn't help myself and started laughing. She laughed with me and said, "I should have known you'd pull something like that!"
By the end of the session, she determined that my shoulder is as good as it is going to get in regard to the limitations of my natural chest damage tolerances and decided I no longer needed to return.
While I was happy that my physical therapy was ending, I will miss my PT. She is such a great person and has a natural ability to be invaluable to those patients that need her guidance and support. Here's to you Yo, and thanks for all your great help!
So back to summer… the dogs, the heat, the water, my sense of smell…
The Castle on the Lake & the boys in the water
It was a glorious week in Almost-The-Actual-Great-White-North. It was heavenly. The house was gorgeous, the lake crystal clear and inviting, the sun shone, the mosquitoes were almost nonexistent (with enough bug spray on some days...) and there were lots of places to sit outside with my laptop and just enjoy myself.
Well, except for those times when the boys went swimming and didn't bother to shake off until they'd traveled the 20 feet just to stand next to me and then, "Okay! Let's drench her!" Which was why I had a towel draped over my laptop every time we were outside!
Thus begins, "Why I lost my sense of smell. (And why that was okay!)
So, it's just me and the Naughty Twins alone on lakefront property. Trees, birds, being able to enjoy very careful swimming (because of my shoulder, I didn't swim out much farther than I could touch. Drowning was at the top of my, "What not to do on Vacation." list.)
The Naughty Twins however, had no such list.
No… they were completely under the spell of, "WATER!! WATER!! TENNIS BALL IN THE WATER! STICK IN THE WATER! DUCK ON THE WATER! LOON OH LOOK A LOON! IN THE WATER!!!" You get the drift... pun intended.
So it wasn't long before I was being routinely soaked with flying lake water rife with the lovely scent of 'Eau de Wet Dog' Yeah, it's been awhile. I was just extremely happy that they didn't find any dead fish to roll in. Or didn't manage to harass a crabby skunk.
Had that happened, They'd have spent the week in minimum security lock-down (Read that as; the screened in porch with self-door-opening ability thwarted!) So, as time went by, I grew oblivious to the lingering smell of wet dog.
And as always, we just had fun. Well… except when they were driving me batcrap while in the water. Basically? They wouldn't listen to me if their lives depended on it.
There two reasons for this. First and foremost… they're water dogs. Water dogs could care less about listening to me when there was more than just a puddle of water available to play in.
Stupid water dog breeds.
Anyway, I'm sure I sounded like some old, fish-wife: "Harley! Get back in where you can touch! Come on knothead! You can't catch the Loon." (This said to a dog swimming further & further away from the dock and chuffing like he was going to sink at any minute.)
"Aaaawwww Jax! Get off me man…! Go away dammit, those were clean shorts…"
"Holy crap! What the hell is that!?!"
"You dorks, when are you gonna figure out that if you bite the tennis balls in half, they sink."
"You just aren't hearing me are you? Dumb dog." (This from the woman that is at that moment talking to the dumb dog!)
"Cripes, Jax that stick's waterlogged! Go find one that'll float."
"Harley! Get back in the house now!"
"Awww... Jax don't!" (It's simply amazing how much water a Lab can displace in direct proportion to how long ago it was that you changed into clean, dry clothes.)
I also found out dogs have the ability to 'canon-ball'
Who knew?!
It rained a couple of days and they would be dancing around because they had to go potty. So I open the door. They go out, turn around and come back in. They did this twice, sometimes three times. Because it was raining. They didn't want to get wet.
It boggles the mind.
So as the old saying goes, "All good things must end." And so did my vacation at the lake. I would truly have loved to stay there forever.
Although the people alongside of us would have preferred I didn't… as all they heard was:
"All right Harley! That's it buster! You get out of the water right now! I mean it!"
"Don't give me that look! You trying throwing left-handed when you're right-handed! Besides, my shoulder hurts."
They then cheat of course, by plopping a big, beautiful head in my lap with those damn eyes… those liquid chocolate eyes looking up at me… sometimes with an added little doggie sigh….
"Okay, but I'm only throwing one more." As I proceed to throw it five more times... I'm such a sucker for those "puppy dog eyes"
Cripes.
Nah-nah-na-na-na-nah! I got the FRONT!!!
And the Wookie's pissed about it.
"Stop drooling on my leg. Ick!" 
"Okay… get in the back. No, don't lick me! Get in the… okay then just lay down.""Look dog… he got up here first, so stop pouting." I did manage to refrain from saying, "You can ride in the front seat on the way back. ("I'm pretty certain I would have had to check-in with a shrink if I'd done that.)
"AGH!!! You can't sit on me when I'm driving!"
"I heard that little pffft! You thought you'd just be all silent and dea.... Oh my God... Dog, what the hell did you eat?!"
"One more fart like that and you're riding in the trunk!"
Yeah, who needs kids to make you sound like your parents when you've got a pair of dogs that fill the bill perfectly?
After vacation, it was time to try and get back in the swing of things. I often wonder why I try that… it never seems to go the way it should.
There were appointments to go to (or in my case at least one I forgot about) phone calls to answer, bills to pay (sucks that) way too fricking much laundry to do… You know? I think the old adage, "I need a vacation from my vacation!" is truer than the average person knows.
"Hey! I don't have thumbs, so open the food will ya'?!"
"What do you mean you cut your hair!"
So I stepped back into the chaos that can be my life. I sorta missed it actually. I began to run around like a hamster on a wheel. Hey! Do you know the difference between gerbils and hamsters? Hamsters have more white meat. (Credit Bobcat Goldwiaith for that one!)
Anyway… it was back to milk runs and Dad's house, Pug walks and puppy antics, confused cats and slave labor, blood draws and bruises… just my same old, same old.
Soon, the party that seemed such a long way off was suddenly was next weekend! How did that happen?!
Louie the
Land Shark 
(I'm not sure who's in the most trouble? The sofa sleeper or the photographer that was laughing about it and taking pictures of him snoring away!)
It was time to finish taking senior pictures, cropping, enhancing, "Wow… that shirt makes you look like you've got big hooters!" then printing and choosing, "There's too many good ones!" then finally submission to the yearbook advisor.
The green of summer is quickly being extinguished as the red and yellows become more prevalent. There are leaves in the grass and on top of the car daily now…
The nights begin to have a bite every now & again, prompting 4:30 a.m. window closings and daytime searching for blankets deep in the heart of the scary closet.
Looking at the window air conditioner and knowing it's time to take it out of the window. Then shudder as I realize that means cleaning an area of the floor up in the scary closet.
Cripes.
Cool overnights and falling leaves aside, it's been so beautiful weather-wise you can hardly believe this is actually The-Not-So-Great-White-North!
Sunshine and 70 degree temperatures, grilling out and doing the 'lizard thing' on the deck. Laughing and enjoying one anothers company, pancakes and Farmer's Markets, a great day for a drive and just being okay with today.
That's how it should be and so it is.
As the days get shorter, the evenings grow cooler, enough to make even me get up and pull a pair of socks on… and drop the window to only halfway open rather than wide open…
Hearing the bells at the elementary school a block away and then hearing the shouts of excitement and play. Catching snippets of conversations, "Mom! Mom! I colored this for you!"
"I'm hungry!"
Me? I smile as I hear them walking by, wondering if I was once so enthusiastic at that age? (I imagine I was but probably just because school was over for the day!)Sitting here looking out the window, watching them shuffle through the leaves that have accumulated along my sidewalk. (Yup… time to call in the slave labor, the grass is long enough to be holding the leaves hostage!)
It's better when the grass is shorter. Then the leaves blow effortlessly into the neighbor's yards! Hahahahahaha! (Just kidding… kinda.)Knowing I need to put this computer away and accomplish something today. Well, something other than updating my seriously overdue blog post!
