I'm MELTING!

So I'm beginning to think that summer is never going to end. I like summer, I really do...but holy hell on wheels man, can we PLEASE have a break from over 100 degree temps?! PLEASE?! I've lived in Texas most of my life so I'm pretty used to the scorching heat of an endless "summer", but this is ridiculous. My town has broken so many heat records this summer it would make your head spin. Over 60 straight days of temps over 100 degrees can make anyone batty.

I've not been able to walk my dogs in months. It's just too hot for them. I used to walk them every day at 5pm, but with 2 of them being senior dogs it's just too much. One walk pretty much ended it all when Angel (who is 10), got overheated and we had to take a break in an alley so she could cool off. After that I tried walking in the evening, but after the scary crap that happened to me last year I just couldn't get back out there and do an 'after sunset' walk again.
So here's the story if you don't know already, and some of you do...if you were on Skype last year. If not...here's a scary story for you.
I was out w/my two smaller dogs after walking my two big dogs one night, probably around 10:30pm. I had turned down a street close to my house and there were some cars coming up the street I was on, no big deal. Several passed me, and then one car drove up the street and slowed down, it made me nervous but I figured maybe he was looking for an address so I walked on, a bit on guard. A car pulled up behind him coming onto the same street and the slow moving car drove off to the end of the block, but then took the turn around to come back down the street the opposite way. there is a grass median in the road that separates the oncoming and going traffic. He went around and came back up the street again, the stopped next to me while I was waiting for one of my dogs to finish her business. He rolled down his window and asked me for the time. I thought it was odd because he was in a brand new car, a sports car. Surely he had a dash clock. I fished my cellphone out of my pocket and told him the time, trying not to look at him. Then he thanked me and drove on and turned left at the sign and I thought that was that. Next thing I knew as a turned around at the end of the block and headed back the way I came back home, here he comes again on the other side of the median and he drives past me to the middle of the block, crosses over the grass median and drives passed me again, and turns left again, only to turn BACK onto the street yet again and drive passed me once more to the middle of the block where he crosses over the grass median once more and then parks his car in a little paved area between two houses. He sat there for a while in his car, and I kind of circled around in one area, then walked the opposite direction back to the end of the block.

 I waited and waited, he pulled out, rounded the corner for a 4th time and then reappeared on the opposite side of the street coming up the street to repark in the same spot as before. I held my ground at the end of the block. I was trapped. I had to go passed him to get back on the main road that lead to my street. He then got OUT of his car and slowly started walking towards me. I was instantly freaked out and scared out of my mind. I glanced around for ANY house w/a porch light on, fully ready to run up to a door and bang on it for help. The nearest house w/a light on was too close to this guy, so I grabbed my phone and quickly dialed my best friend, who lives next door to me. Thank goodness they were home. I told her what was going on, and she and her husband jumped into their car and hurried down the end of the block and onto the main road that intersected with the street I was on. As soon as this guys saw headlights coming he disappeared somewhere, and I dashed across the grass median, loaded up the dogs in the back seat and jumped in my friend's car. We drove to the end of the block and took the circle around to go back down the opposite way, then crossed the grass median in the middle and stopped directly behind this guy's car to get a make/model and license plate number before we left and went back to my house. I called the police and they came out to get a statement and the information about his car. The cops searched the neighborhood but the guy took off pretty quickly after we left and they couldn't find him. I did see the car one more time, weeks later while I was again walking my little dogs. Only this time it was in the middle of the day. He saw me, I saw him...he slowed and started, then quickly turned down the street I swore I would never, ever walk down ever again and took off pretty fast. I've never seen him or his car again, but I have his car make, model and license plate memorized. I will never forget it, and never will I walk at night alone again.
So this is why I started to walk during the day, and back to the Texas heat- Since it's been so blistering out, and the dogs cannot handle the long walk in the sun, I have just not walked at all this summer. I am so hoping that it cools off soon so I can start walking them again. It really ticks me off that someone like that guy makes it impossible for me to be free to walk my dogs whenever is best for me, it bothers me so much. Kevin and I have decided that we will stay here in Texas for up to 5 more years (if possible) and then move somewhere that actually HAS 4 seasons. Texas has 4 seasons...and they are Hot, Shitty Hot, My Flesh is Melting off my Bones Hot, and Where the hell did the cold come from. :S i need something a bit more...subtle. :D

Jaesus.

CATastrophes and DOGgone-its!

Wow! So today started off easy enough. Some light housework, lunch, a workout, hanging with Kevin and figuring out some financial things that surprised us (we will be able to buy a larger home a year before we thought)...just normal stuff. So when Kevin left for work this afternoon I decided to make a batch of my homemade cupcakes and homemade icing. They turned out yummy. After the clean up it was time to walk my dogs. Just up the street as we began our walk I saw a little Boston Terrier sitting in the driveway of a neighbors house. I figured maybe he was just sitting outside waiting on someone to let him in the house so I walked on. I take two dogs at a time (as most of you know) when I walk, I was probably about 150 yards from the halfway point, when I heard the unmistakable sound of hissing, clawing, growling...ya know..CAT FIGHT! Two cats had a knock down drag out about 15 feet from me and my two biggest dogs. Now (SEGUE ALERT), I'd like to first point out the importance of a quality dog food. One with out fillers, corn, ya know...crap. I personally feed Solid Gold Hund-n-Flocken (it's German- stop snickering), My dogs are 12, 10, 9, and 7...average lifespan for my 12 yr old dog's breed (Catahoula) is 13 yrs. and the vet says he looks like an average 5 year old. -end of segue- So since you know that my dogs are in great health for their ages..you can imagine that little 'ol me had a hard time holding on to two fully grown dogs (at 75lbs and 65lbs respectively) were *so* much fun to hand on to. So there I am -death grip on leashes when one of the cats from the fight (the loser I'm guessing) pops out of the bushes next to us. I freak out, the dogs freak out, the cat freaks out...and then...IT HAPPENED!

The cat runs out in front of me and the dogs, crosses our path and the dogs jerk forward while I'm holding them back for dear life. This cat did this insanely graceful hip-hop-skip-slide across the gravel then onto the curb and dashed across the street (to my horror) into on coming traffic. The cat runs across one lane, then to the second and gets just center enough that when this truck passes the cat is right between the tires and the truck drives forward missing the cat, the cat spins, flips and then rolls (seriously- he ROLLED on his back like freaking Ethan Hunt from mission impossible) and out from under the truck and safely to the other side of the road before the second car crushes him.

It was at that point that I realized I was holding my breath. Kitty-Catastrophe averted, I continued on my way and eventually turned down the street that led me to the turn back home. This street I dread. Every freaking day some little punk-ass kid (I think I've mentioned him before) bothers me when I walk my dogs. I makes ugly gestures at me. He mouths off, and makes obnoxious noises to get the dogs riled up. I finally...after MONTHS had enough. I turned around and yelled at the little jerk to get his mother. She came out and so did a neighbor next door. The neighbor seemed to agree with me about how he behaves. He got an ass whoppin, and I felt amazingly better! I always had horrid anxiety about passing that house. I tried to ignore him for as long as I could, but he got what he deserved. Okay so I went on and I was on the last block before mine when I saw the same little dog from before, the cute little Boston Terrier. He was definitely lost. So I took the big dogs home, went back and got the Boston Terrier, put him in my garage and took his pic then made flyers. I walked the little dogs then and posted the flyers then went home. Tomorrow we'll take the Boston Terrier (that we've 'named' Fogerty) to the vet to check for any Microchips. I hope that

whoever this little guy belongs to calls me soon. He's a sweet little guy. He seems to like little kids (his tail wags when he sees them) but he's a bit skittish around them. I can't have him in the house though because of my own dogs. I don't have an extra room or a crate to put him in. This is another reason why we are trying to move as soon as possible to a bigger home. I'd love to rescue dogs with my sister. She's rescuing when she can, but we could get so much more done if I had more room. We'd love a larger home with two separate fenced areas. One for the kids and our own dogs, and one fenced in area outside and room in the house for fosters or rescues. Well anyways...so my day started normal and ended BUSY! I'm still doing stuff and it's after 10pm already. Now off to get the kiddos tucked in and Fogerty settled for the night in the garage. ugh! Kevin would have to work on a day this crazy. :P

OH! and by-the-way: while I'm thinking about it; I am going to try and end each blog post with a funny pic of my dogs or my kids.

Jaesus. 



Here we have Miss Peggy Sue playing dress up with Laney Jo

                                                                         

Another stroll...at sunset.

Just though I'd share with you the lovely sunset and fun things that Shags and I saw on our walk today with the dogs. It is so pretty here at sunset. I love West Texas sunsets.

Jaesus.

Sunday Stroll

I thought I'd take some photos of my walk with two of my doggies today. :) Patch and Angel and I set out like we always do on our 2 mile walk. They were very ready to walk

as you can tell in the pic they were bugging me to get up and get going! So we were off! We walked the long road by the big open field and they sniffed every stinking bush and plant and tree they could see.

 It was nice outside, the sun setting slowly ahead of us as we walked along. We walked by the ditch we see every day, and they stopped to poke around for a bit before we continued on our way. We walked up the road and came to the first four way stop where three other dogs were being walked by their owners too.

One was barking and carrying on, the other just stared and walked on like Patch and Angel did. Then of course they had to sniff everything around them since so many dogs were there. So we continued on our way and down the LONG stretch of road through the first part of our neighborhood. We live in the last and newest section of our neighborhood. Had a close call with a snippy little chihuahua that got out of their owners grasp, *eye roll- told ya. damn rat dogs* and came charging towards us. She [the owner] was downright terrified of her dog coming anywhere

near my dogs. I would have found her reaction hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that moronic dog owners that don't leash their dogs piss me off so badly. The Chihuahua terrorist pissed on a clump of leaves and grass and then ran off yipping over his shoulder, so of course as we passed by Angel and Patch had to 'check it out'. :D We finally got to the 'turn around street' that we walk down before turning back towards our house.

 Of course we spotted a cat. Angel and Patch's ears perked up and I saw the cute little thing- back hunched and hiding under a big truck in someones driveway. Poor 'kitteh'. Sweet little thing. He/She didn't look much older than maybe 4-5 months old. I could tell Angel wanted to take a bite out of him/her, but she didn't make a big fuss and kept walking. Lots of kids were out and we stopped to let everyone get a snuggle in before we continued onward.

The sun was setting as we walked back up the road to the last leg of our walk. I was shocked when another cat dashed out from underneath an RV parked next to the road we were walking on...I got dragged about 5 feet before I got the dogs to settle down. They are getting better about not chasing things, but *if* said 'kitteh' is sitting still. If that same feline wonder is dashing across the road at lightening speed...forget it! Once we reached this one alley Patch became weirdly interested in it. He stood staring down it

for a bit, until I said to him..."Okay Patch...should we go home, or go down the scary Alley Of DOOM!?" Sure enough he turned and we walked onward. The last block we walk down before we turn on the main road back to our street, is the road that a nice man named John lives. John is a late 50 something year old professional jazz musician. He's a friendly out going man. Sometimes when we walk by he just waves, or sometimes he's in his garage playing his guitar, and sometimes...like today he walks down his driveway to

chat. We talked about music, traveling, our dogs, family, and just funny things for about a half hour before we realized how late it was getting. The sun was quickly going down at this point and I still had two more dogs to walk! lol. So we continued onward and turned down the main road back to our street. Patch and Angel sniffed around for a bit. By the time we got

to the last turn in the street it was dark out. We hustled at this point because people take that curve in the road like they are trying out for the Indy 500, and my jacket was black--yeah I know-- :P So we managed to get back home quickly. I got my camera put up, and put on a heavier light colored coat, and then took the little dogs out for a walk. :) It was a nice stroll. I think Patch and Angel had fun. I sure did. I love my neighborhood and all the neat things I see when we walk. So maybe tomorrow I'll take my camera out with the little dogs and see what we see. ha ha.

Jaesus.                                                                            

Pet Peeves. It's like this...

I first need to say thank you to the anon poster on my formspring page that asked me this question. I answered it, and it got me to thinking: most people would have no idea why I found those things I listed annoying. I mean Some are pretty simple but others are my own little quirks and things.

So I thought I'd elaborate a bit. :P This was my list of pet peeves, and I might actually expand this list and add a few more. *Off track a bit*- this is exactly why I decided to do a personal blog. You can only put so much on those formspring questions before people get bored and stop reading. Formspring should be a quick Q&A so this blog allows me the freedom to ramble on all I want. :D I also thought by doing this blog people might get to know who I really am, and perhaps lay off the snotty comments and rude questions on FS. Well...at least one can hope anyways. SO on with my list of pet peeves and why they bug me so much.                                                 

1. I hate the sound of teeth grinding. Shaggy grinds his teeth in his sleep and it's the most bone chilling sound I've ever heard a human make! Then he passed along this little annoying habit to our youngest son, Hayden. Have you ever heard something so disturbing that you actually shivered? That's what little tiny toddler teeth grinding does to me. It's just the most insane sound ever. It's worse than nails on chalk board! I swear it is. I don't think a dentist would make a mouth piece for a three year old, but believe me I'd be willing to try it! What bugs me the most is that Shags got a mouth piece to prevent it (he's actually broken teeth and had to have the tips rebuilt!), but he never wears it.

2. The sound of a dog licking anything. It's SO freaking nasty. I cannot stand the sound of a dog licking things, toys, it's dog bowl, it's ass! Just whatever. It's the most annoying sound. My dogs love to annoy me with this at the worst time ever. In the middle of the night, just after I lay down to go to bed, I can hear a little *slurp, sloop, flick, slobber, slurp* ARRRGH!! A quick "SHUT UP!" usually stops the noise, but I'm already shivering and 'ewwing' so bad I can't sleep.

3. The sound of someone eating is annoying. Not just the open-mouth-smacking noises, I mean just normal eating. Now, some people can eat quietly and that doesn't bug me...but some people (ohhhh lord, some people) make these weird little internal-closed-mouthed little smacking, slurping noises when they eat, and I will be honest...it makes me want to donkey punch them in the face. lol, I know...abusive much.. but honestly the sound just makes my skin crawl!                                                           

4. When people don't put their basket back in the buggy barn. OMG would it honestly kill your ass to walk 20feet to take it back to the buggy barn? (some people call it a corral or "the thingy the basket go in" LOL). It's SO annoying and rude. I don't want your stray basket hitting my car. Sure if you have a piece of shit car maybe you won't mind a ding....well I don't drive a piece of shit car, and to be honest there are lots of nice cars in the parking lot, so don't be a jerk. What gets me the most, is when I see someone who is parked right NEXT to the buggy barn and the STILL push their basket off to the side then drive off...leaving the basket in the middle of the parking space so that when someone else pulls into that spot, they have to stop halfway in, get out, move the basket and then park. Half the people I see doing this crap wouldn't hurt from a work out.                                                                              

5. When people ride my bumper through town. It annoys me to NO END when people get right on my ass. I'm following the speed limit, if you're in that much of a hurry....PASS ME. Seriously, two lanes dude.....pick one! I always do a 'break check'. :D The 'ol speed up a bit to get some space then TAP THE BREAKS. People freak out and usually back the HELL off. I'm a bit nervous to do that in my new car though...last thing I want is some knucklehead running into my car, but honestly it wakes them up a bit. Sends a pretty clear message too, "Get OFF my ass". I have seen those bumper stickers that say "If you're able to read this- get off my ass", but I don't want to put bumper stickers on my car...tempting though. Some are a bit more um...rude than the "get off my ass" one. Some are down right funny.

6. I cannot stand people that let their dogs run around with out a leash. I take the time to put a leash on my dogs so that they don't run off, or attack shit. Like cats, birds, squirrels, lawn ornaments that should be set on fire anyways...ya know, cause it's polite. I really cannot stand the assholes that let their dogs run around with out a leash and then they actually have the nerve to get pissed off at *me* when their dogs come yapping up in my dogs faces. Most of the time it's these little rat dogs (more commonly known as chihuahuas), I swear half of them act rabid. At least my dogs are pretty chill about it. Patch (a 75lb catahoula leopard dog) just looks at this little peons like- "No, seriously...do you want to cross that line snack pack?" I have the best damn dogs, they have massive self control. And most people around here complain about stray cats. Yeah...you don't see stray cats run up to dogs and pick a fight, unless....they have a death wish.  *Off topic* I always imagine cats have a French accent....no idea why, but I swear if a cat could talk, he would have a French accent. No doubt about it. I can just hear a cat...

sitting in his front yard (or more likely his neighbor's front yard after having left a 'present' in the neighbor's flower bed), watching with interest as I walk my dogs past. The cat flicks his tail back and forth and says: "Yes my slobber bucket friends, I know you see me. I know you want to chase me...but alas you steww-pid doggies are tethered to your masters. **evil cat laugh here** I have no master! I am rule of ALL you see." *yes i realize this is nuts, but honestly next time you see a cat lounging around in someones yard, look him right in the eyes and TELL ME he's not thinking evil twisted thoughts ...in a French accent.

So these are my pet peeves. I'm sure I have more but honestly, this blog is long enough don't you think? Well...I do, and besides I have soooo much laying around being lazy time to catch up on and frontierville requests to send out and bug people with. So for now I will leave you with this adorable picture of exactly what I think of when I see a cat. Well maybe not exactly what I think of but it's pretty darn cute...no? :) Catch y'all laters and have a great weekend.

Jaesus