Fun Monday #3

Here's the assignment from Crown Princess for this week:
Music plays a vital role in most of our lives. It is everywhere. I want to hear the ONE song that is you. The song that whenever it is heard, you smile. I am not looking for the soundtrack of your life, just that one song. Your friends hear it and think of you. You can post the video, the lyrics, the wav file. However you want to post it is great.

At first, I was at a loss.... Today, while trying to find something that wouldn't tax a flu ravaged body (yeah, that vaccine didn't get it this year....), I found the song. I was introduced to the Indigo Girls by someone who took my heart and didn't quite give it back(OK, I did give my heart to him, but it felt like it was stolen). In hindsight, I should have known better than to have trusted. Regardless, this song makes me both laugh and cry. For me it carries the emotion of that love, the love lost, but also hope for a life's path that isn't straight. The chorus of this song says it for me: " up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road, you can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load. You'll never fly as the crow flies get used to a country mile. When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your while." It's true -- the agony of indecision can be the most burdensome. My life has not followed the path that I planned, but in the end, I think that what I do now is my calling.

I found this picture montage on YouTube with the song as background music. These aren't my pictures...






Watershed

thought i knew my mind
like the back of my hand
the gold and the rainbow
but nothing panned out as i planned
and they say only milk and honey's
gonna make your soul satisfied
well i better learn how to swim
cause the crossing is chilly and wide

twisted guardrails on the highway
broken glass on the cement
a ghost of someone's tragedy
how recklessly my time has been spent
they say that it's never too late
but you don't, you don't get any younger
well i better learn how to starve the emptiness
and feed the hunger

up on the watershed
standing at the fork in the road
you can stand there and agonize
till your agony's your heaviest load
you'll never fly as the crow flies
get used to a country mile
when you're learning to face
the path at your pace
every choice is worth your while

and there's always retrospect
(when you're looking back)
to light a clearer path
every five years or so i look back on my life
and i have a good laugh
you start at the top
go full circle round
catch a breeze
take a spill
but ending up where i started again
makes me wanna stand still

up on the watershed
standing at the fork in the road
you can stand there and agonize
till your agony's your heaviest load
you'll never fly as the crow flies
get used to a country mile
when you're learning to face
the path at your pace
every choice is worth your while

stepping on a crack
breaking up and looking back
til every tree limb overhead just seems to sit and wait
til every step you take becomes a twist of fate

up on the watershed
standing at the fork in the road
you can stand there and agonize
till your agony's your heaviest load
you'll never fly as the crow flies
get used to a country mile
when you're learning to face
the path at your pace
every choice is worth your while

up on the watershed
standing at the fork in the road
you can stand there and agonize
till your agony's your heaviest load
you'll never fly as the crow flies
get used to a country mile
when you're learning to face
the path at your pace
every choice is worth your while

and when you're learning to face
the path at your pace
every choice is worth your while

words and music by emily saliers
copyright 1990 godhap music (bmi)

Don't forget to find out what the other Fun Monday posters find in their CD players

Another idea for those felines...

see more cute puppies and funny loldog pictures

Felonious felines.....

Our friends the Whippet Waggle in Paducah, KY are apparently under siege. It was all started, of course, by the &*(^&*!!$% cat, who used the computer to FALSIFY a photo, making it appear that our dear Patience had fallen under his spell. Crafty little critter.....gotta admit that, BUT this is the last straw.

Now, the Wayward Whippets here in TX are HORRIFIED by this latest development (In case you didn't follow the links, that dang ditsy dinsky cat, under the cover of a purse, smuggled into a PRIVATE party and video taped the thing. Not that there is anything horrific on the tape. It's principle here, people, PRINCIPLE.).

Now, we don't want our brethren and sisters to the north to think that they can't handle this troublesome FELINE, but, we are here to offer our services. We got on line and checked out the map:


View Larger Map

However, we anticipate a few problems.
1. Even though we are a van ready group, we haven't yet figured out how to make it go without the Servant. As you can see in this picture, Charlie gets SO excited that he is prone to pop out the top, but.....we may need the servant. And she is still ever so under the weather with the flu thing. Just not her usual self at all. We anticipate that when she is over the flu, she will have to go back to work. She works a lot. We think she should work less, but it's hard for her to get away, and that is a whole 'nuther topic.

2. Cost of gas. The Human Servant is always complaining that she has to work because "no one else is paying for kibble around here." Well, she does have a point on that one.

3. The Human Servant has told us that some of us (REILLY!) are a little over-zealous in our cat removal techniques and that brining such services to a community that probably still has a population of cats might create some sort of fall out with the neighbors. Apparently, some people actually LIKE cats. Our Servant used to have one -- we never did quite understand that attraction, but we like to humor our servant because she is good to us.

Hmmmm.....Well, right now we seem to be in a little planning impasse. Maybe we can terrorize ditsy dinsky from afar...YEAH!Yeah, we could start a letter writing campaign and muck with that Kandinsky's limited feline brain.....but, there is something about not using the US Post for terrorist tactics or something, right? Hmmmmm.

Those kitty's are so danged crafty.....thinking, thinking, thinking......Kandinsky, beware...

Gabi, appointed scribe for Wayward Whippets.

It's all about me.

Hey, Gang. It's me Gabi, the Girl Goober, reporting.

I am the self appointed scribe of this motley crew of whippets. Actually, I'm a self appointed Queen B of this bunch. Dogs do it much better than humans: we don't hold a grudge, we believe in unconditional love, and we don't do elections (you humans and your elections are CRAZY).

Our servant is under the weather. She has the "flu." She did take the vaccine. Apparently, this year that vaccine didn't work, and she is testimony to that fact. Muscle aches and pains, lethargy, sore throat, stuffed up nose, inability to think and blog: that's my servant at the moment.

Enough about her. It's about me!

Now, if you noticed in our introduction, I am the middle whippet of this gang. Although middle children have been known to have "issues" I have overcome all of them with the simple outlook on life, "it's about moi." I'm a benevolent queen, but I AM the queen, and the others don't forget that. I'll write about them some other time....maybe. But today, I have chosen to write about me. (You guys don't really want to know about the others, do you??)

I was born about 3 1/2 years ago in the PNW. My mom Nosey told me that I was an extra Special Girl, and she picked me as her favorite. That's probably what has allowed me to do so well in life. Unfortunately, Nosey forgot to tell her servant that I was the one who was supposed to stay (she assumed that the Servant would be able to tell that I was the Special One, but the Servant, being only human, didn't get the message). The human servant chose my brother Griz (the boy Goober). Among my list of attributes is adaptability. My current servant had fallen in love with me through pictures, and even though she lived a long way from Nosey's servant, she flew all the way to PNW to pick me up. I could tell immediately she was smitten with me, and that I would be able to have my way with her. Nosey told me it looked like a good deal, so I packed my belongings (actually, at that stage, I had no belongings!) and moved to Texas.

When I came here, there were only 3 other whippets:
1. Darby -- obviously the leader of the pack. I started loving on him immediately, realizing takeover would require either his cooperation or his defeat. Since dogs do things better than humans, I chose the cooperation approach. It worked.
2. Charlie -- what can I say? I love the dufus, even if he did run into me and break my back knee at the tender age of 4 months (my human nearly died of a heart attack!). The human servant says that if whippets could wear white shirts and carry slide rules, then Charlie would be the whippet doing it. Now, I am not real certain what that means....but here's a picture of him (OK, we had our fun with Photoshop on that one). He is just a klutz, breaking both other whippets and our servant (he got her nose, once). However, he is a GOOD HEARTED klutz, and the good heart is what counts.
3. Reilly -- weird. Totally. More about that later. Maybe.

When I was still a young whipper snapper of a pup, Darby got sick. Apparently his liver failed from a bug in his ascending Cole and Jive is (I have no clue what that means; I have heard the servant talk about it). He had to have a surgery to make the diagnosis, and the also discovered that he had severe cirrhosis. The vet doesn't know what caused the cirrhosis, but the servant has said that it must be from using his licker too much. Needless to say, I have tried to moderate the use of mine. When Darby got sick, he told me that I should assume the Queen B position. They thought he was going to die within a few months. He didn't. Now, 3 years later that ol' vet has diagnosed with with even more maladies, but like the Energizer Bunny, he just keeps on ticking. I let him pretend to be Top Dog, occasionally, just because he was so kind about letting me become dictator, errrr, ahhh -- leader. But the reality is that I CHOOSE to let him be leader. Occasionally. When it suits ME.

Life here has been pretty good. I grew up to be the Girl Goober, and my brother Griz, left in the PNW, grew up to be the Boy Goober (our servants didn't talk about it, but both of us were being called "Goober" as a nick name. Once they realized we were both being called Goober, they added 'boy' and 'girl'). Thankfully, as the Girl Goober, I am not required to wear goggles like my blood brother Griz.















We go on lots of trips when the servant gets tired from her regular job and can get the time off. The main problem with traveling is finding hotels that will let us stay. Now, I don't want to get on a soap box, but for equal opportunity nation, there is a heck of a lot of species discrimination in the US. Now that Hudi and Mati have joined the family, the servant gets really stressed because usually she can't smuggle all of us into a hotel room. We do a lot of sleeping on the road. People think that the servant is crazy, but it's a good form of crazy.

I told the servant that we need to get one of these:








However, she told me that I was going to get one of these:













Now, remember, adaptability is among one of my many endearing traits, but this is getting a little old. Last year, she got me the zero turn mower and tried to make it "fun" by creating a magazine cover with the gift. I was NOT amused. Seriously, what is a Queen B Whippet Girl going to do with a zero turn mower? Thankfully, the servant is the one that uses it ALL the time in the summer. I only got on it once for the picture. But then, if my "gift" of a zero turn mower is not something that I use, what is this about getting "me" a tractor? Hmmmmm????

The servant told me that we will need a tractor because in April we will take possession of this (after the cows leave):
Now, I'm not real clear how this will impact my life, but when I figure it out, I'll let y'all know!

Respectfully submitted,
Gabi, the Girl Goober & scribe extraordinaire

Fun Monday #2; The Bucket List

I'm type A and I think I am going to fail this one. Oh, well.

Tiggerlane at the Neophyte Blogger has asked us to give a Bucket list:
"Have you heard of The Bucket List? Well, that's what I want from you! Make a list of things you want to do before you die. It must be at least five items - and you can make it as long as you desire. Photos are optional. And let's hear about some of the wackiest, most bizarre to-do's on your Bucket List!"

I signed up as soon as I saw this assignment, thinking, "oh, a piece of cake!" Not. Perhaps, as for most of my life, I am taking things too seriously....ahhh, stop taking things so seriously!

Let me preface this by saying that I work in the Bucket-List-Inducement Field (oncology). Interestingly, although I have the "honor" of telling people, "Sir, it's time for you to working on that bucket list", I rarely see people turn around and change their lives. Obviously, at times, the person is too ill from the cancer to make like a bucket, but often, I believe people just want to be, without adding the stress of finishing goals that were not attainable when they were healthy to those precious months before they die. There are the requests: living to see someone graduate, marry, etc. but but big trips and dropping out of planes usually does not happen.

My father was diagnosed with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer 19 months ago. That's a disease whose median survival is less than one year. In my world this was very rude on multiple fronts 1) Dad was a life long non-smoker who grew up in a house of non-smokers, 2) he lived the healthy life before it was fashionable to do so, and 2) I work in the field of oncology so it is NOT supposed to happen to my family (If only that sort of magical thinking worked. It doesn't. I know.) Interestingly, except for the stress and depression that I see in my mother (my parents were high school sweethearts/life long partners), I have seen no bucket-list like behavior -- if anything, there retirement travels were curtailed because the chemotherapy left him feeling so drained, and now, the cancer itself just saps him of most good energy.

I guess this is my way of saying that I want to try to live my life so that I don't have a BL, because often times, it is too late by the time you know that you need to activate it.

That being said....
1. I want to swim in the nude in a large WARM body of water. I have always found water very relaxing....but I am very conservative so skinny dipping was never on my list of activities. Perhaps the Carribean (although I don't see how I would get my whippets down there).






2. I would like to rent a house on the beach (with my hounds)....






3. I would like to have travel time -- no place exotic (I am quite boring and conservative; therefore, my failure to fulfill the request of this FM). Once again, I would only want to travel if I could be with my hounds. Six dogs in a van gets close, but they are used to it. People think I am a little crazy for the trips that I already take. Usually, those trips are with the goal of making a race meet. If I was on my Bucket List time, I would hope to be able to travel to see friends and the country stopping for photos along the way.....however, only if I could take the hounds. Right now, the pursuit of kibble money hampers my travel plans.




4. I would install a fountain so I could hear water flowing. (There seems to be a water theme, here).

5. I just don't know.....I would like to change my personality, lose the angst that haunts me, be less of a shy person, find my soul-mate, etc. etc. But that is something that I am always trying to overcome.

What can I say? I am boring. I have no desire to hurdle my body through space and time. I find extreme discomfort when I move out of the known.... I am shy so throwing myself in the path of a celebrity has absolutely no interest for me (and is one of those angst inducing activities). I do hope that when it comes time, there isn't a Bucket List. That time is just too late.

So...

Hug your hounds....

AND

Empty your buckets!
Addendum: I always hate when I think of something AFTER writing it or that something that I have written will be mis-interpreted.
In no way do I want people to think that smokers deserve or have "earned" lung cancer if they are unfortunate enough to get it. Cancer is something that NO ONE deserves, no matter what their life style. We do know that certain cancers have cigarette/tobacco exposure as significant risk factors.
Lung cancer is uncommon in non-smokers, but is becoming more common. I believe that is a testament to the toxic environment in which we live. Ahhh, another list item: plant more trees!

Old dogs, revisited

Patience has been posting about her VOD (very old dog) which has led me to think about my guy. I don't have a very old dog -- but I do have a middle aged bordering on old dog with MMP (multiple medical problems). Darby was diagnosed with cirrhosis at age 5 (all that licker), and a heart murmur at age 7. Seven also brought spinal stenosis that has caused atrophy of his back leg. As eluded to in yesterday's post, he is old before his time.

Patience's old dog has had a rough week. Darby seems to be having a bad time, too. Perhaps, the stars are out of alignment and all old whippets are a bit "off" for this moon. Darby is lamer than usual, although seems not to be in pain. I read Laurie's post about her dog's last year, and sat here bawling (I think that is good for the soul, though). Recently, Darby has developed episodes of pure confusion. I hope that doesn't mean that his ticker is worse. However, 3 years ago when he was diagnosed with liver failure/chirrhosis, I thought he would be dead in 6 months. Eighteen months ago, I was agonizing over The Decision. But his eyes told me that is wasn't time. And he was right. The past few months have been very good. Rimadyl is miracle drug.

Today was warm. Darby went out and had a good roll in the hay. I love watching him enjoy things like that. I am confident the sun felt good on his bones. I would have joined him -- however, the evil allergies would have made me miserable, so I stayed inside in my filtered environment (please let the allergy shots work!).

Darby has taught me so much -- about unconditional love, about living despite the odds. I hope that Darby's recent slowness is just a blip on the radar screen and not a sign of the next decline. It is not my place to know whether this will prove to be a blip or a trend. It is my place to hug my hound, and be thankful for his very graceful presence in my life.

Stress buster for the day

I enjoy taking pictures. I keep telling myself that I want to do a better job of photography, learn how to do macros. This is this weekends attempt.

The post on my deck (and evidence of the need for carpet on the deck to prevent splinters).
My old dog....not a macro, but Darby was enjoying the sun. He is only 8.5 years old, but has multiple medical problems so has "aged early" as many of us do:
Dog parts. EEeewwww a nose:
Gabi's eye (many in the show world lament on her lack of pigmentation. I think the partial pigmentation gives her eyes character).
Hudi's eye:



So, that's my Saturday, with a little work on the side.