Geez Louise, the weather around here sure has been yucky lately, what with the bouncing back and forth between the AC and heat, along with the clouds and rain. Right now we're getting a little thunder and lightning, too. The weather kinda matches my mood this week since I've had a nasty head cold. And I swear I'm gonna quit turning on the TV for fear of the latest tragedies I'll see on the news. School kids being murdered on campus by fellow students suffering from mental illness and cops being gunned down while on the job. And then evangelist Billy Graham died today. What a beacon of light that man was to the world. I've seen some of his old recorded crusades and you can't miss the feelings of hope and goodwill pouring forth from his sermons, but one of his final videos I've included below is his wonderful message about breaking free from the bonds of evil through Jesus' salvation on the cross where he died for the sins of the world. It truly is "good news" for every generation.
I've had this old Baptist standard circling around in my head since I heard he passed, "When We all Get to Heaven." What a comfort to the Graham family that Billy is at home with the Lord where he's reunited with family and friends who have gone before. He was a genuinely godly man, and Lord knows we need more like him in our suffering world today!
In other news from the homefront, the junior attended her school's military ball Saturday night. The gown was a pretty rosy coral shade and she loved that it had rhinestone embellished pockets. It's the little things, sometimes.
Despite the icky weather, we've had some pretty flowers blooming along the fence lately. We'd usually see these in late March or early April when we lived in England, so it reminded me of our time abroad when they recently made an appearance. See that bright orange cord in the pic? That's the connection running from the road out to mother's apartment on the back forty that the TV and internet cable company has yet to bury.
Since I've been ill, I've been laid up watching movies the past week while I sniffled and snorted and blew my nose a thousand times a day. I really enjoyed this blast from the past, "Urban Cowboy". My mother had the 8 track tape when I was in middle school and so I know all of the soundtrack by heart. John Travolta was a real looker back in the day. I bet the Texas ladies of my generation will agree there aint nothing like a cowboy in a pair of well-fitting Wranglers, amiright?! And the prison rodeos in Huntsville - I guess they went the way of the gaudy western belts with your name emblazoned on the back of them. I don't think of myself as old, but by golly I feel it when I look back and recall enjoying a movie and its music from 1980.
Our Cairns, Ollie and Pepper, have the typical love/hate relationship. She tries to be the alpha, but since he has been with us for 6 yrs, he's not letting her have her way. She's always angling to stand on his head and sit on him, but he's not giving up the title of top dog in the household to 10-month-old baby dog she-devil.
However, the longer she lives with us, the more leeway he allows her with what has always been his. The co-sleep baby bed next to our king has been Ollie's sleeping space for over two years now. However, she's starting to make inroads there on a couple occasions now for some little naps during the day and he's allowing it.
Yesterday afternoon, I let the dogs out to do their usual race around the yard to run birds and squirrels away from the feeders before snuffling in the grass and taking care of business. When I went to the back door to holler them up with the promise of a treat, Pepper raced up with a bird in her mouth. This bird, to be exact.
After I did a little shrieking and dancing in place with some hand wringing thrown in, I hollered at her to drop it and she did. She doesn't like it when I raise my voice and thus immediately responds. So I was able to scoop her up and shove her into the house. In the pic above, you can see her watching out the window, seemingly sad her little prize was taken from her. When I turned my back to look around for something to cover it, Ollie dashed in and grabbed the bird before I could stop him. Not as easily cowed by a raised voice, he gleefully dashed off to prance around the yard with the poor dead bird in his mouth before I was able to shame him into letting it go and get him in the house with Pepper.
Then I had to perform retrieval and burial duties because the husband and daughter weren't home. Thanks to the brand new pooper scooper rake and bin I haven't even used yet, I got the dead bird double bagged in Walmart's finest for disposal. Once that was completed, I let the dogs out once more to finish their potty patrol, only to be horrified when Ollie dashed over to the wall of cabana windows where there was another dead bird. So here we go again, him prancing around the yard with his prize while I'm chasing after, telling him to drop it. Thank the Lord Ollie's easily lured by a treat, which got him to let go and follow me back into the house. Then it was round two of the scooping and double bagging.
In hindsight, I just don't think the dogs were fast enough to kill that first bird unless it was ill. The second bird Ollie snagged in front of the cabana was probably a victim of a run-in with the windows. I had the windows cleaned last month and so I bet poor birdie flew right into it and broke his little feathered neck. Now if we could just get some of the more pesky yard squirrels that constantly raid the bird feeder to do the same thing as these birds, I'd be pleased to see the tree rodent population weeded out a bit .
Rats and mice give me the heebie jeebies, but their tree dwelling cousins the squirrels are just too danged cute with their fluffy tails. It's funny how a different wardrobe, so to speak, makes all the difference in my perception. So yeah, they're cute and funny to watch until they start squirrel-handling the "squirrel proof" feeder, to the point where the top pops open and it's a birdseed all you can eat buffet for the little thieves. This is how I found it yesterday morning after I had filled it up late in the afternoon the day before.
Too bad for the squirrels that I'm equally stubborn and persistent, so I employed a zip tie to keep our resident overfed squirrels from rattling the feeder until it falls open again. It's times like this when I wish I had a game camera so I could watch their antics as they try to break into it again. Hopefully the little buggers don't figure out they can use their sharp teeth on the zip tie to gain access to yet another free meal.
Thanks to a whole lotta nagging, some prayer and a pinch of luck, both girls are really thriving. A couple weeks ago, the high school junior was presented with the presidential volunteer service award at school. It had the Trumpsters bold signature on the certificate, and I gotta say they have a most excellent printer in DC because it looked as if he had signed that sucker with a Sharpie. The kids were recognized during chapel, so there she is smiling (third person from right on the back row) in genuine surprise because the students had no advance notice.
Meanwhile, the grad student daughter has a 3.7 GPA in her masters in management business program and is enjoying the experience so much that she decided over the semester break in December to apply for her masters in accounting for the '18-19 school year. Friday afternoon she found out she was accepted and awarded another merit scholarship similar to the one she has for her current program. So she'll get hooded for this first masters in May - which sounds kinda sketchy instead of an honor - then turn around and begin the second masters in June.
Our professional grad student seems happy as a clam spending our money on private school tuition at Wake Forest, and I can't say we mind since it's a great university and she really enjoys it there. I have a ton of respect for this girl who kinda half-assed her way through high school reading only the SparkNotes for every assigned novel and not starting on papers until after midnight when they were due to the next morning and yet seems to have college figured out and is racing through it with amazing grades. I sincerely hope this parlays into her dream job so we can get our little study bug off the parent payroll and out into the working world.
It wouldn't be Texas if the temps weren't bouncing all over the place. A few days ago our high was in the 50s and today we're pushing 80. Ollie and Pepper love to laze in the sun shining on the master bed in the morning when it's typically cooler and they're looking to get warm.
I've about decided Pepper has some cat in her DNA because she loves to chase shiny lights. I bought a cheap kitty laser toy that is easy entertainment when she's stuck inside due to bad weather. She works up a real pant chasing it all over the floor.
Mimi (my mother), who lives in the guest apartment on our property, is out of town for a few days to attend a funeral, so I told her I'd dogsit her little darlings. The pugzillas may shed like fiends and snuffle up every little thing they find on the ground, but are actually easy to manage most of the time. All I have to do is holler treat and they practically knock me down as I play pied piper, getting them to follow me wherever I go. I tend to relate since I'd climb mountains and ford streams for a delicious dessert made from scratch.
