snow day here at rancho de top mano

Since I'm the boss here, I've declared it a snow day. I did this after attempting to go to work this morning, sliding around school buses, sliding into curbs, narrowly missing death and destruction. So hanging around the house seemed like a better thing to do.
I know it doesn't look like a big deal, this bit of snow on the bench, so here's a sunny day comparison for ya.

For some reason this snowfall made the streets particularly slick. In typical fashion, all city and school officials completely ignored the prediction of this storm and so no snow removal/de-icing activities began until far past time to head out to work and the kids were bussed to school only to have to turn around a get home shortly after arriving when they decided to close the school anyway.(now there's a run on sentence for you)...There were wrecks everywhere. anyway, we're safe and sound.
Sparky hates this staying in business....

Here's the festive tree in the snow. Nice to see from inside the warm house.


since my old computer broke and I lost all my photos, (I know, I should have backed up...) and I'm trying to get used to the new puter and new versions of various software, I've been a blog dilettante. So to get back in the saddle, so to speak, I'm going to be careless with the edit. I'm going to post willy nilly. Bear with me. thank you.

3 dog weekend

I had my friend's dog "bob" for the weekend, which if you include "be" aka kramer I had 3 border collies... OMG what a circus. I decided to try and get a picture of the three of them sitting together on a bench. Cute idea... but more difficult than you might imagine to execute. First of all Sparky would NOT get on the bench if one or more of the others was up there first. OK fine.


Kramer being young would not sit still for anything, and was forever trying to get some action started with one or both of the others...


Finally I got one shot of the 3 of them, but of course the light wasn't the best and Kramer was on his way out but you can see a great weekend was had by all.

This is it!

I'm singing to the choir here, but if you didn't get to the early polls, get going, gidiup over there NOW!!
Tonight I'm going to an election party, we are all required to wear blue. I hope it's over early so I can finally get some rest!
Over and out, be careful out there, and again if you didn't already GO VOTE!!!

saving kittens

today characterizes my life lately. I have an agenda, things to do, places to go, people to see, phone calls to return ... I had a ride today on my great steed Keno with my friend Sandra. When we got back to the barn, un-saddled, grain given, we had intentions to get on with the day and the many tasks that take up friday afternoon.... oh no, starving abandoned baby kittens crying out in hunger stopped us in our tracks. The mother either abandoned them or else was killed by coyotes, but the up shot is 4 young unweaned kitties sure to die without intervention. Now I'm all about nature taking it course in theory, but in the real life moment with tiny kittens crying out , forget about it. The rest of the afternoon is long gone taken up by mixing up milk replacer and feeding the little cutsters with a tiny little bottle. OMG After their little bellies were full and they were on their way back to a sleep, the task of getting others involved and taking over is at hand. It was not long until easily undone by cuteness gals came along and we were able to pass on for the moment our responsibility.... until tomorrow morning....

It will be OK

It's a scary time and also a hopeful time. Some of you will recall a mailing from me in 2003 when the Iraq war started and we were all so outraged. The gist was that despite all the hatred and fear, there were millions of acts of love and hope and it was up to us to let our best sides come out no matter what. I think many of us are suffering from outrage fatigue. I am blessed by spending most of my days with people in their 90's. What they tell me over and over is that we've been through bad things before and somehow it all turns out ok. So I say let's choose hope and love and let our best and most creative sides come out now more than ever. Don't forget to vote.Vote for hope and possibility. Vote Obama. Early voting starts here this week!! (on paper ballots!) But of course this is the beginning. We have to stay on our elected officials like stink on poop. Let's get moving on alternative energy, health care for all, and a responsible end to this ridiculous war in Iraq. Meanwhile do what you can to know your neighbors, and participate in making your place in the world better.
OK, I promise I'll get back to less cosmic issues. I've just come back from canvassing the 'hood, so I'm energized and hopeful. I hope it's contagious.

I'm back

I'm wondering if anyone even checks this blog anymore it's been so long. Ok frankly I've been obsessed with politics. Over the edge obsessed. I watched dang near every minute of both conventions. After the klan like "drill baby drill" thing, I was distraught beyond belief. I have been unable to focus on much of anything. And then in the last several days with the end of the world coming and all.... forget about it. I thought it trite to post about how cute Kramer is, or the process of choosing my stucco color. (I settled on "palomino", a buff color, by the way.) Despite telling others to remain positive, I was worried, deeply worried.
But, somehow I'm getting a grip on myself. After all the queen of the secret law of attraction, Oprah, is no doubt working on it. And damnit Jim, I'm an Occupational Therapist with PSYCHIATRIC training. Occupational Therapist, occupy yourself!! So in the hours I've previously been wandering from room to room aimlessly, I'm now filling with repetitive tasks such as sewing books, and doing dishes. I'm putting that anxiety to work for myself. I have volunteered down at the Obama headquarters going door to door getting people registered to vote and for sure out to the polls. I have some ideas to make art about this too. So take heart, I'm now sure it's all going to be ok. I promise I'll go back to the cute Kramer and Sparky posts, and I'll fill you in on my current run in with the law....

Our newest employee

One day last week I came home to find I had a new employee... I didn't realize I had a position open but he assures me he's the guy for the job, whatever it is. As it turns out he lives next door and has a full time position as an assistant computer consultant. However he's pleased as punch to moonlight over here as Sparky's deputy. She's thrilled silly to have help tearing up stuff, digging holes, herding birds and barking at the other neighbors' cats. As it turns out the owner is happy to have something else for him to do, so we rigged up a system for opening and closing the hole in the fence so he has access when I can supervise the shenanigans.


His owner is young and wears prayer beads. Nice as pie, but again young and wears prayer beads. The puppy's name is "be". There you have it. But imagine if you will an episode of Seinfeld. The door opens abruptly, in slides Kramer, who immediately has his head in the fridge doing inventory. This is the puppy in a nutshell, (a Nancy Lang observation) so his name over here is "Kramer".



Sparky is no longer acting like an older dog... Life is quite a bit more exciting for us all, with an occasional rest period.