The year was 1999, and here I am sledding with Max and Shubi!
That is before we planted the fruit trees.
Max, MB & Shubi too! 
Max and MB
Max and Shubi. Best Friends
Author: Dackel Princess
Wednesday Hodgepodge
1. Share one thing that really makes your day.
Savannah Rose, my granddaughter. A pictures, a smile, a story. Almost anything to do with Savi, just makes life worth living.
2. Lots of these kinds of lists out there, but one found here says the fifteen most colorful places on earth are:
Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy~Burano, Italy~Havana, Cuba~Rio de Janiero, Brazil~Chefchaouen, Morocco~Balat, Istanbul, Turkey~Menton, France~Jodhpur, India~La Baca, Buenos Aires, Argentina~Guanajuato, Mexico~Capetown, South Africa~Valparaiso, Chile~Wroclaw, Poland~San Francisco, California~and Pelourhino, Salvador, Brazil.
Of those listed which would you most like to see up close and in person? Of all the places you’ve seen or traveled in your own life, what would you say was one of the most colorful?
I have been to a few of the above. But for me the most colorful, beautiful, was the Grand Canyon! It is too spectacular for anyone to miss!
3.”Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Jack Canfield In general, would you agree or disagree with that statement? Why?
Disagree. It is only true if you allow fear to rule your life. I chose long ago to go fearlessly into the world!
4. Imagine you’re stranded on a desert island and dessert appears…what do you hope it is? Do you ever struggle to remember which spelling is desert and which is dessert?
Sometimes! Let’s see, dessert, on a desert island? Well, it would have to be ice cold ice cream!
5. What song almost always makes you cry?
6. January is National Soup Month. Everything from soup to nuts, in the soup, thick as pea soup, souped up…which saying most recently applies to your life in some way? Explain.
Thick as pea soup. Why, you ask? Well, when I came home after my surgery, I ate a lot of pea soup! If went down really easily!
7. Write a two word note to your younger self. What does it say?
Be Kind
8. Insert your own random thought here.
The office is coming along. I imagine it will take me a couple of weeks to actually get it pulled all together. But my goodness, it is coming right along!
It’s All About…The Turtleneck
Ever since I was a little girl, I have spent my life in turtlenecks. For those who may not know this slang word for a usually cotton shirt, that has a neck on it, that snuggles and cuddles you neck, and keeps it warm.
Heck, I even had summer turtlenecks, that had the neck piece, but short sleeves. Yes, I love that style and my closet is currently full of them.
Flash forward to 2016 and the surgery, which put titanium pins and a small plate in the throat area. I’m still not sure I can even imagine what this looks like, but when I go on the 26th of this month, I will get pictures of my xrays.
Meanwhile, back to the turtlenecks. I cannot wear them! I feel like someone is literally choking me! I have several of them which are very loose, and I can’t even wear them. So, I will taken these shirts and store them for a while in another closet and perhaps order some cheap scoop and v-neck shirts.
The scoop and V-necks are about the only thing that is comfortable, but it sure does leave my neck chilly!
The Jackpot
Geraldo Rivera may have been disappointed, when he opened Al Capone’s safe on live television in 1986, and found nothing! However, today in the office I scored big time!
I discovered a box with old floppy discs in them. Remember those suckers? They were hard and square and held almost no data! Fortunately a friend told me to buy a cheap reader, when those were all phased out and the CD type discs were the thing to have to back up your documents.
As I was pulling out several shoe-boxes when I found a whole bunch of floppy discs with pictures of my much loved and long gone doggies, as well as my stories.
Back in 1996 when we adopted Shubi, I started writing stories about her life. Children’s stories. And these discs will enable me to edit, add pictures, and create little stories for my granddaughter, Savannah.
The pictures made my heart swell, and filled my face with smiles. Ah, Shubi, and her big White German Shepherd brother, Max.
As soon as we brought her home, Shubi and Max became the very best of friends! These pictures are a wonderful reminder of that special time, that we spent with these two dogs. Devoted, fun, loving, friends.
After this discovery, I needed to take time off, as I have sort of overdone it in the last two days. So tonight, I am sitting with my cervical heating pad (which is so wonderful!), and looking at these wonderful pictures!
The Office
Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I have been pledging to clean and organize my office at the other end of the house. Somehow being way down there, it is so easy to close the door and not deal with it.
This morning, armed with a box of trash bags, CD’s to listen to, and a timer, I opened the door and set about working. So as not to do too much to tire my neck, I set the alarm at one hour.
I started at the seating area near the computer. I started to go through the computer books we had and discovered that almost all were seriously outdated, and many of the books were for machines that have long since gone to the dump.
After an hour, it looked like a tornado had hit the room, but there were four large trash bags filled to the brim. I have arranged for Hubby to remove them in the morning.
I started in on the shelves in the closet and low and behold I found a note pad with the mileage, cost of the diesel, and miles driven per day, when Hubby and I took a cross country trip back in the year 2000. I also found the pictures, the discs with the digital pictures, and a few post cards that I never mailed. This is exciting, my friends, as I may write about that trip. It was an amazing way to see our country. In a motor-coach, with Hubby, our white shepherd, Max and my beloved Shubi, who was my first wire-haired dachshund.
I also found the stories I wrote about Shubi, from a puppy’s point of view. I wrote these stories back in 1996 when we brought Shubi home from Germany. At one time I had hoped to write children’s stories. They’re cute, and what I plan to do now is copy them into the computer, add more pictures and see how my Savannah likes them.
Tomorrow it’s back to work in the office. This is turning into a fun event!
Friday Five
After over a month away from regular blogging, I am trying to get back into blogging each day. It’s nice, because after the last month, I actually have a lot to write about. The best part is that 2016 has started off with such positive and healthful results!
So without further ado, here is this week’s Friday Five.
- I have been out by myself two times this week! As in, in a car, off to Weight Watchers and to the Post Office, and the grocery store. Trust me, it’s the little things.
- I actually did my hair, put on make-up and dressed in normal clothes. Like a normal person. It’s been great not to spend day after day in my pajamas.
- I’ve cooked dinner for the last 5 nights. I know that there is one person in this world that is very happy about this. My Hubby! What can I say, he likes my cooking!
- Today I begin part of my unofficial New Year’s Resolution. I decided to work 1-2 hours per day in a room in the house, until I have gotten the entire place deep cleaned! This includes throwing away all those terribly old books on Windows 95… Yes, it’s time to clear the shelves!
- I am also planning to make some sort of wonderful dinner. Something soft, something easy to swallow, and something that will give us leftovers for the weekend.
So that’s my Friday Five. My first Friday Five for the New Year.
Happy 2016!!!
I’m Back!!!
Wednesday was my first day out. I went to Weight Watchers Class, the local grocery store, and the Post Office. I came home, made lunch, and crawled into bed and took a two hour nap!
However, I have to say, today was a total success! Since I am totally off pain meds, I am able to drive. The neck is still a little stiff, but I am no longer fuzzy and I like being able to drive around, go places and not have to have a driver.
I even ran into a woman I know, who is having problems with her cervical spine. We talked for a while, and I told her I have a great Neurosurgeon!
My incision is healing and I think that for three weeks, it looks pretty darn good! And it feels so much better too.
Here it is!
I think in the end, it will fade away and look like a neck wrinkle. Lord knows I have plenty of them! As you can see this one was deliberately put into an existing line!
I am thinking on Friday, Hubby and I need to do a full shopping. Tomorrow I will make a full list of the things we need and then off we will go.
It feels so good to be back!
Putter, Putter, Putter…
Tuesday found me puttering around a lot. I actually got many little things done, and I am feeling better.
The funniest thing happened yesterday, though. We were looking at dog food bags, reading ingredients, and this 50 pound bag started to fall. In my past careless life, I would have reached to stop it. Instead, I stood back and let it fall. Right now, nothing is worth messing up my neck!
Folks, it is freezing here. I wore long-johns all day long, and also used a blanket in the evening. This afternoon, Hubby made me a fire in our fireplace and I sure am enjoying that.
Because I am still somewhat limited on my movement I watched 2 movies today. “Louis Pasture” and “Madame Curie”. Both made in the 30’s and early 40’s and very well done. Both of these pioneers paved the road for health in our world.
I’m going back to Weight Watchers tomorrow. I may not be able to eat the foods yet, but I want to start learning about the new program. We shall see…
Oh yes. The new cheap, back up coffee maker did a fine job making coffee and keeping it hot. Not bad!
It All Went South & So Did We
This morning I woke and went to make coffee, with our back up coffeemaker, which we figure is somewhere over 30 years old. All was going well, until the water in the holding tank came pouring out the sides. I cannot tell you the swear words which were muttered, or how many dish rags I threw around trying to contain the mess! Let us just say, that this was really pulling at my New Years Resolution to “Live Life To The Fullest and Enjoy!”
Well, I poured hot water through a Melita type filter and managed to make a little coffee, but that was the moment where I decided that Monday was definitely an emergency coffee maker buying day.
The first thing Hubby did when he got up was call Kitchen Aid about our beloved and expensive coffeemaker. They were helpful and pleasant, and although our machine is on back order, we will get another new machine, free of charge and delivery fees! Yay! Again! Hope this one lasts us past the warranty!
We looked at each other and decided to go in search of a cheap pot, as well as a new home phone/answering machine. It was really my first foray out into the frozen world to shop!
We started at BJ’s Warehouse, where we found a great phone system for the house. The price was right, and it included cordless phones for the office and bedroom as well. After getting it home and hooked up, I can say that I really like it, more than I thought I would.
Then we went to Walmart and I stood there with my Smart-Phone and looked up different cheap models until we found one that seemed to fit the bill. Less than $30.00 and makes a full 12 cups. Currently, I have run a pot of water through, to make sure that all was clear, and we will make our first pot tomorrow. I promise to report!
We stopped at the Chinese Buffet and I was able to eat a few things, and it was nice to see the family who runs the restaurant. We have known them many years now, and they have been following me since my surgery. Today they were very happy to see me up and about, with no bandage!
I am now home, it is down to 7 degrees F (-13C). I am dressed in my long-underwear, and heavy bathrobe. Double socks and yet my hands and feet still feel chilled.
That is all an observation, no real complaint. You see, it’s January in New Hampshire. What else can we expect?
Coffee, Please…
Hubby and I actually got up at the same time this morning, which was kind of a change. He had walked Lili and turned on the coffee, and I was checking on the dackels.
We seemed to meet up at the coffee maker to get our morning brew, but the machine had stopped working. The lights were on, but the hot plate was cold and only about a quarter of an inch of cold brown water sat in the pot.
For those of you not familiar with our electrical problems, I will just say it straight out. I seem to have been super-charged in the galaxy and I kill electrical things. Everything from watches, to laptops, to coffee makers. Especially coffee makers.
Now this one is once again under warranty, so we will call on Monday morning, and speak to Kitchen Aid and go through the process of replacing another one. It is either #4 or #5.
Part of me wishes that it would just be out of warranty and we would be forced to buy a new one. But the other side of that situation is that there are not many 14 cup coffee makers out there. Hubby and I drink a lot of coffee!
Many people have said we should just get a Keurig machine, but as I said we do drink a lot of coffee, and would go broke buying the pods.
Anyway, we have this old (terrible) Proctor Silex machine that Hubby used in his Commuter Apartment when he was still flying. Folks, we are talking that this machine is about 30 years old! It is basically a danger to anyone not careful enough to pour a cup, while holding the coffee filter closed.
How do I know this? Well, I went to pour a cup for myself this morning, the filter arm swung out and threw coffee on me, the shelf and all over the place!
I’ve already loaded the water and coffee for the morning, and I took a small piece of duct tape and set it to hold the filter arm closed, but trust me, I will be really careful!
I sure do miss my coffee! I miss a really good cup. The old Proctor Silex just does not cut it. Keep your fingers crossed that we can get that new maker here quickly!