The Scanner

Mom, why aren't you telling stories about us?

OK, this isn’t entirely true. I did draw Murphy digitally. It’s just that I am more comfortable drawing on paper.

As long as I get adulation, I don’t care if it comes digitally or otherwise.

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With Independence Day coming and patriotism at an all-time high, consider adding this unique Armed Forces Quilt to your home decor.

An Armed Forces themed alphabet quilt is a great way to introduce little ones to the world Mommy and/or Daddy work in, or it could be a gift to a hero who has already served.

Each letter block in this U.S. Armed Forces Alphabet Quilt has a colorful, non-threatening representation of some aspect of military life. (W is for “World comma anywhere-in-the,” which is where you may serve! M is for M.R.E.) The corner blocks have pictures which represent the caring and kind natures of the men and women who serve in the armed forces. After all, a lot of what the military does is build relationships. One corner has a sailor kissing his baby goodbye. Another shows the special relationship between a soldier and the camp dog. Another has a service member playing soccer/football with a young boy. The final block is a family waiting for their loved one to return home after deployment.

This U.S. Armed Forces Quilt, and other fine gifts, are available at my shop at L Bowman Studios.

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Hippie Dippy Weather Bun

You know that humans like to convince themselves that they have clean paws when it comes to killing. Well thanks to you two lazy bones mom had to "dispatch" some rabbits that got into the garden.

What are we supposed to do? The rabbits are already gone? For heaven's sake, go pee on the fence of something. make critters at least think that a predator lives here!

This is so unfair. We have to do everything.

Hey man, why'd you have to do me like that? Why did I have to "do" you? You were in my garden, you little runt, eating all my vegetables!

Like, nobody "owns" food, man. It's just there when you need it. Eat what you want. Those things weren't there by accident. They were there because I worked and I built and I cultivated!

You may have been mean to me, but I know I'll be right with the Spirit in the Sky. Oh no. You ate out of my garden. You were a bad bunny. No Bunny Heaven for you. You are going to DOGGY Heaven!

What do you think they'll give us to play with next?

Now you know why God was so ticked about the Garden of Eden.

If you look at the base of the pinwheel, you can see a nest of baby bunnies. Murphy is definitely not a predator at heart.

My mom was trying to get Geordie to look at the camera so I could take his picture. She said “bunny” to get his attention, and this is what happened. Geordie was my hunter.

A lot of people have tried to make me feel guilty about protecting my garden, but if there are no checks and balances, rabbits can quickly get out of control. Australia was devastated by a rabbit invasion. An island in Greece housed prosperous vineyards for centuries until rabbits destroyed them. Bunnies may be cute, but they are prolific and ravenous.

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Looking for a Fathers’ Day gift that’s as soft as a bunny? Consider giving the special man in your life a Hand Knit Merino Wool/Tweed/Alpaca Cardigan.

This classically tailored Man’s XL Coffee Brown Tweed Cardigan is comfortable enough to wear on chilly evenings at home yet handsome enough to wear to work on casual Fridays. It can even be worn to church or out to dinner. Dressed up or dressed down this hand knit cardigan in Coffee Brown is sure to quickly become a favorite in your man’s wardrobe.

For more information on this Tweed Cardigan and other fine gifts, please visit my shop at L Bowman Studios.

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A Day at the Beach

Hey guys, let's take this show on the road! Shouldn't there be water?

Playing with more effects. It’s a shame no one program does all that I want, but added together there is fun to be had! (I haven’t learned how to make water yet.)

Was I not clear? Fed and spoiled!!!

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Toby Touches the Sky

Just playing with my new toys. Trying to make skies and clouds and grass while learning a new way to do cut and paste. Toby is excited. Murphy is bored.

Chorkies are meant to be fed and spoiled – not ignored in favor of a computer.

I don’t know if I can add speech bubbles with this particular editing ackage, so for now the boys can’t talk. Ahh, if only that worked in real life…..

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A Fine, Fermented Beverage

But Kopi Luwak is OK? You hypocrites disgust me.

Actually this post was a way for me to get acquainted with a new computer. My old one was 15 years young (not even old enough to drive *sniff*), and I was afraid it would give out on me during tariffs/chip shortage – name your disaster of choice to make prices higher. Of course my old software won’t work on the new system, so I have been experimenting with replacements. What a mess.

Bitey Dog might have a different look since old tools are no longer available. Maybe I’ll take this opportunity to make the boys all Westies so I don’t have to worry about colors anymore.

Don’t you even think about it.

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Lightning in a Bottle

I've done it! I'm going to make a million dollars!

What have you done, puppy? You know how lightning free nitrogen atoms which then dissolve in water and rain down to earth as fertilizer? Yes....

I've harnessed that energy and trapped it for consumers in this convenient container. It will make their plants grow lush and green.

I know you can't have actual lightning in that bottle, so what's really in there? My pee!

Now whenever anyone fertilizes their lawn, it will be mine. Pretty soon every plant on the planet will belong to me, and humans will pay ME to do it!

Ew, nobody is going to want that.

We can trick people into putting our pee on their lawns?! How do we get in on that action?

Now I feel like an idiot for doing it one drop at a time.

I found out recently that there is something called Green Lightning that can create nitrogen for fertilizer using electricity, water and air. The company says it uses about the same amount of energy as a toaster. They claim it can pay for itself in a year. So how much does it cost? First the low down payment of $97.00…then a second payment of $11,500.00 and a final payment of $27,040.00. Easy peasy lemon squeezey! (Guess we’ll have to stick to dog pee.)

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Spare yourself the anxiety worrying over tariffs when dealing with products from other countries. Buy the young man in your life quality Made in America clothing for the next special occasion in his life completely tariff free! (To read more about each item, please follow this link: Boys Department.)

These, and other items for young men, can be found in my shop at L Bowman Studios

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The Grass

I'm sick or this. I'm going to go poop in the neighbor's yard. Where are you guys? Hey, who is pulling my tail?!

Forecasters were predicting two weeks of rain with one, brief, dry afternoon in the middle. I got home from work on the middle day and ran outside to deal with the lawn before the next round of storms came. But what should occur – like a kick to the a** – but a mower that refused to cut any grass.

I spent hours on the phone with the mower company because it was under warranty. They agreed it was faulty battery and said they would send a new one. The only problem is that they send at their own speed – not the speed of well-watered weeds growing in springtime. All I had access to was a string trimmer, so I went out and cut a path for poor Murphy like the one I shoveled for him in the snow in winter.

I don’t like the tall grass. Can I poop in the house?

(Murphy really did pull me over to the neighbor’s well-manicured lawn to do his business whenever anyone wasn’t looking.)

The sad thing is that we’ve had droughts the past two summers, so the mower barely got used. With 90% of the cost of a mower being the battery, this seems like a lousy deal.

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Come see what my other boys have been up to in Dream Our World. Inside Dream Our World, Bitey and Toby visit the museum of their dreams, view the world or art from a canine perspective and enjoy a day of unsupervised fun.

Dream Our World and other fine gifts are available from my shop at L Bowman Studios.

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The Blackout

How much longer is this blackout supposed to last? Another five to seven days, I hear. This reminds me of Amish country. Rescue dogs don't like Amish country. How do you know if there is a black bear in the dark?

What a week it’s been. One evening a neighbor calls and tells me a bear was spotted at a bird feeder two streets away, the next we are hit by an SLW (tornado that doesn’t spin) that knocks the power out. We didn’t realize it at the time, but large parts of two counties were left without power too.

Thanks to one of the fun fits my body goes through, I hadn’t eaten for about three days before the storm. I was just starting to feel hungry again and was about to put dinner in the oven when the power went out. It was only off for a couple of days, but for Murphy and me, it felt like an eternity.

When the power goes out, you don’t open the fridge/freezer because you don’t know how long the outage will last. Poor Murphy had to do without the pumpkin and green beans he normally gets with is meals. And no “last bites” from mommy’s meals. In Doggy World, this was a terrible week that will go down in infamy.

I’m so sad…and so hungry…

(Despite his claims of hunger, Murphy refused to eat – or even chase – the rabbit or the robin that were right outside the front door.)

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How Childhood Games Prepare Us For Adulthood

Cinderella dressed in yella kissed a fella

How do your biscuits always end up here?

Would you rather we play Red Rover?

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Spring is right around the corner! Soon flowers and butterflies will be everywhere. Bring some of that springtime joy into your home with this handmade Butterfly Quilt.

A handmade Butterfly Quilt would brighten your guest bedroom with a patchwork look reminiscent of the quilts Grandma used to make. The soft, cozy quilt would welcome your guests and help them to feel at home.

Handmade Butterfly Quilt, and other fine gifts, are available from my shop at L Bowman Studios.

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Death of a Frenemy

Going Out Of Business. You guys are so lucky.

This is beyond humiliating.

(Part of my image was borrowed from the internet.)

I was really surprised when my neighbor told me that our local JoAnn’s store had closed down. I had been there just a few weeks before to buy supplies for gifts for my niece’s coming twins. When I was there, I noticed updates to the store from the last time I had been there. Even though I couldn’t afford to shop there often, I presumed others were able to.

I got curious and checked online and found out that the entire JoAnn corporation had gone out of business. Ours wasn’t just an isolated closure of a store that wasn’t doing well. What mixed feelings this brought up! While I disagreed with the direction the chain had been taking, I didn’t wish for their failure. I wished they would get better.

Just as this area is a Pet Black Hole, it is also a Retail Back Hole. There used to be several fabric stores in the county, but now there are none. You can buy a few calicoes or a bit of fleece at Michael’s (there is no Hobby Lobby in this area), but you’re up a creek if you want to do any upholstery work or make outerwear. There are some online sources for fabrics, but I hate to buy without being able to touch and see the fabric in person. What is “heavy” to you may not be to me.

On top of this, recent news has featured shipping companies’ use of non-English speaking illegal workers to drive trucks in the country. More were hired during the shutdown because there was a sudden increase in the demand for goods shipped to homes. While these drivers are to be commended for finding work, it turns out their lack of familiarity with the country’s language(s) has led to an inordinate number of accidents. Now authorities are cracking down on drivers without proper qualifications. This means shipping companies will no longer be able to abuse their workers by making them live in their trucks or monkeying with the logs so that they work more hours than they are allowed. To us, it means that shipping costs are going to go up. Hooray, first our B&Ms are pushed out, and now we will have trouble affording shipping costs.

This news comes at a time of my own personal identity crisis. Last year my PT recommended that I go to OT. He said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to do some exercises and be able to go back to doing the things you love?” Yes, that did sound nice. My OT, however, said that I need to avoid activities that put stress on my joints. It turns out that most of the things I do/did put undo stress on my joints. In other words, I have to stop doing them.

Since OT, I’ve been trying to figure out who am I? What do I do? Working with my hands was my way of dealing with legs that don’t function properly. Now no hands? As I go through my One Thing Each Day challenge, I’m trying to figure out how much fabric I should keep. Is sewing even a part of my future? If it isn’t, what is?

Even though I may no longer need JoAnn’s services, I am saddened that the business is gone. Maybe with the country’s focus on making goods in America, we’ll find ourselves in a position to open fabric supply stores that have goods people will actually want to work with (natural fibers!!!) and be able to afford.

The gifts I made from my recent (last) trip to JoAnn’s.