*
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…..
*
*
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.
*
*
*
*
*
*
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.)
****************************************
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
*
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.
*****************************
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.
Willis-Ekbom Disease: a neurological disorder that causes neurons to misfire in the brain. Sounds impressive. What else is it called? Restless Leg Syndrome. *rolls eyes*
Sometime in the past I’d been told that Restless Leg Syndrome was one of those made up things like “Chronic Fatigue” that lazy people use as an excuse for their lack of accomplishments. (Ha! They’re both real.) I was surprised when I found out it is an actual medical condition with a respectable-sounding name. Anywhere from 5-15% of people have it, but largely it is an old Caucasian lady problem. (Of course.)
I have closer to the whole body type. Yes, it can affect not only the legs but the arms, torso and head as well. For me this stupid condition likes to show up at the same time every night and hang around for about 90 minutes. My choice is to stay awake until after it passes or let it wake me up after about 2 hours sleep. While some articles say that it won’t shorten your lifespan, others say that consistent lack of sleep can cause a host of other problems and THEY can shorten your lifespan.
What causes it? No one is really sure, but they suspect low iron levels in the brain (even if the blood tests normal), low dopamine levels or inadequate blood flow. The good news is that it gets worse as you age!
Hey, wait a minute….
Kick all you want. I like sleeping in my own bed better.
*
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.)
*
*
*
*
Would you rather we play Red Rover?
*
*******************************
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.
*
*
Despite increasing water and salt, I haven’t reached an amount that allows me to function properly. It’s funny when a Tubeman can’t stand – not so much when it’s a human that can’t even sit upright in a chair.
I wonder about doctors who casually say things like “Just take some salt tablets!”. Not every kind of job is drink-guzzling friendly. (I do anything from scooping pet poo to taking out trash to cleaning bathroom floors. I don’t want to be handling water bottles all the time.) Plus most employers don’t want you taking bathroom breaks every 15 minutes. And all the “normies” out there (with whom I am very frustrated with at the moment) don’t realize what it is like for people with MCAS (basically being allergic to everything) to have to use any sort of public facilities. I need to bring my own soap (super easy!) wherever I go plus carry my own moisturizer (no problem since girl jeans have roomy pockets!) because my skin cracks and tears after it gets wet.
While it’s not an impossible to lead life, it is much more complicated than most people realize.
*
You don’t expect me to care about any of this
when it’s suppertime, do you?
****************************************
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.
*
*
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.
***********************************
For beautiful, made in America, tariff-free gifts, come visit my shop at L Bowman Studios!
*
*
*
*
OK, I’m not actually in favor of over-regulation, but doesn’t anyone in Hollywood or on Madison Avenue have dogs?!? Every time there is a “ding dong” on screen, we lose five minutes of dialog to barking. From now on can’t we agree to just have actors announce, “Knock knock!”?
*
You really expect me to say ‘knock knock’
every time I come to the door?
*******************************
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.
The Adventures of Bitey Dog 