In Which We Find A Random Post...

I've been meaning to blog all week, but I just haven't. A few times I wanted to come here and rant, and decided I was tired of ranting. So today I will share with you some random things and share about my week. After all, it is a rather random kind of day.
First, let's talk about our dog. Cassie is a Irish Setter/Chocolate Lab mix. She turned 6 years old in April. Mostly I like her OK. Once the weather warms up, not so much. See, Cassie has this misguided idea that not only is this HER house, it's HER yard and HER neighborhood. Nothing furry is allowed in HER yard. No dogs are allowed to walk by HER house. It's not OK for the kids to be outside playing in the yard, because she has a canary. But if I put her outside, she barks like a fool and I have to bring her in. She spends a good chunk of her day going back and forth to windows and wining and whimpering and carrying on. Makes.Me.CRAZY.



So in our yard lives this little chipmunk. I like chipmunks, I think they are cute as hell. I've named it "squirrley" in honor of a past chipmunk that was here when we moved in and for several years after until our older cat killed it. Cassie is not OK with chipmunks in her yard. Especially the kind that eat the birdseed out of the feeder. And store food under the front granite step. And get into the barn and lead her on wild goose chases. Mostly however she's not OK with the fact that this one, sits out on my little chair, right in front of the front door in plain view, and taunts her. How dare it?!

Today 14 members of my Steel Drum group went up to Warren, NH to play in their annual Old Homes Day celebration. We went last year and had a good time so we figured, hey why not. I was appalled by this man's shirt. He was set up directly across from the bandstand where we were playing, and wearing what was IMO a completely inappropriate shirt. You'll notice I circled two children in the back of the photo. This was a FAMILY event. Click on the photo and you can read what his shirt said. I couldn't even believe it. How did he think that was OK?


So anyhow, Warren is an interesting little town. In the middle of their town square (which contains a one room school house as well) is a ballistic missile. This is the same kind of missile that launched Allen B. Shepherd into space. He was from Derry and Derry didn't want the missile so Warren took it in honor of Norris Cotton who was a Warren Native. It's also home to what used to be the State Sanatorium. It was believed that fresh mountain air would cure tuberculosis. Glencliff is now an elderly care facility. We had a good time in spite of ourselves.


I spent the fourth and fifth fighting off a summer cold. I'm happy to say that I won my battle, but I slept through the firework festivities on the fourth. I awoke the next day still feeling crappy with a sore throat, and discovered that my part of the barn.. the one I spent time cleaning out last week, was covered in pink paint. Paint ball remains were everywhere, and it was a mess. It wasn't just my area.. but as my area is right across from the barn door, the mess was mostly contained there. A call to The Boy and a discussion with Mr. Man told me that there might have been a paint ball battle between Mr. Man and my neighbor T the night before. The Boy might've known about it, and claims that he told his young son he thought it was a bad idea, but Mr. Man says that dad laughed and told him he could get the sling shot and well... lets just say mom wasn't happy. Today while I was gone (we left at 7:30 and got back apx. 5:30).. on top of a list of other things he did, not only did he clean up the paint... but my man cleaned up the barn. All the crap that has been waiting to get thrown out.. gone. All the junk that was piled up next to the workshop door.. gone. All the dirt and leaves all over the floor... gone. When I walked in he was working on the workshop. I was amazed. I figured he served his penance and as I had already forgiven him, I was impressed that he went above and beyond. Although, to my defense, there was paint everywhere, it would've been hard to clean it up and NOT clean up the barn. In return, I gave him the first item harvested out of my garden. I planted those radishes just for him, as I don't care for them at all. It was bigger than the photo shows, but probably could've lived in the garden a wee bit longer.