It’s hot! It’s 1pm on New Year’s Day and here’s what our puppies are doing (aren’t they lucky we have air conditioning):
Author: Melissa
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Flight of the bumble bee
Our acreage property seems to be shrinking. I’ve never spent a lot of time walking around it before but since Ebony arrived and we’ve had to accompany her around the yard, I’m becoming much more familiar with the terrain. Enjoying the exercise too, bad leg and all. Have even exchanged more frequent greetings with the neighbours.
Lately (touch wood) Ebony seems less interested in escaping and more interested in the local wildlife – birds, lizards. Her nose is down the entire time and she seems to be following endless trails in the yard. Watching her is enough to make you dizzy, her path is something like the flight of the bumble bee – wandering and backtracking all over the place.
She still likes to be the centre of attention, butting in when we’re spending time with Boss or Sasha. This morning I was sweeping the kitchen floor and she planted herself right in the middle of where I was sweeping as if to say – don’t worry about the floor, here I am!
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Lighten up
I was tucked up in my office this morning when in walked Adrian, retired draftsman now gardening volunteer. Very nice man, with a lovely sense of humour but a habit of asking for help with simple office type things like making a phone call or photocopying. He had to walk past the photocopier to get to my office, where I was neck deep in figures, trying to catch up my bookkeeping. He began telling me a sorry tale about the new lounge he’d purchased, that had been marked down in the catalogue the next day, while waving in front of me the letter he’d written the company.
Eventually I realised he wanted me to make a copy of the letter for him. I was a little annoyed as I’d interrupted my work on previous occasions to help him, I felt an urge to nip it in the bud and make him understand there are other people around – or he could even learn and help himself.
So I pointed out that I was a bit busy, and suggested he ask Victoria the admin assistant. In the end I think he eventually got help from Janelle, the volunteer coordinator.
I immediately felt bad about how I’d handled this. Adrian had come to me because apparently I’d been helpful in the past and he trusted me to help him with a personal favour. It didn’t help I guess that he’d beaten about the bush about what he’d wanted when my mind was on other things, and I’d been earlier interrupted by another volunteer who’d wanted a chat, and THAT had been interrupted by someone else wanting me to do something.
Our organisation is all about people, so I guess I just need to lighten up.
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The day the earth stood still
Hubby and I went and saw the remake of this 50’s sci-fi yesterday. Love Keanu Reeves, love Jennifer Connolly. Will Smith’s son Jaden plays the step son of Jennifer’s character, he was awesome. I hadn’t seen the early version and found the storyline was a little disappointing – bit preachy and tired. It is a theme that has been overdone – humans not caring properly for the planet, up against the superior technology and morality of off-worlders. Effects were pretty good (better than they would have been in the 50’s version, anyway!) I wanted to punch out Kathy Bates character. A weak ending. I wondered why they bothered to remake this movie. As hubby said, when it comes out on DVD it will very quickly land in the $5 bin.
Something this movie reminded me about was the Asimovian concept of our planet being unique in the universe by its diversity of life, with the off-worlders desire to preserve Earth’s multitude of animal species in the spheric “arks”.
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Rope burn
It stings! I had Ebony on rope yesterday and she’d tangled herself around some trees. I let go of my end and started pulling the rope free. She saw the end moving through the grass and took off after it, giving me rope burn along my left arm, wrist and hand.
Apart from the odd incident (like pullng H’s work uniforms off the line the other day) she seems to be doing ok. She still demands lots of attention, but I find if you give her plenty of cuddles to begin with eventually she settles down.
At times H finds this very annoying, which is understandable when you’ve just come home from work the last thing you want is a pushy dog in your face. Unfortunately telling her off just seems to stir her up, you need a lot of patience with her.
Sometimes she gets unbearable for both of us so she goes out. She has this habit of hitting the deck when she knows she’s in trouble, and she’s too heavy to lift or drag. Luckily a bit of Schmackos works wonders.
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Another Christmas over
This year was very disorganised, a pang of guilt every time a card arrived in the mail because I didn’t get any out on time. I hope people don’t think I don’t love them.
It was all about eating. Breakfast at Nan’s, lunch at Mum and Dad’s then an evening of snacking haphazardly. Now I can’t sleep! although I was snoozing quite contentedly on the couch just before we turned in for bed.
Some lovely gifts. H gave me season 4 Doctor Who, and a couple of gold crucifix necklaces – one plain gold and the other encrusted with small diamonds. From family I received gift cards, diary, address book, head bands, a cute collectible Japanese doll and a tea/coffee hamper. Work colleagues gave me a birthday book, chocolates, imported biscuits and some lovely smelling bath items from Lush.
Three more days off! I want to get some study done, some paperwork for my volunteer work out of the way and would you believe I brought home some work from Hospice. Insane. But I will try to cram some relaxation time in somewhere.