52 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-22-17”

  1. That surely is a forlorn looking bird.

    Good morning everyone. I hope your day is better than that bird’s.
    Sleep tight Jo.

    I’ve always had to have my car inspected before applying for re-registration.
    This time, my notification said, in red letters. “Inspection not required”.
    So? I sent in the application.
    Yesterday, I received a notice that I needed an inspection.
    OK, I’ll get that and an oil change today. No problem.
    It’s just that they need to get their act together.

    Liked by 6 people

  2. Good Morning Everyone. The rain has moved on today.
    Here is my QOD:
    Lulabelle has developed an aversion to going outside. Usually I get up at 6:15 and let the dogs out. They take care of their business, come in, and have breakfast. Lulabelle won’t get up and go. This morning I did get her to walk outside but she turned around and came back in. The back door is open in case she needs to go, but yesterday while I was gone, Mr. P left the doors open. She didn’t go outside until I came home and walked around the back yard with her.
    I came inside, the doors out from the kitchen were closed but the doors out from the sun room were open. She stood at the kitchen doors pawing to get in. I walked out a couple of times and called her in the side door. She would come but wouldn’t come inside. Once I got her inside but she walked out again, went to the kitchen doors and pawed to come in. Finally, I walked out, got her in the side door and shut it.
    What is wrong with this dog?????

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Chas, no to both. We have a very high wooden privacy fence surrounding the back yard.
    rekessler, As I explained to BG once when she told me we were both trying to be the Alpha female in the house. There is only ONE Alpha female in this house and it isn’t you. I am really the only one in this house Lou will listen to. Amos trained her to do what he does. Now she seems to have forgotten.
    I think I am going to send her and her human to obedience class.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. We’re in between rains again, it’s supposed to come back around for the weekend (Saturday through Monday). I’m one of the few people I know who isn’t sick of it. I’ve always liked the rain & with the long drought we’ve had, I became oh-so-weary of the endless, dry, sun-shiny days, enough to last me a lifetime.

    Does Lulabelle seem to feel and act OK otherwise? Eating and going to the bathroom when she is outdoors?

    Like

  8. One thing I learned last year was the coyotes have been known to get over a 7-foot-tall fence. Not that you have coyotes in your neighborhood, you’d probably be hearing about it from neighbors, but just a caution that fences are of little protection when it comes to those guys, unfortunately.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Lol, Kim. I’m sitting here drinking a mocha, very conscious I only have five days left . . . I wonder, though, to reduce temptation starting Wednesday if I should eat all the chocolate chips– I think I have a two pound bag . . 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

  10. It seems if I had a coyote problem Amos would be afraid to go outside too. I haven’t heard any. I just think she is rotten and thinks she is in charge. See above. There is only one Female in Charge in this house and she and the cat aren’t it.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Good morning, at least for one more hour in the eastern USA.

    Do you have a tremendous amount of pollen in the air, Kim, as we do in Atlanta? That thick yellow stuff may make Lou feel like she has entered another world that is not her own.

    I am home trying to catch up on piles of chores. I will consider cooking later.

    I bought two four slice toasters, one for the office, and one for home, since Art has been toaster oven challenged lately. My brother and I smelled something burning at the office last Friday and it was Art’s toast in the toaster oven. Enough of that! Amazon had a good deal on the Cuisinart which I got through Prime so I paid no shipping cost.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. My husband has now lost 45 pounds. 2 more and he’s hit his goal weight.

    He started September 15 or so after that surprise weigh-in at work sent him to Navy regs to learn what his old employer expected of him. He feels great, looks terrific, fits into his old uniforms and can now run 5 miles.

    I prayed for this conviction in his life for at least 2 years. I’m so very thankful.

    He enjoys the exercise, which is also a blessing.

    Liked by 3 people

  14. My husband thinks about it but has not yet acted upon it. But he knows I do my hundred pushups and hundred situps every other day, and he thinks he might start doing something. I will pray.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Kim, Misten had a problem with bowls. I don’t know why, but she didn’t like eating from a dish. If food was on the floor, she’d happily eat from it. One bag of dog food I got was a little stale, and she turned up her nose at it. I started feeding her on the floor, and it was just as stale as in the dish but she ate it. But I refused to feed her on the floor–I’m not the kind of parent or owner who lets you say “I won’t go to bed unless you give me the princess sheets.”

    She lost weight. I kept giving her food in the bowl. Finally I was seriously sick one fall and decided it was easier to take “fussing with Misten” off my to-do list, so I started giving her food on the floor. The last six years of that dog’s life she ate her food off the floor. It was dumb, but I finally decided it wasn’t a moral issue–she wasn’t disobeying me, she just had somehow developed a hang-up. It was a bit of a problem–the floor could be a bit damp, and slippery, when she finished–but it was easier to feed her off the floor and know that she would eat than to feed her in a fancy-dancy dish held off the floor for tall dogs that she didn’t like, or a dish on the floor.

    I don’t know what to tell you other than to try retraining her, using treats for instance if that helps. I don’t know what the fear or hesitation is.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. The house:

    I now have a stack of 5-6 taped-up boxes of various sizes in the kitchen, all marked “Fragile.” I’m continuing to clear things out of the kitchen that I no longer use (old dishes, small gadget/appliances that were more trouble to use & clean than they’re worth, etc.).

    Meanwhile, it looks like I’ll have to wait for the rainy season to end before I move forward on trying to get the foundation work (followed by the window work) done. The window company hasn’t called (they told me when I hired them in November that it could be as long as February before they’d get to me, but the rains I think have held everyone up this year). I need to get the foundation done before the windows can be done anyway — but the guy who’s going to do the foundation work is primarily a roofer (he did my rood last summer) so he’s busy-busy with all the roofing emergencies right now.

    For now, the bedroom ceiling plaster seems to have stabilized somewhat and the last guy who came over never did provide a bid (I liked him, too) so I’ll either have to try some others or just go with one of the guys who already have come over and given me a price. I’m dreading it because it will be such a horrible mess. 😦 The plaster ceiling has to be demolished and brought down in its entirety and then replaced with dry wall. The dogs & cat will be completely unnerved again, as will I.

    Meanwhile, I have some things to return to Amazon that I wound up not using for the bathroom — I wasn’t sure about some of the hardware (hooks, etc.), which would look best, so I ordered different kinds. I have until mid-March to return all of those I didn’t use to Amazon (another reason to love Amazon, they have a very easy and generous returns policy).

    On the ‘wish’ list, I’m still yearning for wood flooring in my kitchen to replace the old linoleum that’s seen better days. Does anyone have any experience with wood in the kitchen? I know it can be tricky, but …

    Like

  17. Cheryl, I remember the bowl issue now that you mentioned it. That was so odd — I guess dogs can develop their own little quirks, who knows for what reason. Funny.

    Like

  18. Well, she went through a stage when every week she developed a different rule. She was only eating about every other day, half a cup or a cup of food, and she’d lost weight. She never did eat well in summer (not till she moved to the country), but that summer was horrid. For a week she’d eat as long as I was in a different room and she couldn’t see me. Then for another week she’d eat if I sprinkled a tiny bit of cheese on it. Then she’d eat only if I stood next to her scratching her rump. Even when she did eat, she didn’t eat much. I knew she’d eat off the floor–she always gobbled table scraps, and I remembered that she ate even the stale food that way–and a neighbor who had been telling me I was anorexic told my housemate that Misten was anorexic, too. It was hilarious–the lady had Alzheimer’s, and through Misten’s coat you couldn’t see how thin she was, or wasn’t–but Misten really had lost several pounds. I finally gave up and put it on the floor, thinking I’d start serving it in the dish against once cooler weather came back, but she ate so much more readily off the floor I just let it go.

    Like

  19. DJ, I have an old wood floor in my kitchen. It is the original kitchen floor which we found under layers of linoleum, particle board, tar paper, etc. It has nail holes and divots and other imperfections galore, but I would not trade it for anything. It is also spruce, which is a soft wood, but has had over 50 years to harden up. I think wood floors in a kitchen are fine if you’re ready to clean up any wet mess right away. If your dogs’ water dishes are in the kitchen, a simple plastic tray would likely catch any slop overs, but you would need to check and wipe under it regularly.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Good Morning! Kim you mentioned the rain has moved on….has it been an extended period of rain for ya’ll? Perhaps Lulabelle is wary of the rain or the cleansing effects it has had on her territory? Is she fearful of thunder or lightening or the anticipation that it may happen while outdoors? Dogs are funny creatures….kind of like husbands (did I just say that?!!) 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  21. The Dog Daddy is at the gym (He has lost 17 pounds since January) and the back door is open. Lou is outside.
    NancyJill this has has been going on for a while. Usually she will do as I say it is only the last few days she has started to ignore me.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. Kim, Misten periodically would go through periods when she chose to forget I was boss. What worked for her was to go through her commands, come, sit, lie down, get up, come, sit, etc. It was like she knew I was “talking down” to her and treating her like a puppy, and she’d be like “OK, I get it, I get it.” The one that particularly got her was “on your side.” It was a position of submission and she didn’t like it, but if she wouldn’t obey me, I’d insist that she lie down and go on her side. My husband took it a step farther, because I usually let her up pretty quickly if I put her on her side, but he’d get her there and tell her to stay, and say it quite firmly, and then you could really see in her eyes, “Oh, no, I’m busted.” When I’d be getting her through her paces, I’d tell her “good dog” at each one as she obeyed me, but I didn’t fuss over her till the end. Then I’d pet her and tell her “you are such a good, good dog” and it was like saying “you’re back in my good graces, ready to be a good dog again.”

    She was particularly bad about it in the backyard, since she spent more time there than I did, and I think she rather thought of it as her turf where she could do what she wanted. After I realized that, I tried to pre-empt it by going out there every few days and calling her to me, petting her, giving her a couple of commands, just to remind her pre-emptively that she had to obey even back there. See, in Nashville if she didn’t obey me in the backyard, I could always trap her somewhere in the corner and physically put my hand on her rump and tell her to sit or take her by the collar and say “come” and bring her to me (not ungently, but just reminding her), but here in the country if she didn’t want to be caught, I couldn’t catch her. So I had to keep her from getting to that point where she pretended not to know me.

    Like

  23. Kim, do you need to go back into dog training mode and do a refresher course?

    Does anyone have a water fountain for their pet(s)? My friend Karen has one for her cats. She also has a large cumbersome mat under her litter boxes. I think she should simplify so as to reserve her energy, but who ever listens to me besides God (it is no wonder I pray a lot). I have suggested the use of disposable litter boxes until Karen is stronger.

    Like

  25. I’ve had hardwood floor in the three kitchens I’ve worked in since we left the Navy. Look carefully at what type–some flooring will show scratches from the dogs. Maybe Kim can answer that question.

    You have to take care of it and you can’t easily mop it–or at least I can’t–but you also don’t have young Adorables spilling food all the time, so it probably would be easier for you to manage than it is for some.

    I like it very much. For me, too, much easier than tile on the knees.

    Like

  26. Thanks for the feedback. I think Kim likes wood too?

    Kare, that’s the kind of thing I love, uncovering the original. In my case, the kitchen was added onto the back of my 1923 house in the 1970s (according to neighbors’ memory) and is on a cement slab foundation, unlike the rest of the house.Old linoleum (oringinal?) was that faux brick pattern but seller changed it out to a pale yellow when she put the house on the market to sell. Not bad, but it’s got a couple seams coming up and just has “seen its day” after 20 years.

    I wish I had the original kitchen buried in there somewhere, but alas … not the case.

    It could have been worse considering it was done in the ’70s, the wood cabinets (maple?) are spacious and plentiful, attached to the ceiling all around, and the counter tops are creamy/butter square tiles (not something I’d pick but also not something I’m adverse to and am itching to rip out — I can work with it in making other cosmetic changes).

    I’ve read that white oak is a good kitchen floor wood to use, Kim and I also discussed a distressed/reclaimed (even painted) wood look (which might not be so shiny-perfect looking, an advantage probably in a kitchen setting). The rest of my house has the original oak floors throughout, which I love (but which also are due for rebuffing and refinishing).

    Like

  27. The dogs would be the biggest issue (water dishes, etc.) but I have also found long strips of throw rugs I can use to protect the floor especially when it’s been raining and they’re in and out, tracking the mud in through the doggie door which is in the kitchen. A rug also at the kitchen sink (and I have used the plastic trays under dog water dishes, but it still can get wet on the floor around there).

    Like

  28. There’s also something called engineered wood that’s a more durable option. And the vinyl faux wood …

    All I know is that Kim won’t allow me to get linoleum 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  29. And don’t you forget it. 😉
    I will go take a photo of my friend’s kitchen and get the details. They have dogs and cats and she has wooden floors throughout, including the kitchen. I think they are waxed or sealed in some fashion so that she doesn’t have to be as careful with them. I am still pushing for painting the cabinets rather than leave them “natural”. I think that is a more early 1900’s look. The wall paper is going to have to go. Downy laundry softener, water, a scoring tool, and a wet sponge…you’ll have it down in weeks. 😉

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Donna, we had had wood kitchen floor in H’ville. The only disadvantage was that we had to be careful with spills. Otherwise, I saw no difference. Get what you prefer.

    Like

  33. Hey, when I was moving to Nashville and looking to briefly rent space in someone’s home before I bought, I looked at one home owned by a widow. Her husband had fixed up the basement so she could rent it out, but if I recall correctly, he died before he finished, and she did the last bit herself–putting white carpet through the whole house. Including the kitchen and the bathroom. I didn’t dare rent it, I hardly dared walk on it.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. Carpet in our kitchen and bath would last about a week in our house.
    We have washable rugs in the bath. That so we don’t have to step out on a slippery. cold floor.

    Like

  36. Kare, why would she have damage from animals? Mice? Surely she isn’t one of these people with animals inside the house?

    Like

  37. I saw the ‘weeks’ comment, laighed and laughed, 😆, said to myself ‘I’ll just hire Oscar, the bathroom painter, he’ll bring an amigo and make quick work of it.’

    Like

  38. Waiting to interview a coyote researcher who said she has a busy afternoon, she also has “an interview about our Rodent Academy for a trade magazine.”

    I wonder what a Rodent Academy would be? I’ll have to ask.

    Like

  39. My spare bathroom had a couple layers of linoleum topped off by yucky beige carpet (the reset of the spare room is oak wood floors). Awful. It was so good to have that all pulled up to expose the wood again.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Peter – They also have an academy for their rodents, which must be pretty smart to go to an academy. I bet they have a school of fish in their ocean, too.

    Liked by 1 person

  43. Can someone explain this to me? I don’t know if it’s because I am tired or what, but I am not understanding what this is referring to. . .

    From a liberal friend on Facebook:

    “And so it starts.

    [Photo of a sign on some property: Umbrella Investment Corporation, with name & phone number]

    You’re not fooling anyone.”

    What is this referring to or supposed to mean?

    Like

  46. Kare, that would assume the dogs are inside. According to Mumsee, dogs belong outside, just kids are inside. And is not Donna a friend of Mumsee’s?

    Like

  47. Cheryl, but we all know Donna’s dogs are inside dogs. I think even Musee’s dogs would appreciate a reclaimed floor 🙂

    Like

  48. Besides, you and are are friends of Mumsee’s and we both have/had inside dogs. I even had the boxer sitting on my feet on the couch tonight while husband had the afghan/poodle on his 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  50. Kare, we have to let Mumsee think she’s having an influence on us, don’t we? Like that we think she is wise, and she must be right and we’re wrong? Well . . . maybe not. Maybe we should try to convince her about how much sweeter inside dogs are.

    Liked by 1 person

  51. Coyote expert chided me today when I let it slip that I let my cat outdoors. I’m sure I’ll wind up being part of her presentation down the road about how hard it is to train people in the new age of coyotes in your neighborhood. I’ve done enough stories on the dangers, many of them quoting her, that she probably thinks “what’s wrong with her??”

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.