Round Robin: The Last Goodbyes, Part Three - Farewell to Manlius

In my previous two entries, Home Again: Part One and Round Robin Challenge: So Many Goodbyes, Part Two, I covered part of my response to the last-ever Round Robin Photo Challenge: Goodbye. I told you about the death of my only brother, Steve, and my trip east to arrange his funeral and burial. I've been saying goodbye to Steve for over a month now, taking care of all those arrangements you don't think of until a loved one dies with no money and no will.

But that's not the only goodbye that's been on my mind recently. Getting Steve into a cemetery in Dewitt, NY meant that I got to go "home" to the Syracuse, NY area, a place I had not visited since a brief stop to see my Dad in February, 1986. I was born in Syracuse, lived in Dewitt until I was four, and lived at 4967 Fayetteville-Manlius Rd, Manlius from the time we left Dewitt until I moved onto campus at Syracuse University. The house was sold that summer in the wake of my parents' divorce. The year was 1976.

Here is a picture I took of that house in 1971. I've tweaked it a number of times over the years.

After the burial, I drove John, Steve's friend Sharon and myself to see some of the sights in Manlius. I knew it had changed a lot since I grew up there.  I figured that the trip to bury Steve was probably my last chance ever to see my old home town, so off I went, with John and S. as my captive fellow travelers. My cousin Vereene tagged along in her own car.

I've always had a complicated relationship with Manlius. It's a place a many bad memories for me - but lots of good ones, too.

In the first of these entries, I identified this photo as my grandmother's old house on Pickwick Drive in Dewitt. It isn't. Apparently I didn't photograph that house. No, this is the old house on F-M Road.

From there we went on into the Village of Manlius, about a mile away. When I was a kid, I took the bus to school, but sometimes I walked home for one reason or another. Across the street from Manlius Elementary was Temple's Dairy Store, which sold penny candy. Tootsie Rolls, fireballs, candy straws and root beer barrels were a powerful inducement to take advantage of the crossing guard's presence and go buy a few treats. Temple's was also a frequent stop for my family, especially in the days of Sunday Blue Laws. Temple's was open on Sundays so one could buy bread and milk, and my two favorite kinds of doughnut: "headlights" and "tail lights." The place burned sometime in the past year or two. Sad.

 

Our first stop in the village was at the legendary ice cream stand known as Sno Top.  Started in 1957, it was where I used to go for a "twist dipped in cherry," and its menu has expanded to an amazing selection in the years since then. It was only steps away from Manlius Elementary (now long gone), the P and C supermarket (also long gone) and not far from the Swan Pond.  Memorial Day was never complete until I had an ice cream from Sno Top after the annual parade. Open seasonally (people don't tend to buy ice cream when it's 11 degrees and snowing), it always had a sign up all winter, "Watch for our humdinger opening next spring!" On my probably-last-ever visit to Sno Top, I was tempted to get my old "twist dipped in cherry," but opted for a Dole Whip, a favorite treat of Disneylanders who visit the Enchanted Tiki Room.

On the glass wall on one side of Sno Top, along with a calendar of special flavors, an ad for Sno Top T-shirts and caps (I got one of each) and other notices, was a series of photos about a factory building that still stands across the street from Sno Top, just north of where Temple's used to be. When I was a kid it was called Stone Machinery. Foolishly, when I was in first to third grade I thought they made machinery of stone! The one thing I knew for sure at the time was that Stone Machinery let off a siren at lunchtime that we called the "noon whistle." It could be heard all the way to my house. It was also used to summon the volunteer fire department.

According to the info up at Sno Top, the Stone Machinery building was originally Remington Foundry, circa 1825, which made plows and reapers. Over the years, under different names and ownerships, they made faucets for molasses barrels, sleds and the Yankee Flyer, knife blades, high speed cutting tools, some of them diamond studded (so Stone Machinery did make machinery using stones!), and eventually flameless candles. The factory currently stands empty, but at least it's still there. In one of the photos shown above you can see the Lincoln-Mercury dealership next door to Stone Machinery, which belonged to one of my neighbors on F-M Road. That's not there any more, either.

Fayette Street, where Sno Top is, dead ends into the other main drag, Seneca Turnpike. It was nice to see Manlius Cinema still there and showing movies. Growing up I saw at least three films there: The Incredible Journey, a terrible Disney film called The World's Greatest Athlete, and Woody Allen's Bananas. Describing a scene from the latter film to my friend Joel resulted in my parents making a rule not to close my bedroom door when there was a boy in the room. Manlius Cinema is now an art house of sorts.

A few doors down from the Manlius Cinema used to be Weber's Department Store, a three room establishment I used to visit often. Nowadays, one third of it is a cupcake shop, and the rest is a restaurant that serves wood-fired pizza. They were just opening up when we stopped there for a late lunch/early dinner, sitting at a wrought iron table outside.

Here is the inside of the restaurant, where a band was setting up to perform later. The room on the left was where Weber's used to sell clothing, especially underwear, jeans and, early on, girl scout uniforms. The room on the right was for greeting cards, china animals, Breyer Horses and (I think) candy. The room that is now a cupcake shop was for school supplies, a few toys and other items. That's where I bought my mom some Evening in Paris cologne sometime during elementary school.

After dinner, I quickly tracked down St. Ann's Church but didn't linger. It was a long and dangerous drive back to Cleveland, through construction and heavy rain on the New York State Thruway, which had nearly invisible lines between the lanes at times. The next day we shipped home some of Steve's stuff and ours, dropped other stuff off at Goodwill, bought a carry-on bag, returned the rental car, flew to Phoenix and drove home. Long day!

Back in May, 2004, the early days of my first blog on AOL, Musings From Mavarin, I wrote a piece called Seven Ancient Wonders of Manlius, NY. I got email about that entry for years. I followed it up with a bunch of school reminiscences in August 2004 and an entry called Manlius On My Mind in August, 2005. AOL Journals are long gone, but the entries still exist on Blogger. When I got on Facebook, I connected with a number of former classmates, most of whom were no more than acquaintances back in the day. And that's okay. Somehow, this social media stuff keeps me connected to a place I never expected to love, and will probably never see again. Farewell, Manlius!

Now, here's a pop quiz: what was the first topic for the very first Round Robin Photo Challenge? It came from this email from Carly:

Hi Karen  
I think for your photo challenge I would like to see you photograph your hometown. The place where you feel your best. A favorite coffeehouse or restaurant, park...wherever you find yourself feeling really good. Or to be different maybe a place in town you have always meant to go, but for some reason just never found the time. Any place. A clothing store, grocery store, theater...let your imagination run wild here. I can't wait to see what you come up with.  
Love, Carly :)

Unable to go to Manlius for this, I instead posted several days of pictures from Mount Lemmon outside Tucson, and followed it up with a few entries about Arizona souvenirs. It's fitting that tonight, on my last response to the last Round Robin Photo Challenge, I finally get to post pictures of the "real" hometown.

Please see the list below this one to check out the other Robins' entries, one last time. And many thanks to every single person who ever posted a Round Robin entry over the past 9+ years.

Karen

Linking List
as of Monday, October 14th, 12:35 AM

Karen Funk Blocher - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Ellen - Posted!
Ellen's Phlog
http://ellensphlog.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Sylvia D. - Posted!
SMD Paper Arts
www.smdgreetings.blogspot.ca

Round Robin Challenge: So Many Goodbyes, Part Two

(This is sort of a continuation of my previous entry: Home Again: Part One)

For the last-ever Round Robin Photo Challenge: Goodbye, I asked people to post pictures that convey the theme of saying goodbye - to a person, a place, a stage of life, even to this meme.  As you probably know by now, my brother Steve died on Saturday, September 6th, so I have been saying my goodbyes to him. Beyond that, my trip back East for his burial included a little side trip to the town where I grew up, a place I will probably never see again. And finally, I should say a proper goodbye to this meme, which has been part of my life since 2005.

 

This is the last picture I took of my brother Steve when he was alive. It was December, 2012, and we were in Wilmington, NC. My stepmother had died six months earlier, and it had become evident that my Dad could no longer live safely in his condo, even with round-the-clock unskilled home care. He had been in the hospital in November and almost died. So we four heirs - Steve, my two stepsisters and I - had gathered to make decisions, sign papers in a lawyer's office and close up Dad's place, taking an equal share of its contents and selling the rest to pay for Dad's care. This picture was taken as we visited Dad in a rehab facility. I don't think Dad knew who Steve was that day.

As for Steve, he had spent a good chunk of 2012 in hospitals and a rehab facility himself. He suffered from heart failure, kidney trouble, sleep apnea and edema. The spring of 2014 was sort of a rerun of Steve's 2012 troubles, with a serious leg infection (cellulitis with a bit of gangrene) as an added bonus. But he came through ICU and many rough moments, did his rehab and eventually got to go home. He even had a cataract operation. He was nervous about it before hand, but delighted with the results.

Here is the last photo Steve took with his Canon EOS. At the end, he was sitting in his apartment, enjoying his newly-restored vision and waiting for a pacemaker operation that never happened. Meanwhile, he used his great camera to take pictures off of the TV. 

This was the view from Steve's balcony. We grew up visiting Lake Ontario every summer, with occasional trips to Cape Cod or some other beach spot. I know he loved listening to the waves crashing into the shore of Lake Erie.

Anyway, we all thought he was doing very well, but on September 6th he fell in his tiny bathroom. He managed to call 911, when when the EMTs arrived he had a heart attack in front of them and died. It became my responsibility to fly to Cleveland, arrange for his funeral, sort out his papers, dispose of his furniture and other possessions, and arrange for his burial in Syracuse before returning to Cleveland for the flight home. And that is what I did. I also wrote a brief obituary:

STEVEN ERIC FUNK was "born in Bethlehem" - Pennsylvania, that is, to Frank E. Funk and Ruth Anne Johnson. Steve grew up outside Syracuse, NY, where he earned a Bachelor's degree from Syracuse University. A computer programmer-analyst, he also had a lifelong love of Turkish Angora cats. Heart disease led to several hospitalizations before his death from a heart attack after a fall at his home on Saturday, September 6. Steve is survived by his father, his sister, Karen Funk Blocher (husband John) and numerous cousins. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to the National Wildlife Federation or the cat shelter of your choice. Funeral Mass was Saturday, September 13, 2014 at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Gates Mills, OH. Interment was Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 at St. Mary's Cemetery, DeWitt, NY. Buried next to his grandfather, Ambrose Alexis Johnson (1891-1950). Please sign obituary guest book on Cleveland.com.

Here is a Google+ "story" that covers my trip Back East in detail. Warning: it contains a few shots taken at the funeral home, and a few taken at the burial.

Beyond all that, Steve was my big brother, my friend and protector when I was young. Later in life I mostly tried to return the favor. Seven years my senior, at one point as we were growing up he liked the idea of having me call him Jem while he called me Scout. We both read To Kill a Mockingbird that year. Occasionally he even let me hang out with him and his friends. If my parents were fighting, he tried to cheer me up by playing with my stuffed animals. 

As an adult, Steve lived far away from my parents and me. In fact, the four of us lived in four different states, hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Steve did his best to hang onto family connections as best he could. He was the family genealogist, and he kept in touch with Dad's sisters (particularly Aunt Marie, the only one who is still alive) and our cousins. Politically, he drifted to the right as I drifted to the left, which made for a few uncomfortable emails.But there was never any doubt that we loved each other. He was my brother! My only sibling, irreplaceable.

Steve believed in the Rainbow Bridge idea, the story that dead pets hang around in a beautiful meadow, waiting to be reunited with their people when they die. If anything like that is true, Steve is hanging out with a number of beloved cats about now.

I have at least one more entry to do here at the Outpost to finish up, probably two. I'll get that done on Monday, and make my rounds. Meanwhile, check out the other Round Robin entrees:

Linking Listas of Monday, October 14th, 12:35 AM

Karen Funk Blocher - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Ellen - Posted!
Ellen's Phlog
http://ellensphlog.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Sylvia D. - Posted!
SMD Paper Arts
www.smdgreetings.blogspot.ca

Karen

Home Again: Part One

Where is home? Is it this house, where we've lived for about twenty years, only to frequently revisit the question of whether to fix it up or move to a better house? Is it Tucson, Arizona generally, where we've lived since 1986, after driving around the country looking for someplace it wasn't winter? Do we go back to Manlius, NY, where I lived from age 4 through age 18, or still further, to Dewitt, NY, where I lived before Manlius?

Whichever option you choose, I've been there this month - plus Ohio, a state I lived in from 1979 to January 1986. I didn't get to Columbus, where I actually lived at that time, but still. Ohio.

This was not some lighthearted nostalgic tour. Well, it was toward the end, a bit.

This was me arranging my only sibling's funeral and burial.

I'll have a proper write-up about Steve in two weeks, as part of my last-ever Round Robin Photo Challenge entry. For now, I'll just point you toward his obituary, his listing on my family tree on Ancestry.com, his Find A Grave listing and his Facebook page. I've put in a bit of time today, adding listings and photos and facts. None of those web pages tell the story of my trip, though: the slog through flooded streets to get to Sky Harbor Airport, the rescheduled flights, heartbreaking days spent sorting papers and disposing of medical equipment, and so on. I'll get to all that later. Some of it I've already mentioned on Facebook and Google+.

But after the funeral in Gates Mills, Ohio and a seven hour drive through an unreasonable number of construction zones to Dewitt, NY for the burial, I did insist on going "home" for probably the last time.

First stop: the old house on York Road in Dewitt.

I'm not sure this is the house Steve picked out years ago as being the right one, but it's the one that matches my memories. There's an odd-shaped architectural detail over the door that I found intriguing, even at age 4. The house used to be white with black trim, I'm pretty sure.

Second stop: Pickwick Road.

Again, I was mostly going by my memories from childhood, but my source confirms: this was the house my Grandmother and Aunt Flora lived in in the 1960s, before moving to Fairfax, VA. The house used to be red. My grandmother, Flora Missellier DuFour Johnson Ballantyne, was a real estate agent who ran for Congress twice in the 1940s. She also once stayed at the same flooded hotel in Venice as Thornton Wilder. Her Cream of Wheat wasn't lumpy like Mom's, and consequently wasn't as good. She kept dog biscuits in her kitchen for the Cocker spaniel next door, Candy. Candy once got so excited that she accidentally tried me to a tree in the neighbor's back yard.

My aunt, Flora M. Johnson, was an engineer who lived briefly in Guam and later helped to design the Interstate Highway System before retiring early due to migraines. She gave up a child for adoption, a fact I didn't learn until the mid 1970s. Her daughter did not learn her relationship to Flora until well after that. I finally got to meet my cousin Vereene at Steve's burial, which is the main reason we made a pilgrimage to this house.

Next stop: Manlius. But not tonight.

Karen

Round Robin: These Eyes

For the Round Robin Challenge: Where'd You Get Those Eyes?, I asked to see  "one or more close-up photographs of any eyes you like." I have a mixture of old photos and new to show you, although I'm running a bit late in posting them. Apparently the latest update to iTunes did something nasty to my firewall, and neither Chrome nor Firefox would let me online until I found a way to fix it!

So anyway, here are the latest, not necessarily the greatest:

Cayenne: one eye has a scar beside it that predates her coming to us. The other has a mole that the vet will remove if she ever has surgery for some other reason. It's not worth the expense otherwise.

Kito: I'm frequently asked whether he is blind in that pale blue eye, and some people even think it's a glass eye! Nope! Some dogs just have two different colored eyes, both fully functional. The trait is called heterochromia.

Karen: Note the scar above my eye, an artifact from my header into a sidewalk a year ago.

And here are a few shots from 2006:

 I must have been tired. As usual.

 An edit to turn myself into an alien. I tweaked it a little bit tonight.

And finally, here is a shot from an eye exam in 2008. This was probably when I was told that I was at risk for retinal detachment. I had a retinal tear in June, 2013, but I don't seem to have photographed anything but the eye surgeon's waiting room on that occasion. That was a scary weekend!

Karen

Linking List
as of Saturday, August 9th, 1:40 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com Karen

Round Robin: About the Monsoon!

When I posted the topic for the current Round Robin Challenge: About the Weather, my part of Tucson had just had its first big monsoon storm of 2014 on Sunday, July 13th. How big? Take a look:

 

The Arizona monsoon is a seasonal weather pattern that starts in mid-June and runs through September. It accounts for the vast majority of our 11" of average annual rainfall. The monsoon used to be calculated as starting on the date certain conditions were met, based on dew point and other stuff I don't understand. Nowadays it has an official start and end date, but this year the actual weather conditions arrived July 3rd, which is about average.  With climate change and all that, we've been in drought more years than not in the last decade or two, with monsoons that fizzled out without dumping all that much rain in the city itself.

But the storm that Sunday was a good one. Here is the view through my windshield as I sat in the parking lot outside my dad's place.

When I reached the street, I found some rather interesting debris.

I drove from my Dad's to Pantano River Park, to see how much water was in the river. Most of the time there is none. On that late afternoon, there was the most I'd seen in several years.

There is a wash (a usually-dry creek bed) in my neighborhood called Alamo Wash. I've photographed it a lot over the years. Here is my attempt to paste together two photos so you can see the whole scene that afternoon.

Tucson has something called a Stupid Motorist Law, designed to discourage people from driving through washes when they're full of swiftly-running water a foot or more deep. That is quite enough to get a car and its driver in deep trouble. People have actually died! So if someone is stupid enough to drive through a flooded wash and then need rescuring, the city charges them for the service. On that Sunday afternoon in the Terra Del Sol Neighborhood, no one was taking that chance, at least not where the wash crossed Betergeuse behind the high school. The cars you see above were mostly parked. One of them turned around, and so did I.

 Now, was there another way through, where the water wasn't so deep? How about this way?

No, I wasn't willing to chance it, although I did see a truck do it. Over by Terra Del Sol Park, it was just as bad as over by the high school.

Here, too, it wasn't safe to drive through. As I drove around, I saw a lot of neighbors out and about on foot, enjoying the post-rain 74 degree weather, down from 100+. The fact that power was out in some homes may have had something to do with people being outside.

I went back out to a main road and found another way home that did not involve crossing a wash. Then I took the dogs for a walk. Cayenne, who is afraid of thunder, was not overly concerned as I managed to photograph distant lightning.

Now, other than having to comfort Cayenne, I really enjoy monsoon storms. They're dramatic, they don't last long, and we always need the rain. But as I was driving home the next day, I was reminded that it's not all fun and games. Down on the corner, my neighbors were looking at the tree in their front yard, half-destroyed by a lightning strike. Even at that, they're lucky. At least two neighbors have had major roof damage in past years when a tree fell on their houses.

Karen

Be sure to check out all the Round Robin entries this week!

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Ellen
Ellen's Phlog
http://ellensphlog.blogspot.com/

Carly - Posted
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Round Robin Challenge: Words and Pictures, Mostly on Paper

For the Round Robin Challenge: Words and Pictures, I asked to see one or more photographs of something that contains both words and pictures. I didn't get out for a specific photo shoot this time, but let's see what we can come up with!

Let's start with a few shots from April, 2014, when John and I attended the 50th Anniversary party at Kon-Tiki, on what was really the 51st anniversary. Here are both sides of the special menu they had that night. One side was for appetizers at 1963 prices, the other for cheap drinks.

Many of the tables also had this commemorative poster.

But there was another version, and we bought the artist's proof, direct from the artist, Doug Horne. I have it pictured here with several Tiki mugs from Kon Tiki plus a Tiki mug and two Moai salt shakers from Disneyland (one of them is tipped over to show the Disneyland logo on the bottom).

Speaking of Disneyland, we own two reproduction posters of attractions, one past, one present, both with an outstanding combination of words and pictures!

 

The Rocket to the Moon Poster is the one we bought at the relaunch of Tomorrowland in 1998, specifically to ask astronaut Buzz Aldrin to sign it. He didn't do it.

 

Disneyland itself has lots of words and pictures combinations, including this obscure example photographed in May 2013.

So far I don't have anyone else for my Round Robin Photo Challenges Linking List this week. I'll let you know if anyone else participates (pleasepleaseplease!)!

Linking List
as of Monday, 7/14/14, 2:33 AM

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen

Round Robin: Wild Night with Wolfie

I admit it. This week's Round Robin Challenge: Wild Ways wasn't the most straightforward one we've had. I asked to see pictures of "the wild ways of any living thing." It could be an actual wild animal, a wild plant, or even a pet or a human being wild in their behavior. I was kind of expecting to post archived photos of wild animals. whether found out in the desert, up a mountain or in the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

I wasn't expecting to meet Wolfie.

 

She's not really a wolf, and her name isn't Wolfie. It may be Izzy, but that was just a name in a Facebook comment that may or may not have been from someone who knows her. She came into my life at 7 PM on Monday, and left it about 1 PM on Tuesday.

What happened was this: I was coming home from seeing my Dad when I saw a coyote - no, a dog - wandering up a street near my home. I stopped the car, and she stood in front of it, out of sight from me, but I knew she was there. I rolled down my window, and she came and put her paws on the window. I got out and opened the car door, and she jumped in. I figured any dog with that little fear of strange cars would be in danger on the street overnight, so I took her home. She happily followed me into the house, much to the consternation of Cayenne and Kito!

 

Next thing to do was to place a "found" ad on Craigslist, something I've done once before after finding a dog in the street. It was free; that wasn't the problem. The problem was getting a picture of her. This dog would not stand still for two seconds for the first few hours she was with us! She was constantly exploring, or trying to play with Cayenne and Kito - much more energetically than they were willing to do.

 

 She was quite friendly and affectionate, which also didn't sit well with Kito...

..or Cayenne.

I eventually got an acceptable photo and placed my ad:

This friendly young dog came up to my car about 7 PM Monday, 6/23. Sweet female, very dusty, hungry, no collar, tags, etc. Have her at my house a block or two from where I found her. Identify to claim. Thanks! (Sorry for the poor picture quality; she hasn't stopped moving since she got into the house!)

 I also wrote her up on Facebook. It was about this time that I settled on Wolfie as a temporary name.

Between her exploring (including sniffing at household poisons, so we moved them) and pestering the other dogs, there was no way she could be left unsupervised. I put her on a leash and walked her around the neighborhood, hoping she would lead me to her home, but the house she liked (near where I found her) had no doorbell and nobody answered my knock. I took her back to our house.

We put her outside a few times, but she would scratch on the laundry room door, to the point where I worried she might destroy it. So I left her on the leash and kept her by me all night. Eventually I managed to get about 90 minutes of sleep, sitting up on the couch with her leash still tightly in my possession. This dog was absolutely exhausting!

By morning I had not heard from the owner, and there was no "lost" ad for her yet on Craigslist. But I did have an email from a group called Lost Dogs Arizona. They have a Facebook page for helping to reunite dogs with their owners, helpful FAQ pages for lost dog owners and finders, and even a reward poster generator. 

I took Wolfie for another walk, but got no closer to finding the right house. None of the neighbors I spoke with knew where she belonged. And that one house still had nobody answering the door.

By this time it was clear that we could not wait for the owner to find my ad or the Facebook listing. I updated the listings to indicate that I would have to take her to a shelter if her owner did not get in touch soon. Next I took Wolfie to St. Michael's while I printed out the poster. She came with me as I stapled five of them up around the neighborhood. Then I drove her to the Humane Society of Tucson.

The block the Humane Society was on had a Street Closed sign and barriers in front of it, due to sewer repair by the city. I eventually found an alternate route and took her inside, having failed to reach them on the phone. I had read online that one needs an appointment to give up a dog to them, but I figured that I could make the appointment in person.

The people there were very nice and helpful, except that they couldn't help me. The first available appointment to turn her in was not until Monday the 30th. There was a $35 ($30?) fee, and she would need her DAP (Diphtheria/Parvo) shot first. The alternative was to take her to Pima Animal Care Center, better known as "the pound." They assured me that Wolfie was a year-old purebred Husky, highly desirable and extremely unlikely to be euthanized if her owner didn't claim her. When I said she was too much dog for me to care for, I was told that huskies are too much dog for most people, being high-energy escape artists, bred to be able to run in front of a sled all day. Sometimes they go through several owners before finding one capable of hanging onto them. I also learned that Wolfie had recently been groomed, a good indication of an owner who cared. However, she still had no collar, no locator chip, and no sign of obedience training. I kept thinking about Jack London and The Call of the Wild.

So Wolfie and I went across town to PACC. We had to wait outside in the 90+ degree shade for about 40 minutes for our turn to come in, during which time a dog waiting in a car after having been hit by someone else died for lack of immediate medical attention. So sad! I turned Wolfie in, gave the PACC person info to complete the paperwork, took note of the dog's ID number, collected my collar, bandana and leash, and left.

Shortly after I got back across town, I got an email from someone directing me to a Craigslist ad that had finally been placed for the lost dog. That was definitely Wolfie's picture! I called the owner, and asked what part of town the dog had been lost from. "Uh, actually, I just got her back, here at the pound."

I told her I was the one who took her to PACC, said I was glad she had her back, and wished her a pleasant week. I don't think she said thank you. She may not have believed I was the one who helped her dog. Maybe she felt that Wolfie would have been better off left to wander home on her own. Maybe she was annoyed at the steep fee PACC charges if you let your dog go missing and it's turned in there.

But I still think I did the right thing.

Someone asked on Facebook what the dog's real name was. I had not asked. But someone posted another comment. All it said was, "Izzy."

Karen

Linking List
as of Saturday, 6/28/2014, 2:30 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Teri - Posted!
A Creative Walkabout
http://a-creative-gonewalkabout.blogspot.com/

Sunsets (and Sunrises) for Cheaters

 Sunrise at home, 10/25/2010, taken with my previous Canon.

For the Round Robin Photo: Sunrise, Sunset, I asked to see at least one sunrise and at least one sunset. Time was, I got lots and lots of really nice sunset shots here in Tucson, and even a few nice dawns, but that was a couple of cameras ago.

 Gates Pass, March 6, 2009, Sony Cybershot. This is how it really looked.

My current camera, a Canon SX 160 IS, doesn't have a preset for sunsets, or for much of anything else. I have to say that I'm getting pretty fed with the thing, and anxious to get a camera that will do what I want - even if I do have to learn or relearn all that stop about shutter speed and aperture.

Here is a typical photo on the automatic setting of my current camera:

I managed to get a nice effect of the reflection in my car's roof, but the fact remains that thesunset itself hardly shows up at all.

But I did some fiddling, and found that the Live setting lets me darken the scene and increase the saturation. So I did.

Better. The sky didn't actually look like that, and it wasn't that color. But it's closer to what I saw.

Okay, now it's getting a little silly. This was with the saturation up, and using autocorrect in my photo editing software.

And how did I do with sunrises on this current camera? Judge for yourself:

That with the saturation up also. Not terribly impressive, is it? But it's more realistic than that last sunset!

Okay, one more from better days with better cameras.

Safeway Sunset, 1/6/2008. Sony Cybershot.

I have a nice firm camera that someone gave me last year. Batteries are dead, and it's strictly a film camera, but several people have assured me that the lenses are compatible with a Canon Rebel digital SLR. Someday, I'll have one of those - I hope!

Karen

Please check out all of the Robins' entries!

Linking List
as of Saturday, 6/14/14, 1:19 AM

Karen  - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Freda  - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Teri **Welcome!**
A Creative Walkabout
http://a-creative-gonewalkabout.blogspot.com/

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com