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: 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/

Round Robin: It Might As Well Be Spring(ing)

For the Round Robin Challenge: Spring Time, we asked to see, in Carly's words, "Spring. Anything from a slinky to a beautiful flower garden." For my own entry, I tried to catch the dogs springing up, springing down or springing into action. I failed rather spectacularly:

Cayenne springs down off...oh. She was there a second ago!

Cayenne springs back up onto the couch.

 Perhaps a further incentive will help.

 Kito checks out the bait (rawhide)

 Kito springs onto the couch, briefly.

Enough with the dog butts! I will resort to a nature shot for Spring, the season.

The mountains beyond Aspen Vista, April 12, 2014.

Actually, the Catalinas weren't especially Spring-y last weekend. Let's dig back into the archives, to May 2013:

Spring in Harold Bell Wright Park, behind St. Michael's.

That'll work.

Please check out all the Robins' entries:

Linking List
as of Saturday, April 19, 2014
12:59 AM MST

Freda
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

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

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

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

Karen

No Entry

There will be no entry here tonight, other than this notice that there's no entry. I've been uo way too late, way too many nights in a row, to tackle a significant bit of writing at 1 AM tonight.

But yes, I saw Dad, and no, nobody's taken that wart thing off his hand, yet, but the nurse I like and trust is going to try again to bet it taken care of. Dad again described a series of occurances, vaguely but at some length, which I eventually figured out were tv shows he had watched. He does that - he gets invested in a tv show even if he doesn't understand what's going on, trying to help the people on the show accomplish whatever it is they are doing.

 

At the vet's office two weeks ago

 

The dogs had a busy day - hanging out at St. Michael's and visiting the park behind it twice, with two trips to PetSmart later in the day. The afternoon trip was a private lesson for Cayenne, with Kito tagging along. The evening one was a class for Kito in a group session. Kito was so frightened of going to PetSmart without Cayenne that he refused to get in and out of the car, and peed on the seat cover. But the "lie down" command that he completely failed to do in class was one he accomplished easily once he was safe at home with Cayenne.

Tonight I also worked on the 60th Anniversary issue of The Messenger - not the 60th of the publication, but of the church the publishes it. More on that later.

Karen

Pepper Health Update

It's been a long and difficult day. As you may know, my dog Pepper is being treated for tick fever. We found out today that that is probably not the full extent of her health problems.

Pepper is alert and excited about another patient in the animal hospital waiting room.

A week and a half ago, I strongly suspected that we were going to lose her. The Doxycycline she had been given for the tick fever was hard on her system, making her nauseated so that she stopped eating. She was lethargic and just a very sick little medium sized dog. The vet did an x-ray and mentioned that her bladder was distended and her spleen enlarged. He gave her a shot and a prescription for the steroid Prednisone to help her start eating again. And it worked! Within a few days she was eating more or less normally, and much perkier, more alert and energetic.

But after a week we were supposed to cut the dosage of Prednisone from twice a day to once a day. As a result she was barely eating as of this morning. I called to get more Prednisone and permission to resume giving her the pills twice a day so she would resume eating.

They called back and wanted to see her. The weekend urgent care vet on duty had reviewed her chart and her x-rays and didn't like what she saw, particularly the enlarged spleen. We brought her in this afternoon and left her to get an ultrasound while we went to see The Hobbit. (I had bought the movie tickets before the vet's office called.)

Result: her red blood cells and platelets are back to normal, her bladder is no longer distended and an ulcer in her mouth is healing. She's even gained back a couple of pounds, I think. So the antibiotic is getting her over the tick fever. But there are numerous nodules on her spleen that could be cancer, or could be an attempt to produce more red blood cells. There is also a mass between her stomach and (I think she said) her spleen, which could be a mass of lymph nodes or could be, you guessed it, cancer.

The plan is to finish the tick fever treatment, another two to three weeks. Then we have a choice: a needle into the spleen, with only a 60% chance of diagnosing whatever is going on in the spleen, or exploratory surgery, which would tell for sure. The other advantage of the surgery is that they would just take the spleen out, and maybe the other mass if it turns out to be something bad and is operable. The needle thing wouldn't diagnose the mass thing at all.

The thing is, we went though all this four to five years ago with Tuffy. Unable to afford the most aggressive treatment for her cancer, we spent thousands of dollars on a middle ground option that was supposed to buy her an extra six to eighteen months. Ten months later we had to put her down. We don't want to go through that again. But this is Pepper, and we love her! And it's not the same situation, medically or financially.

It's not a simple decision, either. There are no certainties here. And we're leaving town the day after Christmas, to fly to Wilmington NC, see my dad, go through his stuff with my stepsisters so we can close up the house, and break it to him that he's coming to stay at a facility here in Tucson when he's well enough. Then we're driving his Prius back here and keeping it. With his dementia, incontinence and a-fib he's no longer safe to drive, and at least he could get driven in it. (Plus John's 1999 Alero, rear-ended three times and with a missing window, needs $1500 of engine work, and that's clearly not going to happen.) So my friend Kevin will have to feed Pepper for a week and give her her pills.

After that? I don't know yet. I guess they do another ultrasound and see where things are by then, and then we make the decision. I'd like to opt for the surgery, but is that the wisest course of action, or merely the most expensive one. Or is it both?

Karen

Round Robin: Heads AND Tails

For Round Robin Challenge: Heads or Tails? I asked to see photos of any kind of "heads" or "tails" - but not in the same photo. Here we go!

I guess it's tails! Tails over heads, 12 to 10!

Now let's check out what other Robins found for this Challenge!


Linking List
as of Saturday, December 1, 2012, 9 PM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

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

Danielle - Welcome! - Posted!
My Blog Thingy
http://dindannieblogthingy.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Lady In Read - Posted!
MyRandRSpace
http://myrandrspace.blogspot.com


Karen

I'm Walkin' - for Two Charities!

Here's my last call for sponsors on the Walk to End Alzheimer's (this Saturday) and Tucson AIDSWALK (this Sunday). I will be walking at both events, but the dogs are only allowed on the second one. 

Click below for details!

2012 Walk to End Alzheimer's
Tucson, AZ
Saturday, October 13, 2012 - 9:00 am

Gene C Reid Park,
Concert Place, S Country Club Rd
Tucson, AZ 85716

Coordinator: Dan Lawler
Phone: 602-528-0545
Email: dan.lawler@alz.org

AIDSWALK Tucson

Sunday October 14, 2012

Downtown Tucson -

Jacome Plaza

For more information about AIDSWALK Tucson

click here. 

Karen

The Blessing of Ursa

"Today has been like a tv episode," John said to me tonight. "A lot of stuff happened, and then the day ended with everything back to normal." What happened? Let's go back in time a bit. The story really starts twelve days ago, on one of my infamous morning walks.



On September 26th I had just crossed Golf Links Road with the dogs and was passing a gas station when I saw a large, reddish-blonde dog on the sidewalk up ahead, unsecured and unaccompanied by a human. As we approached, the dog ran into the street on Kolb Road, a major intersection during morning rush hour. She crossed the relatively empty southbound lanes successfully, but as I screamed "Noooo!" she dashed into the busy northbound lanes and was immediately hit by a car.

To my amazement, she got up again a moment later and ran off onto an eastbound side street. I was in no position to chase her, but I stood on the street there for some time, trying to get Siri (the iPhone’s voice interface) to recognize the word “Pima,” as in Pima County Animal Control. Eventually I realized that they would not be open yet anyway, and the dog was long gone. So the dogs and I continued south and finished our walk.

This morning, October 7th, my dogs and I were walking on the Escalante bike path just west of Kolb when we noticed a familiar-looking dog standing in the eastbound lane of Escalante, a street only slightly less busy than Kolb most mornings, but considerably less busy on Sundays. I coaxed the dog over and got hold of her collar, One of her rear legs supported very little weight, presumably from being hit. It was definitely the same dog I had seen hit!

The collar had no license or tag of any sort, or even a loop to hold a tag or clasp a leash to. I called my husband John to come get us in the car. She was a big dog, perhaps seventy pounds, and I was on my belly in the dirt by the time John arrived twenty minutes later, just trying to hang onto her and reassure her without killing my back crouching over.

Left to right: Cayenne and Ursa at church, shortly before the blessing. 

You can also see a bit of Pepper on the right.

But this was the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Francis, or, as I like to call it, Take Your Dog to Church Day, which we celebrate with the Blessing of the Animals. So I headed off to St. Michael’s, with three dogs in the car instead of my usual two. After all, what pet needed a blessing more than this injured stray? I decided to call her Ginger, just in case we ended up keeping her. She was a sweet dog, and John and I both liked her immediately. Still, three dogs was one over our mutually-agreed limit!

Father Smith told the congregation about Ginger during mass, in case anyone wanted to adopt her if her owner was not found. She was much petted and admired, before, during and after Mass, and one person offered to help pay her veterinary bill. But first I needed to at least try to find her owner. After church and coffee hour I took her to Valley Animal Hospital to check for a chip (and to make an appointment to have her leg looked it). Unsurprisingly for a dog with no license tag, she didn't have a chip, either. I took her home, posted pictures to Facebook and went on with my day.

Tonight I emailed http://www.found-pets.org/, which specializes pets lost and found in Pima County. Then I posted a notice on Craig’s List. Within half an hour, I got an email from the dog’s owner! He’d been out of town. The neighbors who were looking after the dog, whose real name was Ursa, had repeatedly let her escape from the yard.

The owner successfully identified Ursa by the markings on her tongue, and the dog was definitely glad to see him when they were reunited in the Safeway parking lot. Ursa was truly blessed today! And John and I are only a little sad that this dog has come and gone from our life so quickly, with no guarantee that she will be safe and healthy in the future.

I saw an article recently that pointed out that there was much more to the life of St. Francis than his connection with animals. I’m sure that’s the case, but I’m glad we celebrate the saint’s feast day by appreciating our pets and the rest of this world that God created. It helps us to remember that we are not the only creatures that matter, and that we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the planet and everything in it, particularly living things. This is a concept that we should remember and honor, whether or not we include God in the equation.

A non-Christian friend of mine from college saw my listing for the Blessing of the Animals on Facebook the other day, and asked what the point was, since the Bible made no claims about an afterlife for dogs. I replied that it wasn’t about the afterlife. It was about appreciating the animals now, as St. Francis did. This includes caring for them, including, it turns out, the gimpy dog in the middle of the road.†

Karen

Round Robin: My Madera Canyon Story

For Round Robin Challenge: Tell Me a Story, I asked people to post a picture of something, anything, and tell the story behind it. My story will be told in more than one picture, because, well, I can!

As you may know, I walk every morning with my two dogs as part of my self-designed weight loss program. (I've lost over 120 pounds.) In recent months I've averaged over six miles a day. Most of the time I walk to destinations within a few miles of home, but that gets boring. Sometimes I need to strike out, go someplace else, and try for a new challenge!

So last Saturday, I made the 48 mile drive south to Madera Canyon. It's one of the prime birding hot spots in the country, and I visited it with some frequency in 1986 and 1987 - and maybe once since then, if ever. The idea was to walk the dogs up the road there, and get in at least six miles roundtrip. It didn't work out that way.

The new map app on my iPhone said I had to ditch my car outside the park and walk the last 9 miles. It was wrong, and I didn't. Instead I drove all the way to the Madera picnic area. There I spent a few minutes at a picnic table, my foot on the dogs' leashes, and did some birdwatching. There were Mexican Jays all around, and a number of less visible species.

Then a rock squirrel turned up, and worked his way closer and closer to the picnic table. I got out my camera and managed to get this shot:

Suddenly the dogs caught the squirrel's scent. One strong tug, and they were off! The squirrel was treed within about ten seconds!

After that it was time, really past time, to start my walk. A nature trail wound past the creek over a bridge or two and through grassy meadows before dead ending, oh, any number of places. I doubled back and set off in the other direction, meeting up with a couple or older men on the way. That was lucky for me, because I lost the main trail at least twice! They got me back in track, literally.

Soon we came to a 2.75 mile nature trail, but the other way led back to the road, and I took it. I wanted to go to the gift shop. I'd left my hat, my sweatband and my hand towel at home, and I suspected that my liter of water would prove inadequate. So I hit the gift shop. The employee there gave the dogs water. I bought a really cool sweatband, a cap and more water, and got a trail map and a birding checklist.

Immediately outside the gift shop was a bird feeding area, frequented mostly by hummingbirds. Neither I nor anyone else there was in good enough practice with our bird identifications to be sure whether we were looking at Allen's Hummingbirds or Rufous Hummingbirds or both. After all, 15 species of hummers are seen there, and the females especially are extremely difficult to tell apart.

By then my camera battery was low, and my iPhone battery was lower, probably because of the spotty network coverage in the canyon. I walked back down to where I was parked, and wasted time charging my phone in the car. I managed to get about half a charge, during which time I reparked twice, trying to get a connection to answer a request to call my boss back in Tucson.

I finally managed to get through to my boss at the top of the road, where a group of kids and their adult chaperons were all looking through binoculars at where I was parked. I thought perhaps they'd spotted something wonderful, like an Elegant Trogon. But no: they told me they were looking at "pictures of birds."

And they were!

After that I drove back down to the gift shop, bought AA batteries for the camera for $2 each, and hit the trail at last. I made a few wrong turns along the way, and found the going about as steep and rugged as I can candle. But it had its rewards. We saw two deer!

And the view was frequently wonderful.

I made it to the top, and we walked, sometimes ran, down the road, back toward the car. My iPhone battery ran out about a quarter mile before we got there. I didn't quite manage my six miles, but it was a good day. And my legs were sore for a few days from all the climbing.

Karen

Now let's see who else is participating this week. So far, it's...

Linking List
as of Saturday, October 6th, 1:13 AM

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

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

Round Robin Challenge: Fur Sure

For Round Robin Challenge: Big Hairy Deal!, I asked people to show us something hairy. Dissatisfied with pictures of my own hair, I've gone with pictures of pet hair. What pets? You tell me:

1.

Dog? Rabbit? Guinea pig?

2.

Something fluffy, anyway.

3.

Same animal. Know what it is yet?

4. 

I bet you recognize this one, though.

5.

Yup. It's my dog Pepper!

6.

And I assume you know about the red dog in my life. 
It's Cayenne!

But what was the animal in the first three photos? 
Here he is:

It's my friend's cat, Harvey.

Now let's see what hairy things the other Robins found to photograph!

Linking List
as of Midnight, Saturday, 9/22/2012


Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Jeanette - Posted!
Net On The Net
http://netonthenet.blogspot.com

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

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

Thanks, folks!


Karen

Playing Hooky

I meant to post this last night, but my life is crammed with distractions right now and things fall by the wayside. I'll give you an overview now, and double back later with pictures and tweaks.

With my new temp job across town turning out to be a lengthy commute, I've had a bit of trouble this past week getting in much work at church. After a Saturday morning vestry meeting this weekend, I intended to go back after lunch and get a few good hours in.

A light-hearted venue for serious softball.  From My Tucson

But it was Saturday afternoon and the weather was nice, and it seemed better to get the dog-walking in well before sunset approached--for a change. So the dogs and I headed for Tucson's Abraham Lincoln Park, which was recommended online as a good on-leash destination. First we walked to and around a large oval track bordering a couple of baseball fields. Then we did the same around a larger oval enclosing four softball fields, in two of which some college-age women, probably including the University of Arizona softball team, were having spring training.

Into the wilderness.

Where to now?

Signs of civilization. 

From there we followed another path to a dead-end past a gazebo, and backtracked to a hiking trail. The online listing mentioned a .6 mile nature trail, but this was not that. I proceeded to get lost in a maze of desert trails, and ended up with a high school campus and a fairly steep ridge of desert between us and the softball players. The parked car was even farther away. My little dog-walking expedition turned into an hour and a half of hiking about, some of it rather strenuous. Good! But it ate up a chunk of my afternoon.

The Dakota Cafe in Trail Dust Town. Dogs allowed (outside).

Did I then drop off the dogs and go virtuously on to work? I did not. The same website that recommended Lincoln Park also mentioned a restaurant in Trail Dust Town where pets were allowed at the outside tables I decided to check it out, without the dogs. I ended up spending another chunk of afternoon at Trail Dust Town, eating a truly marvelous salad at The Dakota Cafe and chatting with an archivist at the Museum of the Horse Soldier, which I'd never visited before.

Bad photo of a few exhibits at the Museum of the Horse Soldier. Do not reproduce. 

The museum used to close at 5 PM, right about the time most people start heading to Trail Dust Town to eat at Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse, ride the little train and watch a Wild West stunt show. But now the museum is open from 11 AM until 8 PM, with a paltry $3.00 admission fee. They've enclosed their roof, upgraded their exhibits and are about to reopen an entire roomful of exhibits. I'll have to stop by again.

What could be more authentically Old West than a covered wagon Ferris Wheel?

After that I took a few more pictures around Trail Dust Town. Then, and only then, I headed over to church and got in perhaps an hour and a half of work. Better than nothing, I suppose.

But here's the thing. As you can probably guess from my last few postings, I'm a bit stressed out right now. My brother is still in the midst of medical and financial issues a thousand miles away, and somehow counting on me to solve them for him, talking to doctors and social workers, gathering papers that are currently locked up in his rehab facility somewhere, filling out forms and maybe even making his missing house key reappear out of thin air. I'm not quite done settling my friend Jan's estate, my efforts to lose weight are getting more and more time-consuming, I have other ongoing obligations to my church (as a parishioner and volunteer) and to two friends, and now I'm working two jobs. I need a vacation! So I guess I just took one, for about two hours.

K.