Staycation
So, it’s been a long while since I’ve felt inspired to post. Really, since I’ve felt inspired to do much besides sit on the couch and let my brain melt by watching too much television. Since I last posted…
- The flies have gone. I still get the occasional fruit fly, but the big house flies are under control.
- Moses and I have been spending time at a local dog park meeting new people and new dogs. He’s trying to make friends… it’s hard to run with the small dogs; they last much longer in the field. Moses is lucky to make it 45 minutes.
- Moses and I have also been to obedience class – our last class is this Thursday evening. He’s doing well, not that he really needed it to begin with. I’m the one that needed it – I have a much better feel for timing, and have learned some nice tips and tricks.
- Dad was here for a visit last week – he bought a new Sprinter, and flew in to pick it up and drive it home. He seems to be doing alright without Mom, but I know he’s lonely down there by himself. I’m trying to convince him to move back here, and I think I may be wearing him down. He injured his knee while he was here, and it occurred to him after he got home that if he has to have surgery, there’s really no one down there to take care of him. Gee, the car accident in April wasn’t enough to convince him of that?
That’s kind of it. My life has been boring: work is boring, home is boring… I need a change. Not sure what that might be yet, but I’ll figure something out.
Filed under blues, me | Comment (0)Flies, redux
Warning: If you have a weak tummy, you probably shouldn’t read this post…
I think Mother Nature must not like me very much. I really hate bugs… bugs of all kinds, and yet I keep finding them. In the last week I’ve killed three small cockroaches in the garage (and then I heard an Orkin ad on the radio say “It’s cockroach season, Indiana!” Ya think?), dumped about a teaspoon of fly pupae out of an outdoor trashcan, killed two fuzzy spiders, and tonight was just the absolute kicker.
I decided I needed to fill the birdfeeders – I have one finch feeder and one that I use for a sunflower/safflower mix. I store the birdseed in old Tidy Cat containers, and up until recently that has worked just fine. The finch food is fine – no problems with it – but I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the mix was kind of funky looking, and there were moths in it. I figured the birds would appreciate the live food, and just filled the feeder. Well… tonight, I opened the container and took a look, and it was NASTY. It was like the seeds had just fermented and become disgusting. I stirred around a little bit with the scoop I use, but decided I needed to go buy new birdseed. I loaded Moses into the car and we took a trip to Pet Supplies Plus.
When we got home, I thought I’d dump the old seed in the trash and bleach out the container before putting the new seed in it. When I went to get it, I noticed that there were – worms? – crawling on the scoop, which was laying on top of the container. Hmm. Not worms. Maggots. Which means that the seeds I had stirred up before I left to go buy new? Also full of maggots. In the airtight container.
For the time being I’m storing the new bag of seed in the laundry room, and I’m going tomorrow to find a new storage bin. When I left the finch food was fine, but I may just dump it, too… it’s almost gone, anyway. I just don’t understand… Dad stores his seed in the same type of container on his freaking back porch in HUMID coastal Georgia and has zero problems. Maybe he goes through it faster than I do? Or maybe the flies have just decided to congregate here? It’s going to be the Amityville Horror, or whatever movie featured a whole lotta flies. Save me, please.
In other, non-bug related news… I found a funny thing the other day while browsing the intranet job listings at work. Here are the job requirements as written by HR:
Education/Qualifications
A minimum of an Associate’s degree required.
Candidate must be an expert in Adobe InDesign.
Strong skills in Word, Excel and Powerpoint needed.
Strong attention to detail neccary.
I just thought it, you know, necarry to share that with you. In case you needed a laugh.
Filed under indignities | Comment (1)Cesar Millan can suck it
Not really. I’m kidding.
So, Moses has seemed kind of bored the last couple of days with only ME to play with. I mean, he’s mostly just a fluffy throw rug anyway, but he does like to play. I have plans to try out a dog park in the Avon area this Saturday (I have to pick up a day pass tomorrow), but what to do in the meantime? We walk around the neighborhood on a daily basis, but that’s getting old quickly. I went to the Indy Parks website today to see what parks are close to me – I figured we could walk for a good, long while and he’d get some exercise. You know, a well-exercised dog is a well-behaved dog… I’ve been watching a little too much Dog Whisperer, I think. Anyway, the closest park to me is Southwestway Park. I always thought it was just a softball park, but it does have a playground and picnic shelter, AND hiking trails.
When I read the words “hiking trails”, I had visions of the nice paved paths at Eagle Creek Park. Or at worst, the mulch-covered trails that wind through many Indiana state parks. I packed Moses up – water bowl, bottle of water, treats for the road, and plastic bags (you know, in case he left a deposit on the trail) – and we headed out. We got out of the car, I sprayed myself down with some skeeter keeper-offer stuff, and we hit the trail. It was kind of downhill at first, and a wee bit muddy, but it seemed to be gravelled so I thought we’d be okay. We came to a clearing pretty quickly, only it wasn’t so much a clearing as it was a cleared path for power lines. Whatever… we kept going, came to a fork, and Moses wanted to go left so left we went. Went a little further down an increasingly muddier trail, climbed up a little incline, and took a right. I’m thinking that at some point, we’ll come back out close to where we started, so we forge ahead – up a little more of an incline. It was doable, though I was breathing heavily by the time we got to the top. Kept going… and came to an even steeper and longer incline. Still thinking we’d come out where we started, we headed up the incline. Moses did just fine, but I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE. There’s a reason I don’t do interval training on the treadmill… I’m overweight and very, very, very, out of shape. Anyway, we kept going until we ended up in that same clearing with the power lines, only… we were two towers away from the one we started out next to. We started to walk up the next incline, and I decided that was it. We were turning around. I’d rather the devil I knew than not knowing where I was.
We made it back to the car in one piece, not really worse for the wear. Moses was still ready to play when we got home, so the half hour hike didn’t wear him out much, but I’m pretty well done for the day. I tell you, if this is going to be a regular thing, I’m canceling the gym membership.
