bacon bloopers....

Clematis is blooming!!!

I’m hoping this isn’t a habit, again.  I’m up at 4 a.m. this morning, not having slept very well because I’ve been worried about Thistle.  The little turdball somehow managed to get to a full container of bacon grease yesterday while Rob and I were outside showing our neighbors how to work our nutty irrigation system for the gardens while we are gone.  I had fried up a big batch of bacon yesterday morning at breakfast on my electric griddle that had been open.  I was worried it might spoil while we were on our trip since Rob is now the sole meat eater in the house again. It has one of those drip cups underneath to catch the grease and I then left the cup on the counter to let it solidify before throwing it away.  Fat isn’t good for dogs, as a matter of fact, it can be deadly in large quantities!  Somehow, she snuck into the kitchen while we were outside, snatched it off the counter and devoured the whole darn thing. 

She seems okay this morning, though, so far. Geez!  We used to have a Sheltie, well my parents did, back when I was in nursing school, who was a counter magician like Thistle and it didn’t end well.  Musket, although tiny, could find ways to get to food like no ones business and ended up dying of pancreatitis from something he ate.  He was only 5 when he overloaded on whatever it was.  So, you can imagine I’m a little upset with Thistle right now. I’m going to have to be a lot more diligent about what’s on the counter from now on! I swear, I love puppies but I’ll be so glad when she’s trained and behaving like an adult.

Other than that, we had a very nice weekend.  Friday, my girlfriend, Sherry, and I went to Sheridan because I had one more test to do for that bad PAP I had.  I had to get a swab done to determine just how “virulent” the dysplasia is that I have.  It’s a test they don’t normally do and I won’t get the results until after we get back from Alabama.  My doc says if it shows that it has the propensity to turn into something nasty, she’ll be sending me to Rapid City for treatment with a GYN oncologist, otherwise, we’ll just watch it with follow-up tests.  At least the test was just a swab this time, not that awful biopsy!

Afterwards, Sherry and I checked out this great new little place called the Red Velvet Bakery and Tapas Bar.  Oh my!  Now, I know I’m not supposed to eat anything that was in the place, but it smelled just too darn good!  They had all manner of brioches and scones and other yummy desserts, as well as some awesome looking savories like quiche, so we just had to give it a sample.  Both Sherry and I had the lemon brioche and it was heavenly! Thick lemon crème sandwiched in the brioche that was light as a feather! I have got to get these tumors under control so I can get back there and eat my way through some of their other goodies! They have fabulous coffee, as well, according to Sherry.

Friday evening, we had a huge contingent show up at our table for happy hour at the Moose.  We were all really happy to see Dawn join us because we were worried about her sister, who had a pretty major heart attack this past week.  Amy is only in her early 40’s and collapsed at work on Tuesday and had to be life flighted to Casper for treatment. I’m happy to report that Amy is home already with a stent and doing really well! Holy guacamole, though, we all sure were worried about her!  She’s one of the healthier people I know, no warnings on this attack whatsoever!

Rob and I spent the whole weekend outside, working on the gardens, and it’s starting to really show the fruits of our labors.  All of our flowers are now in and Rob got the last of the veggies planted yesterday when he got the little carrot patch all done.  Now, it’s just a matter of sitting back and letting nature work its magic! As I said, our neighbors will be watering everything while we are gone this week and next and I’m hoping to come back to things sprouting up everywhere! We planted a lot more corn this year than usual since Rob has this little trade going with another of our friends.  Bobby brings Rob firewood and in exchange, he gets corn when it’s ready, pretty good deal all the way around! 

So, today I’m going to be running around like a chicken, trying to get everything ready for the trip to Alabama.  I’m getting so excited!  I talked to my aunt Becca last night and she’s pretty darned excited, too.  I don’t think we’ve have this much family in one place in many decades. I just hope the weather is kind to us on the trip since we have to go through Kansas and Oklahoma to get there and there’s been a bunch of tornadoes already this season.  I told Rob we’ll have to really keep our eyes open while traveling on this trip, watching for those nasty funnel clouds! Once, we were traveling through Nebraska and there was a tornado warning but since we had no idea where we were, we didn’t know until the next morning that the tornado had passed within a mile of where we were staying!

We’ll be stopping in OK and spending time with our friends, Denny and Paula, who used to own the Arrowhead Motel here in Buffalo, too.  Luckily, they are right on our way, so we’ll spend the night with them both on the way there and on the way back.  They always stay with us when they come back for visits to Buffalo.  They have a really nice in ground pool in their backyard and called the other day to let us know it’s open and ready!  We’re going to see how Thistle does in the pool while we’re there, that should be fun! The last time we stayed with them, we had our late dog, Tumbleweed, with us and she was always so scared of water.  When we gently put her in the pool, she immediately got out and didn’t even shake off, she just stood there like a wet rag, looking at us like we were nuts. Weed was a very unusual Golden, I swear, they are supposed to be water dogs! She was also afraid of streams (any running water, actually) and wouldn’t even drink out of them unless I cupped the water in my hands, the goof. Thistle, on the other hand, lives to get wet so this should be interesting with the pool.

Mud face Thistle 

Just a slight detour in thought before I leave you…  I guess you heard about Donna Summer’s passing.  Her death brought back a whole era of my life that I’d almost forgotten.  In the early 80’s, I worked at a private disco called Girard’s in Baltimore.  Her song, “Last Dance”, always heralded the end of my work night.  Girard’s was built and owned by the same folks who created Studio 54 in NY and it was a really cool place.  When it first opened and was private, it was mostly full of gay men and I got to be really close to many of them. I actually lived right across the plaza in the Brexton , which later became the satellite office of the Moore Clinic.  It’s very ironic, because the Moore Clinic is the premier AIDS clinic in Baltimore. If you remember, the early and mid-eighties is when the whole AIDS crisis started.  I had so many friends among the gay community that were dying mysteriously back then.  Funny how Donna Summer’s passing brought all that back.  It wasn’t until I was in nursing school that I started connecting the dots about my gay friend’s deaths and the crisis that unfolded.  So many wonderfully talented people were just snuffed out. The contrast between the gaiety of the wild disco scene and the loss of life back then still haunts me. I haven’t been back to Mt Vernon, the neighborhood, in many years. At the time, I was working all day at a downtown law firm, bartending a few nights at Girard’s and going to college the other evenings.  Mt Vernon was a great, safe place to live, then.  I had tens of “big brothers” watching out for me. Who would have thought I’d be sitting here 30 odd years later with the very disease that killed my friends? There’s a really good novel, if you ever get the chance, that chronicles the early years of the epidemic in NY, called “Plays Well With Others” by Allan Gurganus.  It’s a fascinating look into that whole era, a bittersweet saga.

Okay, well, have a fantastic day, everyone.  Remember that life is fragile and tomorrow isn’t guaranteed so get out there and live like you mean it.  Be kind to your fellow earth travelers, you never know when it’s going to be your last impression.  You can find magic, even in a dull day, if you just look for it!