The New Puppy

"We don't need another dog," Angela said.

"Of course we do, we used to have three, and now we only have two," I said.

I wait. I wait another week. And then, my Angela came through. She said, "there are Bichons in the paper."

"Really?" I said. "Let me see that."

"That's a local call, you know," she remarked.

"Umhuh," I remarked.

"You could go this afternoon," she pointed out, "after your PT appointment.
"Yes, I could. I guess I should call," I pointed out.

"Umhuh."

She knew that if I went to look, we'd have a puppy, and so we did. I picked TinkerBelle out at three weeks old, and I checked up on her every week. I even took the grandkids with me twice, so they could see the puppy grow.

Tink was the first of the litter to venture out of her box, and she let me turn her over for a tummy rub from the first time we met. Eight-weeks went by so slowly, I could hardly keep myself away, and Angela loved the phone pictures.

I brought her in the house and she was first overwhelmed by Cassandra, the one year old puppy, and then our new baby dog made a pass through Angela's arms for a big snuggle. Next, the kids got to hold her, and  finally, her feet touched the floor and she was able to explore a bit. Angela beamed as much as I, and the grandkids agreed she was "a cupcake," as the eldest remarked. "That's because her collar has cupcakes on it, and that's how sweet she is." There goes that adult-concept-thing again in our five-year old granddaughter.

"I'll add the third lead to the leash," Angela said.


"That would be great." I said.


Here's just another Best Thing About Being Married To A Transsexual.

Her's two of our doggies taking a snooze: Chloe Petunia, the one year old, and TinkerBelle, the baby.

They are Bichon Frise with puppy (hair) cuts.

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They Touched My Heart - A Birthday/Anniversary to Remember

Angela and Audra threw me a surprise birthday on Saturday. Oh, yes, I had an inkling something was afoot, but I wasn't sure when, what, or where much less that it was to be a surprise party. They'd arranged for friends to take me off to see art galleries in a nearby town. One even convinced me she had a dinner party to go to later, so I was sure nothing was going on that day. Cars were parked well away from our home, so I had no suspisions until I opened the door. I confess to being totally surprised to see so many good friends inside.

My feet hadn't crossed the threshold before Angela presented me with a full-sized, blown-up version of a walker, complete with many well-known saying about the aged. Before I could move into the room, I had to first maneuver through a trail of orange cones - to prove I could get along with my new contraption. The livingroom was decorated in my favorite sea-green. I was quickly turned around to view the dining room table, very modern, of course, to see not a birthday cake, but a perfect replication of our wedding cake! Angela had had it made to specs, thanks to pictures from our album, and yes, it cost her a small fortune (but it was soooo yummy). There were three layers instead of four - lemon, chocolate, and spice. They were all good, but the spice was wonderful, to die for, and the flavors matched our original. Only the white cake layer was missing, but from the way folks chowed down on what was there, the one exception wasn't missed. You see, our 45th wedding anniversary is a month away, and Angela decided to combine wedding and birthday. They also served a delicious meal.

Audra, not to be out done, had compiled a video using pictures from our various family albums following me from birth to grandma. It was great fun to see all the old pictures, not to mention noting how thin I used to be. There were lots of questions and comments of course and a few laughs as well. Everyone oh'd and ah'd over the wedding pictures and the sailboat we lived and traveled on for two years.

The grandchildren and doggies were well mannered and adorable. Brooke, the four year old spoke with the adults using all her three and four syllable words, and the two year old Bree entertained everyone with her delightful smile and descriptions of how she helped put up the decorations. As for the doggies, there wasn't a bark or growl, an underfoot toy, or a anything beyond lots of tailwagging and puppy kisses.

When I stood to give my little speech, there wasn't a person in the room that I didn't have a short story about. All mean a great deal to me, and they had given special parts of themselves and helped me along the way over the years. All of them had welcomed Angela into their lives without hesitation.

Angela and Audra had pulled off their first surprise party and touched my heart in ways they can't imagine. Angela's loving thoughtfulness about the cake, and Audra's time and effort producing the powerpoint life review were remarkable. They touched my heart.

A Crappy Weekend

Okay, I confess that it wasn't all crappy, but . . .

You see, it all started durring a lovely RV outing. We had a wonderful time with everyone in our delightful RVing Women's group. The food, conversations, and doggies and kitties were great, but Saturday was very wet. I love my dogs, but neither wet fur and muddy feet, nor removing stickers are high on my Fun Monitor. After a riotious Trailer Trash dinner with the group, we returned to our coach to prepare for a quiet, dry, peaceful night. Angela went out to dump the tanks while I took the puppies for a walk. When I returned, Angela was still outside. I opened a window and asked, "Need help?"

"Nope," came the reply. Ten minutes later, however, she said, "Okay, I need you outside."

That did not bode well. First of all, it was raining madly, and it was 11:30, well passed Angela's bedtime.

"It seems the RV park's sewer hook up for our rig is backed-up or blocked," Angela said. "The rain could be the cause, but if that was so, the whole park would be in trouble. So, that means we're stuck with the problem. Of course, the office is closed too."

She didn't have to tell me that meant we really had a problem. What were we going to do with a sewage hose full of well, sewage? The good news was that the park link in the spot next to us was working. But, it was 40 feet away. Fortunately, we carry extra sewage hose for this sort of problem. Unfortuately, we usually know about the issue before we are hooked up for two days and can make the alterations before any thing fills the hose.

I could see by Angela's bussling around, getting out hoses, and thoughtful expression that it was going to be me holding our 'difficulty" for this switcheroo. I had visions of spending all day Sunday cleaning up a huge, smelly, yucky mess, even though it was not technically our fault.

With a great deal of care, Angela removed the sewage line from our rig and with much trepidation coaxed a bit more sewage into the park's input, unhooked it, and dripped more yuck into the near overflowing gap. Then, with a towel wrapped around it, just for me, she handed me that end too. Now, a 20' long 3" diameter hose filled with gunk is heavy, and rain was rapidly dropping into the upturned ends - splash, splash, splash - as I stood there with my hands full and my nose turned away.

She gingerly put extensions on each connection, hooked up to the rig, and then we inched our way over toward the new hole. She connected it slowly, but nothing happened! Dang. Okay, worse than Dang. You see, the new receptical was ever so slightly uphill. We have an 8 foot declining contraption to help with that, BUT, we now had 60 feet of hose slanting the wrong direction. It was not going to drain.

After the cloud of blue words dissipated, we got down to pulling lumber out of the rig's storage areas, looking for rocks, sticks and anything else we could use to overcome the problem.

It took half an hour more, but in the end, sewage was flowing, we'd had a nice warm shower and a few laughs. We crawled into bed and I said, "I'm so glad you thought of that towel."

Yes, it's a great thing to be married to a T.

Wax & Rain

Yeah, I know it is supposed to be ‘wax and wane,’ but I said wax and rain ‘cuz that is what happened to Angela. She spent 2.5 days waxing the RV, only to have it rain through our whole RV trip. Of course, I told her the rain was all her fault. Yes, the weatherman told us rain was on the way, but who believes the weatherman in the winter around here (especially when the forecast is rain)? Now, in the summer, when the weather is always ‘102-3-or 4 degrees and sunny’ – THAT we believe – but not when rain is predicted. So, this weekend, the weatherman said, “Rain,” and that is what we got – gobs of it. Now, Angela, being a morning person, is always first up. She also takes the dogs out for their first walk. This time, the rain was really pelting us. Even so, she kindly took the little beasties out for their 15-minute sniff, doodle around and do their business. Not only that, but she gave them a good rub down when she returned to the RV – without even disturbing me. What a gal! What makes this special? When she was David, even a sprinkle meant, “Jonni, it’s raining out, you’ll have to do the dogs!” So, this is just another one of those Best Things About Being Married to a T.

One Chemo Down

I had my first round of chemo therapy yesterday with no bad effects. All is going well. My appetite is good, I slept well, and while I expect to have some down days in the next few days, I was pleasantly surprised to be feeling fine after this first round.

Angela, of course, has been the chief driver and nurse through all of this, and she's wonderful about it.

Today we were outside a fair amount of time as it was a beautiful day. I harvested produce from the garden - kale (my favorite veggie), green onioins (yum!), cherry tomatoes, radishes, and chives for baked potatoes tomorrow night with the kids. I'll be fixing my last eggplant tonight, and I have a load of beets for veggies through next weeks too. I helped pick up branches after she cut off those that were hanging too low to use the riding lawn mower. That was the first real exercise since my surgery. About all Nurse Nora (Angela) will let me do is the laundry and empty the dishwasher, so helping load up the trailer felt pretty good. She hauled them over to our big dumpster, so I really didn't do much. I don't think it was even enough to be sore in a couple days. after all that activity, Cassandra, my smallest Bichon, and I took a nap together on the patio glider.

It was a fine day.

Happy Halloween to all!

Don't forget

Don't forget all the ones you love, even when you are concerned and concentrating on one with a problem. Perhaps I should say especially when you are concentrating on one with a problem. I've been worried about a close relative, and our granddaughter's croup caught up with me! I was concentrating on the one with the problem and missed the bad cold. Yes, I mentioned that she had a stuffy nose, but just a couple of days later, she was in the hospital. Not long after that, I had my mind on my newly diagnosed with diabetes dog, and I failed to notice a growing problem in another dog. Now, surgery is scheduled for her. Similar things happen with friends, so, the lesson here is don't be so wrapped up in one that you fail to keep an eye on others just as close. It doesn't matter if its family, friends, or pets. I've learned my lesson, so I thought I'd pass it on to my readers.

Now, all that being said, given all of the above, Angela has been a huge help with support on all fronts. There have been lots of extra phone calls to the family member, and then trips to the hospital and extra phone calls for the granddaughter. Angela has been a huge help with giving shots as I learned my way through that. It's a two person deal. I do the "pokes," but Angela handles the analysis and all the other "stuff." She was right there with me when we took Kathryn, the "other" dog into the vet, and she helped with the exam and X-rays. She'll be there for the after care too. I know I couldn't have always said that before she was a T! She's as involved with babysitting the granddaughter as I am. Before, the dogs were strictly mine. Now, she's as attached to them as I am. So, I am again, so very glad to have my Transsexual spouse!

Please vote NO on Prop 8 if you live in California!

The purple dog

Okay, it's Gay Pride week, so to celebrate our eldest dog, Kathryn the Great, decided to roll in the fallen mulberries! She looked like a purple tie-dyed dog! Of course, when she did that, we were still up to behinds in plumbing problems and did notice. When I did discover her shenanigans, the purple color had dried and was well soaked into her hair. (Bichons don't shed because they have hair instead of fur.) Anyway, I cut most of her stained hair off, gave her a long bath, and then did a good grooming - I.E. I evened-out her clipped hair. She still looks like a Bichon, but a closely clipped one, that's for sure. Perhaps I should have left her purple for the Gay Pride parade. All three doggies walked the route with me. Of course, the baby, Cassandra stole the show. Many people came out to give them a pat our two as we walked the parade, especially when I stopped to give them water. I'm sure Kathryn would have been the hit of the show if she'd still have been purple!