Up Seven in Three Days

If you pay attention to the rattlesnake count on the right rail of this blog, you will note that it has made a significant jump.

Saturday, Rick found an adult rattlesnake in the Quonset Hut which he dutifully shot. Sunday, Rick found two more in the Quonset Hut. Both snakes were in the same spot but not at the same time. Tonight Hobo, our Pyrenees, was outside and barking like a madman. Rick flicked on the porch light and looked out the window on the front door. Hobo was barking at a baby rattlesnake that was at the bottom of our front steps. Because it is a warm night; because it's that time of the year when the rattlesnakes move around and because when there is one baby there are usually more, Rick took a walk around the missile base with his .45. He found another baby underneath the Hummer and a third baby by the burn pit. I had to move the Hummer out of the way before Rick could shoot it and I opted to climb in via the passenger door since the snake was closer to the driver's door. Of course Rick shot them all, but having been lightweight snakes, they got some air when the bullets hit them. Rick had to search around the front yard for the body of the one that was at the foot of the front steps. The snake flew a good 15'.

Tonight is garbage night and Rick needed to get the garbage can up to the road. We usually use the golf cart to haul it, but he had already stored the golf cart in the Quonset Hut because of impending rain. He couldn't hold a flashlight, look for rattlesnakes and pull the garbage can all at the same time, so he asked that I accompany him. We didn't see any rattlers in our very long driveway; however, when we got back to the parking area, there was an adult rattler heading in the direction of the Hummer. He's dead now too. Now if my ciphering is right, that is seven snakes in three days.

Once I know that the rattlesnakes are moving--they are searching for a winter den--I get pretty anxious when I am outside. I get so obsessed with constantly watching the ground that I have caught myself checking were I walk in the house. Now the chance that a rattler would get in the house is almost nonexistent, but it is a hard habit for me to turn off when I get inside or out of rattlesnake country. Case in point is that when I visit my mom and dad, where there are no venomous snakes, I still find myself looking for those diamond backs in the grass, crevices or under rocks. Anyway Rick feels pretty good and has counted the night as productive. On the not-so-triumphant side, Hobo is terrified of loud noises, so whenever he hears gunshots, he heads for the hills even if the shots are coming from dove hunters a mile away. Tonight I bet he just about pooped his pants when Rick shot the snake and he was only about 20' away. Most likely Hobo is hiding in the cotton field right now and when he doesn't hear a gunshot for a while he will come home. I am worried about him roaming around out there with the moving rattlesnakes. All I can do is every so often go out on the front steps and call for him. But because I'm in my anxious-about-rattlesnakes mind set, every so often is approximately every five minutes.

That's the rattlesnake update on the countdown. Excuse me while I go step out on the front steps. Ciao.

Wordless Wednesday Post

This will be a Wordless Wednesday post. Perhaps later I will be wordy when I have the time.

 Hobo

 Hobo with Cody photo bombing.

 "We're going for a walk, going for a walk."

 Sunday, prior to Rick leaving for the airport. The stuffed animal is not mine. Kate made me hold hers. Really.

 Kate none too pleased about her Daddy going to the airport.

Hobo and Kate

Okay, maybe this needs to be called "Almost Wordless Wednesday".

Weeks Worth of Doings in One Post

You'll never know how many times in the last two weeks that I have started a post and never published it. More often than not I didn't publish the post because it dealt with the Aurora, CO movie theater shootings. I have read one article about the shooting and refuse to read anymore. The media tends to sensationalize stories though the Aurora story doesn't need it. This week's People has stories of some of those who died in the massacre. I skipped those pages of the magazine. In every mass tragedy there are people involved who take heroic actions, just got married, just welcomed a new child or whose life was ended when they had great plans in store. This country is circling the drain and I don't need the media to try to manipulate my emotions because I can produce my own tears when these senselessness acts of violence occur. Am I sticking my head in the sand? No, I still get the facts, but because of the numerous tragedies perpetrated by man I cannot mentally handle the personal aspects of the story. And no Mr. Media, I don't give a shit about what Psycho Man Shooter or what his online dating profile says. I miss the days of Walter Cronkite. Final note, don't get me started on the gun control issue. I firmly believe if the theater had not been a gun-free zone that ass would have never opened fire or his head would have been blown off after his first shot.

So. A lot has occurred in life since I posted last. Despite the death of a two-month old child, life keeps rolling along. I think that is what always strikes me as the most strange when a tragedy befalls a person or nation; life goes on.

Katie has joined the Anson Youth Cheerleading Association. She had cheer camp this week. She was so-so about cheerleading camp. She does like cheering but it's a tough group. And you know how little girls can be. . .Like Rick said, Kate is at a disadvantage when it comes to socializing. We don't live in town; she didn't go to Pre-K and we don't have any neighbors. The friends that she has made prior to going to school--at MOPS, ballet, tae kwon do--all live in Abilene. Also, Kate is the only 1st grader on her squad; all of the others are 2nd graders. Big 2nd graders don't want to hang out with baby 1st graders. I am not saying that Kate is without fault. She likes to lead, which doesn't always go down well with other kids and she can be intense. Anyway, I am concerned about her schedule. She'll have cheer practice two times a week; ballet one time a week; and tae kwon do three times a week. Add those up. They equal 6, she has 5 week days. One day will be a double up day. And to top it off, the Pee Wee football league plays on Saturday mornings. At least it is not for the whole year. We'll have to take it one day at a time.

 Part of their dance routine.

 Showing off their certificates for completing Cheer Camp

 More learning and practice.

I have been driving my new vehicle for about a month now and I love it. But some habits are hard to break. Since the SRT8 sat so low to the ground, I had to slow down for each bump and dip or risk tearing the front end off or cracking the belly pan. The other day I went through the car wash with the Hummer and instead of pulling straight onto the road, I found myself driving along the front of the wash bays to the side street because the dip before the main road is less angled there. I know people laugh at me because when I pull up in this beastly vehicle all 5'3" of me gets out. The H2 and me make an odd pair. I look like a 2nd grader next to it. Rick says I am spoiled because when I parked next to a Hummer H3 my comment was, "That's small!" For the record, H3s are a lot smaller, about the size of a Jeep and I was truly surprised by the the size difference. Matter of fact I am surprised how many vehicles I look down on while driving the Hummer (Literally, folks. I am not that big of a snob!) Here's a photo of the Hummer when Rick brought it home. (He had to drive it home from Chicago.)

Hummer H2 with Hobo in the foreground

The Hummer is the Silver Ice Edition. They only made 750 of the Silver Ices. It has every option except the heated steering wheel, so it is pretty loaded. Katie's loving the DVD player. Rick, not so much. The screen flips down from the ceiling. Rick has smacked his head on it twice when he has leaned back to help Katie with her seat belt. My SRT8 is a Chrysler and the H3 is a GM product so the location of all the buttons, switches and doodads are different. I still don't know how to set my favorite stations on the Nav/XM radio. I also couldn't figure out how to answer my cell phone when the H3's bluetooth picked up the call so Rick had to show me.

Hobo. He has made great strides in the last month. In June he started letting Katie pet him but still refused to let anyone else get close to him. One day Katie was petting him by the front steps. I came out of the front door and slowly joined in the petting. When Rick came home from a trip, he let Rick pet him and when our neighbors/friends Don and Geri stopped by, he let them pet him. He wags his tail when he sees Kate, Rick or I and comes trotting. He'll walk up the driveway with me to unlock the gate and listens very well. When he sees me for the first time in the day, he gets so excited that he makes a weird noise. It's a closed mouth whine/grunt. He now wears a collar with a name tag and I have started him on K9 Avantix. Both Rick and I tried a leash on him. He let us attach the leash but then he turned his head; looked out of the corner of his eye at us with absolute disgust and then lied down. So we are at baby steps with the leash. We cannot take him to the vet until we can get him leash trained. I often wonder what he has experienced in his short life. (We figure he is 1 1/2 years old.) The first time I opened the gate with Hobo by my side, I had the gate's chain hanging from one of my hand's. Hobe took one look at it and ran all the way home. He doesn't like loud noises like the compressor. Prefers to eat when no one is around. Does not play catch--he fears you are throwing something at him. Doesn't like the water hose on full blast, but he is getting braver with this one. Since he has such a strong reaction to chains we assume he was chained as a puppy and perhaps broke free and ran away. He may have been beaten with his chain. He undoubtedly has been abused or relentlessly teased because he cowers if you use a stern voice. He obviously has had things thrown at him and must have been stealing food from other dogs given that he won't eat unless he is alone. I call him Hobee Doe, Beau, Hobee. He is our dog. He has a home.

More pictures.

Kate's redone professional TKD composite photo.

Katie and the dogs found this snake while they were on an adventure. It is a Long Neck snake, not a Coral snake for which they get mistaken. He is eating a lizard in the photo that is why it's hard to make out his head or tail.

Katie at Cheer Camp that the Anson High School Cheerleaders put on. She attended the camp in June. Wow! Am I behind in posting pictures.

We purchased our box again for the Texas Cowboy Reunion Rodeo. We originally got the box three years ago when our friends moved from the area. This year since we had just bought the Hummer, I was hesitant to spend the money, but if we didn't buy it we would have lost the box for the foreseeable future. Basically someone has leave it to you in their will or pass it on to you when they leave the area, so you don't give one up easily. Some families have had their boxes for generations. The boxes seat eight and are ring side. From the thundering horses, I have had dirt flicked down my shirt and in my bra and I get the jeepers scared out of me when they come racing by rail. The rodeo is four nights long and each night we invite a different group of friends. This year was a lot of fun. The first night of the rodeo was 4th of July. We had our friends/neighbors Don and Geri join us, as well as E.L., Peggy and Linda, the people that lease our cotton land. Afterward we all went to the lake where Rick and Don shot off $200 worth of fireworks. They finally had to start firing 4 at a time so we won't be there until 3 am. Rick said it was his best fireworks display that he has ever created. It was also his most expensive he ever purchased, but with the great time we had with our friends, it was priceless. Here are a few pictures from the rodeo.

Before the Star Spangled Banner. Texans love their State flag and you rarely see the US Flag without the Texan Flag near by.

The Six White Horses of HSU (Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.) I found out this year that there are six horses because six different national flags have flown over Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederate and United States.

"Oh my aching back."

This picture made me laugh because the horse has his rear legs tucked up so the man's jean clad legs by the rails look like the horse's legs.

This horse was feisty from the get go.

 She promptly threw the rider and fell on top of him. The horse was fine, but they kept her down until they could get the cowboy out. If they hadn't she would have further crushed him and trampled on him. Turned out she wasn't too happy about being separated from her baby, so the baby was brought out to the ring. They happily greeted each other and trotted off together to the back stage area.

I love taking pictures of the barrel racers because then you can see how close the horse gets to the barrel and what an incredible angle these horses circle the barrel.

These ladies were the San Angelo Ambassadors. In our area we have the Sheriff's Posse, a group of women who ride for The Cure (breast cancer) among others. Texas has oodles of riding groups that perform across the state, country and globe.

One of the entertainment acts for the rodeo was a female trick rider. She was awesome and she had an awesome horse with an awesome disposition. When most people start to ride, they aspire to stay upright in the saddle. I wonder why she wanted to hang upside down from one.

Here's a rainbow picture that I captured one day. And yes, as evidenced by the rainbow, we have been getting rain, not a whole lot and the lake levels are still low. However, at least this year the cotton has popped up.

So that's it for now. Sorry for the long post, but I didn't want to leave any for later because you know what happens. Later never comes. Ciao.

More Baby Steps

We have had some progress with Hobo. Katie has been able to pet Hobo on a somewhat regular basis, but he still shies away from adults. Last night I did an experiment to test a theory. I sat down in the grass, he would try to approach me. When I stood up, he left the front yard. He doesn't like people lording over him and that explains why Katie has been able to pet him. More baby steps, but he is getting there.

Making Space on the Camera

I have had so much going on; a camera full of pictures to match and a crazy long blog post.

First off Katie's ballet recital was this past weekend. It took me 1 1/2 hours to do her hair and make up, but not because they were complicated but because Katie gets bored and wiggly. Have you ever tried to put mascara on a wiggly child? For the recital she was a Woodland Fairy and danced to a slow song as opposed to a cutesy song. She really is elegant and more expressive in the slower dances. Dress rehearsal was Friday night and the audience attended Saturday night. I may be subjective, but Katie did a great job. During rehearsal we can take pictures, but not during the real performance, so the following photos are from Friday night. Excuse the blur, but in the dark theater my flash is a little useless.

Such a serious ballerina.

This picture makes me laugh. None of the ballerinas are doing the same thing. However, what is hilarious are the 3-4 year old ballerinas.They have no qualms about yelling directions to the other dancers on the stage. One little girl cracked me up because she was very concerned about staying on her marked spot. Most of the time she was bent over, looking at the floor and trying to find her dot.

Two out of four is not bad.

The following photos are from performance night.

Posing before the show. Kate is in the tunnel that leads to the stage. The tunnel is actually underneath the left side of the audience.

Still in the tunnel but this time doing a leap. She got some pretty good air.

Curtain call.

 Outside the Paramount with the bouquet of flowers that Rick and I gave her. I was trying to keep the flowers a secret, but Kate saw them in the frig. So naturally I lied to her and said they were for Rick. She bought it.

 Posing after the performance. This picture shows how beautifully she does the classic ballerina hand position.

 A rare thing, Kate and I in a picture together.

 Daddy's Li'l Doodlebug.

 Doodlebug kissing her daddy.

One more pose and we are done.

Monday I had a MOPS brunch to attend. It is when we say good-bye to steering team and table leaders who are leaving and welcoming the steering team for the next year. I wasn't looking forward to the brunch. I didn't want to cry and was fearful that I would blubber. The was pretty sure I was going to cry during the blessing. The blessing is when you stand in front of the room with a Mentor and they read a personalized blessing that they wrote for you. The only thing that saved me is that the mentor that I am closest to did not deliver the blessing. It was actually a new Mentor so I didn't feel the same connection. After the ceremony, I stopped to talk to my favorite Mentor and I cried. I high-tailed it out of there before I got to the point of uncontrollable tears. Leaving MOPS is bittersweet. I truly feel that I have outgrown MOPS especially since I am no longer a mother of a preschooler. However, I am very sad to lose the regular contact with other moms. When it comes down to it, MOPS was the only place that I got to talk with other women. What am I going to do now?

Yesterday was Field Day at Kate's school. During Field Day the kids participate in contests like tug-of-war, transporting an egg in a spoon, etc. At one point it started to rain, but it stopped as soon as I got to my car to retrieve my umbrella. Kate wasn't in the best mood. She was very weepy and cried, cried, cried about not winning her heat in the foot race. Rick likes that Kate takes winning seriously; however, we are concerned about how she gives up if she is not winning. No one got a trophy or ribbon for winning a contest, but the recognition from the crowd was a reward that Katie craved. Here's Field Day.

Field Day. Katie looking a less than excited.

Another contest. Flipping a little bean bag on a Frisbee.

Hula-hooping. The little boy in the foreground had told Katie, "Don't cry. Watch me." The little boy's grandma also encouraged Katie to pick up her hula-hoop when it hit the ground and to try again. They were supposed to sit down once the hula hoop went down. I wasn't too happy about the grandma "ok-ing" Katie to cheat.

Tug of War

More tugging.

The egg in the spoon transport. The fun was taken out of the game because the kids had to carry wooden eggs. But I can understand not wanting to deal with the egg mess.

Foot race.

I have been taking pictures of my outdoor flowers. Last year I did not clean all of my planters out and lo and behold some of my petunias came back. One pot of last year's petunias looks better than the fresh petunias that I bought this year.

I had bought Katie a first grade workbook that she can do throughout the summer. One of the instructions said to draw a box around the word "the". I had to look at it for awhile before I understood.

 See instruction #3

Katie's boxes around the word "the" in the third line. They are cardboard boxes with the flaps open. Bless her little heart.

Hobo is still trying to conquer his fears. I noticed that when my in-laws were here he went into hiding more often than usual. He doesn't welcome new faces. This past weekend, Kate and I were outside tending to my flowers when Hobo walked up to us and let Kate pet him. I had to hold jealous Cody by the collar otherwise he would have driven off Hobo. Here's Hobo.

 

 The hanging basket of flowers that my mother-in-law bought me and Cody eating grasshoppers. ("Oh, crunchy Scooby snack.")

One last picture before I go.

Katie and I before dipping in the pool.

And that's all she wrote. Ciao.

The Progression

Hobo, the dog, has been diligently working on his progression plan. When Hobo first got here, he stayed down at the Quonset Hut and did not come up to the house. Then one morning I saw him on the far edge of the top of the silo lying down. He appeared to be waiting for Cody. He started showing up every morning and was often in his position before Katie and I left the house to catch the school bus. A few days later he waiting on the closer edge of the silo. Another few days past and he was at Katie's swing set and more days passed and he moved to a spot across the driveway where the old missile base security gate used to be. He then progressed to sitting on the far edge of the front yard. Yesterday morning and this morning, Hobo was underneath the trellis at the end of the sidewalk that goes to our front door. He is slowly making his way to the house; however, I have seen him come up to the house when he is playing with Cody and no humans are outside. Also, sometimes at night I can hear him on the sidewalk or south patio.

His favorite spots during the day are underneath the trailer that is in the parking area and right off of the driveway across from our house. Both positions give him a full view of the front door and shade. A strange behavior of Hobo's is that he runs along side the golf cart when we are driving around Corinth West. We could literally reach out and pet him. For whatever reason, he is not afraid of humans if they are in vehicles. I try not to imagine what happened to him to turn him off to humans. We continue to feed and water him, but has given up Milk Bones. Cody and Hobo sure like each other for which I am thankful. Dogs are pack animals and being alone can be stressful on the animal.

Anyway, Hobo is taking baby steps toward becoming part of our family and I have stopped calling him "the stray dog" because he is pretty sure that he lives here and this is his territory. Rick has seen him patrolling his territory which involved Hobo walking around the house in a big circle and looking for danger. Pyrenees are know to be extremely loyal and wonderful watch dogs. We sure need one since Cody is a goober. Caio!

The White Soul Mate

Hobo, the homeless Great Pyrennes, is still with us, so I guess he is no longer homeless. He continues to be very cautious of people; however, he has found his soul mate in Cody. Those two romp and play every chance they get. Matter of fact, I drive Katie up the driveway to catch the school bus and without fail when I come back, Hobo is sitting on the missile silo staring at the house. Either opening the front door or the sound of my car starting signals to him that Cody will be out shortly. It is heartwarming to see the two of them together because they romp around like two puppies. Which reminds me, I think Hobo is about Cody's age because I think Hobo is still growing. When Hobo first got here he seemed a lot shorter. Rick is not too crazy about letting Cody run loose with Hobo because of wild hogs, cougars, rattlesnakes but when I see those two dogs together I know that their play time is the bright spot in Hobo's day. Also, dogs are pack animals and crave the company of people or other dogs. (Dogs that don't have a fair amount of interaction with other dogs or people tend to get depressed.) Since Hobo still needs 75' of personal space between him and people, Cody is his pack.

I finally managed to get a few pictures of Hobo with my telephoto lens so I can show you what a beautiful dog Hobo is.

 Cody is trying to get Hobo's stick. Cody did eventually get it, but Hobo got it right back. I have not seen them growl or bear teeth at each other.

  Going for a walk, side by side.

Hobo wondering why Cody is running towards me. Something about the look on Hobo's face makes me feel like I am breaking his heart when I call for Cody to come inside.

Hobo heading back down to the shop/Quonset Hut after a morning of play with Cody.