Making Spring

The weather here is getting a bit warmer, but the wind continues.  According to the forecast we will have one more week similar to today - grey, windy, low 50 degree temperatures and then jump up to the 70's.  I hope they're right, but the steady grey-ness was really getting me down, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and create a little corner of color to trick me into thinking that it was indeed spring.  Local stores have been stocking pansies and since they're a hardy flower that can usually withstand the light frost that is most assuredly still to come I decided to plant some outside our front door.

I see these everytime I come down the stairs and it lifts my spirits a bit to see that bright yellow and violet standing strong.

Come on, Spring!!

Seamus vs. Skunk

I keep wishing and hoping for spring to finally arrive in all of it's glory.  I'm anxious to see the green on the trees and smell the flowers and grass.  But there's one smell that scares me....odor of skunk.  I'm a little wary of skunks ever since one decided to wrangle with my sweet Golden Retriever, Seamus.

This was actually in the autumn about five years ago.  I guess spring and fall are  busy for the little stinkers.  The husband was away on a business trip (things like this always seem to happen when the husband is away) and I gave Seamus a final trip into the backyard before bed.  He trotted back in and suddenly I realized that something was a-stink.  In fact, I could hardly breath for the heavy musky putrid skunk smell.  Seamus didn't seem bothered.  In fact he might have even looked a bit proud of his new perfume.  He didn't understand why I was trying to get him to go into the laundry room and away from any carpet or upholstery.  Not only was I trying to contain the smell but I needed a minute to figure out what the heck to do.  I called the husband, mostly for moral support since there is little he could do from 500 miles away.  He suggested the old tomato juice routine.  The only tomato product I had was some paste, so I figured, "Why not....should be the same thing just more concentrated."

And then it got better.  Seamus loves the water - lakes and oceans and such; but, convincing him to get into the bathtub has always been a challenge.  And he weighs a hefty 95 pounds.  I got him into the bathroom and closed the door, but he wasn't going easily into the tub.  So I decided to start to apply the tomato paste first - outside the tub.  I quickly realized that this was a messy job so I decided to reduce the inevitable stains and laundry  by taking off my jeans - and then my shirt -  and tossing them outside the bathroom.  So now, in my unmentionables I'm smearing tomato paste onto my exuberant Golden.  He isn't cooperating too well and starts to back away from me resulting in --- tomato paste on the walls, the cabinets, the floor and all over me.  The place looked like a slasher film with low budget fake blood.  Then, suddenly his doggie brain noticed that this was food!  So he decided to lick it off and make a snack of the tomato paste.  (Trust me folks, I'm not making this up!) So, before he ate all of my supposedly "deskunking" potient, I decided to get him into the tub.  This required lifting at least one end of a now slippery 95 pound dog over the side of the tub and convincing him to stay put.  It was NOT pretty.  But finally I got him into the tub and lathered and scrubbed and rinsed about five times.  Then out of the tub and onto the shake, shake, shake, and shake that dogs love to do, spreading water all over the bathroom.  Now I have a pile of laundry, a dirty bathroom, a dirty me and..............a STILL stinky dog.  Not to mention, a rather stinky first floor.   And family was due to visit the next day.

The next morning, bright and early I was on the phone and the computer searching for ways to get rid of the stink.  The best thing I discovered was that PetSmart offers a special "deskunking" bath in their grooming department.  So, off I go to PetSmart with Stinky Seamus where they did some doggie bath magic.  The smell still lingered some, but at least you could stand to be near him.  I also found some other magic stuff to spray in the rooms near the door he came in which apparently got a larger dose of skunk stink.  It took weeks before the smell was completely gone. I also discovered that there are services around here to trap and remove animal "pests" from your property.  They tell me that catching a skunk who walks across your property is a pretty hit and miss adventure compared to catching a skunk who is living under your porch.

So now, if I smell skunk when I go to let Seamus out....well, he just has to hold it a bit longer!

Spring Is In the Air

We had one wonderful week of 60 degree temperatures and sun.  There was one day with fierce winds that caused some killer wildfires that are still smoldering and now we are back to a more seasonal cloudy 45 degrees.  45 degrees didn't seem so bad two weeks ago, but after that taste of spring it feels bitter cold.  The good news is, though that with February almost over, spring can't be far behind.  I have to admit, though that I've always considered March the longest month of the year.  It has nothing to do with it's 31 days, but rather with it's place on the calendar.  March promises spring but seldom delivers.  We've had some pretty big snowstorms in March.  It has none of the fun holiday's of February to break up the weeks.  But this year we get to change our clocks in March - on the 13th to be exact.

I think the scale is slowly showing some loss.  I'm sort of waiting for my doctor's appointment to declare any real success or failure. I will say that I'm definitely eating less and making healthier choices.  And as far as my three changes:  the extra fruit is happening about 60% of the time; I'm getting my walks in about 85% of the time and the no munchies after dinner, maybe 90% of the time.  That has to count for something, right?