In the middle of the night...

Two o'clock in the morning as I type this and I'm wide awake because Savannah decided to bark for no reason that I can figure out. A trip outside to the grass only resulted in Savannah trying to catch June bugs attracted by my flash-light. That was the first time I came down the stairs. On the second trip down into the kitchen (after more barking) I discovered that Savannah had torn yet another hole in her bed so I got out the needle and thread and sewed it up.

As I'm typing now, Savannah is sound asleep but of course I'm wide awake and probably will be for the rest of the night. Fine. I've been trying to finish the latest book I've been reading anyway. Puppy time has drastically cut into reading time and I'm wondering just how many more months Savannah's schedule will over-take my own. I used to read one or two books every week and now I'm lucky to read two books a month.

Oh well. It is what it is.

So... what else is new....
I called my cousin in Arizona yesterday to wish him a happy birthday. When he picked up the phone, I heard his voice saying "This is Dave... I'm sorry but I cannot come to the phone right now because I'm just getting too old to talk to family..."  At that point, I burst out laughing because I knew that he was at the other end of the line, and we both had a good laugh. Then we realized that our generation of cousins are all older right now than our parents were decades ago when we were sitting at "the kids' table" in Grandma's kitchen. How did we get to be this 'old' so quickly?!

The flower seeds that friend C planted in our garden are just starting to come up... little green leaves have appeared, and wonder of wonders, they will be flowers, not weeds. With a little bit of luck, and a lot of C's help, we'll have zinnias and morning glories before too long, along with other plants that C will pick out and plant for us. She's waiting for the local stores to get some good annuals that won't wither and turn crispy as soon as the Texas sun re-sets itself from Spring-warm to Summer-broiling-hot.

My husband has put his tomato plants into the flower bed at the back side of the house... tomatoes surrounded by yellow marigolds. He had picked out those plants the week before Easter but then didn't put them into the ground because we had two nights when the temperature went into the mid-40s. The tomato plants were sheltered in the garage at night, then brought out into the sun during the day, then back into the garage at night. This went on for a week until he was sure that the weather had turned Spring-like and would stay there.

The wildflowers have been popping up along the side of the road and in the middle of the pastures here. Not as many bluebonnets as we've had in the past, but we think most of them are hiding in the tall grass. With all the rain that we've had this Spring, the grass grew tall very quickly and over-shadowed the bluebonnets. Still, there are brilliant patches of bluebonnets here and there, as well as the red Indian paintbrushes, and those little pink wildflowers that I believe are called Prairie Roses.

I recently looked through the pictures of our two trips to England.... to London the year before last, and a trip to The Cotswolds last year. I'd gladly go back to England again and again and never tire of the history of the city and the carefully tended beauty of the English countryside. This year, however, I've already told my husband that I don't want to travel anywhere across the Atlantic. Way too much going on over there to suit me, and all of the 'goings on' have been just hateful and pointless and sad, very sad. There are too many people in this world who have no sense of right and wrong, no standard of decency and kindness, and absolutely no regard for quality of life. The meek may indeed inherit the earth, but will that happen before or after the malevolent have destroyed it?

Easter Sunday

Not exactly perfect weather this morning for wearing a new Easter bonnet, if one should wish to indulge, but the sky cleared up and the weather turned sunny and warm this afternoon. My cousin F and I were eMailing back and forth yesterday, discussing the long-ago days when everyone we knew got a brand-spanking-new outfit to wear to church on Easter. Everything from a new hat and hair barrettes to new socks and shoes, and everything else in-between.  I told Francine that going to church on Easter Sunday was more to see what the other kids were wearing than to listen to whatever the priest had to say, which was always considerably more than we wanted to hear at that age.

Our Easter Day here was quiet.... woke up early (wonder of wonders, Savannah didn't bark in the middle of the night) and then went out for a few errands around noon, ending with a lunch at the Chinese restaurant. (Nothing says 'Easter' like Chinese food.)  Most of the smaller stores are closed today, as they should be, and I was surprised that the supermarket in town was also shut tight (good for them, letting their employees enjoy the day off).  No surprise to us was that Walmart was open in town, business as usual, no matter what day of the year it happens to be.  I can appreciate the convenience of stores being open whenever you need something, but I do wish that everyone would close their doors on holidays.  If you know a store will be closed on a certain day, then you just make it your business to get what you need the day before, or wait till the day after. I guess retailers don't think that way... no customers = no money, and that's their bottom line.

Savannah has been very good these last couple of days. Guess she knows that I was not thrilled with her less-than-stellar behavior last week when I barely got a full night's sleep (or even a half-night's sleep) because she chose to bark at every leaf dropping from the trees or spinning in the wind on the driveway.  She gets a Blue Ribbon for being a good watch-dog, but honestly, will I believe her when/if she really has something to bark about?  My husband said that maybe Savannah is lonely at night and possibly needs another puppy to keep her company. The man is delusional. I have only one answer to that statement of his: Over my dead body.

After midnight...

It seems that I'm always up in the middle of the night these days. Not only up, but outside with Savannah because of her ridiculous barking. This puppy is nearly one year old  now and you would think that this night-time barking of hers would have been over by now. Not only is it not over, but it's getting worse.

Little did we know that one of the traits of a Great Pyrenees is their nocturnal habits... this dog is wide awake for most of the night, in her quest to protect us. Protect us from what? Getting enough sleep? Give me a blessed break.

As I type this, I am in the breakfast room with Savannah. I have this room blocked off with two chairs in order to keep her in here and out of the kitchen. After reading one of the pet web-sites after midnight last night, it was suggested that a Great Pyrenees be kept in a dark room away from night-time stimuli. Not easy to do in a house filled with windows. Do they want me to let her sleep in a closet?  As for 'night-time stimuli,' these hills are filled with wildlife that comes out after dark, and that's more than enough stimuli for a dog to bark at because this particular dog hears every blessed little sound out there.

My husband suggested we keep her outside in the fenced-in coop. No way. All she will do out there is bark for the entire night, and not only keep us awake, but all of the neighbors as well. Plus, I don't want an outside dog. I want a dog that can be kept in the house and be clean and well-mannered and know that day-time is for playing and night-time is for sleeping, damn it.

Savannah has been quiet since I came downstairs. In all honesty, I think she's tired of being down here by herself at night. My husband doesn't want her upstairs, and neither did I when we first brought her home. For a puppy who took her own sweet time bonding with us, it now seems that she doesn't want us out of her sight. I haven't decided yet if that's a sweet thing or a bad thing. I'm too blasted tired these days to make that decision.

Last night after a similar barking session, as I stayed upstairs trying to be patient and just let her 'bark it out,' I came down here to find that she had made a hole in her bed and pulled out the stuffing, and she had also chewed on the bottom step of the back staircase. I sewed up the hole in her bed, but there's nothing I can do about her teeth marks on that first step... those marks will be a gentle reminder that puppies can, and will, sometimes do stupid things.

I've been questioning my sanity about getting this dog... being up in the middle of the night, every night, isn't exactly what I want to do for the next ten to twelve years. And being that I no longer trust her not to chew things such as a wood step or the back of a chair, Savannah will have to be boarded when we travel. She won't like that a bit, and neither will I, but I won't have her thinking that she can damage things in this house when she's not supervised.

So here I sit at 2:30 in the morning, wide awake after having walked Savannah up and down by our driveway a little while ago. She had to pee, and for that, I'm glad she woke me up. I'm wondering now if I can go back upstairs and get into bed and not have her start barking again the minute I take off my slippers, which is what she did half an hour ago.

And whose idea was it to get a dog?  Mine. All mine.  Give me a blessed break.

St. Patrick's Day...

...and yes, I remembered to wear green. Never let it be said that this Italian girl doesn't know how to dress and accessorize for this auspicious day.

It can indeed be said, however, that I've been skipping a bunch of days in this blog. Keeping up with my "A Puppy Named Savannah" blog has been an on-going process... a heartfelt and heart-rending endeavor that I've promised myself to continue until Savannah's one-year anniversary with us, which will be September 12.  Savannah's birth-date is April 12, so she's nearly a year old already... how time flies when you're raising a puppy.

Since Savannah's arrival in our household, I truly need more hours in a day for all I'd like to get done from sun-up to sun-set. Thankfully, we've set the clocks ahead so we get more daylight, which is most welcome. This is the first year in my entire adult life that I totally forgot to change the time... we woke up on Sunday morning with our clocks being one hour behind the time registered on our cell phones and computers. (Oh, what tech-y things have taken over our lives...)

I put up my little St. Patty's Day trees, filled with shamrocks and leprechauns... but I didn't make soda bread, nor did I have a dinner party asking everyone to wear green and bring some sort of green food (naturally green, not food-color green).  When I took out the St. Patty's decorations from the storage closet, some of them were sent to my cousin's daughter in Chicago and some went into my booth at the antique shop. I kept just the best and favorites... because you can't just breeze through St. Patty's Day without a few green shamrocks and cute little leprechauns.

Our Wednesday group of tea ladies (who now meet on Thursdays) got together today to make Christmas ornaments (not exactly a St. Patty's Day project, but we did that two Thursdays ago). With Easter being just two weeks away, I will probably not display most of the Easter/Spring decorations... just one or two little Easter trees filled with Radko-esque egg ornaments.  I've already gone through the boxes of Easter decorations and sent some porcelain bunnies and chicks to the children of my cousins, and brought some to the antique shop. For next Thursday's tea, we will be coloring Easter eggs, which will be a treat for most of us who haven't colored eggs in years.

It is nearly midnight as I'm typing. No matter how much daylight I have, it's never enough. It is also past the middle of March already, with April coming up quickly.  The wildflowers are blooming in the pastures and along the roadside and we have an eleven-month-old puppy who thinks that biting off the top of every bluebonnet she sees is an acceptable accomplishment.

I sometimes question my sanity at our decision to get another dog at this stage of our lives. But then Savannah puts her head in my lap and her paws on my knees and I think that maybe I'm not so crazy after all. (But when Savannah barks at two o'clock in the morning because a raccoon happens to walk across the porch, my sanity goes right out the proverbial window.)

Rain, rain, and more rain...

...and everyone knows how much I hate rainy days, especially our puppy Savannah.  We haven't had much rain lately, so I know that we need it... but honestly, can't it fall between the hours of midnight and six o'clock in the morning when puppies are sleeping and don't have to be walked?

This deluge of rain came with an abundance of wind... so ridiculously windy that it was a chore just to walk up and down the hill with Savannah. And I would swear that this puppy loves the wind as much as she loves the rain... jumping in the wind, splashing in the puddles, taking her sweet blessed time as if she had nothing better to do than be outside in this stupid weather. These last few mornings, I have seriously asked myself if it was a good thing to get another dog.... (the answer always comes out to be 'yes' on that question).

Speaking of questions... my cousin F eMails me every night with the highlights and her opinions on the political debates which, like the rain and the wind, are in abundance at the moment. I must be the most apolitical person on the planet, because one way or the other, I just don't care. I've long ago come to the conclusion that the only thing that changes with each presidential election is the nameplate on the desk in the Oval Office of the White House.  So F gives me her daily take on the discussions and her opinions on the individual candidates. My cousin's eMails are far more interesting than anything that the network debates have to offer.

F and I have decided that whoever has been giving fashion advice to Hillary has just got to quit. As in Stop. Right. Now.  Those suits of Hillary's with the very long jackets and the over-sized pockets--- they went out of style decades ago with Captain Kangeroo, and they actually looked very good on the Captain but they look ridiculously clownish on Hillary. Finally, Hillary updated her hair and her make-up and started to wear some decent jewelry, but then all of that got buried by those enormous jackets. And if the FBI is still looking for missing/lost eMails of Hillary's, then they should start looking in those big pockets.

My cousin and I have decided that Cruz and Woody Woodpecker are long-lost brothers, Rubio needs to get out of the political arena till he grows up, Jeb needs to just stay in Florida where he belongs, and Trump (best-dressed with a NY attitude who can get anything done anytime and anywhere) just may run away with the upcoming election even though he will probably ruffle some political feathers along the way.

As for Kasich and Sanders.... both of them are like mosquitoes--- annoying, pointless, and they both should have just been slapped out of the race a long time ago. (Ditto for Hillary, but at least my cousin and I can talk about her outfits every night. This country may indeed need a woman for president, but we need someone with better taste--- in men, in values, and in truth.)

So ends a rainy day out here in the Hills.... the ground is soggy, the trees are dripping, the pond is full, the ant hills will be exploding out of the grass in a couple of days, and I still have a puppy who needs to be walked no matter how wet it may be outside. Oh goodie.