Early-morning irony

So I've set aside time to blog, and I can't remember what I was going to blog about.


O, irony.

I guess we'll go with some assorted updates:

- The church search continues (as we expect it to for several more months). We have become moderately involved in one community of faith, but we aren't sure that it's home. So we drop a fiver in the offering basket and keep tithing to the church we still miss, back in Texas.
- Since I last blogged, we had The Great Granite Countertop Debacle of 2010, which has now been solved, thanks to a second granite company and another chunk of cash. Such a piddly little first-world problem that took up way too much of our energy.
- The slate backsplash will go in this weekend, and the new fridge arrives tomorrow. After that, we just have to finish texturing and painting in there and our kitchen will be ready. When that's done, it's down to bedroom walls, master bathroom, and trim throughout the house.
- We haven't yet figured out the proper configuration for dog-bathing in this house, as it doesn't have an inescapable sliding shower door like the last house did. So today the dogs are off to the local Pet Palace, where they'll get the stink washed off of 'em.
- Found out that a friend of mine who was asked by his superiors to take a leave of absence from pastoring has pretty much been told they don't want him back, so he enrolled in truck-driving school. This is supposed to be the new era, where churches will need to change to meet the needs of the "mission field." I think this particular pastor may have gotten into trouble by pushing his churches (too hard for their tastes) to do just that. So he's told not to expect to be appointed anywhere. Again with the irony.
- Have barely begun shopping for Christmas gifts (because I'm sick of consumer Christmas and we are busy enough already). What we have bought is fair trade, and I believe we'll be spending a bunch of money on items from the Heifer Gift Catalog, too. I love Heifer. In November I got to visit both their ranch and their world headquarters. In fact, our little bit of Christmas shopping was done at the ranch gift shop.

Okay, time for breakfast, both human and canine varieties. 'Bye now.

Dogstuff

Sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to training in MethoVaticanCity, so I thought I'd blog (hooray for free wi-fi at LIT terminal!). This morning was absolutely lovely, and I thought the dogs deserved some more time outside than just their hurry-up-run-and-pee-get-back-in-here-you-have-no-fence-no-don't-run-after-that-rooster-and-don't-eat-that-whatever-it-is-and-don't-even-PRETEND-to-go-toward-the-road experience that's currently their typical trip outdoors.

I gave them each separate trips outside so I only had to worry with watching one dog at a time.

Tuesday chose to waller in the cool grass under the shade tree:

Angus did his share of wallering, too, and then he and I had a nice play session with his bluebell (he's still great at attempting to fly after it as it sails through the air):

I love my dogs. The Alpha's parents are really great -- they take excellent care of the dogs whether I'm there or not, so I'll have no worries about them while I'm in MethoVaticanCity. But I'm praying for a house sale soon, so I can choose their next fenced backyard and be able to let them out without guarding their every move.

The Jacuzzi Incident of 2010

It really doesn't begin with the Jacuzzi. It begins with my new job leading to a move across state lines, which led us to put our house on the market, which in turn led us to find a temporary place for these two:

FILE PHOTO

A sweet, sweet college friend and her family offered to keep them. Her daughter had fallen in love with them while visiting us last autumn. Between her offer to keep them and the actual arrival of said dogs at her house, life got a little more complicated. We won't go into it here, but it did factor into lowering the breaking point of the household.

I drove the dogs to my home state, spent one night with them at my friends' house, then came back to Texas. Here they are a few minutes after I left:

Because this household had never hosted dogs before, and the girl raised on the farm had in fact never had an indoor dog, we agreed it would probably be best for the humans' peace of mind if the dogs weren't allowed the run of the entire house in the absence of said humans.

So, when they left for work the next day, the spacious and lovely master bathroom it was.

We all figured I'd wind up doing some repair to door scratches by The Boy. Yes, indeed, I'll be sanding and staining their bathroom door at some point later this year. Not a huge deal. They said it already had some nicks anyway.

That evening, my dear college friend stepped out of the shower to discover a puddle of puke on her master bedroom carpet. She called, of course, because I'm far more wise in the ways of dog puke than she. After a thorough over-the-phone analysis, we determined it was probably The Boy, and was just nerves -- not totally unexpected, because The Boy has a Complex.

About an hour later, I received a text message: "I just settled in to fall asleep -- only to awaken to a very large barf from Angus."

The follow-up text: "Kevin just found pieces of soap in the pile of barf."

Subsequent texts included phrases such as, "I thought it WAS toddler-proof" and "I don't know where the frick he got the soap. It's almost like he climbed into the jacuzzi." Also, "Tuesday acts a bit ashamed of him..."

The next morning I called our veterinarian, who already knew about the move (we'd had one last checkup for Tuesday and took Angus along to say farewell, too). She prescribed some doggy downers and called it in to a pharmacy near my friends.

Before making the pharmacy run, though, my dear sweet college friend went straight home after work. It's a good thing she did, because getting there earlier conserved several gallons of water.

We will never know for certain exactly how a dog (or perhaps the combined efforts of two dogs) managed to turn on the Jacuzzi faucet.

What we do suspect, and what Dear Sweet College Friend later wished she'd photographed, is that based on the positioning of the bath towels that had been pulled off the rack and down onto the floor, they did try to build a dam after the Jacuzzi overflowed. (We are still finding that part astounding. If they could build a dam, why couldn't they have just turned the faucet back off instead?)

You see, Dear Sweet College Friend had tossed a couple of bathroom rugs into said Jacuzzi to keep them away from a certain anxiety-driven dog. So when the faucet got bumped, the water wasn't able to drain as efficiently as it would've in an empty tub. And the overflow drain just couldn't keep up. My friend discovered an abundance of water and wet fur, both freed from and attached to the dogs in question.

Two loads of laundry and one master bedroom carpet shampooing later, it turned out that the Jacuzzi Incident of 2010 did not actually cause any damage to the house. Or to our friendship.

But it did cause a rapid deployment of The Alpha's parents, who live 45 minutes away from Dear Sweet College Friend. They were there in just one hour to pick up their granddogs and all of their accompanying accessories.

Have I mentioned lately how awesome my in-laws are? Because they are.

Dear Sweet College Friend's daughter was distraught, of course. "But mama... I love those dogs!" "Mama, can I please take 'em out to pee one last time?" Oh, so sad. I'll have to take them back to visit her when I get up there.

The dogs are much calmer at the family homestead. They've stayed there with us many times, so the environment is far from foreign. And there is no Jacuzzi.

When we asked if they'd caused any damage without us there, my mother-in-law answered, "Well, they've about worn out the couch... from sleeping on it."

We saw them Sunday night and Monday morning, when we drove up for a quick house-hunting expedition. And before we left, I did give The Boy a doggy downer to cut the separation anxiety. But he hasn't needed them on a regular basis.

I move in with my in-laws at the end of the month, just before I start my new job. I'm kind of looking forward to being covered in dog fur again.

But I'm not too keen on looking for a house with a Jacuzzi.

Because it's been too long...

...I'm resorting to a random-highlights kind of blog entry.

- The real estate sign is in our yard. We're almost to the one-week mark, and we have only had one official showing. Didn't realize how much I had my hopes up until we got absolutely no action over the weekend.

- Our across-the-street neighbor died yesterday after a long decline. I'll most definitely be attending his service later this week.

- My last day at the office was Friday. It was lovely. I got all kinds of cool stuff, including my very own custom cover of our publication, framed and ready to hang in my new office. I'd try to explain the jokes, but most people wouldn't get 'em. The one that readers of this blog most definitely will understand: The article "Rescue ministry expands" mentions that I have to move out of state because I've already placed dogs with all of my friends in Texas, and I need a fresh crop of potential homes for more. (I suppose there's some truth to that.)

- Here's one of the other gifts I received. I think I'll carry it at Annual Conference -- and definitely at General Conference, if I wind up attending.

- Took the dogs to Arkansas on July 4. Left them there on July 5 so our new carpet could be installed and remain dander-free for potential new owners. Had to arrange a spur-of-the-moment relocation for them after The Jacuzzi Incident of 2010. Will blog that one later. Wish I had pictures.

- Saw the dogs Sunday and Monday during a trip to look at houses. Miss them. Will be moving in with them in less than 2 weeks, while The Alpha stays behind until the house sells or until we just can't take it anymore.

- Met our new niece in the same trip. Longest pinky toes I've ever seen.

- Regarding the other side of the family (mine), I'm having second thoughts about moving to Arkansas. Family Systems Theory suggests that proximity to family members really doesn't matter that much, but I'm starting to wonder.

- A very dear college friend is expecting. Being closer to her during this time will be a definite plus.

- Goals for today: Train new church secretary on website updates. Pack at least 4 boxes. Attend my last practice with the band. A few other things thrown in there, too. Maybe I'll find a moment to blog about The Jacuzzi Incident.

Technical difficulties stream of consciousness

Hmmmm.

- I set up a new email address. I thought I changed everything over, but Blogger didn't want to start sending my comments to the new address. I finally got it to quit sending to my old address... but now I think they're going out into the ether somewhere instead of landing in any inbox of mine.

- The reason I set up a new email address is because we are moving.

- Holy crap, we are moving back to our home state.

- Seriously. Damn.

- I like it here. The Alpha likes it here. We like the life we've built here. The dogs like freeloading off the life we've built here. Why couldn't the incredible job opportunity like it here, too?

- The BAND, Elwood! ... the BAND!!!

- My KITCHEN!

- We still have one foster dog who needs adopting. Our home state allows BSLs (breed-specific laws) restricting where dogs who look like Crystal can live. We could take her with us if it comes to that--which is why we aren't looking in the suburb that has the outright ban on three breeds--but I don't think it would be a friendly environment for her.

- I am really digging this CD lately.

- Oh, great. My last two blog comments just arrived via the old address. No progress there.

- It's bedtime.

*Sigh*

I saw something disturbing this morning.

I think I do a decent job of keeping my political preferences low on the radar. I don't hide them, but I also don't shove them in other people's faces. I don't list them on the social networking site referred to by many RevGals as Spacehook. I don't want my politics to be a barrier to relationship with those who don't share my opinions.

Which is why I found it especially disturbing that a bumper sticker reading, "Yes! I want [last name of the person inaugurated on January 20, 2009] to fail!" was on a vehicle in my church parking lot.

It's one thing to see something like that in traffic. It's in poor taste no matter where it is, and no matter who you voted for. But I saw this sticker where my community of faith gathers. That's what disappoints me. As if we don't have enough barriers to people understanding that our God is a god of love, we have a message that flat-out wishes ill on someone who is trying to do his job.

And, in my opinion, if that person fails at his or her job, the entire country fails along with him or her. So if you agree with that bumper sticker, you're also wishing for my failure and your own.

When someone I don't like is holding political office, I grumble, but I also pray for the person in leadership. The decisions they must make involve factors that I have no idea even exist. That job is difficult beyond belief.

So, am I supposed to say anything? The owner of that truck and I have a long history of seeing the world in different ways. Yet we've been members of the same church for nearly a decade now. It's seems like it's getting more difficult, though. He hasn't been coming to worship very much, and I suspect it's because he disagrees with some people in leadership. I refuse to shut myself off like that. It's a choice I make, and it's not always an easy one, but God created us to love others.

Even when others are behaving in ways that embarrass us.

Sunday night randomosity

...Here's a pic I took of The Boy earlier today. He was all curled up on the couch, on his dog blanket, and he actually let me wrap it up around him.


...This week is the countdown to Lovely Niece's wedding. I have yet to find out exactly when the pianist wants me there for vocal rehearsal in advance of wedding rehearsal proper, but I am happily at Lovely Niece's disposal for the better part of two days, so I'll be there when I'm told.

...My dad is part of a clinical study for cancer treatment now. He was diagnosed about 11 years ago, and it's starting to resist methods that have worked for a while. So my side of the family's Thanksgiving supper isn't an organized event this year, because he and his wife will be driving back from Amazing Cancer Center to Land of Our Roots that day. It's the first of his bi-weekly trips relating to this study. I'm hoping they don't get too road-weary in the coming months, and that he's not on the stinkin' placebo, which is a possibility.

...Despite all the stress surrounding this (and pretty much every) wedding, I'm really looking forward to seeing Lovely Niece give me my first Nephew-in-Law on Saturday. They've been together for about 8 years. It's time. I also love that she has an appreciation for liturgy, and that she and her groom are both clear that this ceremony is worship, and follows the order thereof.

...The sanctuary in Hometown Church will already be decorated for Advent, which begins the morning after the wedding. We ended Worship Committee meeting tonight by preparing our own sanctuary for Advent. I felt a bit younger climbing up the ladder to add the crown atop the Chrismon tree. (I don't enjoy decorating my tree anymore. Haven't for years. I just see it as a hassle these days.)

...I just finished my supper: One bottle of Newcastle. (No, that's not at all a normal supper for me.)

...I've known for some time that my dogs have it better than a lot of people, but I received reinforcement of that knowledge this afternoon when I upgraded The Boy's bed to the same kind we just bought for Tuesday (there was some coveting action going on). First-world guilt, served up right here.

...There's something else I want to blog, but I don't know what it is. There's a good chance it could be something unbloggable anyway, so I'm just going to leave it alone for now.

Crack-looker.

This is the view we get of Angus as we're pulling into the garage.


He knows we're coming home, he knows he can't get to us from there, but he looks anyway. At a certain point, he runs inside the patio to wait for us to let him inside, but looking at us through the crack by the back gate is part of his routine.

I'm feeling annoyingly introspective tonight and wondering what I can learn from my crack-looker.

What cracks do I peer through even though looking there won't do me any good?

What's worth anticipating, and what's not?

Does looking where I cannot go make any kind of positive sense?

I ran up against something today. I knew I was going to run up against it. It's a barrier that's been there for a while. I don't see much likelihood that it'll go away. I just figure that someday I'll attend a funeral or two and after that I won't even get to look through the crack by the gate.

So, until then, is looking through the crack better than nothing?