Her Life in Pictures: Eight

Those of you who have human children can relate to this... I've seen little kids do this many times. You are someplace...visiting family, a fair, a park... out of your norm. Your kid is running around and in the middle of lots of excitement, the kid stops and comes up to you and says, "Mom, I'm SOOOOO HAPPY!!!" and then runs back to the exciting thing they were doing.

I've had this happen with both Maggie and with Mabel. Maggie did it to me the first time I took her to visit a house with other dogs. She stopped playing, ran up and just stared into my eyes as her whole body shook with glee. And she ran back to play. I was lucky enough to be holding a camera when Mabel did this to me in the summer of 09. This is a happy dog!

Mabel Lou was in demand socially! We would regularly have "Bone Parties" with the Rhodesians. It was quite comical. Every dog was given a frozen marrow bone... they would all curl up on a favorite chair or sofa. In Mabel's case, she would stand on the the front porch and whine at her Auntie until the "company rug" was placed just so for her. They would all chew a bit and then as if some voice only understood by dogs said, "SWITCH!!" they would all change bones. Mabel would get her pick but there was always some quibbling between the Rhodies as to who would get Mabel's bone. Mabel's bone was highly coveted!

I have always treated my dog to vanilla ice cream. Actually this habit was started by my mother when we used to take Maggie to Balboa park. She would always buy Mags a cup of vanilla. And if I go to an ice cream shop and my pup is with me, they get a scoop of vanilla. Mabel got her last scoop about 10 days before she passed.

At home, Mabel would always start in the kitchen with a cup but would pick it up and go to the den. Then she'd pick it up and take it outside.

Late summer, the national forest that feeds our favorite playground would catch on fire and burn for nearly month. For several breathtaking nights, members of the Creekerati would join us on our porch as we watch the mountainsides around us glowing. We would hike Alpine trail only once more after the fire.

 

 The mountain across from Mabel used to be lush and green...

 
The first rain after the fire brought down so much soot and ash. It was a muddy mess to hike in...not that any of us minded. Rain would heal our forest and our creek...eventually. Not yet, but eventually!

And it was this next photo, taken by a friend as we were treating the dogs to cream at a coffee outing, that made me realize my girl was getting older. Where did all that gray come from?

Mabel got her favorite for Christmas...as always! And was happy about it...as always!

She loved hiking with friends...

All of my friends have always made fun of me for the shear number of dog beds I have for ONE dog!  I'm not about to explain myself again in a memorial post but, Mabel adored when it was bed washing day! All the beds would end up in the living room as I recovered them for whatever season we were headed into. She would frequently try to fit on several at once.

If I have to think of all of hikes we've ever had and pick only one to say was my favorite, it took place on New Year's Day of 2010. The wash above the Rose Bowl is an amazing hike, especially on that holiday. There's the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl game to provide a distant roar of a crowd. There were flyovers back then by the B2 Stealth Bombers. They would often organize their positions above us as we hiked... As a flight geek, I can only liken it to being backstage at a performance by your favorite singer. It was awesome!

Couple in the cool weather and water flowing... it was just the happiest day! And Mabel Lou was in fine comedic form! The stream was a bit too deep for the tiny dogs we were hiking with to cross on their own, so we would place a fallen tree at periodic spots to allow the small dogs to cross. Mabel would have none of this... as all trees and sticks were hers! ( I just remembered I've been saving pics for a Tree Saving 101 post for over a year!)

Every time we tried to place this tree trunk, Mabel would make off with it! I would go get it and place it where the little ones could cross and yet the tree would not affect the flow of the stream. And Mabel would steal it again. This went on so long... about 30 minutes of the 3 hour hike was spent dealing with the tree and the thief! I normally don't post photos of myself... so you'll have to understand how very happy I was "fighting" with my dog to be willing to show you this:


Just look at her go!

My 2nd favorite hike took place on February 9th of that year. It was another three hour hike. The Rottrovers were with us for part of it and I wrote about it in three separate parts beginning here. Part Two is about Mabel's boyfriend...her only one ever! His name was Maxi and they dated for almost a year, before he moved away. She would still go by his house and look for him for years!

But Part Three of this story was the best... Mabel decided to try her hand at being a teenaged girl! It was hilarious to watch and one of the most exciting days ever in our creek!

This year was SO exciting... I've barely touched on anything! Our friends from Minnesota came to visit... If Mabel had a human boyfriend, it was my pal Becky's hubby.

And Mabel's pal Ruby joined our pack. What a year!!!

Only In L.A.

Los Angeles can be such weird place to live sometimes. From amazing quiet beauty to loud, proud and downright strange. It's often a study of dichotomy.

I awoke to fire in a beloved place this morning. Not really a surprise with the winds we've been having. But, there's some tug at my heart; a deep sadness when some place I love burns.

This is a new place to me. I only saw it for the first time during Christmas. It's a favorite fishing hole of an old college buddy and we spent an afternoon exploring there less than a month ago. And today, it's on fire.

And you just have to love our local yokel news station. The news casters spend a lot of time talking about nothing and they are certainly less polished than their major network affiliate counterparts.  But in the end, they tell more local news than any other station here. So they are THE choice for morning news. I would leave the channel on all day if it didn't devolve into the endless bleeps and shouting from crap tv like Maury and his baby daddy seeking ilk.

On a day like today, with "major breaking news" they broadcast the fire news all day. That is...until it was time for the red carpet walk at the Critic's Choice Awards (what the heck is that?). Then the major breaking news was all about "Who are you wearing?" and "What does it mean to be nominated?"

Only in La La Land.

Vibrant December / Pink Christmas

Southern California blows my mind in December. It's a shame that I've lived here since 1987 and have only managed to spend a handful of Decembers in my transplanted home state.

Since we start to get a bit more rain, the clouds make for spectacular sunsets.

And the trees! December seems to be our "fall color" month and the trees seem to decorate themselves. I think it's one of the reasons I'm so unenthusiastic about decorating a Christmas tree... I would rather be outside, taking it all in.

Even a trip to the grocery store reveals trees in vibrant orange that go unnoticed the rest of the year:

 

These mulberry branches are so thick that Mabel and I hid out under them when we were caught in a sudden summer rain. We only left when we realized the stream was getting too wide to leap over. But in December, they are so bare, they wouldn't protect us from a sprinkle:

But they don't strip before putting on a show:

The crisp cool air makes the moon feel magical coming over the mountains:

It feels lovely to be hiking the North / South trail in the creek with the moon coming up on one side and sun setting on the other:

 Mabel is fascinated by the leaves, especially those floating on the water:

 

I love this shot because you cannot tell where land ends and the creek begins!

I thought I would tack a personal bit on about the holiday as my mother's Facebook minions that share everything little thing I post with her, will have gotten bored by now if they bothered to click over.

Mom somehow convinced herself that I was going Louisiana for Christmas. This freaked several in the family out! I think she truly didn't believe that I would leave her all alone the first Christmas after my sister died, even though I had begged her to come here for months. We had a very sad phone call on Christmas Eve when I had her check her caller and i.d. and "do the math" to realize... I simply couldn't make it to Baton Rouge for Christmas.

In the end, I think it's good for her to be alone with her grief a maybe start to realize her only family is in California.

Me??? I found myself having a pink Christmas! I eschewed my usual olive or forest greens with the occasional pop of red for...PINK. I think it was so I could wear this:

It was my sister's and I found myself wearing it everywhere. It made me feel like I was taking her out to see the sights of Christmas and to every party I attended. I think it might be my new Christmas color!

If It's Not One Thing

...it's 87 others! I'm wide awake at one a.m. - not that I don't want to sleep. We're having one of those infamous California wind storms.

I'm  cowering in my house listening to my inner fence (the tall one that makes me feel so safe) come apart banging against the outer fence  and wondering if I will have a roof (house?) coming daylight.

These winds are so violent. At 85 m.p.h, they are reminiscent of a Louisiana hurricane without the rain. I miss the rain...it drowns out the other sounds of a wind storm! I can hear dirt and debris sand blasting my windows. The limbs of my date palm are crashing to the ground with great thuds. What looks like a bed sheet is caught in the power lines up on the corner and snapping. My padlocked garage door lifts up an inch or so and thunks back. Mabel, stress breathing in the hallway, is happy to have an extra set of walls between her and the storm. Every plastic bucket in my yard is blowing...somewhere. And the ever present wood on concrete banging of my fences.

I wonder how on earth I will feel secure leaving my pup at home alone with much shorter fences in a mere two weeks?

Right now, it just feels like the problems keep banging up against my head like the wind in my fences. It's been a really stressful  five days.

::A fun trip the bestie and I planned the day after Thanksgiving went to you-know-where in a hand-basket when someone need to hang at her house until they could arrange a ride. My bestie, being the kind, generous soul she is, changed our long planned trip. I took the casserole I had made for the trip over to stash in her extra fridge... and barely made the 3/4 mile trip home!

::My beloved jeep - 13 years old would not shift out of first gear all the way up the hill home. I just kept going, running stop signs, further up the mountain to my mechanic. As suspected, the transmission is out.

::Since I had prayed and put out into the universe all year that both the bestie and I needed newer cars, (and the bestie just got one!), maybe it was time... I spent days on the phone, wheeling and dealing. I'm not a car person. My needs are simple: electric windows (in case Mabel sees a cat), air conditioning (middle aged femalehood is bear on fire!), and a plug for my ipod (I hate commercials!). And it should run... that's it! After days of negotiating, even consulting a professional broker, I just couldn't deal with the added debt. I'm dumbstruck that I could buy a new car (with very little interest) for about the same price as an used one! That's just wrong!

::I'm still in shock that a new tranny is coming just as Los Angeles' exorbitant property taxes are due. I just love how these damn things are due in early December, pretty much guaranteeing I never have a good Christmas. At least I can put the car on a credit card and deal with it in a few months... guaranteeing I won't have a good birthday either!

::There goes another palm limb! I heard a woman was actually hit by a falling tree walking to get groceries tonight!

::Who WALKS to get groceries in an 80 mph wind storm? Housebound carless people, that's who! It's so hard to live in LA without a car! I'm amazed at the things I normally have plenty of that have run out this week!

• I'm down to 7 rolls of toilet paper. I usually have a case. The logical side of me knows that's 3 1/2 weeks. The not so logical side is freaked!
• Every fire alarm in my house started beeping and I only had one 9 volt battery in the house!
• I managed to run out of my favorite acid reducer during the most stressful week in ages.
• OJ, bread... 
• And the creek... I've managed to swing a ride here and there but Mabel has seemed grateful for neighborhood walkies.

::The last time Bessie the Jeep got a new tranny, she was away from home for seven days! It will be more this time thanks to the days lost trying to get a new Bessie. When I brought her home last time - 51,000 miles ago, Mabel raced into the drive way and kissed the bumper repeatedly! Since Mabel has spent the last several days wandering into the drive and loudly crying her displeasure, I wonder if Bessie will get a similar greeting???

::In the end, some part of me fears I will never make real money again...that it will always be a hard row to hoe. But, I am somewhat happy about keeping my old beast. It's Mabel's car. She loves that Jeep! They don't make them where the back seat flips up and creates a Mabel Lou seat any more. So many of the vehicles I have looked at have hard plastic and are slanted... my girl would slide all over and not be happy at all. Mabel and the Jeep were made for each other. I just get to visit in their world. It's much nicer there!

Sorry to Disappear - But the Shoes Were Calling My Name

I kept forgetting my camera after day 2 of my sister's visit. But we did more shopping than I've done in a year! I was dead dog tired!

And my sister wasn't solely to blame. I discovered J-41 shoes. Shoes designed by Jeep... are car sales so bad that they want to get in on the ground floor of the original mode of transportation??? I'm only kidding. I love my Jeep and I love my J-41s. They are so comfortable: Soles made from recycled tires; great arch support!

Only every store we went to had them in the wrong size. I finally found this red pair but was longing for their trail rated - water proof model.

 I finally found the water proof one on the left in gray and lavender... ahhh!

Dancing with the Stars was a hoot. No celebs in the audience if you don't count Rick Fox's trashy girlfriend Eliza Dushku. We had VIP seating, which I didn't realize. So we stood in line for two hours in 100 degree temps (I wore shorts under my fancy dress to sit on the concrete!) all to get to our assigned seats! LOL!  Rod Stewart was kind of disappointing. The screen behind us turned into gigantic teleprompter so he could read the lyrics. Snooze.

But, my sister got to be a hero when she held our place as I went back to the car for bottle water. A guy in a wheelchair jumped a curb and wrecked. An even though we were not supposed to enter the studio lot, my sister did! She ran and got security to call 911. The man in the wheelchair was so grateful.

The whole time my sister was here, my bestie was gone to Mesquite, NV for the World Long Drive championships. Her hubby made the quarter finals. I was on dog sitting duty in the mornings with my
godson on night duty with Bart. That was fun to get to know the boy away from the BFF. I have quite a few Bart tales I will share as I get back into the blogging saddle.

ONLY in L.A. - The Catering Truck

I had a quintessential L.A. moment waiting in line to buy some water from one of those uber-trendy catering trucks that pepper our streets.

Man in Line: Didn't I see you on one of those food network shows?

Catering Truck Guy: Me? No. I won't do one of those.

MIL: Why not? It's great publicity.

CTG: Oh, you know... those shows never give you final cut approval!

I had to put my water down and walk away to keep from laughing. In all my days in Hollyweird, I can count the number of DIRECTORS who get final cut on one hand... and catering truck wants final cut! Oh. My. Gawd!