Doggie Slut - Part Deux

Janet's question on yesterday's post about Mabel and all the power / phone outages made me go ahead and post this.

I had to park behind the BofA in Sun Valley while paying my bill. I have always used my security key to unlock my car as soon as I can see it. It's a Mabel game. I like to watch her bob her head, looking for some recognition on every face until she sees me.

As I approached the corner of the building, still not able to see the car, I clicked the doors and as I rounded the corner, I saw a security guard jump back retracting his hand. Mabel's head was out of the car and she stretched further to kiss him. He was embarrassed at being "caught" petting her. She was NOT embarrassed being caught kissing him.

What alarms me is I frequently leave my purse in my car thinking Who would be dumb enough to put their hand in a car with a rottweiler? Well, I found that guy and I'm carrying my purse!



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How Did We Ever Get By...

Before phones, electricity and Internet? I got to find out yesterday and I didn't like it one bit!

I woke up and turned on the t.v. I record East Coast GMA at four a.m. because I can fast forward through the whole two hours in under 40 minutes and wake up while cuddling the pup. The power went off almost immediately. I got up and decided to head to the creek and power was back on before I left. I chalked it up to a fluke and enjoyed a somewhat breezy hike.

I had hired a young man to trim back my unruly hedges (using my electric trimmer). He showed up at nine and after we chatted and I showed him what I wanted done, I ran into the shop to start work. He immediately popped in to say my trimmer wasn't working. As some fidgeting with the thing, I realized we had no power again.

By now, we're having a full on wind storm and I'm suspicious the power trouble was being caused by the wind. Still, it's not the worst winds I've seen. I checked with neighbors and found it was the wind; no one had power. We got electricity back after about 40 minutes this time, but the cold wind left me feeling edgy.

My big task of the day was to pay my Visa bill. Since I get too busy at times, I had waited until the last possible day to walk into Bank of America to pay it. In order to pay the bill, I needed money in my checking account from another bank which meant moving it from my savings before paying the bill.

Normally, I log onto my bank's internet site, move the money and drive to BofA and pay the bill in under seven minutes. But yesterday, I quickly realized the my internet wasn't working. So, I started trying to phone my ISP. I usually do this by dialing 0 and asking to be connected. 0 wasn't working. Nor was 00 or 611 (repair) or 411 or 1-800 information. I'm starting to panic. Did I forget to pay the phone bill???

I call my best friend. I got her and we chatted a bit. OK, that's better. I'll just phone the bank and move the money that way. Only, 800 numbers weren't working. No problem, I'll call my branch. Oh crap! My bank doesn't publish local numbers anywhere!

So, I load Mabel in the Jeep and we drive to my local branch, about four miles up the mountain. On the way, I call my mom on my cell to have her try and call my phone company from Baton Rouge. Then I spotted a truck and tech from my phone co. and followed him. He explained it was a central office failure, area wide and not to worry, they were working on it. It was caused by the winds.

As I get out at the ATM, the security guard is flagging people down. The bank is closed. No phones + no computers + no power = no transactions.

I'm feeling panicky again and mentally calculating the interest I will have to pay on my credit card. So I drive another 3.5 miles into another town to my branch there, move the money (Yay!) and start looking for a BofA there. I couldn't remember where it was so I drove back to the one by my house. There, they had power but still no phones or computers. I either had to drive back up the mountain or down the mountain to get to a BofA with phones / electricity. I opted for down as it's a bit closer.

On the way, I'm getting really nervous as I had requested the teenage girl that works for me to work and I knew she was almost home from school. So, I'm dialing my best friend (she lives next door to my worker girl) to leave a note on the door, when I realize my cell is dead too.

It took me over three hours to pay the bill. And by the time I returned home, I realized the land line phone couldn't even call locally. I think it was the way everything died in stages that made everyone I came into contact with wary. First the internet, then long distance, then cell phones, followed by local calls.

I have to say it was a quiet night with no phone calls or email to check. God did I ever miss it!


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Doggie Slut

I went out for coffee with Kat on a dreary cold day (hard to believe NOW that it was only about two weeks ago!). We are usually joined by her new Chihuahua puppy but it was too cold for her so I brought Mabel along.

I was simply amazed at what a crowd pleaser she is. Ever since I've owned rotties ( a dozen years now!), I've never been approached by an Asian woman. In fact, until this day, the reaction has been dramatic screaming and fear. On this day, a group of a half dozen Korean women stopped and petted her. They asked questions and were just in love! And every time they passed the busy corner we were sitting on, they stopped and did it again!

Mabel ate it up!

And then there was the guy in a wheelchair. I got up to open a door for him. (Having spent some months in a wheelchair, it still amazes me that people behave as if a wheelchair-bound person never needs help. It feels like the attitude is, You're sitting down. Life MUST be easy!)

The guy kept circling us and finally asked about the girl. He rolled over and petted her and the brat tried to climb in his lap!!! (This is something I had a huge problem with when I was in a chair!) I got her down and she tried again minutes later.

The guy must have felt sorry for her. Before I knew what happened, he had slid out of his wheelchair (he wasn't paralyzed...just many surgeries) and was cuddling with Mabel on the ground. Look at the brat, in a total stranger's lap, soaking up the love.

Special thanks to Kat for her discreet photos.

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Six Random Redo

Alison tagged me for six random things about me which I wrote but after reading Velvet's post, dorky me realized I did it wrong! It was supposed to be six random things about me today.

Here we go again :

1) Woke up too late to hike in the heat.

2) Went to breakfast at Jeremy's. Mabel got cookies. I got the avocado omelet, pancakes & coffee.

3) Mabel and I only ate half of my breakfast. (NOT Mabel's choice!) I will eat the rest tomorrow.

4) After breakfast, I fell asleep til 12:30.

5) We went hiking at 7:30. Quiet and uneventful. But I'm certain that big old full moon made it hotter.

6) I torched a bit tonight and made a perfume bottle. I can't wait to see it so I probably won't sleep tonight.

Still waiting on Janet & Becky.

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Six Random

Alison tagged me for six random things about me. Here goes:

1) I HATE the smell of air conditioning! It's not the smell of the house closed up. It's that metallic smell of the a/c motor running that's really offensive.

2) I have a lead foot. I'm only comfortable driving when I can go fast. Apparently I was born this way. As a toddler, I loved being in the car with my 22-years-older sister. As soon as she got out of the driveway, I would start my mantra. "Go faster, Sister. Go faster!"

3) I always wanted to change my last name to that of my father...until I grew up and learned a few things about my paternal brothers. That ended that. They can have his name. I had his love.

4) My sister and I both wanted 16 children!!!! Our grandmother was one of 16 and we both loved her stories. We were both raised as only children (22 years apart) and thought it would be simply fantastic to have that many kids. We are both proud dog mommies.

5) I went through menopause in my twenties. It left a hole in my heart that I think will never be filled.

6) Never knowing when or how to tell a man I was dating the above allowed me to build huge wall around me, effectively pushing all pursuers away. Add in that I'm smart, direct, outspoken and opinionated pretty much puts the F*&^ Off sign on my forehead.


And that's that with that.

I'm supposed to tag six others but since everyone I know in blogger land has already been tagged, I'll hit two...Janet & Becky.

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