Jack loves his big orange traffic cone

Thanks to BMW friend Charlie Parsons for this spectacular and durable dog toy.

Rain! At last!

According to my rain gauge, we got 1.05 inches of rain Saturday and another half-inch this afternoon.

The Pete report

I took Pete to the vet for his rabies shot and a liver enzyme test this afternoon.
The test results seem to confirm what we have observed – he’s getting better. He plays with Jack more, eats well, doesn’t seem to barf as often and seems to enjoy life more that before he had his liver crisis a month ago.
After a month on a liver cleansing diet of white potato, sweet potato and whitefish, eggs or tuna with daily doses of hemp oil – his liver test number are down from 631 to 550.
And, he’s gained two pounds.
Good news, indeed.

It’s raining, but I’m not complaining

We awoke to the sound of rain this morning and the rain has continued off and on – more on than off – all day.

It’s a welcome relief to the summer-long drought and spares me having to water the dogwood tree we planted in the spring. It’s struggled, but clings to life.

A singularly stupid idea

This is a hopelessly stupid idea for an iPhone case being sold for $20 at Fab.com.

They describe it thus:

When developing its new protective iPhone case, Loop Attachment took a page from the ancient art of mummification. The Mummy iPhone Case swaddles your sacred phone is swathes of shielding silicone, revealing just enough to preserve your hardware’s identity. This carefully crafted case also functions as a card carrier, allows for easy access to all switches and ports, provides impact resistance, and improves grip.

Apparently the twits who designed this thing don’t know that the electromagnetic field generated by a cell phone can erase or corrupt the data on credit card magnetic strips. I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I put the card key to my motel room into my shirt pocket along with my cell phone.

But maybe they have figured it out, because the ad stipulates:

This item is final sale and not eligible for return.

No concussion. I think.

Yes, that’s a Band Aid on my forehead. It covers a half-inch cut.

I was opening the back door to let the dogs in for their breakfast when Jack the Aussie flung his 55-pound frame against the door, causing it to bash me in the forehead.

Stunned, I reeled backwards across the back hallway,coming to a stop to lean up against a closet door, clutching my forehead and yelling obscenities. It took me about a minute to recover my senses and suppress the urge to commit dogicide.

Maria had me sit down at the kitchen table and apply a paper towel to the cut until it quit bleeding. Fortunately, it was shallow, only bled a little and doesn’t require stitches.

Now, a couple of hours later, as I wait to hear from the cable TV guy who is supposed to solve our streaming video problems, I have a bit of a goose egg at the point of impact.

I will, of course, keep my head out of harm’s way in the future when I open a door for dogs.

Seen at MotoGP in Indianapolis last week

The Cow-Am, a custom painted Can-Am Spyder from Illinois.

Bikes for kids.

A mystery fairing on an old Honda.

An electric Norton. (It has speakers and plays motor sounds.)

A large family who bunched up despite the fact that they were the only people in their row of unreserved seats.

No experience required? Let’s hope it’s a simulator.

Cholula in a pump bottle!

A Lucal electrical system paperweight.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Jack demonstrates Aussie flexibility while napping on the back porch this morning.

Bush gas

Not so long ago, Dec. 29, 2008 – less than a month before the Obama presidency began – this was the price of regular gas at the Jonesboro, Ark. Sam’s Club.

Where have I been? Back home again in Indiana!

I got home a little after noon today after an extended weekend of motorcycle racing and hanging out with Hoosier friends at the 2012 Indianapolis MotoGP festivities.

My local BMW riding friend Charlie invited me to accompany him and only a fool would turn down such an offer, so we rolled out about 7 a.m. Thursday for Indianapolis.

The day was sunny and warm and we had an easy ride up through central Illinois, but we noticed ominous thunderheads and lightning strikes to the northwest as we approached Effingham and turned east on I-70. Concerned that I-70 would be full of trucks and construction in Indiana, I led us up to U.S. 40 at the east edge of Terre Haute and we had a pleasant ride through the Indiana farmland most of the way to Indianapolis.

But heavy rain overtook us as we rode into Plainfield and we took shelter for about a half-hour under a furniture store awning while we waited to see if the rain would stop. It didn’t.

It was still raining hard when we reached I-465 and northbound traffic was at a rush hour crawl, so I had Garmin find us an alternate route up to the Speedway Motel 6. But when we reached the place where we expected to find the motel where we had stayed before, it wasn’t there. Turns out the Crawfordsville Road-I-465 interchange has been reconfigured to the extent that the motel is now on the north side of C’ville Road instead of the south side of the road. The good news is that the creepy apartment complex and dilapidated Red Roof Inn that previously blighted the neighborhood are gone.

My Kilimanjaro jacket and Kathmandu pants and Gore-Tex BMW gloves worked nicely in the deluge, but my Gore-Tex Bates tactical boots failed the rain test miserably and my feet were soaked by the time we got to our room.

The rain blew off to the south soon after we arrived and after changing out of our riding gear, we strolled over to the Union Jack Pub for dinner.

I found I could dry my socks by slipping them over my mirrors.

We started Friday with a leisurely breakfast at Einstein Brothers Bagels, then cruised down to BMW Motorcycles of Indianapolis to ogle bikes and apparel – I bought a shop t-shirt discounted to $9 – and then rode to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to check out the vendors and the MotoGP practice sessions.

We joined several hundred other riders for a lap around the MotoGP track, then adjourned to the BMW dealership for a stunt riding show and a free barbecue dinner.

Saturday breakfast was with the Indy BMW Club folks at Shapiro’s after which Rich Nathan led us on a spirited ride up White River Parkway to the BMW shop. Rich took a Victory bike for a test ride and I finally cashed in the $25 gift certificate I’d won in absentia at the 2010 club awards banquet, buying a new pair of Firstgear Kilimanjaro summer riding gloves.

We spent the afternoon watching qualifications at the track, did a walk past the garages that required Charlie to chug his beer, since alcohol isn’t allowed there, had an early dinner at Union Jack’s and retired early.

We were up with the sun on Sunday morning. Charlie managed to persuade the gate keepers at the motorcycle parking lot across Georgetown Road from Stand J to honor our Speedway Museum parking lot credentials, making it possible for us to park so close to our seats that we could watch our bikes from there. (There they are in the red circle. Mine is under the yellow bike cover.)

We took our time leaving the track and by the time we were ready to ride, the traffic had dwindled to practically nothing. I led the way west on I-70 and all went well until about a mile past the Putnamville exit where we found ourselves in a miles-long traffic jam because of an accident. After crawling along for about a mile, we reached a crossover and doubled back to the exit, rode up to U.S. 40 and followed it to Brazil where we re-joined I-70. As we crossed the Wabash River, I was startled to see a little Saturn two-seater that had been in front of us in the traffic jam blast past us.

We caught up with him at Effingham, where we exited to spend the night at the Econo Lodge.

It was 52 degrees when we gassed and hit the road this morning, but the temperature climbed into the comfortable 60s and 70s as the morning wore on and we made quick work of Illinois, gassed at Boomland east of Sikeston and cruised on home.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trip Stats

• 943 miles
• 55.4 mph average
• 96.5 mph top speed
• 17 hours 1 minute moving

Aussie at work

This is what you get when you leave a cheap garden hose where a young, energetic Australian shepherd can get at it.

I had connected the hose to another more durable hose within the fenced-in part of the back yard so as to be able to water newly planted trees on either sides of the property just outside the fenced area.

Jack naturally thought this was something I did for his amusement, so he gnawed the cheap hose in two – probably because it was fun seeing the water squirt out.

Well worth the time

At the BMWMOA Rally last month in Sedalia, Mo.

Here I am (red circle) with 13 of my fellow Indianapolis BMW Club members at the 2012 BMWMOA Rally last month.

We had around 37 members present, but could only round up 14 for the group photo at the club campsite.

(Memo to self: Stand in the back row until you lose 30 pounds.)

Westward Ho cattle brands decoded

I’ve searched high and low on the Internet for a comprehensive list of the brands used on the Rodeo and Boots and Saddle Westward Ho patterns of Wallace China.
At long last, here it is for the amusement and information of dedicated Westward Ho collectors.

Sorry for the lack of sharpness in places. Most of this is at least a third-generation copy of a brochure published by the Wallace China Co. many years ago.

Cross another item off my “bucket list”

Some days, it takes very little to make me happy. Today, it was fulfilling a lifelong (well, since the early 1950s, at least) wish to have an encounter with one of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles and, dare I even dream it – actually climb aboard!
I got my wish this afternoon when, shooting as a freelancer for the Jonesboro Sun, I caught up with the Wienermobile being driven around the middle of the country by Hotdoggers Jessica Barndt, Madison, Wis., and Holly Nelson, LaCrosse, Wis.
Each of the fleet of six Wienermobiles has a clever personalized license plate. Jessica and Holly are in charge of WEENR. Jessica graduated this spring from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with BBA in International Business and Management & Human Resources. Holly majored in Spanish and Communication and minored in Journalism at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Oscar Mayer recruits at campuses nationwide for the 12-month-long hotdogger jobs and attracted more than 1,200 applicants.

Here’s Jessica, whose hotdogger name is “Jess Grillin’,” at the wheel of the 27-foot-long Wienermobile, parked in front of the Hays supermarket at 2819 E. Nettleton Ave. in Jonesboro. Jessica says it’s easy to drive and has a tighter turning radius than her SUV, even though it take about three parking spaces.
She and “Hot Diggity” Holly are perpetually on the road. Since June they’ve made appearances from the southern tip of Texas to south central Nebraska, covering seven states in two months.
The Wienermobile is their only transportation during their year-long road trip, so it goes where they go. Like to a drive-in movie recently in Fayetteville, Ark. and to restaurants and hotels.
The Wienermobile has airbags, ABS, Garmin GPS, and lots of other bells and whistles crammed into its fiberglass body atop a GMC chassis.

Since everyone who turns out for a Wienermobile appearance wants to be photographed with the iconic hot dog on wheels, Jessica and Holly wear Android-based tablets slung around their necks. They use the tablets’ cameras to shoot photos of everyone who wants one, then send them via Wifi to the subject’s email inbox on the spot.
(The bandage on Jessica’s left hand is from a fall she had when she tripped over the threshold of her hotel room recently.)
This is the 25th year for the Oscar Mayer hotdogger program and the two are looking forward to a reunion with hotdogger alumni later this year in Madison, Wis., the home base of the Wienermobile fleet.
WEENR will be at the Hilltop Bill’s Fresh Market from 1-7 p.m. Friday and the Country Mart on Southwest Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
BTW, presumed GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is among the distinguished alumni of hotdoggers.

How many have you ridden/driven?

Here is Suzuki’s list of the 10 most beautifully challenging highways in America.

I’ve ridden six of them – the Million Dollar Highway in Colordo, the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park in Montana, Calif. 1 through Big Sur, the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap, Tenn., the Carmel Valley Road in California, and U.S. 50 across Nevada. Come to think of it, I’ve done each more than once and hope to ride them all before I’m done.

(Click on the graphic to see a sharper version.)

Hot dog! Three Wienermobile appearances this week!

The GT is gassed and ready

Just topped off the gas tank of my K1200GT.

I must be going somewhere…

Time well spent

We got up at 4:30 a.m. yesterday and drove 2½ hours down to Little Rock to testify at a Department of Human Services hearing concerning vindictive, trumped-up false charges against an exemplary foster mother/adoptive mother.

Turns out our testimony wasn’t needed to help knock down the childishly flimsy charges, but I’m glad we went anyway. Even if we did have to spend more than four hours waiting to be called or released.

Thank God for the Atom Bomb

At the risk of belaboring the point, I invite you to read this essay by cultural and literary historian, college professor and World War II combat veteran Paul Fussell on why the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were right and necessary.
In it, Fussell, who died last May at the age of 88, points out that those who argue the U.S. should not have nuked the Japanese never experienced combat – the kind of slaughter that would have occurred in the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland in November, 1945.
Put simply, they fail to grasp the zeitgeist – the spirit of the times.
“Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present. It requires feeling its
own pressure on your pulses without any ex post facto illumination,” he wrote.
Fussell had a bellyful of combat as a lieutenant in the 103rd Infantry Division in France, was wounded and earned the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He and his unit were scheduled for deployment to the Pacific when the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war.
If you have any interest in the debate, I urge you to read the whole thing.

Hoping this works…

I’m still feeling my way along as I try to learn as much as possible about how to help Pete’s ailing liver.

My search led me to Dr. Dodds’s Liver Cleansing Diet, created by Dr. W. Jean Dodds, a Santa Monica, Calif., veterinarian.

Here it is:

• White potato + sweet potato (50/50) cooked

• White Fish lightly cooked e.g.: cod, halibut, mackerel, smelt, snapper etc.

Ratio is ⅔ of potato mix with ⅓ of fish. Season with mixed Italian Herbs or fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Later chopped carrots and green beans (both cooked) can be added as can scrambled eggs. Yellow squash can also be added. Give a liquid child’s multivitamin or a supplement such as Missing Link (source of calcium)

Dr. Dodds says:

I have some patients that have been on the diet for 7 years now-- that were near death before-- and are thriving! Testimonials are numerous, without one negative comment other than some won't eat fish and so we give chicken to them.

With that thought in mind and recognizing that Pete isn’t very interested in wet dog food, I went shopping at Hollywood Feeds where I found Fromm’s Whitefish & Potato. There are no therapeutic claims on the package, but it has the right stuff – white potatoes, sweet potatoes and whitefish – in a dry kibble, so I bought a five-pound bag.

I put some into Pete’s bowl and he sniffed it and walked away.

So I picked up a few pieces and offered them to him one-by-one as a treat. He took the first one after eyeing and sniffing it suspiciously, then begged for the rest of them with increasing enthusiasm.

Then I directed him back to his bowl and he decided this was good stuff worth eating. As his interest flagged, I dropped a dollop of cottage cheese into the bowl and he wolfed it down along with whatever kibble it touched.

I also gave him a tablespoon of hemp seed oil, just for good measure.

Keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for a miracle.

It’s coming to Jonesboro!

I just learned one the Oscar Mayer fleet of Wienermobiles will be at Hay's Foods on Nettleton in Jonesboro, Ark., next Tuesday between 2-7 p.m. selling hot dogs, chips, drinks with proceeds going to the Food Bank.

(Here's a photo of one of the fabulous Wienermobiles as it cruised south on U.S. 49 past our neighborhood on Aug. 10, 2010.)
I will, of course, be there!

Wikipedia says:

There are seven Wienermobiles in existence currently, with each assigned a part of the country. The hotdogger position of driving the Wienermobile is an open position to U.S. citizens and the duration of the job lasts for one full year: from the first of June until the following first of June. Every March at Kraft and Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin there are final round interviews held for the hotdogger position. Each vehicle holds two hotdoggers, and twelve people are chosen from a final pool of 30 candidates brought to Oscar Mayer headquarters. The 30 candidates are screened across the country from over an average of 2000 applicants. Both current hotdoggers and Oscar Mayer recruiters visit college campuses across the country in search of the next round of hotdoggers. Only college seniors who are about to graduate are eligible for applying to this hotdogger position. Currently there are about 300 hotdogger alumni.

All are plated in Wisconsin and use the following vanity license plates:

• YUMMY
• OUR DOG
• IWSHIWR
• OH I WISH
• WEENR
• WNRMOBL
• BOLOGNA
• RELSHME
• LIL LINK
• BIG BUN
• WNR MBLE

Yeah, I know that’s 11 plates. No explanation about that from Wikipedia. The one we saw two years ago was WEENR.

The Pete Report

We’ve been feeding Pete smaller portions of scrambled egg and cheese because they’re a better source of protein than red meat for dogs with liver disease and he’s been able to keep it in his stomach.

My online research led me to wonder if hempseed oil might be of some value, so I ordered a bottle from Amazon.com. It arrived via FedEx this morning and I drizzled some onto a fresh bowl of the Hill’s Prescription wet dog food. Pete went after it with unexpected enthusiasm.

A diligent web search will turn up several testimonials about hempseed oil being involved in dramatic reversals of liver problems in people and dogs. There doesn’t seem to be much scientific research on the subject, but there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence that it’s helpful, possibly because it’s rich in Essential Fatty Acids like Omega 3. There are hempseed oil preparations made especially for dogs, which I plan to try if we see good results with the Nutiva Organic Hemp Oil.

I dropped by the Animal Medical Center to update Dr. Heather Curry on Pete’s situation and outlined what we’ve done to stimulate his appetite. She endorsed everything we’ve done. While she said she has little experience with hempseed oil in veterinary medicine, she figures that given Pete’s current prognosis, it can’t hurt.

Thanks again, Gen. Tibbetts

 

I let the 67th anniversary of Hiroshima get past me this week, so I’m catching up with this post.

This is me shaking the hand that piloted the Enola Gay on Aug. 6, 1945. Gen. Paul Tibbetts was at a militaria show in Louisville, Ky., about 10 years ago and Maria, Austin and I drove down to meet him and take in the show.

I thanked him for what he did that day. Had it not been for President Harry S. Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons on Japan, it’s entirely possible that my two sons and my granddaughter would not be here today. My ex-wife’s father was a captain in the U.S. Army’s 144th Field Artillery Group. Following V-E Day on May 8, 1945, he and the rest of the troops in Europe were expecting orders to continue the fight against Japan. The planned invasion of the Japanese home islands would have cost an estimated 100,000 casualties since the Japanese were expected to put up a fanatical resistance.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki broke the Japanese will to continue the fight, saving countless lives on both sides.

It makes me sad to hear revisionist historians and bleeding hearts who have no sense of the zeitgeist of 1945 second-guess Truman’s decision. Had he chosen not the nuclear option, those same people would revile him today for letting the bloodbath continue for months, or years with the invasion and eventual defeat of the Japanese on their home soil.

Still working with Pete

We’re struggling to get Pete to eat. He turns up his nose at the Hill’s l/d Canine Hepatic Health canned dog food the vet gave us to feed him – presumably two cans a day. He has yet to eat a whole can of the stuff.

I tricked him into eating some of it last night by sprinkling in a little dried salmon and bits of Jack’s IAMS food – it’s always a big deal for one of the dogs to get some of the other dog’s food – and he ate a little.

I did some online research this morning into recommended diets for dogs with liver problems in the hope of finding something that would excite his palate. Following recommendations I found at dogaware.com, Maria whipped up some scrambled eggs and cheese since eggs and cheese are a better source of protein than meat for liver-impaired dogs.

Pete loved it (see photo above) and wolfed it down, but then barfed the whole thing up about 10 minutes later. This in spite of twice-daily anti-nausea pills.

We’re now giving him just a little bit at a time to see if he can keep it down without getting his stomach overwhelmed.

Thanks for the support and prayers. Please keep our little Aussie in your thoughts and prayers.

Poodle foot

I picked Pete up at the vet’s office yesterday afternoon and brought him home.

The vet has him on a special liver-support diet of prescription wet dog food with a plan to shift him to the dry version in a few days. He’s also on an antibiotic and an anti-nausea pill and something else that I don’t remember what it’s for. That’s in addition to his Leventa for thyroid and Denamarin for liver.

Pete clearly feels better and is enjoying being home with his pack and having all the petting and love he can stand. We let him sleep on the bed with us last night and I think he couldn’t believe his good fortune. He’s a good bed sleeper – just flops down and goes to sleep without a lot of rolling around or fidgeting.

You can see where they shaved his right front leg for the IV, leaving him with what we call a “poodle foot.”

Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes and prayers. Pete isn’t going to live forever – maybe only a few more months – but the slippery downward slope just got a little less slippery and we hope we’ve bought him some quality time.

Steve found this

Sunday brunch at Boscos

Jazz brunch at Boscos in Memphis before heading for the airport.

We thoroughly enjoyed having Steve and Lisa here for a few days. It’s a bit of a challenge to find interesting stuff to see and do when your company lives in one of the top entertainment destinations on the planet.

They graciously shared the drama surrounding Pete’s hospitalization and I’ll always be grateful for their support.

I just checked my FlightTrack iPod app and see that they’re about 250 miles west of Memphis, cruising at 36,000 feet and about 540 mph. They should be home in about 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Pete’s condition is improving

We visited Pete yesterday afternoon at the Animal Medical Center and Dr. Heather Curry said he was much improved and more interested in his surroundings.

They brought him into the examining room with an IV bag tethered to his right front paw. He was overjoyed to see us, making his little happy noises and rubbing up against us.

We called again this morning and Dr. John Huff said he's better still and opined that Pete will likely be ready to go home tomorrow afternoon.

Dr. Huff said a dog’s liver is capable of recovering and healing itself unless it’s completely and irrevocably shut down and it looks like Pete’s liver is rebuilding itself.

We're very hopeful that his liver can recover and he'll be with us for several more months or maybe even longer. Recognizing that his time may be running out, you can bet that we’ll treat him like the King of the Dogs when he comes home, which includes getting to sleep on the bed with us – something he really, really loves. This will, of course, make Jack insanely jealous, but he’ll just have to deal with it.

Thanks to every one for your support and prayers. Keep it up. They're working!

Lisa sews

Lisa and Maria made a quilt block last night.

It’s hard to tell who’s having the most fun here.

Thursday afternoon report

Lisa got a tour of a newspaper today and was impressed with the half-ton rolls of newsprint.

In the meantime, we took Pete to the vet to determine the cause of his weight loss, loss of appetite and inability to keep water in his stomach.

Some X-rays and tests later, Dr. Heather Curry said the problem is that his liver is on the verge of complete failure. She is keeping him for a day or two or three to give him antibiotics and other meds in hopes of breathing life into his liver which is underdeveloped because of a lack of blood supply, a congenital condition that we’ve been treating for years. The best case scenario is that she can maybe give him another eight months or so of reasonable quality of life. She didn’t recommend putting Pete down without trying to reverse his downward spiral.

I’m praying for success because I’m not ready to say goodbye to my little Aussie buddy just yet. He could probably use your prayers too.

Waiting at the Pig

Son Steve and granddaughter Lisa flew in to Memphis yesterday and we adjourned to Beale Street for ribs and barbecue at the Pig on Beale.

They were up late, being on Las Vegas time which is two hours behind us and Steve just got up at 10:30 a.m., which is 8:30 to him and still way too early for a professional musician used to working at night.

When we’re ready to roll, I want to take Pete to the vet and find out why he’s not eating, gorging on water and barfing frequently.

Help!!!

Jack, our 11-month-old Aussie pup, who is as strong as a horse, pretty much destroyed the heavy vinyl flap on our PetSafe dog door, gnawing the sides and ripping it out of its track.
We have company coming and I want to keep our screened porch mosquito-free, so I installed a new flap ($49.50) this morning, which he promptly damaged by chewing the side.
I've since coated the edges with Tabasco sauce. I can't tell if that actually deterred him or if he's just contemplating some other kind of mischief.
Does any one have a fool-proof way of making chewy objects hideously distasteful to Aussies?