Happy Second Birthday, Jack!

Happy Jack Flora, son of CH Briarbrooks Up The Ante and Briarbrooks Diamond Tiarra, grandson of CH Briarbrooks Copyright (2009 Best of Breed at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show) and great-grandson of CH Briarbrooks Quicksilver (2003 Best of Breed at Westminster), celebrated his second birthday today.

He came to our house on Nov. 20, 2011 and has been an absolute joy. Jack joined our pack about a month after 13-year-old Ruthie left for the Rainbow Bridge and studied under the tutelage of Pete, our first Aussie.

Jack stepped into the alpha dog role last Nov. 15 when advanced congenital liver disease caused Pete to join Ruthie.

Now it’s Jack’s turn to raise a puppy – the adorable Dora.

Jack is perpetually happy and is turning out to be a loving and nurturing companion for Dora.

He’s got an abundance of testosterone, which makes him pretty rambunctious, but he’s becoming calmer as he grows up.

Jack is without question the most handsome dog we have ever owned and we hope to have him with us for many many more years.

Happy Birthday, Jack! Now try to retrieve your hat.

One less Zumo

I was in Indianapolis for MotoGP two years ago when I stashed my Garmin Zumo 550 in a saddlebag while Rich Nathan and I hung out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When we returned to our bikes at the end of the day and I re-mounted the GPS, I found it wasn’t working. I spent the next several hours trying to troubleshoot the problem, mindful that I was riding to the Colorado high country next and I didn’t relish doing it without the GPS and its incorporated XM satellite radio.

I decided to bite the bullet and order a new Zumo 550 from Amazon.com with next day delivery and took advantage of the hospitality of Jim and Lauri Shillings to crash at their rural Crawfordsville until the UPS truck showed up with my new Zumo.

It worked perfectly in the old Zumo cradle and recognized the XM receiver right away, entertaining and guiding me through the next week and 3,000+ miles.

Based on advice from other Zumo 550 users, I installed a new battery and the old unit sprang to life again.

I already had a lifetime subscription for map updates for the old Zumo, so I put the new unit on the shelf and went back to the old one, thinking the new GPS might come in handy someday.

Flash forward to this month when our cash flow became a problem. The luxury of having a Zumo 550 in reserve has become something I can’t afford, so I put the new unit on the Ebay auction block. It closed last night slightly higher than my $450 reserve price, so off it goes to a BMW K1200RS rider in California when the post office reopens Tuesday morning.

From the Farmers Market

Sonic in panorama

It’s 97° with a heat index of 106° so it seemed like a good idea to take advantage of Sonic’s mid-afternoon drink special on the way home from town.

Maria had her annual checkup and the doc was very pleased with how much healthier she is since she left the poisonous atmosphere at the Sun.

Then we dropped by our office building to check in with our tenants. One of the tenants called this morning to say the air conditioning in his reception area wasn’t working. I called our heating/AC guy and he got right on it, texting me about 1 p.m. to say one of the roof units was kaput and it will cost about $2,500 to replace, including $250 for a crane to lower the defunct unit and raise the new unit.

Thank God we have an LLC with a good contingency fund to cover such emergencies.

Maria wants to play with the crane. I am arguing against the idea.

The bunny has been watching the dog herding; now bunny thinks he can herd too

The bunny has been watching the dog herding; now bunny thinks he can herd too

VIDEO: Danny the Blind Puppy Sees for the First Time! | The Dogington Post

VIDEO: Danny the Blind Puppy Sees for the First Time! | The Dogington Post

Free coffee!

I had to do some banking in town today so I headed out early on the K75S while the weather was still relatively cool – 79 versus the predicted high of 96.

After making my deposits, I rode on down to the new Starbucks where I cashed in an empty Starbucks Italian Dark Roast bag for a free cup of coffee and some Wifi. Before this Starbucks opened, I threw my empty bags into the trash because I didn’t want to mess with them at Barnes & Noble or the Starbucks in Target.

I needed a battery after all

I took the 5-year-old battery from my John Deere LA125 mower to Greenway Equipment a couple of weeks ago, ready to buy a replacement.

But the parts guy tested it and declared all it needed was a charge. So I hooked up my high tech BMW battery charger and left it on for a nearly two weeks after the green test light came on, signifying a full charge.

But when I tried to start the mower yesterday, it wouldn’t even bump the starter. I tested the voltage with my multimeter and found it was only putting out 11 volts. A call to Greenway confirmed what I suspected two weeks ago – I needed a new battery.

So I hauled the old battery down to Greenway on the southside of Jonesboro this morning and put its $10 recycling credit toward a new battery. Once installed, the new battery fired the engine right away. Problem solved. Now all I need is a cool evening to mow.

Here comes Clay, #98

Our neighbor boy Clay had his first practice scrimmage this afternoon, so I drove up to the Greene County Tech Junior High football field to make a photographic record of the event.

His parents are soooo proud of him.

Observation

We're keeping Morgan's bulldog Samantha for observation today while Morgan is at work.

Sam tangled with a big brown recluse spider last night and was acting like she might have been bitten. So we're keeping an eye on her in case her condition worsens. She's on an antibiotic and Benadryl, so she mostly sleeps.

She looks OK to me.

My dogs

Did I mention how much I love my dogs?

Two-dog Sunday morning

What could be more fun than photographing Jack and Dora on a Sunday morning in August?

Can you tell we’re just crazy about our dogs?

The return of Suzi Barrett

I Hate California: San Francisco - watch more funny videos

You may remember her as the snarky girl in the Esurance commercials.

Up on the roof

While I was hanging out at the courthouse square monument in Delphi, Ind. with my high school classmates last Saturday evening for our reunion group photo, I noticed a guy sitting on the roof of a building on Main Street. (See inset.)

Out for a smoke, perhaps?

Gentleman Jack

The game of "fetch" has changed. Gentleman Jack runs ahead and retrieves the ball for the first four or five throws. Dora runs out to meet him about halfway back to the thrower and makes playful grabs for the ball in his mouth, but each time he brings the ball back and puts it into my hand.

Then and interesting thing happens - I throw the ball and Jack stays put while Dora races out to retrieve it. From then on, it's Dora's turn until she tires of the game.

This has happened several times, so I know it wasn't just a fluke.

Sticks are for dogs

Dogs love sticks and our dogs are blessed with plenty of trees in their yard – oak and hickory trees that shed a constant supply of sticks for gnawing.

And if you’re a puppy like Dora, the only thing better than having a stick is wrestling over one.

You can see in Jack’s eyes that he’s just playing along – just trying hard enough to make it interesting for Dora. Moments later he relaxed his grip and let Dora have the stick. Jack is such a gentleman.

It must be August in Jonesboro – the Wienermobile is here

I lived in Indiana for 62 years and never saw an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, even though I desperately wanted to see one ever since I saw Little Oscar in a Wienermobile on TV in the 1950s.

Now, after six years in Arkansas, I’ve seen them three times!

I followed WEENR from Paragould to our county road on Aug. 10, 2010, then caught up with it again on Aug. 14, 2012 when it was parked in front of the Hays supermarket at Stadium and Nettleton in Jonesboro. I was freelancing for the local paper at the time, so I got the red carpet treatment and was allowed inside the fabled machine.

Morgan texted me a picture of BIG BUN about 1:30 p.m. today, saying it would be in front of the Walmart on Highland in Jonesboro until 5 p.m., so I hustled down to check it out.

There are six Wienermobiles rambling around the country, piloted by a dozen carefully chosen Hotdoggers – recent college grads judged to have the right stuff to be the face of Oscar Mayer for a whole year. I signed up for a chance to win the use of a Wienermobile for a day, but I’m not holding my breath.

My personal postal express

I rode down to the post office a few minutes ago to collect our mail.

The round trip is about 6 miles and at the current price of 89 octane gasoline, I reckon the ride costs me about 15 or 16 cents. Some days, that’s the only motorcycle ride I take, so it’s a lot of pleasure for 16 cents.

Even though home delivery has been available in our subdivision for a couple of years, we prefer to get our mail in our post office box for a variety of reasons:

• It’s more secure. It’s an easy task for identity thieves and other dirtbags to steal mail from rural mailboxes.
• It keeps our physical address confidential from everyone who has no business knowing it.
• It makes it more likely that we will continue to receive mail on Saturdays, should the post office make good on its threat to stop Saturday home delivery.
• It gives me an excuse for a ride.

It goes on…

I seem to have found a way to keep the nostalgia going in the wake of my 50th anniversary high school class reunion last Saturday evening in Delphi, Ind.

I solicited old photos from classmates and created a slideshow of about 250 images that I presented at the reunion and got orders from 17 people for copies of the slideshow on CD.

Then it occurred to me to sweeten the slideshow CD with photos from the reunion, so I added what I had and put out the call for contributions. I got 15 photos last night from Dave Goyer and more are coming.

This is the commemorative suncatcher that was handed out at the reunion. At the risk of being nitpicky, it really wasn’t the “50th Reunion.” Since our reunions occur at five-year intervals, it was the 10th. The 50th, at that rate, would occur 250 years after graduation. Which is why I take pains to refer to it as the 50-year or 50th anniversary reunion.

I don’t suppose anyone else notices or cares, but you know how I am about words.

Lisa flying solo

My son Steve posted this photo this morning of his daughter Lisa on her first solo cross-country journey by plane.

Lisa, who is 9 but has the poise and confidence of a woman three time her age, flew from Las Vegas to Cincinnati to visit family there.

I can’t tell you how proud I am to have a granddaughter who is so bright and capable. Steve and Nicky are doing an incredibly great job of parenting.

You go, girl!