Spicing things up

I took the advice of Ronni Blanken, an Aussie lover from Florida in the Australian Shepherds Lovers Facebook Group and bought a couple of 16-ounce containers of cayenne pepper from Sam’s Club this afternoon.

I sprinkled a pound of the stuff around the perimeter and in the places where Dora has been digging in the yard, then sent her outside to experience it.

She seemed very interested in it, poked around and licked it, eventually coming back onto the back porch for a big drink of water.

Then I let Jack out and the two of them investigated the new substance thoroughly before retiring to the back porch for an afternoon nap.

Digging seems to have subsided, but only time will tell.

Damn! What next?

The headcold that had me so miserable that I spent most of yesterday in bed, fitfully trying to sleep while intermittently sneezing and wiping a perpetually running nose with crappy, useless Sam’s Club bargain tissues, also kept me from getting to the post office  of making coffee yesterday.

Sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., it seemed to abate a little. Still sneezing, but not so much. Nose running, but not so much.

I felt guardedly optimistic.

Then, a few minutes ago, I took my first sip of a cup of hot & sour soup and discovered one of my crowns (#4 on the standard dental diagram) was adrift in my mouth.

Fuck!

I haven’t been to a dentist in a couple of years and, since Maria’s departure from the paper, have no dental coverage, so this won’t be cheap. I called the last dentist’s office that I visited and am booked for 9:20 a.m. Monday, presumably just to re-cement the crown. But we all know it won’t stop there.

Don’t we?

At least I shouldn’t be contagious by then.

The game continues…

Dora tunneled out again late yesterday afternoon.

This time, she dug under the fence on the south end of the yard – the first time for that direction.

Maria opened the garage door and saw her poking around in the neighbor’s yard. Dora came to her immediately, which we hope is a sign that she wanted back in the back yard, but didn’t know how to get there. All three times she’s escaped, she stayed close to home and came when called.

So we closed the hole with a section of tree trunk and lined the adjacent fence sections with big tree branches that littered the yard from the last windstorm.

She was out this morning, surveying her domain and doubtless looking for a new place to dig.

A cold

Fever. Non-stop sneezing. Runny nose.

I feel exactly like crap.

Good news, bad news

I got an email this morning from the home warranty company that covers our Thorntown house against system failures and other such problems, telling me that they have approved my claim for $340.06 worth of furnace repairs, less a $75 deductible.

All they need to complete the process is for me to FAX the paid invoice paperwork – the same paperwork I sent them as a pdf which led to the approval.

Yeah, I know. But if that’s what it takes, I can drive in to town to the FedEx store and FAX the stuff.

In the meantime, my luck has run out when it comes to avoiding the series of colds that have afflicted Maria for weeks. I had the first symptoms of a headcold last night and it was unmistakable by this morning.

The last time I had a cold was January, 2012, and I seem to have cut it short with hemp seed oil and Benadryl. So I’m trying the same remedy this time and hoping for the best.

Grackles are back!

This huge flock of grackles descended upon our neighborhood this morning. The last time I noticed anything like this was Feb. 12, 2012.

The watchers

We continue to fascinate our Aussies.

We must be very interesting

Ours is a very dog-friendly house insofar as all of the ground floor windows are low enough for a dog to look out. Or in.

The windows in our living room look out onto the screened back porch and the back yard beyond.

Much of the time when we’re watching TV or reading and the dogs are outside, this is what we see.

Good day sunshine

It was sunny and 64 degrees, so I rode the K75S in to town and worked out at St. Bernards Health & Fitness, which consisted of a brisk two-mile stroll on the treadmill.

The FedEx truck brought my computer speaker system this morning and I had everything up and running within 15 minutes.

And dinner was at Qdoba, so I count today as a good day.

Gentleman Jack Flora

Installing a 27” monitor on my hideously cluttered desk this week forced me to sort through the papers piled there.

And that’s how I rediscovered the paperwork we got from Briarbrook Kennels in Carthage, Mo. when we acquired Jack on November 20, 2011.

For various reasons, I never got around to registering him with the American Kennel Club. Chief among the reasons (not counting the paperwork getting lost on my desk) was our inability to settle on an official name for him.

My initial thought was to name him Briarbrook’s Jumpin’ Jack Flash, but Maria pointed out the Satanic vibe to the name and nixed it.

Now, two years later, we’ve had time to observe Jack and appreciate his finer qualities, many of which were brought out by bringing Dora into our home at a puppy last June.

While Jack still can’t be trusted off the leash in the house because of his penchant for stealing clothing items and kitchen counter-surfing, we have been impressed with his loving and nurturing nature when it comes to Dora. He plays with her with infinite patience, gently corrects her when necessary and makes it clear that he is her champion and protector.

As dogs go, Jack has become the consummate gentleman.

So henceforth, his official AKC moniker is Briarbrook’s Gentleman Jack Flora.

Mending fences

We had some rain and high winds late yesterday and this is what I found when I surveyed the back yard this morning.

Happily, the fence is not breached, so our dogs are secure, but it will have to be fixed. And the best news is that it missed our roof by about 20 feet.

This is only the second tree limb fence damage we’ve had in the 6½ years we’ve lived here. The first was during the epic ice storm of January, 2009.

Considering how many trees we have, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often. Now I’m off to call the fence repair guys.

Happy 20th birthday, K75S

This month marks the 20th birthday of our beautiful, one-of-a-kind 1994 BMW K75S.

According to information stamped onto the frame, this bike was born sometime in February, 1994.

I have no idea what the original color was. That year’s K75 was offered in Mystic Red, Astial Blue, Classic Black, and Silk Blue with a list price of $9,590.

The original owner had other ideas, thought. He took it to Holt BMW in Athens, Ohio and had their paint shop wizards transform it with an Acid Green paint scheme. He was apparently too delicate for a stock windscreen, so he put a funny looking tall windscreen on it.

Sometime in 2000, he decided to sell it on consignment at Revard BMW in Indianapolis, which is where I discovered it. I saw it as a logical step up for Maria, who had several hundred miles in her mirrors on an aging 500cc Honda Shadow.

The K75S had only 2,417 miles on the odometer as it sat on the Revard showroom floor. I don’t recall exactly how much I paid, but I think it was around $7,000 when I bought it in late October, 2000.

I put a stock windscreen back on it and had the bike lowered for Maria with a new shock, fork adjustment, low profile tires and scooping some foam out of the Sargent seat.

Unfortunately, Maria never really bonded with the bike, although she did ride it from our home in Thorntown to an Indianapolis BMW Club meeting at Lieber State Recreation Area near Cloverdale, a round trip of more than 100 miles.

A car crash caused by a woman with macular degeneration, coupled with a hectic work schedule blunted her enthusiasm for riding to the point where she hasn’t ridden the bike in about seven years.

So it fell to me to keep the battery up and maintain the bike, which I have done with considerable pleasure. The K75S is a sweet little motorcycle that handles like a dream and is more fun to ride than my 2003 K1200GT.

The bike now has about 15,150 miles on the odometer, which works out to an average of 757 miles per year, making it a supremely low-mileage machine with many many many miles left in her.

BMW produced the K75 model from 1985 to 1995, so ours was built near the end of the series production.

Post-war fantasy

This rather beat-up stein may look impressive to some folks, but those of us who know our World War II militaria recognize it for what it is – a post-war fantasy piece, complete with fake RZM and other marks on the base.

The most highly decorated German serviceman of World War II, Hans Ulrich Rudel was a highly successful Stuka dive-bomber pilot who flew 2,530 millions, claiming 2,000 targets destroyed including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, 70 landing craft, nine aircraft, four armored trains, several bridges, a destroyer, two cruisers, and the Soviet battleship Marat.

He was one of only 27 military men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, and the only person to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, Germany's highest military decoration at the time.

A large series of these steins, named to prominent soldiers, sailors, airmen and SS troops, was produced in the 1970s. I remember seeing several of them offered for sale in the catalogs of Collector’s Armory along with reproduction Third Reich daggers and other stuff. I bought this one at an Ohio Valley Military Society show at Fort Mitchell, Ky. in the 1980s.

I can see again!

The FedEx truck just brought my new 27” ViewSonic LED monitor and it’s gorgeous.

Visiting Charlie in the new NEA Baptist Hospital yesterday afternoon, I noticed all of the computer stations use ViewSonic monitors too.

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep, the promise of another spring-like warm day, and knowing an eagerly awaited package is “out for delivery” by FedEx to brighten my morning.

And the sound of crop dusting aircraft fills the air. In the north, the advent of spring is heralded by the sighting of the first robin or the distinctive song of the cardinal. Here in the mid-South, it’s the sound of crop dusters buzzing to and fro over the cotton fields.

Our friend Charlie is back in the hospital with a mystery fever and mild cough that may or may not be pneumonia. I was going to brighten his day with a carry-out Mexican lunch, but he texted that he has tests and may not be in his room at lunchtime, so we’ll reschedule his break from hospital food.

My short motorcycle ride yesterday has me jonesing for more, but I’m torn between wanting to ride, needing to work out and wanting to watch for the FedEx truck. What to do?

I love it

I rode about 25 soul-satisfying miles this afternoon, just to remind myself how much I love riding and that spring is, indeed, on the way.

I knew the temperature was headed for the upper 60s today, so I dragged out the tire gauge and compressor and aired up the tires on the K75S last evening in anticipation of today’s ride – 32 psi in the front and 36 psi in the back. The bike handles like a dream and I’m hankering for a real road trip soon. Maybe Daytona, if any of my Indianapolis friends will be there.

More stamping

Maria is sending some quilting materials to a Facebook friend in New Jersey, so I stamped a box for her this evening.

Monday stuff

I had thoughts of buying a semi-automatic rifle at the gun show here last weekened, but the need to pony up $250 for a new computer monitor reordered my priorities and I never made it to the show.

Amazon.com says the monitor has shipped and should be on my doorstep before 8 p.m. Wednesday, so I have until then to clean the crap off of my desk and create an orderly space for it.

The furnace repair folks had to make two trips to our rental house in Indiana before they finally got the downstairs furnace repaired and working reliably. I’m having them email me all of the paperwork so I can submit a claim to the home warranty insurance company and hopefully recover my expenses, less the $75 deductible. The service tech said the filters in both furnaces were filthy, the downstairs one completely blocked, despite the tenant’s claim that he replaced the filters in November. Unless I can get him to reliably change the filters every three months, I’ll live in constant worry that he will destroy the furnaces and air conditioning units.

The temperature is in the low 60s with bright sunshine this afternoon – the warmest weather we’ve seen in more than a month. I may actually be able to go for a motorcycle ride tomorrow when it’s supposed to be even warmer.

To paraphrase Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now!, “Someday this winter’s gonna end.”

Dead monitor

The fabulous workhorse 24” Dell flatscreen monitor that I put into service on Dec. 20, 2006, died yesterday.

The screen was dark when I sat down to use my desktop computer yesterday afternoon. I hit the power button repeatedly, checked all of the connections, moved the power cord to another powerstrip, and finally did a manual reboot, all to no avail.

I guess seven years of constant service – I leave it on most of the time – is all I can reasonably expect from a piece of computer equipment.

Since I have the netbook and my iPhone, I can limp along for a few days and don’t have to panic and run down to Best Buy and overpay for a quick fix, plus the usurious Arkansas sales tax. Consequently, I have been shopping on Amazon.com for a replacement.

That said, I’m having a hard time finding a replacement with the same added features – memory card reader, sound bar, USB ports – that I liked so much on my old monitor, but I shall persevere. If I order today, I can have it on Tuesday.

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I just pulled the trigger on this 27” View Sonic monitor from Amazon.com - $249.99 with free delivery. Should be here on Wednesday.

Roots