Guy's blog about life with pets in northern mich.

Did Michael Moore eat Orson Wells, Shelly Winters and Raymond Burr? He is HUGE! I haven’t seen those three actors lately and I can’t help but wonder if he also saw the movie “Alive!” like Ivy did. He should visit some of the politicians in Washington and leave our actors alone and “Alive!” I can see why he is taking on the health care industry; he is really going to need it soon if he keeps eating like food is about to be declared illegal. With a government like ours ………Hmmmmm. Maybe he knows... Sign in to see full entry.

How do people live without the comic relief provided by pets? Watching Baby rub each side of himself on the recliner or couch to dry off after a bath or rain shower is outstanding entertainment. Seeing him roll on his back, flipping from side to side and squirming like a worm on his back, after I comb out a big grapefruit size wad of hair from his coat, always makes me laugh. When he does this he accompanies his performance with groans of pleasure at relieving the itch induced by the hated dog... Sign in to see full entry.

Ivy just came gliding from the bedroom, feeling elegant in a frilly, pink satiny nightgown. Male children are oblivious to their appearance in the morning, and usually all day. Girls develop an exaggerated sense of importance of personal appearance, early in life. This may be learned behavior, taught by mothers and Hollywood or it may be ingrained in the gender, who can say? Feeling pretty and feminine and cultured is a natural desire of all little girls, in my opinion. This must be why so many... Sign in to see full entry.

I wish I wrote the Liberty Mutual ad about serial good-deeders, self-perpetuating the string of helpful unexpected rescues. Who wasn’t struck by the simple logic that helping one’s fellow humans should be quick and certain because no other factor should be considered, ever momentarily? Race, gender, preference about anything, political, religion, romantic, health, shape, height and all the other ways we compartmentalize ourselves are of no consequence because we are “all in the same boat,... Sign in to see full entry.

Yesterday Marilyn took the two kids “yard-sailing”, furthering their education in bargaining and shopping……… in that order. Marilyn is a world-class bargainer; she would happily buy something that she has no idea what it is, or what it is for, as long as she won the contest. She could out-perform any Arab trader in a Turkish bazaar, she’s that good. When I am present at these contests, I pretend that we are total strangers. I’ve been known to meet her at the corner to avoid being seen getting in... Sign in to see full entry.

The sound of a ruffed grouse “drumming” up romantic interest echoes through the woods and our walls as I sit at my keyboard. The familiar sound announces the arrival of spring as surely as rising gas prices; bug spray ads and lawn mowers. My strawberry plants are flowering now and I think it’s time to set my tomato plants in the ground this weekend. It’s still a gamble but if they sit unplanted, they will have to be replaced anyway. I’ve already cut the lawn twice during the brief windows of... Sign in to see full entry.

While I was in the hospital, when I was young, an old timer told me about an earlier stay he had a year or so earlier. That time, he was there for a prostate (Roto-Rooter) removal of most or all of his prostate gland, I don’t remember which. Anyway, since he was about to be Okayed for release, he had to give a urine specimen, which if it was cloudy, would mean at least another day of recovery in the hospital. He had already produced a clear specimen and knew that when his doctor saw it, he would... Sign in to see full entry.

Yesterday, Marilyn was looking through her console mounted glove compartment for something and came onto piles and piles of sweet and sour sauce, taco sauce, barbeque sauce, catsup, relish, salt & pepper, plastic eating utensils, napkins and everything but mustard. She knows that Ivy doesn’t like mustard, so she had already narrowed her suspect list down to one name. She asked Ivy where all these condiments came from. Ivy told her that each time Marilyn took the kids to a fast food place (nearly... Sign in to see full entry.

Very few commercial ads make me laugh out loud but there is a new one by the Snickers candy bar people that got a real belly laugh out of me. A mother is waxing eloquent about the smooth, creamy chocolate covering of her candy bar. Her two sons, who are seriously world class, butt ugly, overhear her and say, “But you always tell us that it’s what is inside that’s important!” She reflects on this while admiring her Snickers bar and simply says, “No.” The two cave-boys begin sobbing, their hearts... Sign in to see full entry.

The kids were wandering around the yard playing while I was working in the garden today. They looked in the sump pit that helps drain the yard and keeps it from being a swamp this time of year. Ivy announced that there was a frog trapped in the sump pit. I remained silent, knowing that they would rescue it. Ivy wasn’t enthusiastic about touching it but D. J. wasn’t scared of any old frog and sat down in the mud to go big game hunting. Marilyn had just changed him into clean clothes to go yard... Sign in to see full entry.