Summer at The Lake - 2007

Word of the Day

Gimongous - Indescribably large. Really really big.

I'm exhausted! Day 2 of Gypsy's Home Physical Therapy. I was pleased to find that my bathtub is indeed deep enough for Gypsy to do her swim therapy. We had our first session in the tub yesterday after breakfast. It took a long time to fill the tub with enough water to make swimming possible. Lots of water. After looking at all that water, I decided not to drain the water. Seemed like a heck of a waste of water, seeing as how we live in a desert. However, this morning after breakfast, I noted that the water was awfully cold. I added hot water but I've decided that despite the waste, I'll have to drain the tub at least half way in order for me to refill with enough hot water to get the temperature to the required 90°F that the PT guy recommended. I don't have a thermometer but even I could feel that the temperature of the water this morning was too cold. I'm getting better with the swim therapy. We didn't get so much water all over the floor and down all over me this time. I have hopes that I'll do even better tomorrow. I drained the almost completely before giving Gypsy a nice bath. Our daily walks were starting to cause the white portions of my poor baby's feet to turn a kind of silvery grey. Besides, she's been chewing on her ears again. Time for a bath. I'll start with fresh water in the tub for tomorrow's therapy session.

I'm exhausted. Gypsy doesn't look similarly exhausted. We still have to do our tug-a-war session (playing...she loves to play) and then a couple of more walks around the block. She's doing really well "heel"ing. There weren't any tripping incidents this morning. That's where she wanders in front of my feet and I end up doing this little tripping dance so I don't step on her, lose my footing and fall and hurt myself. I think she's getting the idea when it comes to the "sit" command too. Not bad at all for just Day 2. I've got to work on the sloppy angle sitting but that's part of her physical therapy. She sits sloppy and I get to bend down and rearrange her hind legs so she's sitting correctly.

Life here in Arizona goes on. The citrus trees are blossoming profusely. There's lots of citrus blossom perfume out in my backyard right now. As I feared, it smells like someone broke a bottle of the concentrate outside. This morning as I walked by the tangelo tree, I could hear a distinctive droning sound. Bees! Lots of bees! They didn't look at all interested in doing anything but collecting pollen but I decided to exercise a bit of caution. No point in disturbing the little buggers more than necessary. I will have to go back outside and spray the weeds again. We haven't had any rain for a while so the weeds aren't too bad but it's best to keep on top of the situation.

The temperatures outside have been in the upper 80's. It's been so warm outside that I've actually had to close up the house and turn on our AC. We've used the AC a lot more than the furnace. I'm not fond of being cold but one can always put on a sweater. There's only so much clothing one can take off when it starts to get too warm. My fountain filler (frog spitter)doesn't look like it'll be able to keep up with the evaporation factor. Since HTP and I will be heading to The Lake in a month, I'll have to help my spitter out a bit by topping the fountain off with the hose if it looks like it may become necessary. No point in changing the timer for the three weeks that remain before I'll have to drain the thing for the summer.

HTP and I bottled the Pomegranate Wine and the Prickly Pear Wine. It really does take two people to get those bottles corked. We bottled all the wine in regular sized 750ML bottles even though I had smaller bottles. I decided that it would be easier to transport the wine in the larger bottles and I figured that Sis and I could always decant and re-bottle into the smaller bottles for gifting purposes. I also bottled the Arancello and the Tancello in the 750ML bottles (I decided tangelocello was too much of a mouthful for the labels). Same reasoning. HTP made all the labels for me. Poor HTP always ends up having to design labels for me on his computer. He's far more artistic than me. The new labels this year were for the Prickly Pear Wine and the Tancello. He did a great job! I've got the wine and liqueurs all labeled and ready to go to The Lake. Oh...I sipped a bit of the new wine and found decided that it was good. I'll have to see if I can get one of my neighbors to donate some prickly pear fruit for next year's vintage. I also sampled a bit of the Tancello and the Arancello to see if there might be a difference in the taste. I think there may be a distinct taste difference but....I'll have to get a second opinion after HTP and I get to The Lake.

Murphyism of the Day

Troutman's Programming Postulates

1. If a test installation functions perfectly, all subsequent systems will malfunction.

2. Not until a program has been in production for at least six months will the most harmful error be discovered.

3. Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.

- Francis Maitland Balfour