THE BOOK OF BARKLEY
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
It's That Season.
Sunny is definitely one of us. My husband and I are NOT fans of pumpkin spice but got her a box of the Pumpkin fall treats at Trader Joe's, as the peanut butter ones are always a hit.
Friday, October 18, 2024
I Don't Know HOW it Happaned!
Someone went into their crate at the normal 3 o'clock "nap" time while I got dinner prepped and laundry in the basement moved to the dryer, to find her "blankie" was missing (being washed today).
She made her displeasure known.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Saturday, October 5, 2024
PlayDate!
Sunny has had several playdates this week with the neighbor's golden retriever pup. We have a fenced yard, so it's perfect (though Napeoleoin's family has a swimming pool). If Napeleon was out walking when we were and saw Sunny he'd lay down and refuse to move until Sunny came over. So, after lots of sniffs on walks and joyful barks through the fence when Napoleon passed by, we knew a formal friendship was in order.
They've had great fun and Nap's Mom and I have enjoyed chatting while the dogs wear themselves out. She's a teacher, and she gets off work about the same time I do so this has worked out well, and when they're done playing we have tired dogs so we can get dinner for the family put together in peace
Some photos from this week's playtime.
This photo just makes me laugh - that's my husband on the ground laughing, the dogs about ran him over as Napoleon came in the gate.
Monday, September 30, 2024
Traveler Alert
Sunny D. here: If any of you ever flew on UnTIED airlines back in the 90's out of LAX and looked up in the cockpit and saw this??AND lived to tell about it? Thank your lucky stars.
Monday, September 23, 2024
How to Get "Pupcake Face" - A Tutorial
Photography by Sunny's Mom
Smile brought to you by the thought of her own "pupcake"
Friday, September 13, 2024
Birthday Musings
I recently turned 66. Hard to believe. I started this blog almost 10 years ago. People have come and gone, some by choice, some not. I've lost my stepmom, my dad, my brother, my step-brother, and my nephew. I met my biological sisters after my pre-adoption birth certificate was unsealed. I've said goodbye to Barkley, Abby Lab, and Lorelei Lab. I've adopted a rescue Lab puppy -Sunny (alter ego BITEY DOG!). Lots of tears, but oh so many good times.
I noticed the colors in the paint section of a hardware store the other weekend when I was looking for a brick-colored paint to spruce up a storage caddy in the kitchen. The yellows were the color I had painted my room as a teen. I noticed the greens, so many of them resembling the green of my parents’ house in the ’60s and ’70s, yet not the same color. You’d not see the original in a landscape, only in a kitchen with avocado appliances while my Mom sang as she made cookies.
One morning, while in a hangar checking out a pilot friend’s home-built project, I had one of those moments. It was an old turboprop lumbering down the taxiway with all the grace of a water buffalo. It wasn’t the aircraft that caught my eye; it was one of those planes that carried neither speed nor sleek beauty but embodied inertia overcome by sufficient horsepower. No, it was the smell of jet fuel that took me back to years of pushing the limits, not really caring if I came home, only that the work was done without my breaking beyond re-use, something I was trusted with. Until one day, while my heart was beating despite being broken unseen beneath starched white cotton, my aircraft made a decided effort to kill me.
I, too, have had more than one day where I stood outside on a pale crescent of beaten earth and breathed deeply of that cold, having traded in my wings for a black bag, a badge, and Dr. in front of my name. On those days, I felt every muscle ache; my skin was hot under the sun, the savage, fecund smell of loss in the air, lying heavily in the loud silence. Somewhere in the distance would come a soft clap of thunder; overhead clouds strayed deliberately across the earth, disconnected from mechanical time. I’d rather be elsewhere; the smell simply that of kitchen and comfort, the sounds only of laughter wrapped in the joy and weariness of adopting a rescue puppy when you're 66 years old.
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Don't Forget to Recycle
My husband is out of town for work and Sunny was FULL of energy yesterday (think hummingbird on crack energy). I also had a VERY busy telework day. With a yard full of toys guess what her new favorite is? Yes, the Rubbermaid vanity trash can I use to take my water bottles and small boxes out to the recycling. I had hosed it out to keep it clean and she spotted it and . . . . . . .
Kept her busy for an hour while I got a few pictures and got some last bits of work done on my laptop before supper.