Friday, April 22, 2011

very good Friday

Lately my 'get up and go' has 'gone down and went'. Some days I want to stay in bed... have a headache...can't think straight...wanna eat pralines and cream straight from the carton. But TA-day, with the help of the middle Sprout and the Texan, I finished a project! Do I hear a BOO-YAH?

The back patio

This was the perfect day...Good Friday...to work on the patio. Hauling out the succulents I kept in the sunroom through the winter, and planting some pots with a few annuals. The weather:  warm. The wind:  still. Un-freakin-believable.


Brought out the radio and cranked up K-LOVE to be inspired on this Holy day. Praise and worship music perfectly tuned to plant petunias.

where I worshipped this Good Friday

This song spoke to me....Who Am I, by Casting Crowns

http://youtu.be/othmFqaw0Yk

I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow....a vapor in the wind.


Get to growin' plants!
Proud I finally finished something. Break out the margaritas, Texan. It's patio season!!

Thanks to my fellow gardeners. You helped me cross the finish line. I'm grateful.

Good Friday love to all. Hang on....Easter's comin'.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

a hallelujah doxy

"There are two ways to live:  you can live as if nothing is a miracle or you can live as if everything is a miracle."  Albert Einstein

easter doxy 015a
Roxy Doxy enjoying her Easter outfit 2010

Sometimes I overuse sarcasm and hyperbole in my storytelling for dramatic and humorous effect. It's fun to get your goat, and you fellow chicken-wingers, are kind to follow along.

Today, I relate to you a dog-story as truthfully as I can. What really happened?? You tell me.

Practicing water safety at the Lake last summer
Last evening, as I was returning from church, I pulled into the big circle driveway. All the outside lights were on. It seemed odd because the Texan is cheap economical and he preaches turning off unnecessary lights. I entered the house through the sliding door from the garage to the utility room. I immediately experienced a sensation of something not being 'right'.
Enjoying Veteran's Day from her 'watchdog perch'
Usually, the wiener dog sees me from her watchdog perch in the window, and she scampers to greet me. Ambled through the back of the house to the living room....no Doxy and where is the Texan? As I make my way back toward our bedroom, I see the stubby dog walk to me (kind of hesitantly, like she's in trouble) and she does her usual 'I'm sitting up...please pick me up!' and I gladly oblige. She smells strange. What is it? She is reeking of burnt rubber, asphalt and dead animal.
The Texan appears from his shower and tells me, 'The Doxy got run over by a truck!' He is clearly shaken, and I request he repeat it for me. 'The Doxy got run over!'

'How is this possible, as I am holding the wiener and she is alive?' Smelly, shaken...but alive.

He explains, voice cracking, that the watchdog wiener spied a cat from her perch in the window. I'll not go into all the gory details, but suffice it to say the dog got out...chased the cat into the busy street in front of our house and he thought he saw a truck run over her. In his horror, he ran into the street and scooped her up from the asphalt. He reported she was stiff....eyes open, but unresponsive. She was not responding to his voice. He laid her on our bed while he called the vet. As he observed her, she seemed to be getting less stiff and more alert so he told the vet he was going to watch her. He jotted down the 24 hour emergency animal hospital number.

She was getting better even though there appeared to be a little blood mixed with urine/or saliva? on the sheet. Was she bleeding anywhere?...he couldn't see anything. Was anything broken or any leg poking the wrong direction? No.  She continued to improve until I came home and she walked up to me.

Ringing in 2011
After the Texan finished, I laid in a fetal position on the floor for a minute. You see, we adore this ridiculous rock-fetching wiener. She has been the child in our empty nest. Since we both lost our Mothers in the last couple of months, we are feeling kind of.....raw. Some of the planets in our universe are extinguished and we feel a little wobbly on our axis. Neither of us wants to live in our universe without the little dachshund planet. Not now.

Roxy Doxy loves America

I put Doxy in bed with me (like usual) and laid awake waiting for her to convulse and die. She did not. We just got checked out by the vet. The nice veteranarian asked that I work on better restraining my dog and she gave me some light pain meds for soreness. She found nothing amiss.
This little dog keeps me engaged politically
I'm spending most of this day hugging and kissing the wiener dog. Can't help myself. Grateful for the comfort of my sausage dog during this wobbly time. The Texan? Safe to say he feels the same. I'll probably love and slobber on him when he gets home from work. Poor Texan.


What really happened? Was she hit, or not?

Me?....I'm treating it as a miracle. An Easter Doxy resurrection! Strike up the Hallelujah Chorus! I am over the moon for a small, smelly sausage-y miracle.


Hope you recognize your miracle today. Hal-la-LOO-ya love to all.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

boots an' jeans an' opera

Can Saturday be my own personal Groundhog Day??


I wouldn't mind re-living yesterday a few thousand more times.

Woke up. Went to the gym and spun my legs off with my fitness buds. While riding nowhere fast, I racked up 25 miles and got the heart rate up. I'm grateful for the imperfect ticker...it's workin' pretty good lately!

Went to the horse barn to work with my horse trainers, Doug and Patti Pratt. My western footwear of choice:

Rode with my horse-buddy, Helen. We're both mature ladies who are trying to improve our riding and killer horsemanship skillz. Helen always has a beaming smile and a contagious laugh. I like being around Helen cuz she's a 'glass half full' kinda person. We both attempted riding our western horses in perfectly round circles.  Patti declared 'you can't ride a good straight line until you can ride a perfect circle'. We circled and circled with Patti's encouragement.
The 'best old-lady horse in the world!' was his usual easy-going self. After riding him, he kissed me and sneezed on me...then the wind kicked up and my face was streaked with dusty horse snot. Patti was astride my big English horse and she asked if I'd like to climb up. Moi?? Now, this horse is a WHOLE different ballgame....tall...lanky...big-strided...thoroughbred...and did I mention TALL? I stuttered 'sure' and I tortured my inner thighs getting Big Guy around the pen. With Patti and Doug's directions, I was able to guide him around the pen. Pure exhiliration for me getting to spend time with quality horses and friendly people.

Came home and headed for the shower.  It was soooo windy....how windy was it??....my face was streaked with dirt, you coulda planted a California redwood in my ear, my normally red hair was an earthy, dull brown and my nose was filled with massive, crusty dirt-boogers. Is this the perfect day, or what!?


My perfect day was about to get perfect-er. 
You'll never guess what I did next.....I went to the OPERA. Opera in Amarillo, Texas you ask? Most certainly! We have our own reknowned Opera Company....Amarillo Opera. I cleaned up and made the Texan take a picture to commemorate the rare occasion of my cleanliness.

You know I went solo. The Texan doesn't 'do' opera. Roxy Doxy adores opera and was ticked at the 'no wiener dog' policy.

My foundational garments were so tight, I popped a massive vein in my temple....covered the gruesomeness up with my bangs.

Anyhoo, back to the Opera. Here's the low-down:  they performed (flawlessly) the Italian Straw Hat. It's a farcical comedy and the performers sang in English. 

Now, I could get arrested for showing you this next photo....I'm not usually such a brazen rule-breaker...but I wanted my fellow chicken-wingers to see the glorious art deco set. Uh, maybe I didn't really take this unauthorized photo at all....maybe my neighbor did and gave it to me. Yeah, he gave it to me! Here's a glimpse of the colorful stage in our first-class performing arts center.
used by persmission of person who gave me this photo


The Italian Straw Hat was entertaining, colorful, and contemporary-this coming from a person who doesn't know her Puccini from her panini! I enjoyed it.  All the singers were stellar, but a special shout-out to my friend and opera-diva, Sarah Beckham. A home-town girl turned opera's next superstar. Sarah, you were divine!!!!.... 'toy, toy, toy' or whatever!!  I'll cover all my bases by shouting,  bravo, brava, bravi, and bra-ssiere!


I pondered, as I crawled into my bed finally free from clamping undergarments ....where else in the world could I have spent the morning smiling atop great horses, and then dress up for an op-er-a gala in the evening?

Do ya see why Saturday gets my vote for groundhog day? You with me?

Hope your weekend was uplifting.

Big, bright musical love to all this week.