The Water Girl

Winter is here and our outside faucets have been temporarily decommissioned. We have had some bouts of CRAZY cold weather. We have gone days without breaking the freezing mark, and that is RARE in Oklahoma. Jason covered the outside faucets with a standard styrofoam cover, but the puppy ate it. Jason beat the puppy with it (no...not really. He just flailed the fragments of styrofoam around and yelled at the dog while doing so.) Jason bought yet another styrofoam faucet cover, and Mack ate it again. Jason bought yet another cover....and you can guess what happened. Finally the store was out of styrofoam covers, so Jason wrapped the spigot in insulation and taped an old paint bucket over it. Mack has yet to find a way to infiltrate this new-fangled system.

Anyway, our outside faucets are not easily used, so I have been filling the animals' water buckets in the bath tub and hauling them to the back of the property. Let me tell you, if you want some killer arm muscles, just lug around five gallon buckets of water. It's cheaper than a nautilus machine too. Sure you make think you are going to die for the first ten times that you do it, but then after that it isn't THAT bad. Don't f*%# with me......or any of those people you see in National Geographic carrying water up a rocky hillside on their head, or on one of those stick-on-the-back numbers. They will tear you up!

Go to "Funky Town" and Stay There

This weekend I went to lunch with my mother, and mother in law for their birthdays.One was born on the thirteenth of January 1951 and, the other on the fourteenth of January 1952. Sorry for disclosing your ages, ladies...but I think it is cool that you are exactly one year, and one day apart in age. We had a good time on our outing, and did a little shopping afterwards. My mother had Barrett in her cart. Barrett has figured that I am no fun on shopping trips, and my mother is a walking carnival. So...he chose to ride in my mom's cart.

By the time I got him back he reaked of cotton candy (I am being completely serious), and he had a new toy. This toy is a car that plays "Funky Town" over, and over, and over, as long as you know what button to press. It is not out of character for my mom to buy my kids toys. If she had ten dollars to her name, she would spend $9.89 on her grandkids.She is a generous lady, who loves her grandkids to no end.
The "funky town" car found it's way out of Barrett's reach by Sunday morning. Jason was this --- close to losing his mind. I could not blame him. I gave Barrett his obnoxious car back this morning. I am listening to "Funky Town" as I type.

Won't you take me to funky town?

RIP Jay Reatard

I heard some sad news that Jay Reatard, whose real name is Jimmy Lee Lindsey, passed away Monday night/ Tuesday morning. He was only twenty nine years old. I am a relatively new Jay Reatard fan. I fell in love with his 09 release, "Watch Me Fall", but he had been making music for over fourteen years. He apparently dropped out after the eighth grade and began sending demos to record companies. His music is not life-changing, or profound, but it makes you want to fling your body around like a maniac. Who doesn't like that? I'll miss you, Jay Reatard.

Electricity

We have been having some crazy weather here in Oklahoma. It has been frigid cold, and windy....really windy even for Oklahoma standards. We lost power several times over the holidays. Then we started having frequent power surges. One of these surges blew out my wireless router, so I am stuck in my bedroom with the modem. We realized that if we ran the dryer that the surges would stop. We were afraid to turn on our new t.v. otherwise. So...the dryer had to be running in order for us to watch the telly. I told my mother this and she laughed at me. She reminded me of the power system on "Green Acres" in which you could only use certain plugs at once. All the plugs had numbers, but the total of the numbers could never be more than seven. I love that my life is most accurately mirrored by "Green Acres". (eye roll)

The power company came out and said that there wasn't a problem on their end, and we needed to call an electrician. An electrician came out, and tightened a few wires. He said that there was nothing wrong on our end, and that we needed to call the power company. We had him put in a protective outlet for our pretty t.v. while he was here...just in case. Sometime between the electric company blaming our house and the electrician blaming the electric company, the power surges stopped. So...we will just cross our fingers and hope that our luck continues. We have to bury our beloved router, and we are out a few bucks for the electrician. We no longer have to run the dryer in order to watch television, and electrician confirmed that we weren't in danger of our house becoming the victim of an electrical fire. Good news...I guess.

I guess I'll have to get myself to Mr. Drucker's store to see if they have any wireless routers ;-)

Puppy Problems

You know the saying "No good deed goes unpunished"? Well, for me that seems to be true. Taking in Mack was something that we did only because we were certain that he would end up road kill if we didn't. We were not in the market for a puppy...actually I said that I would NEVER get another puppy...EVER. When a needy animal falls in my lap, I can't help but take them on.

Mack has had a rough time adjusting here. He lived in the wild with his mama without any boundaries or rules until the day Jason snatched him up. Despite his general destructiveness...and a few potty accidents we had been making progress with him. He was becoming more likable once my paper towel bill had gone down, and I wasn't having to yell "drop it" every three minutes.

Mack committed the ultimate of canine crimes, and killed a hen the other day. Most country dogs would receive a bullet to the head the second that this happened. Instead, Jason chased Mack around with the dead chicken and a large stick until we were certain that Mack would NEVER look at poultry again. Wrong. He was busted pestering another hen the next day. So, we are giving Mack one more chance before we find him another home. We are also eliminating his opportunity for poultry murder as much as we can.

Mack, I am rooting for you! Please act right, so we can keep you.