Posts tagged "Elwood":

Rainy Day

It's been very warm here. It won't last, of course. Much of the snow has melted. There are large expanses of water to walk through. Elwood and I have been able to take some long walks. We've gotten very wet. yesterday i was able to go out only in a sweatshirt. But today it rained and we did not go out. Elwood was very annoyed with me. I've been annoyed with my computer so we haven't been good company for each other.

Doings Today

Today Elwood went to Pet Smart for his quarterly top dog treatment. I went to the cosmetology department at MATC for a pedicure, manicure, eyebrow waxing and hair cut. This is a good plan. I will have the same person cut my hair next time which is good because we are trying to straighten everything out from some poor hair cuts previously. I get to listen in on what the instructors tell the student and who knows, maybe I can learn something to tell another operator. I'm hoping the instructors learn my hair. I was also able to get Elwood a new bone and his food on sale as well as get a regular customer discount.

I brought my GPS with me. I forgot to turn it on at first and it takes a good 20 minutes sometimes to find the GPS signal, but when it did I could listen in as we drove around. My friends made certain I could landmark everywhere we went and gave me exact names. I even have their house marked. What is very cool about traveling this way is that I learned where the West Town Mall is, that Target is nearby and that Pet Smart and other places are near where the kids looked at an apartment for me. They decided it was a car-friendly area, not a pedestrian-friendly area. We all figured out it was far out of town. I would not have known all of this if I had left the GPS home.

I also had it on when my friend brought me home. We were stopping off at the library to pick up my books so I won't have to go anywhere tomorrow when the deep freeze will be upon us. I knew where we were and to say where to turn.

Elwood got a red bow to wear out of the spa. He showed more interest in a new bone and chewed happily.

We ate in a nice restaurant with numerous soup choices. They prepare all their soups gluten-free, adding noodles or rice as a GF alternative when the soup is served. Must keep the noodles and rice from getting gummy, too. I had French garden with basil on top and wonderful crusty bread and butter.

We also had a chance to stop at a second-hand store. I found a canister for Willie Street Coop bulk items and some warm tops including a purple tunic made of Italian yarn.

I just take Ellwood...

I just took Elwood out. He jumped onto my lap between me and the netbook. So I unplugged it and set it on his back. He jumped off.

(I think was an early program to record and transform your voice to text. Lots of errors I've corrected on September, 27, 2025. This little post made me smile. I'm sure I tried to type while the computer was on Elwood's back as a joke.)

Happy Birthday, Elwood!

Today is Elwood's 4th birthday. He was sung to last night at church and greeted this morning from St. Luke's Bible study. His birthday gift was unintentional. I changed clothes quickly last night before church and dropped them on the floor. Elwood found jeans and a sweatshirt when he came home and curled himself up on them. He was still there this morning. Such love. This was not his style when I first met him.

More Adventures

Not to be daunted, we went out again today and went to the Post Office. This is a very confusing place. It was a former A&P from what I understand. Lots of stations, people, and automatic doors. One difficulty is getting outside again. You have to go to the out for the door to open. Dogs expect to go out the door they came in.

It was leaving the Post office that proved to be a challenge for Elwood–or more to the point, getting back on the sidewalk. He made a grand tour of the parking lot and we had a nice chat with a man from Australia from his accent back at the Post office. Eventually, we got back on track and went off to the library to return a book and pick up another book. We has some miscommunication about what a clear sidewalk is and about ice and not going into the street. I tend to be unreasonable if I think there is a possibility about going out into the street and Elwood maintains that icy sidewalks are not what he considers suitable for walking. I try to make up for my dis stress by congratulating him on all good work just as enthusiastically as I fussed about staying on the sidewalk. There is one area he likes to tramp through the snow coming back. I don't know what he is avoiding. I of course sink down further in the snow than he does.

Then the fun began. We crossed the street. The angle was a little strange. I wanted to go a particular direction. I think he did not. The GPS advised we were going in a direction I did not want to go and I figured Elwood did want to go. I turned around and we wandered. Eventually, I figured out we had recrossed the street and may have been walking on the bike path. Then again, we may have been walking on the side of the street. I will give Elwood the benefit of the doubt here though we did not cross a snow bank to get across the street eventually. The cool part was that the GPS could tell me how far I was from our corner. I kept pressing the button and eventually we were approaching it. I suggested right and Elwood turned appropriately. The challenge then became crossing safely. It was windy. I had on a hood. I knew we were in the right place not only because of the GPS but by a car which turned. I'm sure Elwood knew exactly where the crosswalk was. Some cars passed and then it was our turn. Zip. And zip all the way home. Elwood was glad to get back.

I did not mention in a previous post that we also managed to get locked out New Year's Day. I buzzed a neighbor. I didn't realize I was on the wrong row of buttons and buzzed someone on the other side of the building. She was nice enough not only to let me in but to step outside her door to see if I had indeed come inside.

The Women of Madison

Happy New Year to everyone!

I haven't posted for a while. Life is like that.

The kids were here Christmas Eve. We went to church together. Brian thought there was a lot of singing. If you wanted a service with lots of singing, this was it. A very good service for people who are not necessarily "into" church or who may think differently than you about church. It had singing, candle lighting, kids and the Christmas story as well as a play about how the Christmas story characters were just ordinary people like us.

The soup was a great success with people taking leftovers home. I decided's ed I need to work a little more on the soup choices. i picked 3 heavy soups and that was way too much in the stomach so a lighter soup choice needs to be found.

It's been very cold here and we've had over 38 inches of snow already. The Sunday before Christmas the wind chill was -35.

With the snow blocking routes and Elwood's creativity, I have found myself in need of help. The women of Madison have come through for me. One woman drove me to the library because the path I was on was snow-blocked. Another woman stopped her car to re-direct us as we were in no man's land along the side of a major road. She made sure we knew where we were before returning to her car.

It is very cold today but lots of people were out, especially on the bike path. I heard someone say,"We have 5 miles to go." I don't know if there was a New Year's walk in progress.

I now have GPS. Sited people can have GPS for under $100. I got GPS for under $1000. It is a dedicated unit and very simple which is what I wanted. There are cheaper solutions on cell phones, but I (a) bounced someone out of his application by fiddling with his phone and (b) I couldn't imagine myself messing around with commands on a phone at a corner in 4 degree weather like there was outside today. I can find out where I am by pushing one button with my gloves on if necessary.

I recorded our route today and learned I had walked over 2.25 miles. I need to walk more, for Elwood's sake as well as to deal with the weight which is creeping up due to inaction.

Bear in mind, the average snowfall in Madison has been 51 inches though last year they had 100. The head of the meteorology department at UW Madison does not think it will be 100 this year, but with 40 inches or so on the ground already who knows.

Writing from Glendale

I'm writing this from Glendale having come here on the bus yesterday. Tomorrow is our cookie bake. It turns out I am making the base for the Italian wedding soup for lunch. I also have to see if I can still make cookies.

I understand there is a big snowstorm on the east coast. We have had snow, too and it is very, very cold.

Wednesday we went to the library. It was the first clear day in a while. I wanted to get a book before it got sent back to its originating library and I had several to return. I also thought it would get us out.

Well, they're digging up alongside Wingra Creek. The intersection of Park and Wingra is not well shoveled and the sidewalk was deteriorating as we approached. I decided to go back. Elwood, who does not like backtracking, suggested we cross Wingra at South. There's a crosswalk and the down curb was shoveled. Normally I don't do this because there is not a stop sign on Wingra nor a light, but traffic was light enough and slow enough I thought we could manage it. Then I discovered the snowbank along the bike path. Okay, we'll walk along it to Fish and get onto the sidewalk there. I also found half a dozen cars parked along the road. Go around. Eventually we found where someone had shoveled through the snow to the bike path./ Much joy.

Our next surprise, or at least mine, was finding myself crossing a street and continuing on open sidewalk. Well, I thought it was open sidewalk. It turned out to be one of the lanes on the main street. In Elwood's defense, the opposite curb was plowed in and only a cut less than the width of a dog gave access to the sidewalk.

But here we were, in the street and we needed to get off of it. So we climbed the snowbank, me on hands and knees because it was too high to step over and too dense to slog through. This happened twice more on our return trip. Boy was I sore. I don't use those muscles. I did have that wonderful feeling of snow on my pant legs I remember from childhood. I haven't felt that for a long time and was quite surprised to find it locked away in memory.

Some of you are not receiving my emails. I'm sending them. Please check junk folders and add me to your white list or receive email from this person list.

I am using the new little netbook I got recently with St. Luke's purse gift. It is easy to carry with me and J. resolved some of my issues with it last night. It has a web cam so hopefully skype calls using it will have video. My home system defaults to my telephone which does not have video but I will see how the wireless connection behaves when I return and we'll go from there.