Planet Jabberwocky

Back to the Mountains

2009-06-04T00:08:00.000-04:00

The weekend before last we took Roadie and Sallie back up into the mountains and spent a couple of nights at the Skyland Lodge in Shenandoah National Park. We love it up there. It's so peaceful and refreshing we decided we'd do a weekend retreat up there every few months, just to slough off the stress of the day-to-day grind. We haven't made it up there that often, and every time we go I wonder why not. It's great, it's close, it's right on the Appalachian Trail, and they have pet friendly rooms.

The sunsets were fantastic...

This is the first time we spent the night with Sallie up there, and we thought she'd be a bit skittish of the deer and wildlife we knew we'd run across. (Last fall a couple of bears crossed the road right in front of us.) She turned out to be the mellow one, and Roadie whined the entire first night. I had to take him out every few hours -- and of course Sallie saw me touch the leashes and had to come too -- but all he did out there is annoy the heard of deer trying to have a quiet moonlight meal. We had to wear him out if we were going to get any sleep the next night, so we took them on a nice hike to Betty's Rock.

The hike ends with, well, rocks. Big rocks. High rocks. Neither of them seemed worried, but they looked like they had a healthy respect for the drop-off. (It wasn't as bad as it looks in the picture...at least not where they're standing.)

Getting up the rocks was a bit much for the dogs, and Jan wasn't really excited about getting any closer to the real drop-off. The view was definitely worth the short climb...

Sallie The Meek wanted to try the climb and follow me up. Roadie The Alpha liked it fine where he was...

The room had a pretty fantastic view of it's own. I caught a moment off the deck with the early evening sun painting the trees with gold...

This was Roadie's favorite spot on the deck -- where he could watch the other dogs and miscellaneous wildlife from a safe perch...

It was a great weekend, as it always is. We couldn't really go into the restaurants, but they had tables just outside and the weather couldn't have been better, so carry out meals worked just fine. Especially after a little hiking, with a very tired Roadie sound asleep next to the chair. We got plenty of sleep Saturday night.

Hot Dogs and Cool Mountains

2009-05-05T22:37:00.000-04:00

I'm kind of at a standstill on our guest bath now that I got the appropriate permit, did the wiring for the new whirlpool, and just have to wait to get it inspected. So, the weekend before last we had to take advantage of the beautiful weather and get the dogs out. It was finally clear and sunny, but it was hot! It was like being dropped from early spring into mid-summer. We had company from Detroit and decided head to where it's cooler (and least like Detroit) -- the mountains.

It was ninety-three degrees when we stopped just before we got into the mountains. This picture of Sallie pretty much tells the story -- with a tongue like that its amazing she doesn't succumb to ETS the way Roadie does.

Roadie was just as hot, but he had to look cool for the camera...

Once we got up to Skyline Drive it was ten degrees cooler, but Sallie still had to use Roadie for shade...

We did a lot of walking, had a picnic at Big Meadow, and thoroughly wore the dogs out. Sallie seems to get needy when she gets tired and wants to be hugged and touched -- and of course Mom was glad to oblige...

...meanwhile Roadie just goes out like a light...

I had to throw this one in here because these trees were just too cool. This is at Big Meadow. Looking at the picture you wouldn't know this is up along the ridge of the mountains, just yards from the Appalachian Trail...

I'm hoping to have the inspector here on Friday, and then I get to wait for the plumber to put in the whirlpool bath. I was hoping a plumber would figure out how to do that without cutting a hole in the kitchen ceiling to get at the trap, but that's apparently not the case -- which has me wondering whether I should do it myself and save the money. Once that's in the real work begins though: cement board, drywall, tile, more plumbing. I hate drywall. Maybe another weekend waiting for something would be nice. Maybe the weather will change and this week's rains will end. Maybe we can finally get these doggies to a Meet & Greet so they can do their jobs as Greyhound Ambassadors and get lots of people to pet them. Maybe we can follow that up with a nice winery. Maybe...

Mud, Grass, and Inter-Species Interface

2009-04-19T20:53:00.000-04:00

Ah, the weather is getting nicer and the rains seem to be ending. That may change, but the dogs definitely sense the coming warmth. We've been working the yard with grass seed and you can almost hear the wee screaming as fine blades push their way through the clay. It's patchy, but for once there is contrast between Roadie and the background -- brindle against green, his camouflage is no longer effective...

Where they do most of their running it's patches of mud that still dominate the landscape. That's been a problem. We've tried keeping rags near the door, we've given them foot baths, but what has finally worked is having one of those coiled hoses right on the deck by the door. Now when they come in they've learned to wait patiently as we hose off the paws. They don't seem to mind, and they even lift a paw for us as we reach for them with the hose. Of course it means we end up washing our own feet in the process, but we're not getting those muddy paw prints all over the house like a Family Circus comic.

It's amazing how close these two have become. Sallie cleaning Roadie's ears or licking his teeth clean for him is a common morning sight. They still mind-meld when they're sleeping close enough to each other, often hitting nearly exact positions. I didn't realize greyhounds come with Bluetooth enabled, but they've definitely paired with one another...

Armand thought he'd give it a try with Sallie, staring intently into her eyes just out of range, using that zen-like cat focus to join with the greyhound mind. He was over-reaching, and he broke the stare first. Cats apparently don't come with Bluetooth (or maybe it's Greytooth)...

...and both had to reflect on the inter-species experience afterward...

I wanted to post this months ago, but after dealing with the PC challenges I forgot all about it. These are a couple of pictures Liz found on the Internet and bought for us at Christmas. You can see why they caught her eye...

They were done by a British artist named Elle J. Wilson, and she does some fantastic work. We couldn't believe these when we opened them up, and there were Roadie and Sallie. You can see her work at http://www.almostanangel66.co.uk. It's worth a look!

Back On Line - Thank You Mr. Jobs

2009-04-12T04:59:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've posted anything here. Between problems with my PC, gutting our guest bath, and just spending too much time at work, I seem to have kept myself rather preoccupied. Roadie and Sallie both have a serious case of cabin fever, but the weather is getting nicer and the leaves are starting to pop out of the buds so we'll going to have to get out a bit more! Of course the guest bath is still not much more than bare studs and plywood, but at least my computer problems are fixed. What looked like hard drive problems were actually power supply problems, and with that replaced it seems to be behaving. I'm actually glad it happened. It was enough to finally push me over the edge and I'm typing this on our brand new 24" iMac. I couldn't be happier. We've been thinking about it for a long time, and finally just decided to do it. Apple has always been more elegant than Microsoft, even back to mid '80s with the original Mac's WYSIWYG display versus MS-DOS and remembering what color meant italic or bold. Now it just feels cooler.

So, I've now got my pictures all on the iMac, I have a USB drive backing them up, and I have new software to play with. All that's left to do is get these poor doggies out to some wineries, or the mountains, or just on a nice long walk through the woods -- and take some pictures, of course! I have taken a few in the past couple months that I haven't posted. I worked on a few that I submitted for the Celebrating Greyhounds calendar, including this one. I'm not sure if I posted it before, but it's Roadie and Sallie out in Prince William Forest...

I got a few of Roadie trying to goad Sallie into a game of chase a few weeks ago. He started with some in your face barking, which just annoyed her...

...then he went on to posturing and strutting, losing himself in his Alpha Maleness. Sallie seemed more amused with this approach, like she was gently assuring him that he didn't need to do all that for her...

He finally fell back on whispering sweet nothings in her ear...or at least that's what it looks like here. What he's really doing is barking in her other ear, which of course did end up in a spirited game of chase with the spirits Sallie conjured up nipping at his haunches. Oh well, this is Roadie we're talking about.

I did manage to get a few shots of them back when it snowed -- in March, I think, but then it could have been February. Man, time flies. Anyway, Sallie loved it and had to run her imaginary track in the yard...

It took a Milk Bone to get Roadie out, which he promptly lost in the snow and he seemed totally confused about why he could see it but couldn't get it back...

The cold finally won out over Milk Bone Lust and he sprinted to his favorite business corner and, well, did his business. It kind of looks like his rear end has a mind of it's own, like one of those horse costumes with two people in it...

OK, more to come soon because I know the warm weather will get us out there, cameras in hand. For now, time to get some more sleep so I can make it through a Dead concert in North Carolina tonight and still make it to work tomorrow morning. Any bets?

Photo Tag

2009-01-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Trina tagged me to post the 6th photo from the 6th directory of photos on my computer. I just found this out, since I've been fighting with my computer for the past few weeks. We've been fighting ever since it powered down while uploading a couple hundred pictures from my camera after Christmas. This computer is now the Anti-Christmas. All 8,000 or so pictures are still there, but apparently the Elements database is no longer rational and I've had to put it in recovery. We're almost there -- it's no longer rocking in place and looking silently out the window, but it's not what it once was. Hey, who is? The nice thing about computers, though, is that you can replace them.

Anyway, here's the 6th picture from the 6th directory on our weary computer. This is going to take some explaining. We came across a Web site back in September of 2005 called "Stuff On My Cat" that was all about, well, stuff on cats. Armand has always been one of those cats who resists all external stimuli when he's found a comfortable state of unconsciousness, and that's exactly the feline characteristic Stuff On My Cat was about exploiting. So we piled a few things on him and took a few pictures to upload. The 6th file was one of them...

It wasn't the one that made it on the Web site, though. This is the one they posted, although not stuff "on" my cat in the literal sense. In a manner of speaking the soldiers were definitely on him, not that he seemed to care one way or another...

Stuff On My Cat is still out there at http://www.stuffonmycat.com, although Armand is apparently long gone from the archives. Maybe Armand in his holiday finery might be a good choice for another entry?

Now to get this computer back in line, or line up a replacement...

Holiday Finery

2008-12-22T10:37:00.000-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and it's my favorite time of year! Our Satellite from Salt Lake City and her new husband (more commonly known as Liz and Devin) will be here tomorrow morning -- provided the Utah snow and a bloated Dane-Boxer don't thwart all of our plans. Starting today I'm off work for two weeks, and they'll be here for one of them, so I expect to be able to take a lot of pictures. For now here are a couple recent shots of at least two of our animals filled with the Spirit, although it looks a little more like possession to me.

Armand isn't normally a grumpy cat, but being forced into a Santa hat apparently brings out the Grinch in him...

I like this shot of Roadie only because of it's ethereal quality -- like the Ghost of Christmas Fast...

I didn't bring a camera to the Christmas Parade a couple weeks ago, but there are some great shots of it on Gyeong's blog. Jan brought hers though, and got a shot of Roadie and Sallie in their finest Christmas attire...

The parade was a lot of fun, and the Greyhounds and people loved each other. Roadie walked the edge of the crowd in awe. You'd think he'd never seen that many people, but then he had a long career at the track so he's got to be a seasoned veteran of passing large crowds of cheering people -- maybe he just never had the time to actually look at them before. In any case it was fun, but it was cold! If Roadie had any they would have frozen off. OK, time to go shopping...

A Few Recent Shots

2008-11-22T09:45:00.001-05:00

I have a few recent shots that I have been meaning to post, but just haven't found (made) the time. The first few are after the September Meet & Greet in Warrenton when we took a drive up into the mountains afterwards. We got there with just enough time left to get some pictures in that fantastic just before dusk daylight...

It's hard to tell from this shot that Roadie just wanted to go lay down in the van. I guess that's what makes a good model -- looking great when you want to be someplace else. Roadie has that down...

The colors were just starting to change that weekend, and it was a beautiful day. I can't believe this is such an easy drive to get to, and every time we go up there I wonder why we don't do it more often...

Roadie ripped a nail off a few weeks ago and spent the better part of a week with his paw wrapped. He's so good about leaving it alone that we left him unmuzzled almost the entire time. We've had them break nails before, but this was the first time we had one of them actually rip one completely off. He came in after running in the yard with just a little bleeding, but all that was left was the quick itself -- it looked like he had replaced his large brown greyhound claw with a small pink cat claw. I had to look at it for a while before figuring out that it was his intact quick. Poor guy, you could tell any contact with it hurt like hell...

I had a few shots from one of the Picker's Meet & Greets this summer that I never got up here either. I think this was in August...

Gyeong, with a pack of tired greyhounds...

After this Meet & Greet we hit our favorite pub where Roadie and Sallie get to lay in the shade while mom and dad quaff a Guinness or two. I love this shot of Jan...or is it a shot of the Guinness on the table?

OK, now I have to take some more pictures. I've been locked in the house or in the office or in the car in between the two just too much lately. I do have a bathroom that's semi-gutted to finish. I have another thick carpet of leaves that want to be mulched. Then there are all the regular chores that I'm better at thinking about than actually doing...priorities, right? Right. Maybe we should hit a winery first...

A Sunday Drive

2008-11-09T20:27:00.000-05:00

We took a drive up to the Warrenton Meet & Greet today, and since it's one of our favorite drives through the woods at one of our favorite times of year I thought I'd bring my camera to get some fall color shots on the way. It may just be me, but I think the colors this year have been more spectacular than they have in recent memory. It's been just amazing, especially in autumn sunshine. I think the colors really peaked a week or so ago, but there are still a few trees holding on to their blazing leaves as the wind rakes their branches, like this guy...

We take the back roads when we go to Warrenton, usually passing right through on the way to the mountains and Shennandoah National Park. It makes the trip feel even better that we can head straight out into the country from our house, and stay in the country -- more or less -- all the way to our destination. No freeways. No traffic. You have to live in this area for a while to appreciate how truly good that feels. We pass a couple of country stores on the way that we always talk about stopping in, but never do. I got a couple of pictures of them today. That has to count for something. This one is kitty-corner to a tiny house where an old man seems to be perpetually sitting on his tiny porch. I think he's watching the store. Maybe it's a country feud, and he's trying to intimidate the owner. Then again, maybe his wife doesn't let him smoke in the house. He wasn't there today, but I'm not brave enough to take his picture anyway. He looks like the NRA type.

I threw this one in because I've never seen hawks flock before. Amazing...

Here's the other store. I've never seen anyone around this store. That's strange, because I think this store represents the entire business district of Sommerville, VA. We have to stop here sometime...

This is a shot from our backyard. The plane of attention is usually much lower, at greyhound level in fact, when I take pictures back here...

Just another shot of the Road To Warrenton. I'm a sucker for rail fence sprinting off to the vanishing point...

I just realized that this shot has the same fat little cloud the last one had...

Sallie likes to come up between the seats and look through the windshield with us. It's just her being needy...

Roadie does his own thing, looking out the window and running the landscape through his Roadie Mind. So many trees to mark, and so little time...

I have a lot of pictures that I just haven't found the time to post yet, but I'll get them up here soon. Roadie nursing a claw that he tore off the quick. (Only the quick remained, which looked very strange, and very painful.) Roadie and Sallie in the mountains -- after the last Warrenton Meet & Greet. I was going to post those a month ago...

The VAGA Picnic, Hanna, and Barak

2008-09-29T16:59:00.000-04:00

I've been untimely in my blogging lately, so I thought I'd get a few recent shots posted. We went to the VAGA picnic the weekend before last and despite the torturous traffic that delayed just about everyone, it was a beautiful day. We couldn't stay for the entire event and left just as the "blur of fur" was starting, but this year Roadie and Sallie got to go off-leash and romp free with their grey friends for a while, which they truly enjoyed! Last year we somehow missed it when they called Roadie's ribbon color, partially because we were so distracted by a very new Sallie. We picked her up at the picnic last year when she was newly retired and scared to death. She was going to be a foster, but that lasted exactly three days. It was literally like she picked us out of a crowd to take her home to live. Just as we arrived the first dog to come over and lean on me was the sweetest little brown and white with a collar that said...Sallie? This is the Sallie we were supposed to pick up -- after the picnic? Could this be our Sallie who just wandered up and leaned against my leg giving us her doe eyes as soon as we walked in the party? She was a sweet, meek, terrified little greyhound that day, and now a year later she is a sweet, meek, and entirely confident girl and she gives those doe eyes to every dog and human willing to look.

Here she's telling mom -- and Roadie -- exactly where she wants everyone to go...

What other breed would be so well behaved at a party with so many friends?

Roadie and Sallie being Roadie and Sallie -- Roadie looking ahead, excited, ears perked up, ready for anything, and Sallie taking a reassuring look back to make sure everything is OK...

Sallie watching the other ribbon colors run. We quickly lost track of her when her ribbon color was called, and when it was time to go back on-leash we eventually found her laying under a tree. I guess she had a different idea of making the most of her time...

By the end of the day Roadie had a look of total satisfaction on his face...

I'm not sure who this is, but I had to get a shot of his striking pose as he watched the other dogs run. You've got to love those Egyptian ears!

I did a couple of black and white shots of the festivities. (Alright, I messed up the white balance and had to do something to fix them)...

Here's Roadie playing with the boys. I love the intensity these two have in their eyes...

He had a great time mixing it up with his friends. We had no idea where Sallie was by this time, but my bet is on that shady tree...

These two had the right idea!

Hanna came to town a week or two before the picnic and gave us a few very rainy days. Roadie and Sallie hate the rain. They may be dancing paw-to-paw trying to hold their early morning water, but as soon as they get to the open back door and see the rain pelting the deck they stop in their tracks, put on their most forlorn expression, and turn back to the beds. It was raining so hard we couldn't even bribe them outside. I even put my raincoat on and went out in it myself holding the savoriest of treats -- no luck. They just laid on their beds and looked at us. It was that "why won't you make it stop, can't you see I have to pee?" look.

They reminded me of the beginning of Cat In The Hat. "I sat there with Sallie, we sat there we two and I said, 'How I wish we had something to do!' Too wet to go out, too cold to play ball, so we sat in the house and did nothing at all!" That just kept going through my head as I watched them mope, so I grabbed their raincoats and leashes and said the W word. That got them up. That got them excited. They were so happy in their slickers as we headed out the door, which lasted just about fifteen feet. Once they realized that it was still raining (dogs forget everything fast when their leashes are involved) they froze in the driveway. They didn't seem to get the fact that their coats were actually keeping the rain out. They wouldn't move. They wouldn't pee. They just looked around in misery.

When I tried again later Sallie staged a dog bed strike in her raincoat. Such resolve.

They did try to console each other, or perhaps they were just sharing their misery...

"So all we could do was to sit, sit, sit, sit! And we did not like it, not one little bit!"

They both eventually went out and took care of business. They wouldn't go in their raincoats. I guess it's a dog thing. Of course the rain eventually stopped and the walks resumed, but I actually think it was something of a missed opportunity. I still remember walking around in thundershowers as a kid and thinking that it somehow altered the reality of the neighborhood I knew so well. It was just different somehow with the rain pelting down. It would have been fun to walk around the block in the rain, especially with the proper rain gear. I like to think I'm smarter now as an adult, even if I still don't know enough to come in out of the rain I at least know enough to dress for it. Then I went with Mike and Holly to see Barak Obama and Joe Biden speak last weekend, left a perfectly good emergency rain poncho in the trunk of my car, and threw three cheap umbrellas away in the incredibly long line because they said they wouldn't allow them through security. As it turned out we weren't even close to security when we threw them out. As it turned out we never even made it to security -- they closed the gates with 14,000 of us still on the outside. We did get close enough to hear them speak, and we could see the crowd that did get through security through the trees. None of them had umbrellas either, but a lot of the people with us still had theirs and they were dry. Some of them were close enough to us in line to have seen us throw ours away a mile or so back from the entrance, but most of the people we were in line with just got soaked like we all did. We got soaked just like those days out in the thundershowers as a kid. You know what? It was worth it. We listened to Barack as he got soaked with us and gave a great speech, so we were in pretty good company!

Some Wedding Pictures and a Good Omen

2008-08-15T16:57:00.000-04:00

The wedding trip was even better than I had imagined it in my last post. It's been six weeks and I'm surprised I haven't written this sooner, because I've certainly had enough pictures to post and events to write about. So, this may turn out to be a rather lengthy post...

When we arrived in Salt Lake City it was blazing hot in the valley, but nice and cool in the mountains. We didn't get to the mountains for a few days though, so we suffered the heat as we made our final preparations--and payments--before the wedding. Liz and Devin hadn't gotten their swamp cooler (a Utah air conditioner) installed yet, which added a kind of full-body appreciation to the sunset. Thank God we had a hotel room where we kept the real air conditioning cranked to the Oh Man I'm Not Leaving This Room Again level. We enjoyed the sunset where it was Kool Inside, like the signs in 1960's restaurant windows advertised with snow-capped letters.

Everything changed once we got into the mountains. The temperature dropped twenty degrees on the ride up, with a river of snow-melt water still coursing down into the valley just off the right side of the road. It was like being transported not only in place but also in time, going from mid-summer desert city to early-spring mountain forest. The pines I had imagined were there, but they were dominated by aspen birch with leaves that fluttered in the breeze like a Renoir brought to life. The moose was there, but he was a day late--he showed up for brunch the day after the wedding, laying a hundred yards away chewing his grass as we chewed our toast. And the wedding day...wow! The weather couldn't have been better, with clear skies and a gentle breeze. The ceremony was inspiring. Liz was beautiful. Even the parts of the plan that didn't work quite right, just didn't seem to matter. The event seemed to take on a positive momentum of its own that carried the day. Here are a few shots of Liz and Devin, and one of Devin and Mike, who stood up as the Best Man...

This is actually a stairway to a jeep road right off the driveway of the lodge...

The Beartrap Lodge...what a fantastic place. It really worked well to give us all an environment to relax in for a few days, for the families to get to know each other a little better. There's nothing like waking up in a place like this and having coffee with whoever else happens to be up and about at the time. The Lodge is nestled in the woods just off the road that runs up Little Cottonwood Canyon, walking distance from the Silverfork Lodge where we held the ceremony...

It's size was deceiving...

Now I know why they call these Great Rooms...

Ah, the toast. We always seem to get wine in there somewhere, but there was a somewhat smaller army of glasses with sparkling juice--just off-camera, of course. After all, this is Utah...

The Beartrap has all the amenities to keep everyone occupied. Pool, ping-pong, bar, hot tub, sauna, three decks, giant TV, fire pit, a huge inventory of beer and wine (we brought that part), and a little thing called a mountain forest right outside...

...and there actually is a bear trap...

...and a real bear. OK, an ex-bear that was kind of weird and creepy. I kept thinking of that Far Side cartoon where the two bear are looking in a cabin window at a stuffed bear-head on the wall inside, and one is saying, "Yeah, that's Frank all right, but the eyes...there's something wrong with the eyes!" (That may not be exactly right, but you get the idea.) They hung this poor bear upside down, like he crossed some kind of line in life and simple taxidermy wasn't restitution enough...

The firepit gave us flame in the dark, with a galaxy of stars above the trees...and, of course, marshmallows burning like meteors entering the atmosphere...

That jeep road I mentioned leads to a hiking trail up to Lake Desolation. What an amazing hike, crisscrossing one of those mountain streams swollen with cold, clear run-off water!

I needed a stick to lean on as my lungs burned with an appreciation for my lost youth. It was a tough hike, with maybe a couple thousand vertical feet...

...and an arresting beauty that stops you in your tracks when you look up from watching the trail.

OK, I'm not too proud to admit that I turned around with Liz and Holly well before reaching the lake and let the younger men go on unhindered by my frequent stops to gawk at the scenery and heave thin air into my lungs...

This is another hike the day before, but we took the easy route up on this one. It's actually a ski slope at Solitude Resort, where the Brunch Moose resides with what snow remains. All the snowballs are incoming to me, but I actually asked for it. Some of these people have better arms than I expected...

We finally got a look at the informational park signs Liz designed when she was with the Utah Geological Society. We're back down in the valley, and it's still hot...

And here's that flowing river of cold mountain water cutting through the base of the mountains, down where it created an amazing contrast with the stifling dry-heat of the valley air...

The clock survived the trip, and now hangs on their wall with a new set of arms...

And we finally had to leave Liz and Devin in their century old house, where Zeppelin (the super-cool Great Dane-Boxer) and Gonzo (the super-hyper Boston Terror) are the kids who grudgingly share their space with Zilla (the six-foot Iguana) and the two humans. And where shortly after we departed they finally got that swamp cooler working, making a better environment for the kids to eat the couch in. With a few final shots over a couple of beers in the driveway, we headed back east...

Since then we went through our own heat wave that kept us and our greyhound kids in the house, both busy and bored. We were very busy, and they were very bored. Meagan had done a fantastic job of watching out for them while we were gone, so we felt much better about leaving them for so long. I retreated to the basement to seal the floor and waterproof the walls (still unfinished and waiting patiently for me), and Jan continued her job quest (now essentially complete with an all but official offer in Quantico). It finally cooled down last weekend and we got Roadie and Sally out to Alexandria for the better part of the day. We walked and enjoyed the cool breeze until both dogs were totally satisfied. Sallie was looking at the fountain with a wild twinkle in her eye that said she was an impulse away from going in...

And we had to stop for a shot with the two candidates...

When we finally got back they were both exhausted. They slept the entire next day, even sharing the bed--a rare event.

Roadie was so out of it he was oblivious to Sallie's paw jammed up his nose. He was out of it. I was laughing so hard when I took this picture I thought it would surely wake him and he'd move before I got the shot. Not a chance--he's sleeping with his eyes open here and dreaming of Fritos...

Usually either one or the other gets on the bed alone, and Roadie has found a new spot among the pillows. Sometimes he sleeps on them, but lately he's more likely to be in them...

I had to finish off with a couple of recent action shots...after all, this is supposed to be a blog about Greyhounds. Here's Roadie as he's doing a dodge around me at speed that was worthy of a NFL wide receiver...

...and here's Sallie, well, playing. Her tail says she's smiling, her eyes say she's in that wild and crazy running mode, but her smile itself seems to be telling Roadie, "Back off, man, I'm running here!" Roadie's ears give away his mood. He doesn't get it, and just wants to play--his way...

And finally I had to throw this shot in here. I've always had this totally unsubstantiated belief that whenever a dragonfly buzzes around my car the rest of that day is going to be good. I don't think it necessarily turns out that way, but it puts me in a good mood--which in itself usually makes it a self-fulfilling prophesy. Lately a pair of dragonflies have made the antennas of our cars a favorite spot of theirs. I think that must be a good omen somehow, so I had to get a shot of it...

Clock Making, a Wedding, and a New Stuffie

2008-06-23T13:18:00.000-04:00

Wedding plans. Is there any other activity that can inspire such happiness -- while stressing and spending money with something close to abandon? Liz, our little satellite in the West who's not so little anymore, and Devin are finally tying the knot. Months of preparation are coming together in what we all hope will be an awesome event in the mountains. I'm picturing an elegant ceremony among the pines, a few close friends and family gathered in an intimate setting, maybe a moose watching from a distance. Nice.

Liz saw some really creative stained glass clocks on Etsy and asked if I could make them one. It looked like a great idea and an opportunity to try a couple of things I've been wanting to do, but I told her it had to come out of my head. That, given what bounces around inside my head, could make it strange and unusual -- it probably wouldn't look much like the Etsy clocks. I had been interested in incorporating a bit of negative space (no glass) with bent wire spirals (the Nightmare Before Christmas is still stuck in my head), both of which were in the clocks she saw, and I've wanted to try using the linearity of cord glass to get the effect of a kind of herringbone pen and ink technique I've always loved.

Of course I put it all off until the last minute. It wouldn't be any fun without pressure. So, we leave for Salt Lake City tomorrow and I finished it yesterday. I like it. Now to figure out how to get it on and off the plane without creating an opportunity to learn more about stained glass repair. Here are a few shots of it, one while in production and a few of the finished product...

Sheep Stuffie is dead. After spending the better part of it's short life exposed to the elements either flying with Roadie or waiting to fly, it reached a new state of being. It wanted the nirvana of the landfill, and we helped it complete its quest for fulfillment. Roadie doesn't seem to care, and has taken up with a Cat With Horns That Looks More Like A Ball Stuffie. Stuffies learn to travel at high speeds quickly...

Learning to fly seems to start with a more basic hacky sack like levitation...

...and one thing always leads to another, which lately usually means a chase scene. I tried to get a few shots to feel the speed...

Sally seems to always finish longer than Roadie. He starts running with a stuffie while she watches and builds up a checked frenzy...then she takes off and it's a chase, which she tends to win. Roadie gives up and stands there panting while watching her circle around him.

This shot just feels fast and powerful...

So, it's off to Utah to a beautiful wedding and a lodge in Big Cottonwood Canyon for three days. It's going to be fantastic! It will be the first time leaving without Roadie and Sallie, but we have a great pet and house sitter who knows Greyhounds so they'll be OK. Now how do I pack this clock???

Wine, Greyhounds, And an Uninvited Predator

2008-05-31T01:21:00.000-04:00

We had a great Memorial weekend. Great weather. Wine. Greyhounds. More wine. More greyhounds. We even had a demonstration of natural selection in our own backyard. What more could you ask for in a weekend? First the natural selection bit -- it had nothing to do with evolution, but we know of one squirrel who will not be adding to the rodent gene pool. We were starting the weekend on Friday afternoon just hanging out on the deck (there may have been a glass of wine involved). The dogs were bored, waiting for some kind of action like maybe a walk or a Milk Bone. Maybe something entertaining happening to the cat, one of those domestic accidents that are funny for a little while in home videos on TV.

Armand is oblivious to their thoughts and, being a cat, is curiously exploring the deck with the potential of creating that memorable video moment. Jumping up and down off the rail. Sticking his head through the slats in the rail. Sticking his head under the grill to see what's in the dark down there. Tiptoeing across the deck in between the two dogs, stopping to head butt a paw that's hanging off the bed. Finding a hidden corner with some spider webs to weave into his whiskers.

What he didn't expect came from above, and it was sudden and violent. Fortune placed an even smaller furry animal much higher in the tree above our heads, and the hawk took it with an explosive thrashing of leaves. It doesn't take much for even a domesticated animal to recognize a lethal predator, and Armand was gone like one of those cartoon animals leaving a cartoon cloud in his place...and he wouldn't leave the safety of the house for hours afterwards. The rest of us leapt up to see the giant Red Tailed Hawk slowly flapping away with the late Mr. or Mrs. Squirrel in it's talons. It landed in a nearby tree and just sat there on it's prey long enough for me to get my camera and grab a shot. I had to blow it up quite a bit to make it out, but we guessed the wingspan to be maybe 20-24".

We decided to put off the work around the house and hit the grand opening of Barrel Oak Winery in Delaplane on Saturday.

We thought the wines were all fantastic. Roadie and Sallie thought the attention they attracted was fantastic. The people giving them the attention thought Roadie and Sallie were fantastic, so everyone seemed happy with the situation.

They had a couple of baby llamas there, but asked us to keep Roadie and Sallie from going near them -- they instinctively relate large dogs to the wolves that instinctively prey on them. Having had a recent example of predatory instinct, we kept them inside the building while we drank wine. Once we moved to a quiet corner out from the center of attention, Sallie got bored...

They liked it better outdoors though, in the sun and the breeze.

One of the other patrons told us about a strawberry festival up the road at the State Park, so we decided to cap off the day there before heading home to clean gutters. It was bigger than we expected, with a couple dozen craft tents, lots of food, and a small Scottish Games.

Kristen called not long after we got home and asked if we wanted to join them at a couple of wineries on Sunday. After a momentary telepathic discussion on the topic, which consisted entirely of locked eyes and a wry smile, Jan and I put the work off for yet another day. Our arms are rather weak to twisting when wine and greyhounds are involved. So we met Kristen, Gyeong, Trina, and Jason at Cooper Winery where Roadie and Sallie got to hang out with Stella, Jaime, Dana, and Cali. More great wine, great weather, and some great food courtesy of Trina's and Kristen's well planned picnic baskets! After sampling the Cooper wines for a while, we moved up the road to Greyhaven for the blues festival. (You can see more pictures on Trina's blog at Trina's Fastgreyz.)

Roadie spent most of his time basking in the sun.

Stella and Jaime looking like they're thinking the exact same thing...

I love Stella's ears. They're so expressive, although I'm not sure exactly what she was expressing at the time...

I wish we could teach Roadie or Sallie to do this...

At the end of the day Roadie was head-down and basking in the clover...

Sallie was also head-down, but is a little more discriminating about where she lays...

We had a great time, and the dogs slept like greyhounds after a day in the sun on the ride home, and for the rest of the night. I had to get a shot of my favorite building on the way back, which I end up doing every time we're out that way and come back through Mineral. I don't know what it is that attracts us both to this spot, but we both react the same way. It must have been some past life experience, or deja vu.

It was a fantastic weekend, and we had a barbeque on Monday so we got almost nothing done around the house. You know, I'm OK with that. We have a lot we need to get done, but then there's always tomorrow. It's another weekend already and it's supposed to rain so wineries are probably out. Then again it might not rain all weekend, and Barrel Oak was a nice roomy building...

Sleepy Sunday

2008-05-04T09:25:00.000-04:00

This was actually a couple of weeks ago, but time and task have conspired against me lately and I've found no time to post anything here. There's no time like the present, though, and this was just too good not to post. Jan happened to be taking a nap when for whatever reason I decided to pick Sallie up and put her on the bed. She doesn't normally go on the bed, at least to our knowledge, but unlike the couch the bed seems to be a fine destination to her if we insist. She quickly lays down, makes herself comfortable, then looks up for approval. The cat noted the odd sleeping arrangement and decided it looked like a pretty good idea. Roadie didn't notice. Roadie was racing in his dreams.

Within minutes it became a roach, intruding into Roadie's dreams like an expanding Greyhound mindwave.

I hadn't noticed the depth of Roadie's unconsciousness until I happened to glance over from another perspective...

This is being truly out of it. It is by far the most relaxed case of ETS I've seen Roadie in yet, and the eyes tell the story...

I walked over and gently flapped his tongue from side to side with my big toe with no response beyond a muted, wet slapping sound. Seconds later he reeled it in, although it seemed to take him a moment or two to regain control over it. Man, if only I could sleep like that!

We missed a wealth of photographic opportunity by forgetting both of our cameras when we went to Greyhounds in Gettysburg last weekend. Well, we did remember them...but only after driving fifty miles, and we weren't about to turn around. As Jan said at the time, "I guess we'll just have to use our brains, and remember what we see." It certainly was memorable.

Back In Business

2008-04-11T20:30:00.000-04:00

Roadie is finally healed, happy, and free of the muzzle at last! No more pounding on every object he passes, animate or inanimate. This is one happy Greyhound!

He's finally able to stalk Sheep Stuffie in the yard again...

...and rip into him with the pent up aggression of two dozen muzzled days...

Sheep Stuffie tried to fight back with a flying head-butt...being a stuffie, however, means being soft and cuddly so a flying head-butt isn't really much to fight with.

Sallie decided to get into the act since there's plenty of stuffies to go around. After a brief stand-off Sallie chooses her prey.

Sallie The Meek has a less aggressive style, but even a meek attack on the Pink Stuffie...

...escalated into a spirited chase...

Roadie is happy again. He can fling Sheep Stuffie high in the air again. He can antagonize Sallie into chasing him again. He seems at peace with the world...

Sallie doesn't seem sure about world peace. She doesn't seem sure if she wants to fling Sheep Stuffie or Pink Stuffie or any stuffie the way Roadie does. Maybe.

A few sweet nothings whispered into a girl's ear can do wonders though, even if you did just nip her in the haunches to get her to dance in the field with the stuffie wildlife.

Almost There

2008-04-06T19:24:00.000-04:00

Roadie is almost completely healed. He has one spot left, maybe a quarter inch by three quarters of an inch, that he will still keep open if his muzzle isn't on...so he's still muzzled.

He's so good about the muzzle, even though you can tell he's tired of wearing it. Maybe another couple of days? We'll all be glad. Every day he has it on he uses it more freely to make his point. Smacking Sallie in the head with it. An uppercut to Sallie's jaw with it. A hook to Sallie's side with it. He runs it back and forth across the balusters on the staircase like a prisoner with a tin cup on the bars of his cell. Bend over to tie your shoes and you get a face full of yellow.

Will all be glad when we can free him of it. Besides, he needs a bath.

Unleashed, But Not Unmuzzled

2008-03-28T13:39:00.001-04:00

Roadie went to the vet today to have his stitches removed. Well, the three that were left...he had already removed a dozen or so on his own. The wound looks great, though, and the vet was very pleased with how it's healing. He's now free to run. He has the reign of the backyard again, but he's still muzzled until he heals a bit more. He's happy to be off the leash in the yard, even if he does still have his muzzle on. See how happy he looks?

OK, he's still not happy about being muzzled but it's the only way he'll let it heal. He's great about leaving the wound alone while wearing the muzzle, and when you take the muzzle off he's great about leaving it alone when you tell him to -- as long as you're watching him. As soon as you turn your back for more that 30 seconds, though, he goes after it, chewing off stitches and licking it raw. We've been very diligent and he's only been able to get at it two or three times, but he does it so fast you just can't take your eye off him while unmuzzled. That means watching him eat, and mixing his favorite canned food in with the kibble so he eats when you want him to. It means watching him drink, because he has to have the cap in the muzzle or he'll lick right through it. It means keeping the muzzle on him every other moment of the day unless you feel like watching every move he makes, because he's just waiting for you to look away.

We'll both be glad when this phase is over. At least I don't have to walk around the yard with him leashed as he forages anymore...that just made us both look dumb.

On the Mend

2008-03-21T16:28:00.001-04:00

Roadie is definitely feeling better. The vet took his drainage tubes out earlier this week, and he's healing nicely. He wants to run. He wants his muzzle off. He also wants to lick his wounds, which are still stitched so he can't do any of the three. So, he has his choice of laying around...

...or looking out the window wishing he could lose the muzzle and tear into Sheep Stuffie to get his mind off the itch in his side...

He actually did get the muzzle of once and had a go at his stitches on our bed before Jan caught him, but he's incredibly good about it most of the time. He bangs his muzzle on everything within banging distance, including us, but he's very tolerant of it otherwise and a stern, "Leave it!" is all he needs to control his urge to lick.

The owners of the golden who bit him turned out to be very nice and responsible people, and they came over to visit Roadie -- and paid his entire vet bill. Roadie seemed very appreciative. So were we. Sallie is getting bored with Roadie's restricted activity...

...but she's let loose a couple of times in the yard while Roadie stood on the leash and watched. I caught him giving Sheep Stuffie the eye, and I could almost read his mind. One more week, Roadie. Then you can give Sheep Stuffie a flying lesson.

National Parks, Dog Parks, and Dog Bites

2008-03-15T22:51:00.001-04:00

Poor Roadie was bitten yesterday. They put in a local dog park last summer, really just a fenced area with benches, but it's become quite popular. We haven't been comfortable, though, with the idea of letting Roadie and Sallie wander around in there with a dozen other dogs of various sizes and temperaments. It just makes me think of those Far Side cartoons with the simple caption, "Trouble brewing," and something like the falconry club and toy poodle society picnicking side-by-side.

Jan went by there during working hours last week and found it empty, and since we've been looking for an area where they have a bit more room than our yard to run fast, she took them in. They had a blast! It's a small dog park, but big enough for them to build up speed -- and that's just what they did. They uncorked and let the steam out. After some post-sprint foraging they went home and everything was right with the universe.

They went back the next day and the park was empty again. At last, a solution to finding a place to let them run: go to the dog park when everyone else is at work. Then another car pulled in, and then another, and the park was quickly occupied with a diverse collection of local pets looking for a good time. Sallie just foraged, but Roadie celebrated the diversity. He greeted each dog, played, and bonded with his neighbors that until now were just distant barks in the night. They went home, and again everything was right with the universe.

Yesterday we all went to the dog park, hoping to find it empty again and give them a quick run. There were two Black Labs and an older Golden Retriever already there, but they looked like such nice dogs, and there were only three of them. We took Roadie and Sallie in and they foraged and trotted around, mostly oblivious to the other dogs. We started talking to the other owners about greyhounds. They were nice people. It was a beautiful day. Everything seemed right with the universe.

Then Jan tossed a ball to Roadie and just like that everything changed. We didn't see it happen and there was no warning. Both Roadie and the old Golden seemed less than enthusiastic when they went for the ball, but suddenly Roadie was standing frozen, looking at us and yelping his loudest yelp like he was screaming, "I'm hurt! I'm hurt!" The Golden had obviously bitten him.

Roadie can be a bit dramatic with minor injuries and I was hoping that's what this was, but when I got to him I could see muscle tissue through two gashes in his side. We rushed him to the vet, where he had to go into surgery to repair a severed muscle and have drainage tubes placed in the wounds. When they brought him out to us we were stunned. The tubes looked like two ribs sticking out of his body, and although his stitched wounds were clean and dry it almost hurt looking at them.

He had a rough first night, coming down from the anesthesia and dealing with the fresh pain, but Roadie is a stoic, even though he may sometimes initially over-react to slight injuries. He's moving carefully, but he's sleeping and eating and drinking and passing some post-surgical gas that I frankly don't remember ever being exposed to before. His tubes come out in five days, and he's on restricted activity for two weeks. That means I have to shadow him in the yard lest he get into it with the Sheep Stuffie. I feel like the Secret Service protecting a candidate, following him around as he tries to find just the right spot to leave a package.

He doesn't know that he missed the Saint Patrick's Day parade today, or that he'll miss another one tomorrow. Neither does Sally. It's disappointing for us, since Jan just made them beautiful new Saint Patrick's Day coats, and we had hats and ties for them to wear. Too bad. I was looking forward to getting pictures of him in his Kelly green mini-derby hat and shamrock bow tie. I'm sure he was too.

We did get some pictures of them on a hike through the Prince William National Forest a couple weeks ago that I haven't had time to post yet. It was a nice day, and we took them on a fairly long hike through the forest. They loved it. I thought they'd get tired and freeze, but they were both intoxicated by the scents and sounds of nature the entire time. They were tired, but they didn't care -- at least until they got back to the van and crashed for the rest of the day.

Lacking a hat, Sallie often uses Roadie for shade...

Roadie always takes the point. It's probably an alpha thing, but he doesn't seem to think about it, it just happens...

Halfway through the hike, they were tired but still enthusiastic. We provided water, Roadie provided shade...

We stopped and forced them to pose for a picture. They really wanted to just go smell stuff...

Hopefully Roadie will be back to his old self in a couple of weeks, and by then maybe the weather will have turned. No more dog parks though...we'll just have to keep searching for the right place to let them run.

Playing With Pictures

2008-02-25T17:05:00.001-05:00

I was playing around with Photoshop Elements today, just to see what I could do with some images to get some ideas for abstracting them into stained glass designs. I tried a lot of different changes, backed them out, poked around in the menus, dodged a bit and burned a bit, and ended up with this....

It's probably pretty easy stuff to do for anyone who really knows how to use these tools, but I'm definitely not there yet so I had fun with it. Time to really learn this stuff!

Blowing off steam

2008-02-24T01:31:00.001-05:00

Well, we took Roadie and Sallie for that much needed trip to PetSmart followed by a walk around the shopping center. They seemed to get their fix for influencing total strangers to stop and spend time petting them, scratching behind their ears, dropping into baby talk, and basically giving them legs to lean on. It's like it's their job now as ambassadors for retired racing greyhounds everywhere, and if they don't get a chance to show off they just aren't at peace with themselves.

It did the trick. As soon as we got home Roadie went in the yard and gave the Pink Stuffie a flying lesson...

Then he and Sallie kicked up the leaves (and the mud underneath) in a spirited game of chase...

Sallie did a few turns around the course she's devised in her mind's map of the yard, using the trees as pylons marking her turns...

...and definitely not tiptoeing through the tulips.

After maybe ten minutes of wild-eyed sprinting they both exchanged some heat with the cool, damp earth as they caught their breath. Roadie got close with the crumpled body of the Pink Stuffie, like a satisfied lion lying near its kill...

...and Sallie had a look of absolute ecstasy as she communed with the natural environment of her own back yard...

Of course once the chill of the late February air normalized their racing metabolisms they wanted to come back in the house to their beds where they could reflect on the goodness of life...with paws that looked like the knobby tires of a 4X4 coming back from an off-road adventure. Ah, what we would give for a few hundred yards of grass -- or at least a mud room. But they're happy once again!

Get us out of the house, or we're eating the couch...

2008-02-23T14:56:00.001-05:00

This piece is now finished and ready for pickup by the new owner. I haven't decided what I'm going to do next, but right now I think I'll take Roadie and Sallie for a nice walk and a ride up to PetSmart.

They've been very patient as the weather and our busy schedule have conspired to keep them cooped up in the house. Their patience is wearing very thin, though. Every time either of us walks anywhere near the front door they both jump in front of us and give us those greyhound eyes with their ears up and tails wagging, shifting from paw to paw like a five year old who has to pee. Then when we walk away without taking them out they slink back to their beds and lay back down, usually with an audible groan.

You can see the boredom in Sallie's eyes...

...and Roadie's expression just looks like there's too much going on in that head...

They've been patient enough...they deserve a nice outing! You know what they say about "idle paws."

Framed and Almost Done!

2008-02-18T20:26:00.000-05:00

I got the frame made for Grey Number One this afternoon, and it's sanded, plugged, and ready for polyurethane and hardware. I'll get that done this week and it should be ready for delivery by the weekend.

Now I'm already thinking about what to do next...I have a couple of quick pieces to do for people at work that incorporate old computer disc platters with glass and a farewell plaque...

...but after that I'd like to do another original greyhound piece. Maybe something abstract based on roaching?...

Soldered, Polished, and Ready to Frame

2008-02-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

I soldered the Grey Number One piece last night and put the zinc frame on it. It went well, and I like how it came out. I put the patina on the solder lines today, polished it, and took a few pictures of it on the table and on the light box....

This one had a surprise in how the rail color pops in the light. You don't really know how the piece is going to look in the light until it's soldered and you can hold it up. The Glass Eye software gives you a general idea of how the different glasses will look in the pattern, and it makes it easy to experiment with colors, textures, and levels of opacity, but you still don't really know until you're able to hold the panel in front of the light. When I held this one up the rails blazed like they're catching the rising sun.

Here's a shot of the detail...

And here's a shot with a Sharpie in it to provide a sense of scale...

Now I just need to make the wood frame, put some poly on it, and add the chains and hardware! I'll start on that tomorrow.

Foiling and the Flu

2008-02-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

I got some good time in on Friday working on the Grey Number One piece, but little did I know that the slightly scratchy throat I was feeling would turn into knock-down case of the flu. By Saturday morning it was pretty clear that something was very wrong inside my machine. I'm not saying I'm the healthiest guy, but I rarely run a fever even when I'm sick so this is unfamiliar territory. I haven't even had the flu in...well, I don't remember having the flu so it's probably been one or more decades. By late Saturday I needed a distraction so I went back to the stained glass. With a little more work on it tonight I now have the piece completely foiled...

I decided to make a couple of changes to the original design and re-cut the silk to lean the number forward a bit more and to get a better fit. I took out one of the pieces of rail and sky above the tail that I think were a little distracting and re-cut a piece of green glass for that. I'm really pleased with the fit of all the pieces and this should solder up nicely...but that's for next weekend. I hope. Foiling glass with a fever isn't hard because it becomes pretty mindless, repetitive work that has a certain sense of satisfaction to it. The pieces of glass look really cool wrapped in copper foil once it's been burnished, and just knowing that you're using the same basic process Tiffany used feels good. (Actually, I think Tiffany had a lot of workers that did it for him but that's not the point.)

Soldering is a different story. I don't like to start soldering unless I can do the entire piece in one session. Soldering requires more concentration too since it really determines the look of the piece. I'm not going to try to solder this with a fever. Or with a runny nose...solder has lead in it and I can't seem to keep my hands away from my nose, eyes and mouth when I have a cold. That's bad when you're handling lead. I have to be better by this weekend though, right?

Roaching Lessons

2008-02-05T23:50:00.001-05:00

When I came to bed last night, navigating the semi-dark by the glow of a night-light, I could see that Roadie and Sallie were fast asleep in head-to-head roaches. Amazing. Not for Roadie, who has made amazing sleeping positions a retirement hobby, but for Sallie. She rarely roaches. She seems to be getting more comfortable as a retiree every day now, running more often in the yard, spooking a bit less on walks, letting Roadie know when he's crossed the line, and sleeping in more vulnerable positions.

I was tired and longing for sleep, but I had to get the camera and try to get a shot of this--without turning on the lights and waking Sallie. Roadie is showing her the path to greyhound nirvana...stretch out, let yourself go and feel the breeze, Grasshopper. Be the Roach. Eventually you too will feel safe enough to trust your tail to relax...

Some Rare Sallie Moments

2008-01-28T22:27:00.001-05:00

I forgot to post this last time, but Jan finally found that moment with camera in hand and Sallie in a very rare roach...kind of. She didn't quite get it vertical, but then she rarely does for long. Yesterday morning I opened my eyes and there she was in a roach Roadie would have been comfortable in. It lasted about three seconds, then slowly dropped to the ground like an old oak going down. She's getting there though...

She had another rare moment on Sunday when she just took off after Roadie in the yard and goaded him into a game of chase. Sallie won. Roadie had already worked out with Sheep Stuffie though and decided to be a spectator for once, completely reversing roles with Sallie as she kicked up the leaves in high speed turns around the trees...

Maybe that got the cabin fever out of her. She was in a much better mood after that, getting back to the same old Sally The Meek. It was nice to see her open it up a little bit...I think she's ready for spring.

Sheep Stuffie and a Very Bad Mood

2008-01-26T16:20:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted here...and I was sure I was going to post more often when I posted last time. Oh well, we've still been busy with other things. We have managed to get a few shots of the animals here and there, and I've gotten a fair amount done on the Grey Number One stained glass piece. All of the glass is now cut, and other than some minor fitting with the grinder I'm ready to start foiling. I hope to have that done this weekend, and maybe I'll get it soldered and ready to frame next weekend.

I think it's turning out pretty nice, and I'm pleased with the colors so far...

We had a couple of days where it was a little warmer and I managed to get a few shots of Roadie being Roadie. Here he is with the Sheep Stuffie that lives in the yard, lying still and limp day after day, just waiting for the inevitable Roadie attack. Occasionally something will click in The Roadie Mind while foraging in the yard, and Sheep Stuffie will go through two or three minutes of terror being bit, shaken, flung into the air, and sprinted through the yard in snarling teeth. Then all goes dark and quiet, sometimes for days, when suddenly...

Roadie seems proud of what he can do to Sheep Stuffie. I'm proud of it too. In fact, I wish I could do that even once in my life to feel the combination of speed and deadly instinct. I don't think Sheep Stuffie is proud of it, but then it's just a stuffie.

Sallie seems completely unimpressed. Sallie seems completely uninterested in Sheep Stuffie. Sometimes I think she understands what Sheep Stuffie would think if a stuffie could have cognitive thought. She seems to love having Roadie around and doing things with him, but she can be deeply annoyed by Roadie sometimes. That doesn't seem to bother Roadie though, as he continues to try to impress her with his alpha maleness, completely oblivious to her annoyance...that is until she reaches her snapping point and her snap is at his haunches. Those times are usually when he wants to play, or is showing off, or just wants her Milk Bone. She's usually successful at just ignoring him though...

We caught this moment when Sallie and Armand appeared to have teamed up together to keep Roadie exiled to the outside. We put a couple of footstools on top of each other so the cat could get a better view of the yard and perhaps feel a bit superior to the dogs. He loves it. I think this was probably just circumstance, but it sure looked suspicious...

The footstools only give him a couple of feet of altitude, but by the look of satisfaction on his face you'd think he was a panther in a tree. Maybe he's thinking he's a panther in a tree...

Hopefully it will get warmer soon and we'll be able to get the dogs out more often. They're bored. Today Sallie is acting like she doesn't feel well, and is letting anyone who comes near know that she's in a bad mood. Roadie is steering clear and Armand is keeping his distance. We'll keep our eyes on her. She did chew up a bamboo back scratcher last night, which is something she normally doesn't do...that's got us a little worried, but she's not acting like she's actually sick or in pain. Maybe she's just got cabin fever?

Playing With Broken Glass

2007-12-27T16:16:00.001-05:00

I took the day off today, after struggling with a two-hour drive home last night. There's something very wrong with that. There's no way it should ever take two hours to drive twenty five miles on December 26th. Where did all these people come from? Could a little rain really have that effect on the traffic patterns? Is this the butterfly effect? It sure felt like chaos theory on the roads last night.

With a day to myself I had some time to work on a copy of the Grey Number Six stained glass piece for a client from VAGA. She asked if I could change the racing silk from yellow to red--which also changes the number from six to one--and if I could change the greyhound to black. I lightened the backgrounds to maintain contrast with the dog, and I really like how the changes turned out. Here's a mock-up of the design...

So far I've cut the glass for the sand and the grass...

I'm cutting the pieces as close together on the sheet as possible to carry the natural patterns in the glass across the image. It's working nicely, giving the feeling of a blurred background and speed.

I have to work tomorrow, but at least I'm teleworking so my commute will only be a couple of minutes. I'd like to get a lot more of this done over the weekend, but we'll see. There are dogs to play with, there's wine to drink, and more than a couple other things to do around the house. It feels so good to be back in the studio breaking glass to loud music though, so I'm hoping to make some progress...

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T17:00:00.000-05:00

And it has been a Merry Christmas here on Planet Jabberwocky. Quiet, but Merry. This Christmas seemed to be all about food and wine. We had food processors, blenders, pots and pans, cookbooks, a wine cellar, and the coolest corkscrew I've ever used. And of course we had food and wine!

Roadie and Sallie got new beds from Santa, and they basked in the fresh aroma of cedar around the Christmas tree watching the festivities unfold.

(It appears the festivities weren't quite festive enough to keep Roadie from his Christmas dreams...)

It was a beautiful day, with a slight chill in the air to remind you it's Christmas...but warm enough to remind you that yes, this is Christmas in Virginia. So, Merry Christmas to all! May your Holiday dreams all come true. Enjoy, and be safe!

New Coats, Sleeping Arrangements, Sally The Meek

2007-12-24T07:55:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything here. We've been so busy lately that I just haven't been able to find time, although I've been thinking about it. I've been trying to compile a series of pictures of Roadie and Sallie sleeping. It's remarkable. They consistently find the same positions when their beds are side by side, as if one checks the other and adjusts to conform.

They only do it when their beds are close, but we found reason not to get them too close the other night. Roadie woke everyone in the middle of the night with a rumbling growl punctuated by an annoyed bark--we had to assume that Sallie had let some part of her body wander over some part of Roadie's, touching him in some deep greyhound dream where the Dream Roadie didn't want to be touched. The Awake Sallie was mortified by the Dream Roadie and she abandoned her bed like a refugee leaving a war zone, ears low and tail tucked searching for another place to lay.

Roadie continues to find some absolutely spectacular positions to sleep in...

Including our bed whenever we aren't looking...

The weird thing is that I can't coax either of them onto the couches. We told Roadie "No" only once, when he tried the couch on his first night with us, and now neither dog will go on them. I've even picked them up and put them on the couch, and they laid there in awkward discomfort, returning to their dog bed as quickly as they could. And these are greyhounds, the famous couch potatoes?

Sally The Meek. She broke a nail down to the quick a few weeks ago, and the vet put a wrap on her paw that we had to keep on for five days. The vet wrote that on the wrap.

Sally The Meek sums up her personality. Sally The Meek and Armand The Brave. At times I would have thought Armand The Unwise, but he continues to successfully press his luck around these two amazing dogs. He's always been drawn to blankets, finding them irresistible places to lie down on. Knowing this Jan spread one on Sallie as she slept in the family room. Within minutes Armand stood next to her pondering the risk in his kitty brain before finding it acceptable and curling up with Sallie.

We tried it with Roadie...same result. They are surprisingly predictable.

Sometimes all it takes is a patch of sun to create an atmosphere of togetherness...

Both dogs loved the VAGA Christmas party. It reminded Jan and I both of weddings or other gatherings we attended as kids, where the adults and children would find two separate worlds in the same room. We were in the kid world, weaving dozens of collective imaginations into an ever-shifting fantasy that roamed the room like a swarm of bees wandering a field, occasionally emerging into the adult world at our parent's side to see what they were talking about, finding it boring after a minute or two and rejoining the flow in the kid world. That's exactly what the dogs were doing. Maybe sixty greyhounds, all muzzled and unleashed and all wandering around in a greyhound world as their people chatted and watched from the people world in the same room. Every few minutes Roadie or Sallie or both would show up at our side and lean in for a minute or two before rejoining the greyhound world. Here's Roadie in his Christmas finery...

And here's Sally using a new friend for muzzle relief...

With colder weather upon us we had to get a couple of coats for the dogs, and we finally had a chance to pick them out at the Christmas party...

...and of course they needed raincoats too!

Well, it's 8:00 AM on Christmas Eve and everyone else is starting to wake up. I'll finish this for now, but I'll try to keep up to date in this blog from now on. It's been so long since the last post I've probably lost anyone who might have been venturing here...

Catching the Moment, and Stopping Traffic

2007-11-03T08:55:00.000-04:00

Things have been so busy around here that I haven't had a chance to post anything to this blog. Not that we've had hoopla and excitement, we just seem to have been busy doing other things. Boring things. Everyday life. I guess that should tell me something, huh? We have had a couple of those Get The Camera Quick moments, but we haven't been able to actually get the camera quick enough to record them. Sallie's first extended roach lasted just long enough for me to sneak out of the living room, find the camera, sneak back in, turn it on and focus. There were a few moments we were able to capture though, starting with the picture I tried to upload into my last post but couldn't due to a Blogspot system problem. Words don't seem necessary, I think...

This is what I'm trying to catch Sallie doing, but so far her roaches have been delayed rollovers. Maybe in time, as she becomes even more comfortable she'll learn to let it all hang out like Roadie...

He has even gotten comfortable enough to succumb to ETS (escaped tongue syndrome for those of you without greyhounds) on several occasions, but this is the first time we've been able to record it. He seemed oblivious to the state of his tongue, like the driver of a car with his coat hanging out of the door. He let it hang even after returning from his dreams to watch our scramble for the camera--managing to look bright and alert yet dumb and numb at the same time...

The cat continues to occasionally harass the dogs by boldly claiming one of their beds. The dogs have continued to allow him to do it. Well, Sallie has anyway--Roadie seems to have gotten over his sense of indignation.

The cat has finally destroyed the black rug by the door. I'm glad he peed on it. He liked to make himself invisible there, lying hidden in the middle of the hall like a kitty IED, waiting for me to step on him before exploding with a wail and a wild thrash of claws. Here he has pulled in his scratching post and turned on his headlights to make himself visible...but by moving three inches and feigning sleep he sets you up for an unsuspecting step over the scratching post and onto the invisible but very aware cat, coiled and waiting to explode...

So, we'll try to keep the camera handy for that extended roach that I know Sallie has inside just waiting to get out. We did take the dogs to the Scottish Festival in Richmond last weekend, and we couldn't have gotten more attention if we were wearing kilts in a high wind. We really couldn't walk more that a hundred feet before being stopped to talk about greyhounds and how great they are. We loved it. The dogs loved it. The other people seemed to love it too, especially when I decided to share a smoked turkey leg with the two dogs. We sat on a bench where I pulled succulent pieces of meat off the leg and gave them in sequence to Roadie and Sallie. We soon realized that we'd drawn a small crowd, watching the dogs watch the turkey with searing intensity and ears en pointe. One gentleman asked if the spot on the bench next to me was taken, then sat and nonchalantly pulled his camera out and started taking pictures. It's kind of strange to realize that you're walking around with a couple of living photo ops.

I've always been able to get lost in a crowd, often enjoying the strange solitude among people that being inconspicuous can give. You just can't do that with greyhounds. They are such remarkable dogs, they look so exotic and kind that they naturally draw people's attention. A week or so ago we walked them at the local shopping center, and they actually stopped traffic just standing on the sidewalk. The only time I've been able to do that before is by putting a foot into a crosswalk, and that's usually accompanied by squealing brakes. One woman just stopped her car, rolled down her window, told me how beautiful the dogs were, gave Sallie a baby-talk hello, and went on her way. That's just amazing to me. We may tire of it over time, but we haven't yet. Who knows, we may inspire someone to give a grey a forever home?

Unmuzzled together

2007-10-15T22:15:00.000-04:00

The past week has been pretty uneventful, with one exception: we've started letting Roadie and Sallie out together unmuzzled. It happened by accident last Thursday when Sallie slipped out behind Roadie. Maybe she really had to pee. As it turned out they both just wandered around the yard on their own like two foraging horses. Jan let them out together again later on Thursday and the result was similar. Now we let them out together every time -- it's so much easier.

Roadie still tries to get Sallie to run around and play occasionally, barking as loud as possible just inches from her ear and play bowing in front of her. She stands stock still when he does that, obviously annoyed but not wanting to do anything to egg him on. She looks shell-shocked from the bark. He eventually gives up and they go back to foraging. Sometimes they follow each other around the yard, each in turn finding something interesting and drawing the other over. I saw Sallie run with Roadie once for about 25 feet at a half-hearted gallop. I saw her drive him off once when he was annoying her too. Well, she drove him about a dozen yards with a snap and a snarl before he wheeled around and re-engaged in a play bow.

This morning I was in the bathroom getting ready with the door just slightly ajar when it was bumped and two slender greyhound heads simultaneously popped in to the neck, one above the other, a quick glance to see what I was doing before simultaneously popping back out. Man, I wish I had that on camera. They sometimes do things together like that, almost like they rehearsed it.

They're now sleeping longer in the morning and one or the other will get up and come visit us in bed before laying back down. Eventually though they get up together and we have the morning frenzy. I'll try to get it on video tomorrow. It's very predictable: Roadie will get up and start his desperate roo, then Sallie will join in with her low, even roo which is like a cross between a Mogwai and a Wookie. Then Roadie starts pushing in to be closer to the human and Sallie starts her little four inch front paw hops and starts nipping over Roadie's back. Roadie will then go into his full roo like Eric Clapton on a wah-wah pedal and then they're all over you as you try to swing your legs out of bed. I have to admit, I still like it. It's going to get old though if they stay this consistent.

Jan caught them sleeping with Sallie's feet right in Roadie's face the other night. He woke up last night yelping and I thought he must have had a cramp from the way he was acting. I got up and checked him out but couldn't find anything really wrong with him. Sallie didn't budge. Now after looking at this picture I'm thinking Sallie may be using subliminal tactics to counter his ringing her ears outside. A toe in the eye here, a sneaky nip to the leg there, all while he's dreaming of greyhound nirvana where the electric bunny is always a step too slow. It's not working yet, but who knows?

The art of war in sleeping arrangements

2007-10-07T19:37:00.001-04:00

Last night, when nobody was looking, Armand The Brave took over both dog beds in the family room and effectively banished two full grown greyhounds to other sleeping arrangements. All he had to do was lay in the middle of one of the beds and ignore everyone the way only a cat can. It must overwhelmingly smell like dog, so it had to be some kind of cat statement. Sallie questioned her understanding of the house rules in her head and took a spot by the door.

Roadie had no doubt about the house rules -- he's been around a while -- so he laid down in a space he'd never laid in before and shot the cat a lot of looks of disdain. He didn't choose an identical dog-bed next to the cat.

Later on, after the cat chose to vacate the dog's bed in his own time, Roadie returned to his favorite spot and eventually found a position that looked like he was sprinting in his dreams.

Sallie, still by the door, ended up in a nose-to-nose with Roadie, the two of them forming a heart that would suggest the growing bond between them. A couple hours before this picture, however, Roadie thought nipping at Sallie would be a good way to convince her to play. Sallie thought he was an annoying thug and bared her teeth in a snarl. Unfortunately, she was facing the opposite direction so Roadie still hasn't gotten the message.

Sallie's first Meet & Greet

2007-10-06T16:47:00.000-04:00

Sallie attended her first Meet & Greet at the Fredericksburg Petco today. She did great. She's a ham. She froze coming in the door when we got there but I couldn't tell if she was spooked by the barking from the class going on inside, or if she was waiting for Roadie who was momentarily detained by the number of points to mark in the lot outside. In either case her courage returned with his arrival. She's a great greeter at the front of the store; she's meek yet outgoing at the same time, licking every hand or face that's presented to her. She and Roadie compliment each other. They'd be a great therapy team if she gets over her slight spookiness.

I've been downloading Roadie's race videos over the past few months and I'm going to try to get the rest of them down this weekend. After finding almost nothing on Sallie's career I can now appreciate how lucky we are to have found so much on Roadie. Every single race he ever ran is archived on video and available for download from the Orange Park website. That includes his maiden races and his schooling races. Amazing. He had 128 official starts but with the maiden and schooling starts it goes up to 132, which is why it's taken me so long to download them all. I keep worrying that they'll disappear from the Orange Park website though, so I want to get them all on disc.

Here's a race he won a year ago...he has the number two colors on:

It's fascinating to watch him on the monitor, pounding into the lead along the rail in an incredible display of power and athleticism, then to look down at him in his zen state, roached against the wall with his paws twitching as he dreams of running, maybe of the very race I'm watching. When I look back at him taking the win I think, man, that's my dog now. Then I wonder what his life was like at the track. Were they good to him? Surely they wanted him healthy because only a healthy dog can run like that. When the difference between Grade A and Grade D, or between winning and losing, is just a fraction of a second surely they nurture these dogs in the same way high performance racing cars are finely tuned.

That's what I like to believe. I know there's bad in the racing industry, but these dogs have such great personalities and adapt to families so quickly that there has to be some good in there too. I do worry about not being able to find information on Sallie. Does that mean she wasn't cared for the way Roadie might have been? Well, I'll probably never know that, but in both cases I know their lives are now substantially better. I can see it in their eyes every morning.

You call this playing?

2007-10-01T23:14:00.000-04:00

We muzzled both dogs on Sunday and took them out in the yard together for the first time. The results were predictable. First they both spent a lot of time trying to get their muzzles off by whacking them against the closest object they could find. Unfortunately, that was me. Imagine trying to get the cap off the end of a plastic pipe by slamming it into the notch of a V-shaped branch and pulling hard and fast. Fortunately you only need one hand to hold these little video cameras.

Once the Roadie Mind kicked in you could see it in his eyes, full of mischief and locked onto Sallie with a wicked urge to goad her into a good run. She stood stock still as he leaped around her, barking and snarling and play-bowing and popping her muzzle with his trying to egg her into a chase. Eventually he hit the right button and she leaped into action with her hackles up driving Roadie a few yards before he turned and froze her again. A couple more leaps, some half-hearted snarls, but Sallie was done and intent on ignoring him. She came over to me on the stairs, put her head in my hands and gave me a look that asked, "Am I going to have to deal with this all the time?"

Maybe, Sallie. Then again maybe he'll finally get the hint and learn how to play with a girl. Of course this is the Roadie Mind you're dealing with so don't hold your breath. I think we'll just keep them muzzled when they're out together for a while...

Stairway etiquette, routines, and poor aim

2007-09-30T08:22:00.000-04:00

Sallie has grown into her routine this week. Since Roadie has always used the right side of the stairway when going up or down, Sallie has taken the left and made it hers. She doesn't share Roadie's bounding enthusiasm in stairway style, but she has a clear lane to travel now. She's always the first to wake, coming to my side of the bed with good morning kisses and a low, short roo.

This has caused another change in Roadie behavior: he can't seem to sleep through Sallie's excitement. He used to lay there watching from a relaxed zen state as morning unfolds in the room. Sometimes he still does that...for a little while. Once Sallie starts rooing though he is eventually compelled to charge in and add his desperate falsetto to the chorus. Their song feeds itself and resonates into a tail-whipping frenzy of greyhound joy.

This morning they were both there at the side of the bed. Didn't I know it was time to get up? Dogs had to pee and I was apparently holding up a schedule I'm never privy to. By the time I swung my legs out of bed the action was so frenzied I had to protect myself as muscle, teeth, and bony tails were whipping wildly about.

We are still letting only one out in the yard at a time but the incision from her spaying looks almost healed so we'll try them together today. We haven't wanted her to over-exert herself while healing and we know how hard Roadie likes to run. We don't know how she'll react to Roadie's hard driving style, or how Roadie will react to having her with him when he goes into his running mind. He has displayed a very aggressive muzzle-banging, body-checking style of play when we've had him loose and with other greys. We think that might be his competitive training kicking in around other males. We think maybe it will be different with females. Maybe Sallie won't have to deal with being body-checked and growled and barked at high speed. Then again we really don't understand the Roadie Mind. We plan to try them today. Maybe it's just something Roadie has to get out of his system, learning to be a calmer, gentler partner out in the yard for Sallie.

Maybe not though. The Roadie Mind can be absorbed in its maleness. I was walking them on Friday morning and they found one of those invisible scents in the grass they are both so compelled to investigate. Of course the Roadie Mind instantly decided to mark it. He marked Sallie instead while her head was still down at the spot, painting a bright yellow line down the white fur of her neck and puddling pee in the fold of her right ear. Being marked as his territory didn't seem to faze her in the least. It's a dog thing. I thought perhaps it was his way of telling the world, "The bitch is mine!", but of course like most male dogs he's oblivious to where it is pointed once the Roadie Mind orders a mark. He often pees on his own legs. I doubt it had any more meaning than another data-point on the territorial map in his head.

He seems to be posturing over Sallie a little less often as they get more comfortable with each other. He even submitted to her standing over him once, but it had little effect without his towering stature and I think it was simply coincidental positioning.

We've been teaching them to stay before letting them through the front door or out of the car when taking them on walks. They seem surprisingly receptive to it. If we can be very consistent it will make them safer and easier to work with. I think they're both going to be keen learners.

Well, Roadie occasionally sacrifices his common sense to the Roadie Mind...

...and Sallie is still very intimidated by the road.

A little encouragement gets her going again though.

What is obvious to us all is how well she is fitting into the family. She has added a completely new dimension to all of our lives. She's quiet with a low roo and playful bark. She's calmly excitable. She has a well behaved sense of mischief. Her insatiable hunger and Roadie's finicky appetite are reaching equilibrium. I think she won the cat over when she gave him that bath.

Getting to know you...

2007-09-24T19:53:00.001-04:00

Roadie and Sallie are getting more comfortable with each other everyday. They are starting to learn how to play together, but they seem to be slightly off-beat with it. Roadie will get excited, Sallie will get excited, then Roadie will play-bow and growl and bark in Sallie's face which invariably shuts Sallie down for a few minutes. Then she picks it up, play-bowing and barking at Roadie who has lost interest by this time. When they're excited together they mouth each other's entire snout -- not biting but definitely getting teeth involved.

They're funny when they walk together, although together seems to happen only occasionally and by accident. Sometimes they are perfectly in sync, strutting side-by-side...

...and sometimes they are just as striking in their opposition to each other.

One aspect that has presented itself is Roadie's apparent intent to make clear to Sallie who the dominant male is. He'll stand over her when she lays down and go into statue mode, an intimidating presence towering over her. She seems to take it in stride. She seems fine with it. She doesn't seem intimidated...and that doesn't seem to bother Roadie at all.

The evening weather was nice this weekend so we got some time to enjoy dinner and a little wine with them under the tiki torches. The acorns are slowing and Sallie is now accustomed to them. She's so much more at ease it's incredible to think it's the same dog.

It's fascinating to watch the two of them learn each other. Roadie is still jealous when it comes to getting attention from us, but he only succeeds in spinning himself and Sallie into a frenzy. When he seems jealous his tail is helicoptering so I know it's all right. It's all good right now. Even the cat thinks so.

Who's out there!?

2007-09-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

Sallie is becoming more and more comfortable in her new life, but she's still spooked about the great outdoors. Maybe she's relating it to her first experiences in the yard at night when the acorns were falling, ripping through the unseen canopy of leaves...

...and hitting the deck and tables like a rifle crack. Think about that scene in Castaway where the Tom Hanks character is hearing coconuts fall in the pitch dark.

You could see the same emotion in her eyes, trying to see the unseeable and desperately thinking, "Who's out there!?!" Now she hesitates before going through the door in the daylight. She know's something is there, something sneaky, quick, and invisible.

Eventually she ventures out and tours the yard. Warily.

She'll get over it, and eventually the acorns will stop falling.

Chipping.

2007-09-21T19:20:00.000-04:00

Well, we've decided that Sallie is such a great dog that we aren't going to let her go. We're adopting her. By "we" I mean the animals too. We expected Sallie to get along famously with Roadie -- I mean, that's what greyhounds do -- but we didn't expect how quickly and completely she would bond with Armand. Talk about a cat safe dog, she's even started licking Armand and I don't mean just giving quick little kisses. This is like bathing. I've seen dogs lick carpet before, and of course themselves, but another species? Armand The Brave sits there like Armand The Apathetic as he gets licked and nosed in the rear while trying to look inconspicuous on the coffee table. He'll occasionally look over his shoulder when the probing sniffs begin to get a bit too physical and give her a look like, "What are you doing back there?!"

She's really doing great and starting to come out of her shell. She'll pull out a stuffie from time to time, but doesn't seem to know quite what to do with it yet. She'll grab clothes out of the laundry basket and take them to her bed where she...well, I don't know what she does with them since they seem dry and undamaged. She sleeps with them I guess. She's not nearly as vocal as Roadie but she has let out a couple of very short roos. Roadie is the opposite. Sallie has brought out the kid in him at times. His rooing get's more frantic, he jumps up more often, and he knows exactly what it takes to get Sallie excited.

This is going to be fun, eh Roadie? Don't worry, you have enough stuffies to share!

Armand The Brave

2007-09-19T07:35:00.000-04:00

This cat is unbelievable. His courage transcends insatiable curiosity. Yesterday we stopped using Sallie's muzzle and Armand initiated a number of nose-to-nose sniffing explorations and at least one of those intimate head butting things cats do on Sallie's snout. He was not eaten. Sallie repaid the head-butt with a rather thorough proctology exam.

At this point I think Armand's strategy is to act like a greyhound and maybe she won't notice he's a cat.

If he learns to do this he may be able to pull it off!

She had her first outing to PetSmart last night, which she fully enjoyed. She's 61 pounds on their scale (which might be weighing a bit light).

Who's afraid of the dark?

2007-09-18T06:06:00.000-04:00

Sallie is! Well, she was this morning anyway. She woke me up at just before five o'clock to let me know she needed to go out but once we got out there the combination of the dark and the slowly awakening neighborhood freaked her out so bad we came back in. It was obvious she still had to go, so Roadie came out with her for moral support. A car went by slowly spitting out newspapers and garage doors went up in the dark as Sallie tried to look in every direction at once. I took her around back into the yard where it's quieter, but quickly realized the lights were off and we were on the other side of the locked door. Well, it was time for Jan to get up anyway and Sallie eventually did her business.

We sat on the deck with the dogs last night to give Armand a chance to watch Sallie through the protection of the glass door. We opened the door a few inches and eventually he ventured out and navigated around the deck while Sallie watched calmly from her bed. That must have been a good experience for Armand because he chanced a short nose-to-nose sniff this morning -- twice -- without incident. Sallie's progress has been quick. She's scared, but brave.

Sallie is here!

2007-09-17T20:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the VAGA picnic, and we arrived with one greyhound but left with two. Sallie (Flying Cellular) came home with us as a foster. It seemed to be fate: we arrived with our arms full of stained glass and lawn chairs and I looked at the collar of the first dog to lean on me. Sallie. Flying Cellular. This is her! She wasn't even supposed to be at the picnic, yet here she was leaning on my legs! She was a bit nervous and scared at the picnic, but what a calm beautiful dog.

She was timid on the ride home and kept her head within petting range of us. Roadie was whacked out and just wanted to sleep. It was a long drive and Roadie got up to look out the side windows whenever we slowed or stopped -- I think he sees at all the posts and bushes he could mark if he were only out there. Sallie watched his every move.

Sallies first night seemed to be a good one for her. We had a couple of nice evening walks and she had plenty of beds to choose from after exploring the house. The cat observed carefully from a distance, and more closely from protected cover. Sallie seemed unaware of his presence.

We decided to let her sleep in our room instead of the crate downstairs, although we kept her muzzle on. She didn't seem to mind. We taught her how to climb the stairs, moving one paw at a time while she stared straight ahead and quivered. She slept through the night. The cat was up every twenty minutes. In the morning we taught her to go down the stairs, which turned out to be an easier task.

Jan went down to make some eggs while Roadie and Sallie slept and heard the tinkle of her collar as she came down on her own. It still takes some coaxing from time to time, but we think she now has the stairs down.

Roadie seems to really like having Sallie around, although he swings between being close...

...and being jealous, like choosing the cat's bed to lay on because Sallie ate a dog bone there.

So far Sallie is a joy to have around, and it seems to be working out well. She still poops when nobody is looking so we haven't had a chance to correct that behavior, but at least it's nicely formed and easy to clean. (Too much information?)

We're starting to think Sallie could be more than just a foster...

(By the way, the stained glass didn't sell for as much as I had hoped but it went somewhere it will be appreciated. I'm happy. And an order for another copy is coming!)

Grey Number Six is done!

2007-09-10T21:50:00.000-04:00

I still need to frame it in oak, but the panel is now complete. After a very long day yesterday I had it completely soldered but hadn't made the zinc frame yet. I did that tonight, added the patina and polished it. It looks great and I can't wait to give it away.

Here's what it looks like under the lights...

...and here's what it looks like on the light box.

And here's what Roadie thinks of my efforts!

So tomorrow night I make an oak frame for it, put on some poly and once that's dry it'll be ready to give to VAGA! I can't wait!

2007-09-09T13:56:00.000-04:00

I was uploading some pictures of the Grey Number Six piece and came across this one of a very tired greyhound after a day in Gettysburg...I had to throw it in. He did this as I paid for items at and Eddie Bauer store. Some dogs will sleep anywhere.

This is how the piece has looked for the past four months as it struggled through my procrastination...

...and this is how it looked this morning after I finally got a few good days of work in on it...

It's been going good, so I should be able to get it soldered and in the zinc frame by the end of the day.

Sunday morning, September 9, 2007

2007-09-09T10:19:00.000-04:00

This is my first post and I'm trying to enter it quickly this morning before going down to the studio to work on the Grey Number Six stained glass piece. I worked on it most of the afternoon and evening yesterday after picking up the last couple of pieces of glass. I'm trying to do this using a new technique (for me) that preserves the templates instead of gluing them down. It saves a step because I don't have to wash the glass before foiling, but I found that I got a little sloppier than usual on a couple of pieces and have had to recut.

All of the glass is now cut and I have maybe a third of the foiling done. I hope to finish foiling and get it soldered today. It depends on how much fitting and recutting I have to do. If I get it soldered I'll make the zinc frame too, then all I'll have to do to finish it is patina, wax, and make the wood frame. I can do that in the evenings this week. I plan to have it finished by the weekend, and then intend to donate it to Virginia Greyhound Adoption (VAGA). Hopefully they will be able to make some money on it.