Well here we are enjoying some snow. This week had 3 days of school cancelled and one late start, my boys were thrilled. They kept praying for more & more snow while I kept thinking "Yeah, it's pretty and all but it makes for crummy travel" Well, now I know first hand. My sweetie pie husband is stuck in Arizona. His flight early this morning was cancelled, he quickly tried to re-route and that too, was soon cancelled. His airline only flies from Phoenix to either Seattle or Portland, OR. This Pac-NW snowstorm has put a major dent in air travel at both SeaTac and PDX, so he's at the mercy of the ice & snow. Down here in Eugene, everything has melted overnight, and it's barely fathomable to us that there's a problem anywhere. We try to be Pollyanna about it and think of those who've lost loved ones and that if given the chance to trade places, they'd love to have their spouse, parent, child etc. stuck in another state 4 days before Christmas instead gone from this life. God bless him, my sweetpea, he's trying just as hard to stay upbeat on the other end. He's warm, he's got food and a hotel room. He's just bored. And lonely. We miss him too, but at least we're in our own home, own beds etc. He's stuck on a left over business trip, worse off than tourist since a tourist actually makes plans to be there on purpose! I know there's nothing we can do, so we'll just try to stay positive and pray he makes it home by the 25th. We know that this too, will become a family story one day. 
It was a dark and cold morning. The sun hadn’t yet peeked itself above the horizon. It was two days before Halloween…
Does this sound like the start of a scary story? Well, it’s not. For you, at least. For me, it was the beginning of the most terrible day. I got up and let my dogs out. I have a Boston terrier mix, and a purebred Jack Russell. I went to the back of the house and got my boys up for school, then started collecting some laundry I’d let hang dry in another room, when all of a sudden I heard one of my little terriers let out a shriek like I’ve not heard before. The laundry falls from my grip as I panic and run to the door. My mind is racing, I’ve had friends whose little dogs had gotten trampled by deer hooves after a 150 lb. bravado inside their 15 lb body went on the attack. I didn’t know what I would find, but my pups were out there with something and I had to try & save them! I ripped open the sliding door when all of a sudden a wave of odor penetrated my nose.
Like in those old Tom & Jerry cartoons where the scent of some wonderful concoction wafts it’s way in from the kitchen. In the cartoons it’s all white and gray and swirlie. Only this was not a pleasant kitchen concoction.
This was that nocturnal creature that’s black & white and smells all over. Skunk. I quickly hollered for my boys to bring me a flashlight. They are too much like their panicky mother and ran in circles trying to find the toy flashlights from their youth instead of getting me the ‘real thing’ from above the refrigerator. I get the light and shine it outside. Sure enough, they’ve got something cornered in the yard. It’s got two shiny blue eyes that reflect in my flashlight and I start calling and calling them both to come in the house, hoping upon hope that the skunk will just wander away if I can get the big bad dogs away from it. The dogs don’t come of course- they have something trapped!! Isn’t that what terrier do? Hunt vermin? I scream and scream and scream both their names, all the while wondering what am I going to do with them when I get them in the house? Meanwhile, the scent is growing stronger. I finally get one of them to come it, whoosh, lock him in the bathroom. I go back to calling the other one. She’s more stubborn and is going to let this skunk know that he is totally trespassing and she for one, will not have it! Finally, I get her into the house and although I did not believe it possible, the skunk stench became even thicker. I lock her in the garage and immediately head back and begin to bathe the first one. By this time the stench is so potent, I can almost taste it in my mouth.
All the while, my boys are zipping around the house, slamming doors to try and stave off the smell, lighting every candle they can find and turning on every portable fan we own. To deal with the smell, I grab a hand towel and hold it over my nose and mouth while I begin to wash the dog. Have you ever tried to bathe a dog one handed? Not easy, but I prevailed. I scrubbed him down w/baking soda and shampoo, dried him off & slapped him in his kennel while I went to deal with the other dog. I opened the garage door, grabbed terrier #2 and whisked her off to the bathroom. At this point, the smell is so strong it doesn’t even smell like skunk anymore. It’s just a thick, bitter, offensive criminal to the ol’ schnoz. I get her collar off and that when I notice it. A not so small, yellowish stain on her all white neck. It was about the size of the palm of my hand and when mixed with hot water from the bath, it began to release it’s skunky odor into all the steam droplets that were rising and dispersing themselves throughout the tiny bathroom and eventually, throughout the house. I bathed her the best I could, again with one hand and dried her a bit and tossed her into her kennel.
I was so overwhelmed with what I had to get done, I couldn’t even take my kids to school! The smell had permeated our walls, the towels, and the clothes they were wearing, the clothes in the drawers even held a small stench. Due to the target dog being locked in the garage for a good 15 minutes while I bathed the first one, the smell had also permeated my car. So, I just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t stand to put our smelly selves into the smelly car and drive 10 miles, couldn’t subject the entire staff and student body to our smelly selves and couldn’t subject my boys to the humiliation of being smelly! My dear mother in law, bless her- brought me air fresheners and boxes of baking soda so I could wash the dogs repeatedly. They both wound up have a total of 3 baths each that day. One of those being a bath painted in tomato sauce, a recommendation of the groomer on duty at our vet’s office. I’d always heard tomato juice, but she said sauce, and the kicker: to leave it on for at least half an hour! How was I supposed to do this without having them shake red stains all over everything? Ah, those lovely kennels came into play again. By the end of the day those kennels were a bear to clean out, but better then my whole house I guess. After the dogs dried out, they got kicked outside for the rest of the morning, and we turned off the heat, (spreads the smell) put on more coats, opened the doors and windows and put all the fans in and around them to encourage the airflow. By noon, when my mother in law came back, she said it was barely noticeable. It was at that point, that I could look back over the morning and laugh. I could see that although not pleasant, it was just one of those life things that happens and one day becomes a family story to tell.
What would we do without technology? Read by candlelight, run to the outhouse @ 3am, walk 10 miles to school, uphill, both ways…
I thought of a few more things I’d do without it: I’d feel less old, feel less stupid, and probably spend less money.
Progress is awesome don’t you think? I do, most of the time. I love my computer, I love the mp3 player on my walks, I love that I can give my autistic son a cell phone and feel comfortable enough to let him have a little bit of freedom to walk to Dairy Queen after school. But you know the problem with technology? It’s too darn fast! The speed of technology makes me feel old and stupid and puts a little bit bigger dent in my pocketbook each month.
Did you ever see that commercial where the guy has a brand spanking new computer in the front seat of his car? It’s in a box printed with something like ‘Superfast 5.0 model’ on it. He’s sitting at a stoplight with his arm resting on the box, a smile on his face, obviously impressed with himself that he’s got the latest & greatest. He looks up and there’s a billboard ad for ‘Superfast 6.0 model’ available now. His smile fades. I know how that guy feels.
My cell phone is just about done. It doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore, it’s been dropped a time or two, and I know that I’m eligible for a new one soon, (as long as I commit to another 2 year plan) so I started researching them. One thing I notice right off the bat is that my phone, which was the latest & greatest 2 years ago… is no longer even available. TWO years?!!?! Two years is nothing, unless you’re talking about technologyland. In technologyland, time is like dog years to the nth degree. I think back to my original cell phone. It was probably 1993 or 94. It was the size of a brick, had an 8 inch long black antenna and could only work with the cigarette lighter. Only fifteen years ago. Apparently fifteen years in technologyland is the equivalent of finding a frozen woolly mammoth buried in an ancient lake in human years. As I think about this, technology starts to make me feel old.
Soon my boys come in and want to look up online (and also try to have me purchase for them) the next RockBand video game. (ours is less than 4 months old) I keep hearing about the next Wii system (ours is 9 months old) and the next Xbox system (again, 9 months old) and that’s just the video games. There’s computer stuff, cell phone stuff, DVD, Blu-Ray, podcasts, downloadable audiobooks, computer chips in your refrigerator, spoken directions in your car, the list goes on & on. Christmas is around the corner, so here comes the pocketbook. I get online and start investigating when BAM—feelings of stupidity have now arrived. Do I need this generation or that generation? Is it backwards compatible? Can I get online via my wireless connect card or just use a hotspot at Starbucks? (are these things different?) Do I have a VPN or firewall? (umm..what?) Can I check my email on that phone or get mobile TV? Do I need mobile TV? Probably not, but it’s so cool!
AARRRrrgh--- too much technology too fast!!!!!!!
But then again, look at me. I’m blogging. I certainly couldn’t put this out there in the infinite walls of cyberspace with paper and pen could I? I guess I’ll just try to keep up, not be afraid to jump in & learn and one day when it’s all too much for me to handle, hopefully my kids will be able (more like willing) to teach me a thing or two.
Well, here I am. After lots of encouragement I've created a blog. Now I need to choose something to say, right? Hmmm... where to start? How about fall. No, not the kind you take when your kids leave their shoes in the middle of the floor. Those are no fun. I'm talking about Autumn. That wonderful season when the leaves change and the air becomes cool. That sad reminder that summer has once again come & gone and somehow slipped through your fingers. I'll miss summer, I love summer. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fall. There is nothing like a crisp fall day, sun shining on your face and all those green fronds turning all shades of brown, red, yellow and orange, furnishing you with their traditional show of color. But, it's not SUMMER. The season of shorts, tank tops, flip-flops... I miss summer. I see the grocery stores have started stocking up on local apple cider and those quirky kits with pie plate sized caramel circles and popsicle sticks for making quick & easy candied apples. The harvest and halloween decorations on sale are abundant. College football is back. As the days go by and I run my everyday errands, everything becomes familiar and I begin my descent into acceptance that the season has changed and that summer will return again in it's own time. No need to be sad. Fall is here! I should enjoy it and in fact, embrace it. Stop in at the local pumpkin patch, stop on the side of the road and buy a bunch of sunflowers from a local gardener, buy a bag of nuts and crack them open on one of those crisp evenings I was talking about. Ahhh, fall is here. I finally realize I missed it. The season of jeans, turtlenecks and slip on shoes... In fact, I love fall. I'm going to jump in and cherish every minute fall has to offer!Wait-- is that a Christmas decoration I see on the shelf at Super-Mart?
