FYI: It’s 10:21 a.m. and the current temperature is 20.2 degrees BELOW zero!! That will put a little frost on your moustache!!
I know, I know – I need 20 lashes with a chunk of lutefisk – I haven’t updated for a whole week. I don’t know where the time goes. I’ve been a bit preoccupied with some things, dealing with a few stresses, etc. So get yourself a cup of coffee and get comfy because this is going to be a long entry. I’ve got lots to tell you.
First of all, thanks to all of you who have emailed me wondering about Beau. I think all of your good thoughts and doggie prayers have helped because he’s a lot more on the bright eyed and bushy tailed side now than he was a week ago. He’s back to having that old sparkle in his eye and back to teasing Daisy by stealing her babies (stuffed toys). He’s not out of the woods yet by a long shot but I truly feel we’re making some progress. He goes for another x-ray next Friday (23rd) to see if the fluid around his lungs has lessened, and then we’ll go from there. Once again, keep your fingers crossed and keep him in your Doggie Prayers.
Pets are so sensitive to what’s going on in their surrounding world. Daisy knows that Beau hasn’t been well. She’s been like a mother hen to him, constantly herding him and somehow seeing to his benefit. He’s been getting a lot of special attention of course, and although we all try to keep things equal and give her lots of extra attention too, I’m sure she senses what’s going on. Daisy is kind of a neurotic dog, and things stress her out very easily. She’s also always had a very sensitive tummy, but still has the tendency to gobble up her food and not always chew it the way she should. I think part of that comes from her unhappy puppyhood where she had to fight for every morsel that she got. Anyway, (this is going to be very descriptive so if YOU have a weak stomach you maybe should skip this paragraph, okay?) yesterday when Lars brought the doggers over for Doggy Day Care Daisy barely got 6 feet inside the door, stopped and proceeded to lose last night’s supper in my back hallway. None of it was digested; it was all like it had gone down initially. So I got that cleaned up and Ole and Lars and the doggers took off headed for the gym. The doggers have always waited patiently guarding their truck while Ole’s working out, and then they go to McDonald’s for cheeseburgers for lunch. He buys each dogger their own cheeseburger. Only this time when Lars and Ole got back to the truck after their workout Daisy had had a very runny accident inside the truck, all over the seat. This is just not like her, and she was absolutely mortified, but of course no one scolded her because she couldn’t help it. They did their errands in town and on the way home let the doggers out to run on one of the country roads where she had several more “sittings” which were bloody. This is not good. So Ole called me and I called the vet who advised me to take her off of all food for 24 hours to rest her insides, and if she was still having trouble to bring her into the emergency animal clinic.
So here we have one dog – Beau – who’s supposed to eat as much as we can get him to eat, and another – Daisy – who loves to eat but isn’t supposed to for 24 hours. So we decided to separate them for the night. Daisy went home with Lovely Daughter and Lars and we kept Beau here. We always keep food available for him, and I heard him get up several times during the night and go crunch some down. When I talked to Lovely Daughter this morning Daisy had made it through the night with no accidents – whew! I don’t know if the checkbook can handle another sick dog. So today we’ll start feeding her small amounts of softened food per advice from the vet, and see what happens.
Okay – so there’s an update on Dogger Land at the Ole and Lena Estate.
Now to Jane – I’m sure you’re all hanging on the edge of your chair for this one (snicker).
I’ll wait while you all go refill your coffee cups. * * * * * * * * * * * Okay. Glad you’re back.
Last Monday night (half price burger night at the Watering Hole) Jane was busy flapping her lips again with total disregard for anyone else. Ole and Bob and Dick had already left the Watering Hole to go to their fire department training meeting which started at 7:00 p.m. Jane didn’t come in until 7:30 p.m. because she’s supposed to keep the city office open until that time. So by the time she arrived there were only three or four of us sitting around the table. Ted and Alice had arrived late also, just after the guys had gone to their fire meeting. So Ted asked where the guys were and I answered, “To their fire training session.” And Jane pipes up with, “I don’t know how Ole EVER got accepted onto the fire department in the first place. He’s such a security risk to the rest of the crew with his hearing loss.” I asked her what she meant by that and she proceeded to expound on the fact that Ole would never hear the beeper that goes off when their buddy runs out of air in the tank that they carry into a fire. So Ole’s buddy would be on his own and wouldn’t get any help because Ole wouldn’t know the air tank was empty. So whoever is Ole’s buddy better know up front that they’re really on their own because Ole is such a safety hazard and shouldn’t be on the fire department at all.
I repeated a synopsis of this conversation to Ole when he got home that night and asked him about the beeper/horn that sounds on the air tanks. He said it’s SO LOUD you can hear it a quarter of a mile away, and no, he doesn’t have any trouble hearing it. He thought about it awhile and then said maybe he would consider resigning because he wouldn’t want to be a safety risk and cause someone else any harm. He really was kind of incensed by her comments, and so was I. And considering it was Dick who recruited Ole in the first place. Dick is assistant fire chief. Because most of the guys on the team are still working there’s a shortage of guys available during the day. They really needed some that would be around during the daytime hours to go on any runs that might come up. Ole fit that bill – he’s here during the day, very responsible about attending training sessions, etc. But apparently Jane doesn’t think that’s enough.
Jane has pushed me so far with her constant interference, annoying comments and opinions, manipulations and just being a general all around MEAN busybody that I just have no tolerance anymore for anything she says. So the more I thought about her little speech on Monday night, the angrier I got. Ole really enjoys the guys on the fire department, enjoys the training sessions, and he said it left him with a good feeling to do something for the community. So I really didn’t want to see him resign. But like he said, if something WOULD happen, you can imagine that Jane would be all over it, enlarging and enhancing the issue and doing whatever she could to make herself look in the know.
Are you still with me? I told you this was going to be long - - - -
So the next morning I emailed Jane and told her that because of her remarks the night before Ole was considering turning in his pager and resigning from the fire department. Her response was pretty much “Oh, well, that’s his decision. All I said was I didn’t understand how he got accepted in the first place.” I wrote back to her and told her that in addition to that she had expounded on the safety issues and that Ole shouldn’t be on the fire department.
She sent me one more quip back stating that she wasn’t going to do THIS over email. So I got really snotty (paybacks are a bitch, aren’t they?) and told her that she didn’t have to do it over email, that I’d gladly discuss it in person, because possibly her ability to blurt anything out without any regard for other people's feelings has caught up with her. That apparently infuriated her because I never heard another word.
That was Tuesday morning. Moving on to Tuesday night:
Tuesday night was the city council meeting where the new councilman was going to be sworn in. Prior to the council meeting Bob grabbed a burger at the Watering Hole because Carol was working. Bob called me later to fill me in on the happenings of the evening. When he walked into the City Office Jane was there, along with Dick, Mayor Charlie, Randy, the fire chief, the city treasurer, several of the councilmen and a number of people who were going to be attending the meeting. Bob is not only a city councilman, but is also a member of the board of directors for the fire department. Bob said Jane jumped all over him right in front of all these people about being over at the Watering Hole having supper with Ole and I and gossiping about her and calling her a bitch!! She accused Bob of taking sides against her, etc., etc., etc., You can just hear it, can’t you? Well, guess what – Bob hadn’t a CLUE what she was talking about, nor were Ole and I at the Watering Hole, nor had he listened to any gossip about her nor had anyone called her a bitch!! Bob said she just went on and on in front of all these people about how terrible I was – probably because I had actually stood up to her on something and called a spade a spade. She’s not used to anyone standing up to her because she’s run roughshod over everyone for so long that everyone is scared of her. I guess she ragged on Bob’s case until Mayor Charlie finally interrupted her to get the meeting going. Bob said that Dick just sat there like a whipped puppy. He suspected that Jane and Dick had words about the issue before they came down to the village meeting.
Bob still couldn’t figure out what it was all about so called me when he got home from the meeting and I filled him in on our email correspondence.
Moving on to Wednesday night:
Dick stopped over at Bob and Carol’s house to visit a bit, Carol suspected it was to apologize to Bob for Jane’s behavior the night before. I had just a short conversation with Carol last night and she told me that Dick was just beside himself when he stopped over. He said his wife has gone absolutely psycho and he doesn’t know what to do about it. She’s just off the wall and the only thing he feels he can do is stay out of her way and not get into any of her messes. What an awful life for that nice man.
Drama anyone? Jane can’t tolerate peace and quiet. If there’s not something going on she’ll get right in the middle and conjure up something.
And the beat goes on – and on – and on - - -
