Fall Night and Dark Pets.

Dark Night and Fall Pets would work too.

Saturday night Clint and Chad stopped
by for a visit. Holly too (a little later).

Drinks in the driveway with
a fire keeping the chill off. Nice night.

Thanks Clint for bringing beer.
Thanks Chad for only bringing
lemonade for your mixed drinks. 
Bastard.

I later took this picture of
Cubbie (the lab) and Teddy (the cat).


Cubbie never likes looking at the camera
(thinking it might steal his soul?)


Teddy never photographs well
because he's so black.


I set the camera to b/w mode and
used the flash - since it was pretty dark.

I like it overall except for the leaves.

With the black and grays,
they almost look like layers of burnt ashes.

Dog's day.

Sunday was a beautiful day; when the sun was out.

When it went behind the clouds my decision to wear cutoffs came to question.

Anyway, I was in the middle of a good book, taking in some sun, sipping a cocktail when my sister stopped by with her English Springer Spaniel, Rosie. It was time for a break.

Along with Rosie, my brother - in - law's two dogs, Tessie and Bubba came over too. Add our dog Cubbie and it was quite a get together. I'm glad they all get along.

Below Tessis and Rosie are waiting for Markie to hit the ball which they will then in turn chase down and return.

Rosie is really well mannered. The leash was only because she was unfamiliar with the area.

Rosie, Tessie, and Bubba taking a break.



Tessie and Rosie chasing, Bubba resting.



Cubbie with his head in my wild flowers, Tessie has the ball, Rosie just running. If figures... I snapped a bunch of pictures and the one I ended up liking the most is the blurriest. (I took it from the far end of the yard, in the bright sun - which prevented me from seeing what setting the camera had. I should be happy it came out this well.)

Cubbie got this one.

Dog days of winter.

Breaking news: Uno, the Beagle, wins Westminster Dog Show!
My post on dogs was just by chance - anyway, way to go Uno. We used to have a beagle when I was a kid: Taffy Ann. Hearing Uno on TV, he sure has the Beagle woof (or whatever noise that is).

Amy with Cubbie at the yearly local car show.

It was right down the street at the High School. Taken in 2003, Cubbie in dog years is now older than Amy.

I'm just waiting for it to get warm. It's been too cold to play with Cubbie outside, so instead I'll post a couple 15 second videos I took with my camera.

Usually I hit him softballs for about a half hour after work. When he was younger, I couldn't miss a day with him or else he would be bursting with unspent energy. Being a little older, he just shrugs if we don't go out.

Below is a picture of Cubbie strolling thru the yard.

In the background: phlox, sunflowers, dahlias, and cornfield.

If I hit the softball hard enough, it would land a couple rows deep into the corn.

Cubbie loves running through the corn - he always finds the ball too.

(Note: I am much farther back when I hit the softballs. I'm guessing 200 feet. He really gets exercise during our workouts.)

My camera gives you 15 seconds of high quality video or however long you want with medium. I do the high because 15 seconds is long enough.

I used to have Magnavox VHS movie camera - you could take up to two hours of video. Kinda like a Robert Altman movie with no editors. In my case, shorter is better.

Both videos are us playing in the large with snow - one with my "homeless" burn barrel blazing and one by the house (too much snow that day).

If you notice, at the end, he runs through my legs, turns around, pokes his head through the other way and gives me the ball. He learned that on his own.

Snow day.

Today's a snow day. We are, as I type, getting over a foot of snow. It was so bad Clint picked me up at work with his Jeep - it was too bad to drive my car home. Why do the kids always have the better cars?

I took these after getting home before it got too dark. It didn't start out too well; I took Cubbie out to run around while I was taking pictures.

I was walking through the snow with my camera dangling when he ran by me, his head catching the camera strap, pulling it out of my hands. He had a new collar with my camera dragging in the snow. I got it back, dried it out and took these. I was snowing so bad I had a hard time even seeing. Anyway...

This catches the fresh snow on my picnic table, a rusty clothes line pole along with a bush in the middle, and the American flag in the back. (My 92 year old aunt lives in the house on the right and that is her super tall pine tree - there was no angle that would have kept them out of the picture, so they stayed.)

Green pine needles on branches, trees in the middle, and trees far back. The wind was blowing so bad I got hit in the face with a branch. I would have liked to get more of the dog tracks at the foot of the closest tree but couldn't see thru the viewfinder. Snap, shoot, and head home. Ha.

Labs like snow as well as water. I'm standing in my garden looking west. Cubbie, mid trees, far house and garage with blizzard conditions (look at it blowing off the garage roof). On the right by the tree is the picnic table in the first picture.

Recropped below:

This would be my favorite though I obviously didn't take it today. Reds near and medium (and Cubbie), tree and softball bats far. So warm looking. Reds do that.

MNF, not really.

For me, Monday nights used to be reserved for Monday Night Football on ABC. For over 30 years I could watch an exciting game and catch the highlights of the other Sunday games during the halftime highlights show.

From Howard Cosell, Dandy Don Meredith and Keith Jackson (replaced the next year by Frank Gifford) to Al Michaels and John Madden, it was always something to look forward to.

1 Overview 2 History 2.1 Pre-1970 2.2 1970s 2.2.1 Jackson, Cosell and Meredith 2.2.2 Cosell, Gifford and Meredith 2.2.3 Cosell, Gifford, Williamson and Karras 2.2.4 Cosell, Gifford, Meredith and Tarkenton 2.3 1980s 2.3.1 Cosell, Gifford, Meredith and Simpson 2.3.2 Gifford, Meredith and Simpson 2.3.3 Gifford, Simpson and Namath 2.3.4 Gifford, Michaels and Swann 2.3.5 Gifford, Michaels and Dierdorf 2.4 1990s 2.4.1 Michaels, Dierdorf and Esiason 2.4.2 Michaels and Esiason 2.5 2000s 2.5.1 Michaels, Fouts and Miller 2.5.2 Michaels and Madden 2.5.2.1 The end of the ABC era 2.5.3 Move to ESPN

Since 2005, Monday Night Football on ABC is on NBC on Sunday night as the week's showcase game of the week. Now, Monday Night Football is found on ESPN. Having big games on both Sunday and Monday nights, I tend to have less interest in them unless it's a really good matchup. Sunday nights I catch most of Fox and either Desperate Housewives or a good PBS mystery show if one is on. Football gets the commercials.

On Monday night, unless it's a really good matchup or if I'm doing well in my football pools, I skip most of the game and again watch regular network fare, catching parts of the game during commercials.

I was 5 of 13 in my pools going into Monday night's game (very bad). And, San Francisco vs Seattle is hardly a marque event to watch. On top of that, the game was lopsided (which is only fun to watch if it's your team leading).

So while Amy snoozed on the couch, I took some pictures of her pets as they were on a typical weeknight.

A black cat, a shovel, a shallow plot, Bloody Sunday.

Aimer's new cat, Teddie Bear, scared the hello out of me Sunday morning. I went to get something out of the closet and saw eyes looking back at me. It was really dark in that corner, so dark I had to use a flash to take this picture.

The shelf is at eye level. I'm amazed Teddie was able to get up there without pulling all my stuff down. It sure doesn't stop him around the rest of the house. I'm constantly picking up something he has knocked to the floor and then started playing with. Usually it is pens or papers but he has also dumped a couple of our things off the coffee table (remotes for the digital receiver, regular TV, DVD, stereo receiver,VCR, and the cordless phone Amy never put in the charger - which unsurprisingly is usually dead).

By the way, looking at the picture, I can see where I put my gloves away last spring. I've been wondering where they went. Good, I thought I had lost them.

We got our first real frost Saturday night. It killed off almost all my flowers. The ones above survived because they were next to a fence of cucumber vines that must have blocked the chill. Most of my plants in containers survived too because they were close to the house.

I spent the afternoon digging up dahlia bulbs. I have them in the garden, behind the garage, and outside the house. After they die from frost, you need to dig them up (they are in clumps). I hauled them down to the basement where they can dry out and then be stored till spring. It took me most of the afternoon but in I at least feel that I accomplished something. An alternative would have been watching the Chicago Bears play Detroit. (I can't believe the Bears were in last year's Superbowl. And I can't believe in 8 games I've only picked them right 3 times.)

While I do all my chores outside, Cubbie just follows me around, hardly ever getting under my feet. We have a lot of dogs in the neighborhood so he is constantly marking spots or sniffing those spots marked by other dogs.

U2, Bloody Sunday. I just happen to like this song and it fit with this post's title.

15 second video. Sunday nothing...

Sunday was warm and Monday, today, was even better. I'm told I should expect freezing weather this weekend. Typical.

I spent most of Sunday taking down my remaining Christmas decorations. Needed a ladder. I was waiting till it got warm. No one wants to see icicle lights hanging from the gutters when Spring approaches. Where did the time go?

While taking down and boxing the lights carefully for next year, I stepped into my next chore. Dog crap. Nothing like melting snow; a beautiful layer of white slowly revealing a forgotten yard and a winter's hidden treasures coming back to view for cleanup. That done, I took a break to watch the Nascar race. Boring video included.

By the way, son Clint went down to Atlanta area where tornadoes hit a couple of weeks ago. I lent him a camera and hope he took some good pictures. Coming soon, maybe... (he went down with someone that might be contracted to help clean up the mess.) There is still a lot of work needed down there.

15 sec vol 1
15 sec vol 2 and 3

15 second videos, vols.2 and 3.

I used to take pictures with an 8mm camera. Two and a half minutes of film time, developing took about a week for five bucks or so. They are in a shoe box somewhere. ??? I later got a VHS tape camera with a two hour capacity. That made for really boring videos. It's nice to tape relatives at family gatherings, but watching them age before your eyes during the taping translated into a long and boring video.

My latest camera has a fifteen second video setting. Quick and easy. You always have a start but most times no ending - just a cut off point. I like it because it is a bookmark of some time in my life. I can see what was happening on a particular day, what the weather was like, how big the pets were - months or years after taking it. And it is short enough most people can endure it.

Volume 1.

With the cold and snow, Cubbie and I haven't played ball for quite some time. Usually I can hit a softball as far as possible (hundreds of feet - ha); he'll chase it down, run back through my legs, turn around, and give it to back to me (through my legs again). Time obviously didn't permit here.

Rama, the cat was watching us. I threw a ball in his direction, almost hitting him. I didn't say anything because I was laughing (alot, but silently). Cats don't fetch. He just wanted to go inside. Ha. (By the way, Amy ran out of gas in the driveway that morning explaining the gas can and other junk on the porch.)

15 second video. vol 1. Sunday the twenty eighth.

Sunday has its 60 minutes. Good stuff but I hardly watch anymore. Anyway, I have a video thing on my camera but I hardly use it. I can set it for 15 second clips (and except for me watching, that’s probably too long. Spielberg had his Duel - got to begin somewhere.) Starting today, I’m going to take a video each week of something I’m doing. It should be fun the see the seasons change and how boring my Sundays really are. Ha.

Volume one:

Burning the newspapers in a burn barrel. It’s not legal in town but I’ve only been caught once. Usually I would have music playing in the background but the cold out weighed my ambition. It just snowed last night so it’s too crappy out to hit softballs. Today I’m throwing them; left handed while holding the camera (that will explain the wimpy throw). Cubbie tracks them down and returns thru my legs, turns around and gives it back to me (thru my legs). Kinda like a pez dog dispenser. He just finished before time ran out. We both need practice.

The Rolling Stones; Walking the Dog.

An aside: Family Guy had the best cartoon / movie dance routine with the a film clip of Gene Kelly. Stupid show but pushes boundaries. Funny. Never thought I’d like it. Clint sold me on it. Video will follow when it’s posted and I’m sure it will be. (1-29-2007 it is)

Sleep over.

Please excuse the quality of the picture. I took a better one but Bob (the cat)'s head wasn't all in it.

I don't want to make too much fuss taking pictures or they move.

Anyway, aren't they cute? Ha.

Strange bedfellows.

Past sleepovers:

Cubbie and Bob (the cat).

Cubbie and Rama.

Let's Spend the Night Together.

Cubbie and Bob (the) Cat.

First it was Rama. Now Cubbies sleeping with Bob(the)Cat.

Moon.

I didn't have a working lens good enough to catch a better picture of the moon. This was the best I could do.

Lit up is my after work play area for Cubbie. I hit him softballs every night for about a half hour. Except when there is alot of snow. Obviously not now.

I have a portable light in the lawn chair. The garage is on the right with my radio playing . The table in front of the tree holds a drink and a flashlight for errant balls. Squirrel feeder doubles as an ashtray and a dog slobber rag holder. Aluminum bats lean on the tree year round. The clothesline pole is on the left and of course the moon is the moon.

Stupid thing I did getting ready to take this: I walked two steps forward to get a closer view of the moon. (like that matters. ha) Then I thought about and laughed. It's like a quarter of a million miles away? What was I thinking?

Neville Brothers:

Kiko and the lavender moon out playing

Makes believe nobody can see

And then he waits

And then he fakes

And then he bends

And then he shakes

He plays and plays

Still playing till he

Goes off to sleep


Kiko and the lavender moon

Out dancing making faces at

A big black cat and then he flies

Up to the wall

Stands on one foot

Doesn't even fall

Dance and dance

Still dancing till

He goes off to sleep


He always sleeps

'Til the sun goes down

He never wakes

Till no one's around

He never stops

Can't catch his breath

It's always there

Scares him to death


Kiko and the lavender moon

Out dreaming 'bout green shoes

Haircuts and cake

And then he wishes

The world away

And then he kneels

As if to pray

He dreams and dreams

Kiko and the lavender moon

Why can't we be friends?

Cubbie and Rama this morning. They were sleeping just before I took the picture. Rama usually sleeps on my feet, preventing me from moving at night. Cubbie sleeps with Amy. She was up early for work so the two pets made their own arrangement I guess.