February Hawk

It’s great that we can almost see the end to the winter, this one was very wet and very grey. I will be glad when it is behind us. Come on Spring! Came home from work last week to a surprise in the driveway. Drove in with the Westy, I was very surprised that he did not fly away. I took some pictures, and apologize for the poor quality my little point and shoot produced (although in all fairness it was from the inside of the Van with the front window creating a lot of glare.). This is a Cooper’s Hawk, a good size for the species, unfortunately he was there hunting the little birds attracted by our feeders. We saw another hawk last fall but thankfully they do not come hunting in our yard very often. Very cool to see him though, later when I was in the house I saw him drop over the fence hit the ground and he was away. As he never came back I presume he got what he came for.



Took some time off from the Reno’s over the Christmas and New Year’s, but we have started back into it again. Just finished getting a new Front Fence up, spent the past weekend moving a large pile of soil from the driveway to build a ramp from the new gate down into the front yard. We pruned the Fruit trees, cleaned up the garden (front and back) and loaded it into the truck to take it all to the Green space at Hartland. Alison is taking another load today, nice to have the driveway cleaned up again. Looks like this week in the evenings I will be pulling more wire, getting the space under the breaker panel insulated then vapor-barrier it off. I have to glue the styro-insulation in the crawlspace then arrange the Inspection. After that Drywall, Paint, Tile, then finally install the switches, outlets and Pot-lights. Get the final electrical inspection, then we can move into the room!

My Mother-in-law is coming down late March to help Paint the outside including the Hardie-Plank, as well as stain the fence. I am going to book a couple of weeks to focus on the next portion of the reno and get some headway in moving forward.

Emma, our 11 year old Boston Terrier has been doing very well after a bit of a scare where she stopped eating and lost nearly 1/3 of her body weight. This is year four of her fighting the immune disorder, and she seems to have made it through this years highest threat time fairly well. She is continuing to fight the Cushing's Disease as well and have seen no serious issues with this.

Odin, (Rottweiler – Lab – Sheppard X) who will be 2 this July has been doing fantastic. He typically gets 2 solid walks a day, and many visits to the local dog park. While at the Colwood Creek park, he is off leash and loves running everywhere and greeting everyone. He responds well to commands, I am very impressed how good he is. It was funny when he was a pup you could not get him to walk through puddles, now you can not keep him out of the ponds, lakes and creeks… great to see him have so much fun. It’s what having a dog is all about I think.

Well better get back to it, more soon.



EOL

HTC Touch Pro 2 - Home Reno's - Summer Visits

The end of summer quickly approaches, you can feel it in the mornings on the ride in. It's so much cooler, the start of the fog in the fields, as well the deer are grazing a little later in the AM. Amazing how quickly this summer has gone! No complaints though as it really has been a very nice one.

The reno's are continuing in Earnest, and taking virtually all my spare time as expected. We finished the Hardie-Plank on the Master Bedroom just last night. Now onto soffit trays and vents, styro insulation in crawl space, electrical upgrade, and prep work for the supports for the deck in Front. In the back our friend came down from Nanaimo to frame-up for the 8 x 18 sunroom. It went very well and now waiting on the glass to arrive.

This summer, as most others, always brings us many of our friends and family to visit us here in Victoria. My good friend came to the coast to celebrate our 30 years of friendship, who else could have put up with me for long? We also had many of A's family from up north and from oversea's! Great to see and meet them all.

Lastly we had an Internal competition where the winner is given a brand new HTC Touch Pro 2 smartphone for a few weeks. Yes you guessed it, I was selected to be one of the participants! It is a fun little device, only had it since Friday. So more on that later this week.

Dedicated to our Boston Terrier Nick (St Nicholas CKC) who passed April 27, 2009

The Last Will and Testament

of An Extremely Distinguished Dog

Last Will and Testament

I, Silverdene Emblem O'Neill (familiarly known to my family,
friends and acquaintances as Blemie), because the
burden of my years is heavy upon me, and I realize the end of my
life is near, do hereby bury my last will and
testament in the mind of my Master. He will not know it is there
until I am dead. Then, remembering me in his
loneliness, he will suddenly know of this testament, and I ask
him then to inscribe it as a memorial to me.

I have little in the way of material things to leave. Dogs are
wiser than men. They do not set great store upon
things. They do not waste their time hoarding property. They do
not ruin their sleep worrying about objects they
have, and to obtain the objects they have not. There is nothing
of value I have to bequeath except my love and
my faith. These I leave to those who have loved me, to my Master
and Mistress, who I know will mourn me most,
to Freeman who has been so good to me, to Cyn and Roy and Willie
and Naomi and - but if I should list all those
who have loved me it would force my Master to write a book.
Perhaps it is in vain of me to boast when I am so
near death, which returns all beasts and vanities to dust, but I
have always been an extremely lovable dog.

I ask my Master and Mistress to remember me always, but not to
grieve for me too long. In my life I have tried to
be a comfort to them in time of sorrow, and a reason for added
joy in their happiness. It is painful for me to think
that even in death I should cause them pain. Let them remember
that while no dog has ever had a happier life (and
this I owe to their love and care for me), now that I have grown
blind and deaf and lame, and even my sense of
smell fails me so that a rabbit could be right under my nose and
I might not know, my pride has sunk to a sick,
bewildered humiliation. I feel life is taunting me with having
over lingered my welcome. It is time I said good-by,
before I become too sick a burden on myself and on those who love
me.

It will be sorrow to leave them, but not a
sorrow to die. Dogs do not fear death as men do. We accept it as
part of life, not as something alien and terrible
which destroys life. What may come after death, who knows? I
would like to believe with those of my fellow
Dalmatians who are devout Mohammedans, that there is a Paradise
where one is always young and
full-bladdered; here all the day one dillies and dallies with an
amorous multitude of houris, beautifully spotted;
where jack-rabbits that run fast but not too fast (like the
houris) are as the sands of the desert; where each blissful
hour is mealtime; where in long evenings there are a million
fireplaces with logs forever burning and one curls
oneself up and blinks into the flames and nods and dreams,
remembering the old brave days on earth, and the
love of one's Master and Mistress.

I am afraid this is too much for even such a dog as I am to
expect. But peace, at least, is certain. Peace and long
rest for weary old heart and head and limbs, and eternal sleeps
in the earth I have loved so well. Perhaps, after all,
this is best.

One last request I earnestly make. I have heard my Mistress say,
'When Blemie dies we must never have another
dog. I love him so much I could never love another one.' Now I
would ask her, for love of me, to have another. It
would be a poor tribute to my memory never to have a dog again.
What I would like to feel is that, having once
had me in the family, now she cannot live without a dog! I have
never had a narrow jealous spirit. I have always
held that most dogs are good (and one cat, the black one I have
permitted to share the living-room rug during the
evenings, whose affection I have tolerated in a kindly spirit,
and in rare sentimental moods, even reciprocated a
trifle). Some dogs, of course, are better than others.
Dalmatians, naturally, as everyone knows, are best.

So I suggest a Dalmatian as my successor. He can hardly be as
well bred, or as well mannered or as distinguished
and handsome as I was in my prime. My Master and Mistress must
not ask the impossible. But he will do his
best, I am sure, and even his inevitable defects will help by
comparison to keep my memory green. To him I
bequeath my collar and leash and my overcoat and raincoat, made
to order in 1929 at Hermes in Paris. He can
never wear them with the distinction I did, walking around the
Place Vendome, or later along Park Avenue, all
eyes fixed on me in admiration; but again I am sure he will do
his utmost not to appear a mere gauche provincial
dog. Here on the ranch, he may prove himself quite worthy of
comparison, in some respects. He will, I presume,
come closer to jackrabbits than I have been able to in recent
years. And, for all his faults, I hereby wish him the
happiness I know will be his in my old home.

One last word of farewell, Dear Master and Mistress. Whenever you
visit my grave, say to yourselves with regret
but also with happiness in your hearts at the remembrance of my
long happy life with you: 'here lies one who
loved us and whom we loved.' No matter how deep my sleep I shall
hear you, and not all the power of death can
keep my spirit from wagging a grateful tail.

The reputation of Eugene O'Neill as the American Shakespeare was established even before his death in 1953. O'Neill's output was formidable - more than 30 plays, including the posthumously produced classic, Long Day's Journey Into Night. He was a Nobel Prize winner. Reflecting his own tempestuous emotional background - be came from a yeasty but tragic Irish-American family - his plays are rarely engaging.

So his epitaph to his dog is a rarity among O'Neill documents - sentimental, even whimsical, close in spirit to his one major comedy, Ah Wilderness! The dog was acquired at a relatively peaceful period of O'Neill's life. He and his protective third wife, the beautiful actress Carlotta Monterey, looked upon it as their 'child.' O'Neill wrote Blemie's will as a comfort to Carlotta just before the dog died in its old age in December 1940

EOF - LC