Going Home Again

On the road again

It isn’t true that you can’t go home again.

In the forty-one years since we moved to Tennessee, we have been back to Ann Arbor an average of three times per year, which makes one hundred and twenty-three times we have gone home. We have driven through the night, through fog, through storms, and Michigan being where it is, through snow. Lots of it. We’ve taken our children as babies and teenagers, and now we are taking our grandchildren. We’ve been for Christmas, birthdays, football games, funerals, on our way to or from vacations, and just because. During these nine hour driving marathons I have read, played car games with children, knitted, held dogs or cats on my lap, listened to music, slept, and sometimes I have even driven.

In October my husband and I drove to Michigan, the third trip for 2009. We had a great time, and the fall colors were at their peak. At the end of our visit, we packed the night before in order to leave very early in the morning to return to Tennessee. No kids or animals in the car, no snow, no fog, no threats of storms, not even any construction in Dayton. I decided to occupy my time by taking pictures of the landscape as we passed. At first thought, this may seem fairly simple. You sit in one place, and the scenery comes to you. Because it is passing you at 70 MPH, however, you have to be alert, and be ready to act fast!  Smashing the camera against the window as you try to pan without blurring, gets old faster than the landscape whizzing past you. The driver gets irritated when you try to take a picture on the left side of the road, or when you tell him to hurry and pass that eighteen wheeler that’s blocking your view on the right. Bumps on the road cause the camera to do an erratic little dance, and some part of the car seems to be in the way of every picture you try to take.  It’s a good thing that I love in-camera motion blur. I got my fill between Ann Arbor and Nashville!

Sunrise - south of Maumee, Ohio

I said we left early, and I meant it. We were already in Ohio when the sun came up. If I’d still been in bed, I would have missed this spectacular show!

Ohio farm

There aren’t a lot of hills in Ohio to block my view. I wonder if the people on this farm have finished their morning chores. Are they eating breakfast? Getting ready for church? I’m sure they could not imagine that someone in a passing car had just taken a picture of their lovely farm and field, with that deep blue early morning sky above them.

Trees dressed in yellow and orange

You can’t hold on to the beauty of fall when  you’re standing still. It’s even more fleeting when you pass it at seventy MPH.

Ohio field

The colors are beautiful, and I’m taking them home in my camera!

Ohio farm pond

I’m glad the furrows are distinct. I’m not sure how it happened, but I did have the camera on multiple shot and took several as we passed, hoping to get one where the rows were leading the eye straight to the pond. I can trash the discards later. No penalty.

Ohio barn

Someone told this farmer to shout his religion from the rooftop. And, he did!

A very weird juxtaposition of signs in Lima, Ohio

Mr. McGuire to Benjamin Braddock, “I want to say one word to you. Just one word.”

Another Ohio farm

It’s post card perfect, even at a 70 MPH blur.

Another Ohio barn

I cracked the car window pretty hard with the lens hood trying to get into position to take this one in time!

Birds in flight

It’s my turn to drive. What if I miss a picture as great as this?  I know better than to text and drive, but what if I had the camera set and just lifted it with one hand in the general direction, and snapped really fast? I might get a passable motion blur, at least. Just kidding.  Ha, ha.

The bridge over the Ohio in Cincinnati

Cincinnati! Half way home, and it isn’t even lunch time yet.

Beautiful Ohio, In dreams I dream of you

Time to sing Beautiful Ohio!

Florence, Y'all

OK, now I’ll drive. I’ve got the Florence, KY water tower. Stop at that last rest stop before we turn onto I-71 to Louisville and we can switch.

Rest stop trees in Kentucky.

Wow. These trees were all over the grounds of the rest stop. It was nice to take a picture while I, and the trees, were standing still. I didn’t have my land legs back, however, and this was a little out of focus. I used the Topaz Simplify filter to even out the color.  It works for me.

Home again

I drove until we were almost to Nashville, so there are no more pictures except for this capture of our beautiful city, which was like aiming for a keyhole when the bridge over the Cumberland opened up a view. So what if it’s out of focus? Think of the skill involved in avoiding the drivers’ head as I shot this out of the left side of the car from the right hand seat.

We’re going back to Michigan in a few weeks. The gorgeous fall colors will be gone, but I’ll still have my camera ready. I can take a picture of Nashville as we leave the city this time. And, I really want a shot of dinosaur world in Kentucky!

Veterans’ Day 2009

Veterans' Day, 2009

Veterans’ Day was a week ago. My husband must have been savoring the touching expression of thanks that he and other veterans in his office received on November 11, because he just brought his card and cookies home this week. I admit my eyes get a little teary when I look at them, and think of the sacrifices and changed lives they represent. I am very grateful for the service of our veterans.

It is my fervent hope and prayer that our young men and women in the military will come home, and that a wisdom that can only come from the highest power will enable the leaders of nations to come up with something more creative and less destructive of life and the pursuit of happiness than fighting these horrendous wars. Tell me again, please. I never can remember. Why did we fight in Viet Nam? For more, I hope, than a moving monument in D.C that makes us cry when we stand before it, and see how much space it takes to write 58,000 names. Why are we fighting in Iraq? I should be able to remember. It was only eight years, 4,400 American deaths, 32,000 American wounded, and 100,000 Iraqi deaths ago that we invaded that country. What is our mission in Afghanistan? Will it be clear and understandable to us before we send in 20,000 to 40,000 more troops, or are we trapped on a runaway train?

Is the only way we can keep maniac butchers from flying into our buildings and killing people, to invade another country, and subject the hundreds of thousands of people who live there to the destruction of their homes and livelihoods, and the maiming of their children by bombs that go off in the streets of their cities? Really?

I think Americans knew why they were fighting in WWII.  It took some time before we got into it, but once in, it was an all out effort of government, soldier and civilian, and the mission was clear and necessary.  My connection as a civilian to our modern wars is not that of Rosie the Riveter. I did not volunteer the information during the Viet Nam War that my husband was in the Marine Corps or involved in any way. To the majority of my generation, if you weren’t out vocally protesting the war, your patriotism was in question. What a time that was! It was a version of civil war, but this time between the peaceniks and the hawks. America was torn apart in the name of saving its way of life. My husband wasn’t given any cookies as a memento of thanks for his service back in 1968!

Today, my attention turns to our wars only when a soldier’s death is announced on the news, and I feel the pain of the family, or when I see the profane cost in dollars of these wars, and compare that to the interest we pay every day on our debt to China, and hear how we can’t possibly afford the cost of health care reform. Then I remember to pray for that wisdom needed by our leaders to stop trying things that have proven not to work. If it were just a waste of time to continue unsuccessful approaches, that would be one thing, but the waste is far greater, and, in my opinion,more destructive to the very way of life we profess we are trying to preserve.

But, what do I know? There are complications that I do not understand. It is not my intention to call into question the sanity or patriotism of anyone who disagrees with what I have written. I am grateful to be an American with the freedom to say what I believe. Most of the time I’m happy to write about my grandchildrens’ birthdays and the beauty of that glorious Oak in my front yard with the impossibly red autumn leaves.

This morning, those red, white and blue cookies just got to me.

Fall Ritual – Leaf me Alone!

Glorious Oak, with branches on fire

We’ve oohed and aahed,

Maple leaves, as golden as the sun

and had our fun.

Leaf pile fun

We’ve raked and piled,

Billions and billions of leaves!

and blown off the  roof.

Oh, please don't try to walk with that electric cord running between your feet!

Now, it’s time to LEAVE, leaves!

Bagged

White Birches

White Birches

While we were exploring the Cedar Lake Camp in Chelsea, MI, I found a group of white birches. The bark on Birches in Southeastern Michigan isn’t as startlingly white as those found in Northern Michigan, but they are still striking trees. I decided to use one of my favorite camera techniques, an in-camera motion blur, to capture  my image of them. My method is to use shutter priority, setting the shutter dial between half a second and a second, and then, while moving the camera in the chosen direction, release the shutter. It is fun, and usually surprising, to see the resulting blur.  Some experimentation with the shutter speed setting is necessary, because it makes a big difference in the outcome. Sometimes you want a complete blur, and at other times it is nice to preserve some detail. In this instance, I had no detail, just vertical stripes, and thought it would be nice to have a hint of foliage among the vertical lines. I chose #95 Photoshop brush, which gave me large dab spots, and choosing from among the colors that existed in the image, I added discreet areas of color that looked like leaves.

Impressionist Garden at the Chicago Art Institute, and Iris Garden from the Quebec Canada Parliament Building are two other abstracts I created through use of the in-camera blur.

Cedar Lake Camp, Mi – Photographs

Michigan woods in autumn

I love photo excursions! When I go home to Ann Arbor, there is usually time set aside for one, or more. The destination is left up to my brother, because he is so stupendously good at it. Last January he took us to Barton Pond, and you have only to look at the pictures to see how perfect a winter photo trip that was. John picks the spots, my husband is always happy to carry my equipment, and they both like to go on these excursions, even though neither is a photographer. How lucky am I?

My husband has always been a cooperative equipment carrier. I remember the morning he acquired his official photographer’s assistant title. As he was leaving to go to work that day, I remembered that I had bought a new camera bag, and I said, “Oh wait, I bought you  a new camera bag. Try it, and see if it’s comfortable.” He stood in the kitchen in his suit and tie while I draped the bag over his shoulder, then mumbled that he was the poor man’s Tensing Norgay. I had no idea what he had just said, in fact, I thought he was suddenly speaking in tongues. I doubt there was a handful of people in the world besides my  husband, with his trivia stuffed brain, who knew that Tensing Norgay was Sir Edmund Hilary’s Sherpa porter on the climb to the top of Mr. Everest. Tensing is now my husband’s nickname and his official title  when he accompanies me on photo trips, schlepping fifty pounds of cameras, lenses, flashes, tripods, Etc. Etc.

Tensing was right there with his camera bag for the perfect October photo trip when John took us to picturesque Chelsea, Michigan, a town of about 5,000 people, home of Jiffy Mix, the Purple Rose Theater, very cool shops, and some great places to eat, like the Common Grille, where we had lunch. Chelsea is also located in the vast Waterloo Recreation Area, next to Cedar Lake, where there is a summer camp run by the State of Michigan, designed to introduce kids to Michigan’s natural world, and to instill in them a love of and respect for the outdoors. The camp was the destination of the day’s photography excursion.

Maples among the White Pines

We parked at the entrance to Cedar Lake Camp and walked about a quarter of a mile, enjoying everything that is wonderful about a Michigan fall: huge trees full of outrageous fall colors mixed with soft green White Pines that cushioned the paths with their fallen needles, a small cottage lined lake, cattails and milkweed gone to seed, and the haunting call of a Loon in the distance.  The camp was closed up, and very quiet, the kind of quiet that children learning to love nature should experience. The sound of traffic and children laughing has its place, but, oh, the miraculous sound of leaves fluttering to the ground, and the breeze rattling the dried branches of Elderberry bushes! There was a sense of anticipation throughout the camp of next season’s fun to come, rather than sadness that last summer was now gone forever.

Path paved with pine needles

Our path was strewn with pretty baubles.

Cabin in the woods 1.

Cabin in the woods 2.

Camp steps

Camp bench

Manhole cover with the year the camp was built.

The path through the camp led to Cedar Lake.

Swim at your own risk.

The canoes are tucked in until next season.

The picnic grounds are closed.

It would be a great time to be in these seats above a roaring campfire, looking out over the lake.

Who You Gonna Call? Halloween 2009

Spider on FIRE!

I need to get this Halloween post written.

It seems to me that nothing is as over as Halloween by the time you wake up the next day in a new month and it’s All Saints’ Day! Plus this year Halloween fell on the Saturday of falling back for DayLight Savings Time, so you are truly in a time warp, with all the mental confusion that comes with changing something as basic to daily rhythm as the clock. The whole thing throws me off kilter for a few days, which complicates writing about the, “Creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky,” Halloween, 2009!

Brief though it is, I love Halloween. It is so much fun to watch the children. They get so excited. Part of it is the looming sugar rush, of course, but choosing the perfect costume is important, too. Walker planned to wear the same Hulk costume he wears almost every day. William chose to be a werewolf, and it was the ugliest, scariest werewolf ever seen! Karsten knew early that he wanted to be a dragon, but, as he explained over and over, he was a ‘nice’ dragon. Celeste had no opinion, not being a year old yet, so she was dressed as a purple butterfly. Remembering the Squid costume that William wore on his first Halloween, I think Celeste will consider herself lucky to have been a butterfly.

The costume prize, however, goes to the house, or rather, to the decorator of the house. My son-in-law has never before exhibited an obsession for Halloween decorations, but this year’s effort will be hard to surpass.  There was even a fog machine.  Two, actually.

The decorating began weeks ago when the skeletons and flame pots were hung on the porch.

Installing the flame pots.

Skeletons and flame pots

The crazy witch that cackles when someone walks by was set on the steps, along with the crows and jack-o-lanterns.

Cackling witch

Can’t decide what your favorite spider is? No worries. There are several varieties to choose among. And, bring in the clowns!

Spider weaving a tangled web.

Bring in the clowns!

When we arrived for trick-or-treating, there was a new wrinkle –  the windows had pumpkin and skull shades installed.  It’s really a shame that Halloween is a one day only event.

The house decked for Halloween.

The house was ready for the gathering of the trick-or-treaters! What a crew there was.

The cast of characters for Halloween 2009.

The Werewolf. Eeeeek!

The Hulk

The 'nice' Dragon

The Purple Butterfly

The Devil

Dorothy and the Little Mermaid

Indiana Jones

And off they went!  First stop, the little church at the end of the street for Trunk ‘n Treat, where church members decorate their cars and hand out candy from the trunks.

Heading for Trunk 'n Treat

Trunk 'n Treat

Official greeter at Trunk 'n Treat

Next, turn them loose in the neighborhood.  Well, not too loose.

The neighbors are ready.

One last picture  for Halloween, 2009. It is of one of the teachers at William’s school, dressed for their Halloween party. She wore this all day at school! She gets my vote for being the best sport.

A bunch of grapes

The children get my vote for loving Halloween and making us all happy. My son-in-law wins the grand prize of a year’s supply of candy corn for best decorating of a house. Good thing he likes candy corn. He’s actually the only person I’ve ever known who does like it!

Who are you gonna call if you want to turn your house into the Monster Mash?  I know who I’M gonna call!

Life in Photography – October

Another month is gone. Well, not entirely. Halloween is tonight! My grandsons’ costumes might be classified as unconventional this year, or maybe I should say classified as creative. Walker insists that he will be Hulk wearing a dragon head. Stranger things than that have wandered the neighborhood on Halloween night.

Everything is not completely organized because the mother of two of the children has had H1N1 flu all last week, and I don’t think she will care if they dress in their birthday suits (and one of them might do just that!). The mother of the other two found out out that two will become three next spring. She has been contemplating having three children under four years of age, so Halloween is not at the top of her list of things to be concerned about, either. Karsten doesn’t want a baby brother or sister. He wants a dragon. I guess that is a whole dragon, not a half Hulk/half dragon.

I am going to post my Better Photo contest entries for October, as I did last month. By doing that I will be able to show that October was full of things to blog about. And I intend to do it!  It was also so full that I haven’t had time, yet. Stay tuned for Halloween, a fall visit/art day at Cheekwood with my friend Jayne, an excursion to The Farm, a fabulous photography workshop in Savannah, a trip to Ann Arbor for a reunion of my husband’s fraternity brothers and a photo excursion to Chelsea while we were there, planned by my brother.

I wasn’t into the full swing of October with my first week’s entries. Four photos were of wildflowers I shot from my August Ann Arbor trip.  The Home of Jax was taken while in New Orleans the previous April. I don’t even remember what prompted me to do that. Love Among the Zinnias was snapped in my sister-in-law’s garden during the memorable August trip to Rockville, Md/Burke, VA/DC area when our GPS turned on us, and we were nearly lost forever ‘neath the streets of Washington.  Maybe it was Boston.  It could have been Kandahar for all that Garmin woman cared!  The fall garden was from Centennial Park, a former autumn, but it seemed appropriate.

Finally, we arrive at October’s activities, but not until another wildflower from Ann Arbor, another New Orleans photo, and two typical October shots, which were taken in Nashville, show up. Entries for Oct. 12 and 13 are from the visit to Cheekwood to see the Scarecrow Exhibit.

More Cheekwood entries for October 14 and 15. The rest are from the Savannah photography workshop. I want to go back!

The 21st through the 25th are all Savannah shots.

During the last week of October I submitted all Savannah shots, except for two. Sulphur Creek is from my son-in-law’s property along the Cumberland River, loosely called The Farm, because no farming takes place there.  I have a post planned about that.  White Birches, submitted on Oct. 30, is from the photo trip to Chelsea, Michigan.  There is a post planned about that, too.  There’s hardly room for anything to happen in November, for trying to fit October in!

The Better Photo September contest was judged in October, and Winged Sumac was announced as a Finalist.  That is wonderful and gratifying, but my association with Winged Sumac will forever be standing in that restored prairie area of Long Hunter State Park, unaware of  the Chiggers that were taking their stations at various spots on my body, silently preparing for the attack that would begin in twenty-four hours.  Thanks, Better Photo.

I am grateful for all the wonderful things I saw and photographed in October, for the people I spent time with while I photographed, for the great fortune I have to own such incredible camera equipment.  I can’t honestly say I am grateful for Chiggers and H1N1, but I am grateful for the return to health that follows the misery. I don’t think Chiggers ever killed anyone, although it seemed possible at the time. H1N1, on the other hand, can be dangerous. Don’t brush it off if you happen to know of a few people whose symptoms were light.

Live to photograph another day!

Chicago Tribune Building

Chicago Tribune Tower

In a skyline of stand-out  architecture, the Chicago Tribune building can still command attention after almost a century.

In 1922, the Chicago Daily Tribune published an invitation to compete in an international competition to build the “most beautiful and eye catching building in the world”. The contest was won by Raymond Hood and John Howell for their limestone gothic design complete with buttresses and gargoyles. The award was criticized at the time because it didn’t fit the pared down modern trend of the Chicago School and the International Style.

My daughter, grandson and I walked past the Tribune building during our July trip, on our way to the Lego Store. A six year old heading to the Lego Store is on a single minded mission, so when I became curious about why people were standing along the building staring at the wall, I had to let them go on ahead while I investigated.

I discovered that the people were looking at rocks and sculptures embedded in the base of the Tribune Tower. They were stones from famed sites and structures throughout the United States and foreign countries, ranging from the pyramids and the Alamo to Omaha Beach and Mark Twain’s Injun Joe Cave in Missouri. A piece of the World Trade Center has been added, and I read that they have a moon rock, although that is in a special display, and not embedded in the wall. The rocks were supposed to be gotten legally, but the story is that some were gained by other means. I’m shocked. I took a picture of  a relic from an ancient temple in Honan Province, China, and then hurried to catch up with Elizabeth and William. I made a mental note to find out more about this fascinating building when I got home.

Ancient Temple, Honan Province, China

A search of the internet turned up a blog about chicago architecture, that was coincidentally running a series specifically devoted to the rocks in the Tribune building. I’ve marked this blog in my Google Reader list, and I’ve enjoyed keeping up with the current architectural goings-on of Chicago, as well as seeing the rocks of the Tribune building in their series posts.

We passed the Tribune building on another walk, and I snapped a picture of a charming new interpretation of the Grant Wood painting, American Gothic.

3-D American Gothic

I love Chicago,

“And each time I leave, Chicago is

tuggin’ my sleeve, Chicago is.”

September Song

Steps to the Perennial Garden at Cheekwood Botanical Garden - Better Photo Monthly Contest Second Place Winner!

September is gone. Have you noticed? While I was busy living in the moment every day, the whole darn month just disappeared on me!

It doesn’t seem like I do much until I conduct my monthly review, which, of course, is a photographic one. This entails looking back at the daily photos I have submitted to the Better Photo Monthly Contest, and also checking what I have uploaded to my Shuttercal Calendar page.

In addition to the final look at September, I will prepare a new photograph for daily entry into the Better Photo October Contest. It’s a never ending cycle, also in case you’ve never noticed! I always hope for a winner to emerge from my submissions, but if that were the only reason to enter, I would soon grow discouraged. I enter as a challenge to myself to improve my photography, continue on my dogged path to learn Photoshop, and to try out techniques and filters that allow me to artistically transform my photos. The additional benefit is that it allows me to see if I used my time well during the previous month, or if I earned a Slacker Award.

I used the Grab program, which I found in the Utilities folder of my Mac, to select and take a screen shot from the Better Photo site that shows my daily entries to the contest. In the first week of August, the most recently judged contest, I entered a portrait of Walker taken with my new 50mm fixed lens, a straggler from our June trip to Quebec City, two from the Chicago trip with William, a random Tennessee Winter sky, the Parthenon from a delightful afternoon at Centennial Park, and a flower from the perennial garden at Cheekwood from when I went with my vistiting photo pal, Susan.

Entries for August 1 – 7, 2009

In the second week of August I entered five photos taken at Cheekwood Botanical Garden, Walker in his pool the day of his birthday party, and another straggler from the July Chicago trip.

Entries for Aug 8 - 14, 2009

In the third week of August I entered some lilies from Cheekwood, play equipment from William’s school, another Chicago shot, two shots from downtown Nashville and a macro of a glass vinegar carafe.

Entries for August 15 - 21, 2009

In the fourth week I entered two more shots from the school playground, the marina at sunset from the April photo workshop in St. Augustine, a creatively enhanced picture of Royal St. in New Orleans, and two macro flowers.

Entries for August 21 - 27 , 2009

The last four entries were flowers taken at Cheekwood.

Entries for August 28 - 31, 2009

Nineteen out of my thirty entries for the month of August received an Editors’ Choice, which means they made it to the next round of judging. Two of those became Finalists – Water, Water Everywhere and Steps with Flair (this post’s opening photo), and out of 22,000 entries, Steps with Flair was a Second Place Winner! Entering photo contests is no different from other forms of gambling in one respect, it’s very addictive! It gives me renewed energy to get that next daily photo ready to upload.

Become a member of www.betterphoto.com, enter the contest, and find out for yourself. You’ll meet great photography friends, learn tons about photography, and there is no entry fee to enter.

Water, Water Every Where - Lobby ceiling of the Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL, a September Finalist in the BP Contest.

I send photos to Shuttercal for a different reason. It is strictly fun, meant to provide a place for a daily snapshot. Here is where I put a picture of my dining room window hanging in jagged shards from where the rock flew into it from the mower. It’s the perfect place to put a shot of your Iris melting into mush after a week of steady rain, and William getting a ride in the bucket truck with the tree man who came to remove a dead tree from the backyard. Sometimes I run out of time and submit the same photo to Better Photo and Shuttercal, but, for the most part, it helps me remember to have fun with a camera, and not always to be so concerned with trying to make a masterpiece,( not that trying to make a masterpiece isn’t fun). I often use my point-and-shoot or my phone camera for these shots.

My September Shuttercal Calendar

Each photo submitted is a full sized photo, although you create a small thumbnail to show up on the calendar. You can look at everyone else’s submissions for the day and make comments, choose favorites, or add photographers whose work you like as friends. Submissions to Shuttercal are always interesting, unpredictable and often hilarious. They depict the random moments and city scenery of people from all around the world. I enjoy seeing the stream of snapshots as they come in.

It’s nice to have a visual record of September, 2009, because the month is now gone.  It is already well into October.

Time flies so fast.  I’m shooting as fast as I can!

Josie

Josie - ? to September 24, 2009

The routine of my day has begun, and, because of its absence, I realize how entwined my routine and that of our sweet Husky Josie have been. It has become a ritual based lately on the needs of an old dog with many health issues, but in earlier times she was the sweetest dog, who appreciated the comfortable life she lived with us.

Last night I didn’t stand at the open door clapping my hands and begging her to go outside before I went to bed. She hasn’t wanted to go outside for some time. Her hips were bad, and it was harder to go up the two steps to the yard. She must have always had bad hips because I don’t remember her going up steps or running without a hopping motion in her hind legs, like a rabbit. She never complained, just figured out ways to minimize the pain. Comfort was obtained of late by staying in a comfortable spot. I know there are many people like me who give in to the needs of elderly pets, and just put plastic down in the house rather than make an issue of forgotten (or rejected!) house training. That part of the routine is something I’m very happy to be without!

Last night I didn’t divide out the many medicines she’s been taking, for thyroid, for joints, for a chronic ear infection, for pain. The only thing that was really helping her was the thyroid medicine.  We started that a few months ago after discovering she was completely hypo-thyroid. For a time after starting the medicine, she began to lose the weight she had gained because of the thyroid condition (a good thing), but also to shed hair in massive quantities (a very bad thing). Soon she looked wonderful. She slimmed down, and grew back her beautiful, non-shedding, white coat. It was a great day when the routine didn’t involve cleaning up all that hair. It’s really impossible to describe the drifts that accumulated everywhere, the hairs that filled the air when a breeze from an opening door or sudden movement through a room stirred them up. I tried to keep up, but it was a losing battle.

This morning she didn’t greet me from her spot next to her bowls, slowly lifting her painful hips off the floor, her toenails making a little tap tap sound on the flagstones. My first job in the morning was to prepare her food. It had become a strange mixture over the years. We started with regular dry food, then added green beans and then a little bit of canned beef tidbits. I started with the green beans because  she told me I wasn’t giving her enough food. I knew she was too heavy, so I added green beans for bulk without the calories. Then at the start of her final decline this year she lost her appetite, so to entice her to eat, I added sirloin bits in broth to the dry food/bean mixture. Once started, they never let you stop that!

Today she’s not in any of the expected spots where I’m used to seeing or hearing her. She liked people, and would usually greet and check them out, then head immediately to her ‘undisclosed locations’ behind a couch in one room, behind a chair and table in another, under the bed in the guest room. When the little boys came over she would head for the backyard, or one of her locations. She liked them, but knew motion and noise usually folllowed their arrival, and preferred to remove herself before it got started. She was not a fan of drama.

Let's all be calm. I'll show you how to do it.

Josie was a rescue. A friend and I drove to Georgia to get her and bring her home the day before William was born in July of 2003. She was staying at the home of a lady who rescued Samoyeds, which is what I wanted after I lost my Sammies. No suitable Sammy was available, but the rescue lady said Josie, a white Siberian Husky, had been brought to her and she was a very nice dog. Josie had been well cared for at her rescue home, after a terrible time of fending for herself on the streets.  She had been treated for heartworms and neglect and was looking good, except for the sad proof on her ears of the misery she had endured.  Flies had chewed her pretty ears until they looked like they had been scalloped with pinking shears!

Jo wanted to come home with us.  She jumped into the floor of the backseat and gave us a look that said we weren’t backing out, and she was not getting out! No matter how well they’re treated at a rescue home, they all want a home of their own. She proved that to me one night a few weeks after she came to us.  The back gate had been left open (by the usual suspects, and I’m still mad about it), and she was way up the street by the time I discovered it and went after her. She didn’t stop when she heard me calling until three cars rushed by her.  The headlights blasting her must have reminded her what it was like when she was wandering the streets, and she stopped, turned around and ran to me, then past me into the driveway, up the steps to the open front door, and down the hall to the bedroom. It wasn’t possible to go any farther than that into the safety of the house.

Soon after that she let a visiting Beagle know that she considered this her house, and he didn’t need to act so possessive of it. I knew then that she felt like she belonged. We began six years of a placid, trouble free relationship. Trouble free unless you were taking her anywhere in the car. After she jumped from the backseat into the front and knocked the car out of gear, stalling it at the light by Wendy’s at 100 Oaks, I vowed never to take her anywhere without another person in the car to hold her. The short strap that hooked from her collar into the car seat buckle didn’t even work because, in her crazy maneuverings, she would step on the release button, leaving her free to hurl her eighty pound body into the front seat! I didn’t think of Janet’s clever solution soon enough. We were taking Jo to the vet clinic one time (I think this is when she was testing for thyroid deficiency), and Janet simply closed the back car door on her regular leash. She stayed put! And really didn’t complain about it!

I’ve been wondering lately when she would begin digging her winter hole in the garden. There was some alignment of the stars that let her know when to begin this activity in the fall, and when to end it in the spring. It was an an interesting process to watch. Sometimes she would look to be sound asleep, when suddenly she would get up, dig furiously, throwing sprays of dirt everywhere, and then plop back down and resume her nap. I poured wood chips in the hole every so often, which usually brought on another digging frenzy. She was not a bright, white dog by the time spring arrived.

Fall in the dirt hole

Winter in the dirt hole

She won’t dig any holes this winter. Yesterday we put her to sleep. Over the past month or so we have watched a steady decline in her health and behavior. She was clearly in pain that we couldn’t relieve. They said she was probably two years old in 2003 when we got her, which would make her eight. Be aware than they always say rescues are two years old. We believe she is much older than that. It wouldn’t have mattered to me if I knew she was four, or even older. She was a good dog. She and Mannix were friends. I hope they’re glad to see each other, and that she’s telling the Sammies how much I loved them.

The night before we took her for a last walk, or amble as her walks had come to be known. Usually she pulled on the leash to get to the street to begin. That night she went off the opposite side of the porch from where she usually goes, and went to stand by the  car. Yes, the car that she hates. She also knew that when she was hurting, we put her in the car and took her someplace where she was made to feel better.

I know you are feeling better, beautiful Jo.