Bear (11/1/2012-08/25/2021) crossed over the rainbow bridge to doggie heaven this afternoon. There he joined other dogs we have had—Sandy, Misha, Bailey, and King.

How we got him

Bear was a mixed Labrador born in Ohio and brought to Maryland by a local rescue. The rescue posted his story on Facebook, where my daughter, Tiffany, saw it. She knew we had lost our golden retrievers a few years before and thought it was time we became dog people again.

Tiffany went to work on her mom and eventually convinced her to visit the puppy’s foster home. Mom dragged me along and, after a long drive, we arrived. The puppy scampered in and out of the open door, showing off. His antics softened our hard-hearts, and we took the little bundle of energy home with us. Little did we know how he would affect our lives.

Bear was black with white markings on his chest and paws. When adopted, he was a skinny runt that couldn’t have weighed over five pounds. However, he was not a runt but just needed the correct tender care to change.

Bear’s medical problems

I noticed blood in his stools one day. It took two trips to the veterinarian to find out he had worms. These were very small and required specific treatment. He responded well to the treatment and soon grew to be an 80 lb bundle of joy.

Bear blessed us with many beautiful memories when we remember his favorite things.

Favorite things

He loved to play catch and fetch in the house. He had several rubber balls and would bring one, usually, to my wife. Then, he would bark until she threw it across the room. Moments later, he had retrieved it and tossed it in her lap for her to do it again. Sometimes he aggravated her when he wanted to play, and she was on the phone. Many callers have heard his bark in their ears.

I am sure many dogs like to play this game. But what made it special for us was Bear’s ability to toss the ball to her. He would stand near her chair and propel the ball into her lap with a toss of his head.

Sometime years ago, we gave Bear a sponge-like ball that he dragged outside one day. It was softball size and blue. Whenever he and I were out, he would search until he found that dang ball. Then he would toss it at my feet and wait for me to kick it. He was so funny—his head stretched out and eyes locked on the ball like a soccer player anticipating which way the ball would go. I tired of kicking the ball before Bear tired of chasing it.

Weather Dog

Bear didn’t like loud noises and especially disliked thunder. So when he was younger, he would try to climb in one of our laps at odd times. We didn’t particularly mind when he weighed a few pounds, but when he grew to be over 80 pounds—No Way! Then one day, we realized he did this before a thunderstorm arrived. So we began checking the weather when he became agitated. Sure enough, he was predicting a storm’s arrival. So we nicknamed Bear “Our Weather Dog” and found him as reliable as any TV weather reporter.

Bear loved to take walks beside our other lab-mix, Duke. The two of them, both near 100 pounds. They demanded, and I complied with walks regardless of the weather. So you could see them walking me down the street in rain, snow, or sunshine.

This reminds me that Bear loved playing in the snow. We have videos of Bear on the back deck doing snow angels.

Bear, we miss you and your antics, but are relieved that you are no longer suffering. Truth, there were few antics over the past two weeks. It was time to let you go and to take solace in the memories you gave us.

Bigger is not always best. Take our experience with getting a car’s window glass replaced.

Disaster

Six weeks ago, we learned our car’s window was broken, not chipped, shattered. The window was broken while sitting in our driveway. I taped over the window with duck tape to seal it against rain and hold as much of it together as reasonable. The tape and most of the glass was in place when they replaced the window!

Our insurance company referred us to a well-known glass replacement company with many locations nationwide. Their name is unimportant now.

Frustration

The repair company opened a ticket and told us they would have to order the glass. (Note: the window broken was the left rear quarter panel glass for our 2013 Acadia Denali.) An appointment was scheduled for a week away to allow time to get the window. We avoided driving the car, borrowing one for our errands.

We received a call the day before our appointment that the glass hadn’t arrived. They would continue to search for the window and gave us a date and time a week away. Life went on under Covid-19.

Disappointment

The day of a third appointment arrived, and a call came shortly before the repairman should show to tell us the glass still hadn’t arrived. Third try, and again, no glass.

They told us there was no window for our car in any of their warehouses.  If we could find the window, they would be glad to open another ticket to install it for us.

Relief

After nearly four weeks, we were on our own. It was the best thing for us as we found out when we called a smaller local repair company. The agent asked us to give her an hour, but she called back in just minutes, having found the window. The insurance company agreed to let them do the replacement, and it was the next day!

Our car could have been repaired sooner by going local, but our insurance company sent us to their preferred repair company. I started to include stating that next time we will ask to use local companies, but I hope to avoid another time. (I said it anyway!)

As I said at the start, bigger is not always best.

Take a moment and drop a comment.

What makes up unnecessary travel? One could look at what businesses are open in Maryland. Based on my trips, the following are open.

Necessary Trips!?

I picked up my prescriptions at the Navy pharmacy and shopped for groceries at the base commissary. The pharmacy and commissary are about twenty-seven miles from our home. There were few others on the road at the time of our trip.

My wife and I took advantage of the curbside service Sam’s store offered seniors. We gave our order to one of their employees, and soon another brought it to us. The number of cars in the parking lot, and the number in line, surprised us.  We filled up with gas at Sam’s gas station on our way home.

My wife required an ingredient for dinner, and  I found it at the local Safeway grocery. The store was swarming with people. The store marked the floor to help shoppers maintain social distancing during checkout. It was a busy store with many shoppers.

My wife and I picked up bulk shelled peanuts for our squirrel friends, grass seed, suit, and onion set from the county co-op. I had trouble finding a place to park the first visit, and a little easier the second time—so many finding going to the co-op an essential trip, including me.

My son-in-law and I made a deposit of branches from a down tree in the county. We filled the bed of my truck with limb debris from a tree recently downed. We were one of the few customers.

I should include the farm where we bought fresh free-range eggs. That was a pleasant drive after leaving the interstate through rolling farms, stands of trees. I remember commenting to my wife I hadn’t noticed a car on the road for miles.

We would like to get out more but there are limited places to go. All of the precautions, with the closures, give us very few choices.

COVID-19 Response Necessary?

I hope there will be a serious conversation regarding whether there were better ways to deal with this virus.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there were 38 million illnesses, 390,000 hospitalizations, and 23,000 deaths from the latest flu strain as of March 25^th  in the United States alone.  These numbers are like every year’s as additional strains of the flu attack. Yet, we don’t shut down America for it.

COVID-19 has not run its course, and the numbers are still going up. I am sure they will have the numbers eventually. But, will they be able to learn the number of deaths caused by the shutdown? How many who lost their businesses or jobs committed suicide or turned to drugs? What was the increase in domestic abuse? There were severe repercussions from shutting down America besides those attributed to the virus.

Your thoughts about the shutdown. Have you been out during this trying time? Share with me using the comment form.

“Septuagenarian versus the coronavirus” might make a movie title for life today. Perhaps it should be “Coronavirus against the earth.”

Life normal

I am a septuagenarian plus and my wife in her mid-sixties. The first news stories brought few cares, and our lives remained unaffected. We shopped per usual, bowled in our leagues, and went out to eat with friends without care. Our lives continued as usual even after the first fatalities in Washington State.

Seniors against coronavirus

Stories online noted that seniors, those in our age group, were not demonstrating fear commensurate with the danger the virus presented to our age group. Proven by the number of seniors, over sixty, who showed every Monday morning to bowl in the league my wife manages. Over one hundred seniors bowled each week until this morning.  I will never know how many would have shown today, but the military base shut down leagues for fourteen days. I suspect many would have.

Homebound

Here we are almost homebound. Homebound, not because of an inability to leave, but because there is a lack of places to go. Maryland’s governor announced the closing of many facilities, including restaurants. He also has placed restrictions on the group size to fifty. More restrictions may come. Between league cancellations and all of the mandated closings, we have no place we want to visit, homebound.

We are currently healthy and not in need of testing for the virus. I am hopeful that as we spend less time out, we will never need a test.

How is the current state of emergency affecting you? Share!

I live on the street opening into our development. We are two houses away from a wooded area that is a wetland.

Peeve one-speeding

Some drivers in the development don’t obey the speed limit.

The community had traffic humps installed on my street to slow traffic. They slow some traffic as the vehicles go over the hump, but only over the hump. Several drivers enjoy seeing what speed they can reach between the protrusions. Others driving high clearance vehicles accept the jar they receive when they don’t slow for them.

We have grandchildren living next door, and another family with children lives across the street. Several of the children are under six years old. Children crossing the street is a common occurrence. I fear a child who isn’t adept at judging vehicle speed will dart into the road, and the driver will not have time to stop.

Peeve two-stop signs

Drivers treat stop signs as a caution sign.

There are stop signs throughout the neighborhood. I see drivers who slow down before running the signs. They do this at all hours and in many types of weather. I expect if I spoke to one of those drivers, they would tell me there was no car at the intersection or coming. Maybe valid for most, but I have observed and had drivers slow before cutting through the intersection in front of me.

One day, two such drivers will not see the other, and another accident will occur, hopefully without major injuries.

Peeve three-trash

People throw their trash into the wooded area.

This is an ongoing problem related to peeve four. Often, too often, food wrappers and drink containers will appear along the sidewalks running street’s side of the woods. My impression is they throw the trash from moving vehicles. Some garbage is glass beer bottles. Sometimes the bottle hits the sidewalk and shatters into some large but many small pieces. I won’t write what I think when I see the glass along the street where I am walking my dogs.

Peeve four-poop

People don’t clean up their dog poop.

Owners will walk their dogs to the woods and back. Periodically, I find dog waste in my yard or along the sidewalks shaded by the woods. I walk my dogs, two male Labrador mixes, in this area. I police my dog’s leavings as a matter of being a good neighbor with dogs. I wish others would do the same.

Enough peeves for the day. The idea to blog this subject came as I was picking up some droppings that weren’t my dogs.

Do you have pet peeves? I would love to hear them, so I offer a comment form for your use. I look forward to hearing from you.

We are in the last hours of Christmas Day. A week from today we will start a new year, 2019. How quickly the year has passed.

In January, I retired for the second time. The first time was from the United States Navy. The second was from contractor service to a military program. I spent twenty-five years with each. It was a bitter-sweet time, but I haven’t regretted the decision one time.

My wife and I spent Easter with family in Ohio. This was a branch of my wife’s family tree we had recently discovered. The visit was a great time, and many memories created.

I suffered a tear in my left knee’s meniscus chasing a soccer ball at the girl’s team training. In June, I had it repaired, and now the only pain is because of arthritis. (Sucks getting old.)

We spent almost three weeks with my wife’s cousins in Texas. We took our RV and two grandkids on the trip. While there, we visited the gravesites of my wife’s parents and brother. A great time with some sad moments.

I spent another week on a whirlwind trip to visit my cousin in Illinois. We overnighted in Ohio where we spent time with my wife’s cousin, Jennifer. It was a great time with Crystal’s family.

The fall soccer season started in August with training and tournaments taking evenings and weekends. The winter season is underway, and the team trains two nights a week outdoors. We are on break Christmas week.

Bowling leagues started in August also. I made it five sessions before suffering a minor tear in my bowling shoulder. Four weeks rest was the recommendation. I returned to competition using a lighter bowling ball and finally getting back to form. We are on Christmas break this week also.

In my spare time, usually late in the evening, I am writing a novel. I have completed the third revision. It has a long ways to go, but I have time–after all I am retired

So, here we are nearing bedtime on my first Christmas Day after retiring. They asked me at my retirement party how I would spend my time retired. “I’ll find something to keep me busy,” I said. 

Looking back on the year, I succeeded.

How was your year? Tell me something interesting using the comment form.

I finished the competition Thursday morning and said goodbye to friends. There were many ‘see you next year’ said and heard. We had received a warning when we checked in with Southwest on Wednesday that our flight might be delayed. Delayed because of weather further west. Three snow storms were expected for the area around Vegas. As it turned out, our flight arrived on time and we had a smooth flight home. There were only a couple of bumps which is usual for this time of year.

We landed at BWI at midnight and got home an hour later. There is a special feeling returning to a place that you have lived for nearly 25 years. A feeling of serenity in the familiarity such a place provides. The house where our two children spent their high school years and lived between college semesters (sometimes). Yes, it was nice to be home.

This is the house we have lived in through the Clinton years, the G. W. Bush years, and the Obama years. We will see if we remain here through the Trump years. We hadn’t planned to be back for the inauguration. Normally, we fly the day after the team competition. This year I finished team event at 11 am which allowed us to arrange a late day flight. As mentioned, we landed as the clock expired on the last full day of the Obama presidency and Trump’s first day.

We are home and gradually getting back into our routine. A trip to the commissary to restock perishables on Friday and soccer games on Saturday. Wrap up the weekend with football while sitting in my recliner. Tomorrow, back to work but today is lazy Sunday in our warm, cozy home.

How are you spending your Sunday? In your cozy home or away?

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