Tag: Houndstooth

Let sleeping dogs lie

Sorry for a belated post. We have a few things going on at Houndstooth Hall. Lots of people in and out not for fun, but working on things, and that will continue through Friday, late afternoon. Plus Tom and I have been sorting out some of the computer issues that have challenged me for…well, the last four years, when one of our computers died, and one performed badly, leaving me mostly with my laptop, which is now showing signs of exhaustion.

All of this has kept me busy and the dogs in a constant state of WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE DISTURBING OUR PEACE? So, whenever we can, we let them sleep where they fall.


Anime on a dog bed in the living room.


Delta, stretched across pillows on the living room sofa.


Jack on a dog bed temporarily moved to the dining room.


Eva, on another dog bed that ended up in the dining room.

We hope they’ll be back to this favorite activity soon, with less interruptions. So tough to work as guard dogs…

Catching Up

I think I never posted any photos from Jim’s visit in March. I was pretty much a homebody; Tim and Jim did more going and doing this trip, and even that wasn’t a lot (though it did involve a jaunt to that shopping mecca, the Galleria). Mostly, there was: cooking, eating, talking, spoiling dogs, and playing cards.

We figured out a way to work around Jack. He stayed with Debby during the day, except to eat breakfast and dinner at home, and at night, he slept here. We handed over the master bedroom to Jim, because it has its own bathroom. That way, once Jim turned in for the night, he closed himself in, whereupon Jack came home. The first night, other than sniffing at the bedroom door, Jack seemed mostly unaware that we had a visitor, and they never saw each other face to face. It’s a shame that a dog who is so smart, loving, and good with us doesn’t like or trust but six people, and Tom is the only one of his six-pack who’s male.

The other dogs, however, were delighted to see Jim and give him lots of love.


Delta and Anime on the living room sofa with Jim. Jim is the one who gave Delta her name, and this time she gave him more affection and attention than on his 2017 visit.


Anime got her time in with him, too.


As did Eva.


Cards and apple pie.


Lynne and Minute were here this past weekend, which meant more cards, more food, a bit of errand running, and I read four new chapters from the Neverending Saga aloud to her.


Minute slept through the chapters; fortunately, Lynne did not. =)


In progressive rummy, low score wins, so it was a good night for me. That is NOT usual.

I have more dog stuff to share later. Another update: On Monday, the pile of tree limbs and other tree debris was finally picked up from our curb after the storm of May 16. After doing only a little driving around after that storm, I’m not surprised it took so long. There were a LOT of piles in front of a lot of homes.

This morning…

I felt like I dreamed for hours before I woke up, and they were among the most stressful dreams I can imagine having. (Maybe impacted by the New Moon? No idea.) I won’t get into details because I know nobody really cares about other people’s dreams, but by the time I woke up and started my day, I had a few symptoms of an anxiety attack. ONLY a few. I did take a half dose of a medicine I was prescribed (quite a while back, and which I rarely take), and then I spent a few hours doing what I think of as mindless work, aka, housework. Dusting, straightening up, cleaning bathrooms, a little mopping.

I also tried making a healthy, new-to-us frozen treat today. I wouldn’t say it’s a complete success, though it is tasty. With trial and error, I think it’ll be a good addition to summer.

Late in the day, the mail came, and my essential oils order was delivered. I’d been out of this blend, so today was a good day for it to arrive.

Inventory

Doing inventory of my essential oils and essential oil blends to see what I need to reorder is a quiet, serene task. It reminds me how important it is for us to make space in and around our homes for those things that give us peace and maybe help us do a little self-inventory, as well.

ETA: I never forget my mother’s birthday. I never forget my parents’ wedding anniversary. But almost always, June 1 slips by me. I’ve been confused by what day it is for two weeks now, so I was surprised when I noticed it’s June 1. THIS time, at least, the memory of my family being together on June 1, 2008, to say goodbye to Dorothy Jean, didn’t get by me.

Thursday thoughts

A couple of days in a row (Tuesday and Wednesday), we had storms. On both occasions, the power has flickered but hasn’t gone out. One thing I’ve learned, however, is the bad weather a couple of weeks ago definitely had an impact on my dogs. When the sky gets dark and there’s thunder, they all have strong reactions. This didn’t used to be the case, and I feel sad for them. I try to distract them, let them be where they feel safest, and I talk to them (which I do all the time anyway) in my normal conversational voice.

Anime and Eva are hiding their heads, Delta’s trembling, and Jack seems to be in protect mode closest to the door, but I think he’s just sleeping.

Meanwhile, I am not writing, but I think what I’m doing is probably good for me as a writer. As I predicted might happen, after reading the first couple of TJB books, in between dog management, cleaning up after dogs in the backyard, and doing housekeeping, I’ve kept going and read numbers three and four of TJB’s books.

I’ve wondered sometimes about things we might have missed the mark on, plus there’s so much I’ve forgotten and wondered how I’d react to all of it. Every time I stopped, instead of the things I feared, I was caught up in the stories and only wanted to keep reading. Time and distance have been friendly, and I need to remember this when I’m being hypercritical of my new writing. Trust the process and trust that eventually, there will be early readers who’ll give me feedback before I hit “publish” on anything.

Looking forward to reading number five, the last of the TJB books.

It’s all about where the dogs sleep

Sugar, Rex, and Guinness watch Tom cut the grass.

This was our living room sofa at The Compound. It was a sofa bed, so we could accommodate guests. Besides the master bedroom, we had only one bedroom with twin beds for guests. This sofa opened to a queen-sized mattress, and it was used when family and friends visited and our guest bedroom spilled over.

Mother lived in the garage apartment (the Dollhouse), and she used the space upstairs for her bedroom and living area, and the downstairs had her dining room table in the open space that included the kitchen.

After Mother moved (several times, to many places in three states), and Timothy moved to Houston, the Dollhouse became his. That’s when couches began moving around. I’d given the twin beds and the hutch that matched them to Lynne, and moved an off-white sofa (that my mother left) into that bedroom.

Guinness, Margot, and River playing chase on the off white sofa.

There were also two workspaces in that room, turning it into an office for Tim and me (we were at that time writing books together, and it was very efficient for us to office in the same space).

Tim with Rex, the silent TJB partner, in the office he and I shared.

Tim bought a leather sofa from Amy for the Dollhouse living room. And we eventually got rid of Mother’s off white sofa and bought a smaller blue sleeper sofa to put in The Compound’s second bedroom. It, too, was used a lot, so it was very convenient.

Rex and Sugar, napping on the little blue sofa bed.

We didn’t NEED any more couches. They were everywhere. But one day, shopping for something else, I found an antique love seat and chair. IMPULSE BUY.

Penny and Pixie, deciding the antique love seat is just right.
Queen Margot chooses to sleep alone on the antique chair.

The big brown sofa bed went downstairs in Tim’s apartment. And then Tim got a sectional sofa group from a friend, and Amy’s old leather couch came to The Compound, and damn if I remember where we put the antique love seat and chair.

AND THEN WE ALL MOVED TO HOUNDSTOOTH HALL in 2015, where there was so much more room, inside and out, for dogs. And for the sofas they sleep on!

The little blue sleeper sofa was in our library along with the antique love seat and chair. Amy’s leather sofa was in our living room. And the big brown sofa bed was in the spacious office.

Anime, deciding she’ll take this bedroom, please.

Tim had his sectional in Fox Den; Debby brought her furniture from Ohio when she moved into Fairy Cottage; and all was well. Until…. the 2017 flood. Goodbye, Debby’s chair and couch. Goodbye, Tim’s sectional. Goodbye, Becky and Tom’s brown sofa bed and little blue sleeper sofa. And thank goodness for flood insurance!

Amy’s leather sofa was undamaged in our living room. Then we had the antique love seat and chair reupholstered (along with a chair Lynne had given us and a chair Sarah had given us years ago that were also flood damaged). We were in no hurry to replace the brown sofa bed.

Debby and Tim replaced their furniture first. Then Tim decided that his replacement sofa (almost the same color blue as our old sleeper sofa) wasn’t durable enough for his large dogs, so we took it and he got something a little tougher.

Jack and Delta: New Blue Sofa is ours.

The blue sofa worked, but look where Jack is.

“I need a lot of mattress so I don’t feel the pea.” –The Princess Anime

And look where Anime is.

Those two and Delta always wanted to sleep on those back cushions, often all three of them at the same time, which I knew would gradually break the cushions down. I was constantly plumping them and making the dogs move. Finally, I made a decision. Years ago, Tom and I had a daybed in one of our guest rooms (pre-Compound), and I’ve always missed it. I decided I wanted another daybed in the office, and we could donate the blue sofa while it was still in very good condition.

Pollock is one of the reasons I wanted something that could be slept on in the office. Back in the old days, before the flood, Pollock and his sisters would hang out in our house while I worked from home and Tom and Tim worked elsewhere. But all the dogs were apart for a month after the flood, and when Tim and his dogs returned, Delta and Jack didn’t like Pollock coming over anymore. It was fine. Pollock, Pixie, and Penny were cool in Fox Den, and Debby was nearby with Harley and Stewie.

In the seven years since, a lot of things changed because of aging dogs. Harley went to the Rainbow Bridge. Then Penny. Then Pixie. Then Stewie.

After pandemic restrictions eased, Tim’s work schedule got very busy, requiring him to be away occasionally several nights in a row. After Stewie was gone, Pollock would hang out with Debby. When Debby scheduled a couple of months away on her current trip, I decided if I went ahead and got a daybed for the office, Pollock and I could sleep back there. The Dutch door would keep him and our dogs apart and avoid any drama. (It’s not bad drama. There’s no fighting. But there’s a lot of trash talking, and Tom and I both like to sleep.)

After a suggestion from Lynne, I checked Ikea’s site for daybeds and found exactly what I wanted, and they had it in stock. Tom went to get it. The idea was that he’d put it together weekend before last, and he and Tim would take the blue sofa in Tim’s new truck to Goodwill.

Oh. Did you know Tim has a new truck? His ten-year-old car had served him well, but it had a LOT of miles and was at the point where repairs would be needed.


He’s happy with his purchase, but neither man nor beast will be sleeping in the truck.

Then I read that rain was forecast last Wednesday and Thursday, and since Tim was pressed for time, he and Tom packed the blue sofa into my SUV and Tom took it to Goodwill on Tuesday. That evening, he decided to assemble the bed instead of waiting for the weekend. (He’s one of those people who likes to put things together from diagrams, and they always turn out right. This is not a skill I understand at all.)

So. Daybed was in place. I had plenty of time to get linens and maybe some new dog-friendly throw pillows, and change the room around a little before Debby left and Tim would be away at night, leaving Pollock free to come over for slumber parties with me.

Except as we all know now, we got that rain that was forecast and WAY more drama from wind than dogs ever cause. Without electricity, I ended up sleeping on that daybed days before intended. It was right by windows that let a breeze into the room. Our four dogs could go between sleeping with Tom and with me; there wouldn’t be four hot dogs and two hot humans in any one bed.

When the power came back Wednesday, I was finally better able to ready the new setup for when Pollock sleeps over.

I ran off dogs so I could take this photo of the new daybed and the old quilt.

See ya later, Pollock!

Holding out for a hero…

These are things that might have been posted on Tuesday, May 21, when we still had no power, and then Wednesday, May 22.

When I woke up Tuesday, I knew two things. We probably wouldn’t be getting our power restored today, and yet I still felt better than I had the day before. An appointment Debby had on Monday was canceled because the building had just gotten their power back, so they rescheduled her for this morning. Tom took her; he’d scheduled a vacation day for this appointment and because the two of them would be leaving sometime after noon to go to the airport. A couple of months ago, she booked a trip to see her kids and grandkids. Two of the grandkids are graduating from high school, and one graduated from college. What a perfect time to be leaving town (if she’d known we were going to be without power, she’d have preferred to leave last week!).

There are a couple of other good things I haven’t mentioned. First, is that unlike when we have power outages in winter and our pipes freeze, this outage doesn’t steal the joy of running water (also, our hot water heater is gas, so a lack of electricity doesn’t affect it). Taking a shower every day (maybe even two, especially when there’s no air conditioning), helps my morale a lot. Also, our stove is gas, as are Tim’s and Debby’s, so we can continue to use our stovetops. Even though we lost the food in our refrigerators and freezers (except for some of our food that Rhonda and Lindsey are keeping in their freezer), we have canned food, pasta, crackers, etc., in our cabinets (or pantry, here at the Hall). Once many of the nearby businesses had power restored, we supplemented what we have on hand with breakfasts or light evening meals. This also means we can get coffee (not Starbucks, the closest of which are closed). Tom drinks a lot more coffee than I do, though I never turn down an iced mocha from anywhere. Because we were buying ice every day, Debby could still brew tea and drink it cold over ice. One of my meds that requires refrigeration was stored by one of Tim’s clients in their home until Monday. When Tim brought it home, I took the last dose, and the refill is safe at the pharmacy until I pick it up after our power’s restored. I’m so grateful for people who help.

When I think of the deprivations being experienced in other places torn apart by war, revolution, and climate disasters, I recognize how minor this incident is by comparison. I have better details now: Two confirmed tornados struck Houston last Thursday: one with winds of around 100 mph, the other 110 mpg; the path lengths were .71 and .77 miles; path widths were both 100 yards. Damage was to homes or other structures, and trees, with no fatalities reported. That feels like a miracle. They’re also saying now that the area experienced a derecho, a term I’d never even heard until one a couple of years back in the Midwest affected the area where our friend Nurse Lisa lives. I’m not about to attempt to explain the science, but it’s basically a long path of surface wind that causes a lot of damage.

I saw some of that damage when I left the house for the first time on Tuesday while Tom and Debby were at the airport. The road near us where Lynne used to live, once you get out of the heavily residential section, is lined with dense, majestic trees–you almost feel like you’re in the country for part of it. As I drove that road, I finally understood why I’ve heard the constant sound of chainsaws for almost a week. The curb is thick with the remains of downed trees and branches. I’m glad I didn’t have my camera with me; I’ve taken too many photos of damaged and felled trees after past disasters. Tom said the sight is the same on one of the other roads (opposite direction) we frequently travel. That mid-century neighborhood is beautiful with gracious old trees. I’m not eager to see it now.

After taking care of my errands, I came home, hugged my dogs, and felt nothing but gratitude for our house, with or without electricity. I started coloring again to help manage my thoughts, beginning with this one.

From the Uplifting Inspirations book, with the quote that went with this page:

We can complain because the rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.–Abraham Lincoln

Then I really cheered myself up by coloring this horse.

I gave her a name: Sunflower, out of Daisy, by Sheridan. Sunflower’s sire is a horse in the Neverending Saga, and her dam is connected to horses briefly mentioned a book or so previous to the one I’m writing now. My newly imagined Sunflower is a gift made to one of my major characters. Even though I’m not writing at the moment, my characters are always busy somewhere in my brain, so Sunflower is also a gift to me.

Sunflower came from this book. Though my dreams might have been a little random and crazy, and it was really hot, I managed to get a few hours of sleep Tuesday night.

Tom was back in the office for a half-day Wednesday, and Tim was home with Pollock between dogwalking and housesitting gigs. I’ve been cleaning the house as I could with no power–we have this dust mop kind of thing that really helps grab dust and dog hair, with an easy-to-clean attachment, and I’ve been relentlessly mopping our tile floors in the library (also known as Eva’s favorite place to leave wee puddles). After I cleaned, I looked for a coloring page that would make me happy. This one, with an affectionate couple, animals silhouetted in the distance, fit my requirement. I couldn’t understand what all that was at the bottom of the page. Whenever I looked at it, I heard Sebastian singing “Under The Sea” from The Little Mermaid. It made no sense, but I decided the couple is standing between a sea-themed fountain and nature’s panorama of sky and wildlife, and went with that idea.

The page came from this book.

Then, IT HAPPENED. The sounds I’d hoped to hear for six nights and five days. It began with men’s voices, calling to each other. I looked up from the desk where I was coloring, then through the office windows, and I saw this.


Visible over the roof of Fox Den, at the condos behind our house: THAT is a bucket truck, or cherry picker, used by utility companies to repair power lines.

I went to my group text with Tom and Tim, telling them what I overheard: “See them wires laying on the ground over yonder from those trees? Them wires need to come up.” You may question the grammar, but that is the language of the two regions where I’ve spent my life, and it was pure music to my ears. Especially when Tom texted, “Only wires they’d be talking about are from our poles,” because he’d actually gone over and surveyed that area in the days before. Tim said, yep, they’d just moved the truck to directly behind Fairy Cottage, so I joined him at Debby’s and we watched the worker, in the bucket poised over her fence, as he lifted those two power lines out of her garden. At one point, he yelled something about the poles they were handing him being like frog-gigging, and I asked aloud, “Did I used to be married to you?” to make Tim laugh.

They then shifted the bucket to approximately the mid-point of our back fence, where he reconnected those two wires to the two lying in our backyard, and began lifting them toward the sky and their poles.

After more time, all those wires were straight and taut, back in their right places. We didn’t have power yet, but we knew there was hope.

Best of all, Anime, Delta, and Jack, along with Pollock, could run outside to explore their yard, UNLEASHED, without fear of downed wires, using the bathroom wherever they wanted, and Eva got to lie on the patio and bake for the first time in days. (It is the way of chihuahuas; we call it her pizza oven.)

Tom finished his half day of work and came home with Starbucks. I’d known he was bringing coffee, so the next (and final!) page of the No Electricity Coloring Frenzy was this one.

From a coloring book Marika gave me long ago.

I’m not as strong as I used to be, but neither is my coffee. It all evens out somehow. Tom talked to the guys as the utility trucks in front of the house were leaving, sometime around three, and they said they hoped power would be back tonight. Then, around 4:15, Tom and I were sitting in the living room talking when lights began to flicker on, then off. This repeated a few times, then they came on and stayed on. THE ELECTRICITY WAS BACK. We started texting family and friends to let them know–now that the phones’ battery power was no longer too precious to squander. Tim went through Debby’s and turned off everything that had been on when the power went out last week, and closed her windows, because the air conditioner was back in business.

Then, I took on my first project and got this ready to refill.

I think that refrigerator’s cleaner than it’s been since it was new back in 2007. It has been in two homes and known some crazy times, and the light in the refrigerator part hasn’t functioned in years, but like the rest of us, this Frigidaire’s still humming.

For dinner, Tom got us takeout from our favorite restaurant because I’d have a way to refrigerate half of the huge salad I can never eat in one sitting and its extra Ranch dressing. The edges of normalcy had returned…

Thinking and waiting and waiting…

These are things that might have been posted on Saturday, May 18 through Monday, May 20.

Here are some of the good things that happened after the storm and tornado on Thursday night. The skies cleared as if nothing had ever happened, and it was still quite a while until sunset. The streets drained. We did what our neighbors did; we went outside to check on each other and know we were all okay. We started clearing tree debris and branches from our yards and the yards of others. We talked and laughed and wondered when we’d get our electricity back.


I realized the beautiful flowers and blossoms from our magnolia tree were strewn up and down the street and into our neighbors’ yards. On one side of Houndstooth, where lives Carl the dog, the wind had blown little branches from our driveway tree and lots and lots of magnolia flowers into their yard. I wasn’t sure if Carl and family were home (I did hear their generator the second night, so they were home at some point), but that first night I moved the mess our trees had made in their yard to the curb. Then Tom and I began picking up the mess in our yard, and he helped neighbors coming from the side streets deal with some of the larger limbs and tree debris in the yards on our street. In this way, we learned we were one of at least three houses with power lines down in our back yards. We figured eventually, we’d be keeping a utility crew very busy.


As we all talked and cleaned up what we could, neighbors often brought tools to help saw off hanging limbs. We know our neighbor on our other side (not Carl’s), though she doesn’t live in the house now, one of her family members does. We got to meet her and apologize for our little dogs trying to fence fight her big dog and her big dog’s friend who sometimes visits. She apologized for the frenzy her dogs cause by barking at ours. We realized that we both felt to blame for dogs just being dogs, as dogs will. Now we can feel better in the future that we all get it and aren’t upset with each other about it.

Neighbors across the street, who had a lot of tree damage, including a big limb on their roof, were out in force cleaning up their yard and helping others. A couple of doors down, they found two fledgling blue jays in a nest in a huge fallen limb. By keeping close watch, they finally spotted the mama, who seemed to be injured but really wanted us all to stay away from her babies. Over the following days, we could see that she was able to fly again and was taking care of her family. A couple of days later, I would spot a bird (to me, it looked like a corvid, but Tom said it wasn’t) that hadn’t made it through the storm. Tom wrapped him up and made his goodbye gentler than his death.

Because of no AC, we kept our windows open at night. The storm left behind one gift: cooler weather. It was pleasant to sleep with those breezes flowing through the house. Once it got dark, there really was no reason not to go to bed early. We split up, Tom in the master bedroom, and me in the office, to give the dogs choices so no bed would have six of us in it at a time. Staying cool and comfortable enough to sleep was the goal. (In a future post, I’ll explain changes we made in the office/craft room in the two or three days before the storm surprised us.)

We had to figure out creative ways to get our devices recharged. We didn’t waste battery power or try to get enough signal to find out what else was going on in the city or the country or the world. As we’ve learned from past weather events, our families and friends who don’t live here know more from their news than we do about what’s going on in Houston. We find out from them when we start getting worried texts, calls, and emails. We’re fine. The dogs are fine. The house is all good. We just want these power lines removed from our back yard so the dogs have freedom to burn off energy.

I would wake up in the mornings before dawn, a dog or two sleeping next to me, appreciating the cool air and listening with happiness to the mourning doves. As the sky lightened, the other birds joined the choir.

In the day, with our windows open, mostly what we heard were tree crews and their chainsaws dealing with all the fallen trees and tree limbs, and the noise of people’s generators. And always, always, we listened for the sounds of utility trucks and the voices of workers who would make life normal by restoring our electricity.

When there was only silence were the hardest times. We marked the twenty-four hours without power with an acknowledgment that everything in the refrigerator was garbage. Maybe tomorrow the crew would arrive and prevent the same fate for the freezer’s contents. Businesses were closed. Some stations had ice but no gasoline. We ended up buying two bags of ice a day, but the time came when we accepted that the freezer contents were garbage, too.

We bagged it and Tom made a trip to RubinSmo Manor, home of The Brides, who heard the storm that night (terrifying to poor Pepper), but didn’t get its full impact and kept power. They offered us whatever we needed: beds, bathrooms, power for phones, washer/dryer, anything. We have a history of opening our homes to one another during these kinds of events, but this time, other than just knowing they were there, we only wanted to put the trash from three kitchens (we weren’t sure if our garbage day would be on time) in the dumpster used by their condo.

I missed my characters and writing. I missed keeping up with family and friends on social media. I colored because that is my calming, good thinking time, always. I think I did two pages on Friday. This one:

From this book.

And this one:

From this book.

On Saturday:

From this book:

Sunday became a hard day. We’d received a message that our power should be restored by end of day. It didn’t happen.

Because Anime always lifts my spirits, I colored this dog who looks a little like her.

From this book.

I started another coloring page on Monday that I’ll share in a different post. My mood was the flattest it had been since the tornado/storm. There was still no power. I used the daylight to read the two Michael Thomas Ford novels (one a re-read; the other its sequel) that I had mentioned in this post. It was a very good sequel, and because of the number of years between Ford’s writing of the books, he was able to make his characters more current and therefore more relevant, even though only a few days had passed in the novels’ timeline. I have never once been disappointed in anything written by him, and having had the chance to get to know him through the years, he’s one of my favorite humans. Can definitely give all the stars to Every Star That Falls.

Photo Friday, No. 909

This is the post that would have been published on Friday, May 17.

Current Photo Friday theme: In My Back Yard

This is what I saw when I opened my back door on Friday morning.

I’m very glad we had a tree crew at Houndstooth Hall last fall. Back then, the tree this limb fell from had so many lower-lying branches that it’s likely it would have done damage to our roof, also possibly breaking out windows, as well as taking out at least part of our fence and maybe done some roofing damage to our neighbor. Two limbs fell from the tree during the high winds of Thursday. The other limb is smaller; the photo is somewhat deceptive on this one–this is its leafy top and doesn’t show the length or circumference of the branch. Regardless, no harm done to any structures, and we were able to hire the neighbor’s tree crew on Friday to get both branches out of our back yard and taken away.


These are messed up power lines at the back of the yard. Two of them snapped, and each left their two ends hanging from power poles to the ground on opposite sides of our property. We were advised to stay 35 feet from all lines until Houston’s utility company could get to us. This meant every dog on the property had to be walked one at a time on leash, and one exit/entrance couldn’t be used at all.

We had a very short warning (less than five minutes) on Thursday evening. There were giant, fallen trees blocking nearby streets and resting on residential roofs. We were very fortunate.

More photos to come.