Did all y’all have a funnish “Christmas, "Holiday Season", "Kwanzaa", or "Cross-Burning" or whatever the hell you heathens celebrate? Pam & I celebrated by having a not-so traditional Thai Panaang Curry dish (tofu, hers/chicken, mine) with Satay (tofu, hers/chicken, mine). I made it and it was surprisingly good!! I’m becoming quite the Chef. Pamela calls me the “King of Defrost”. She calls me other things, too. I may have to head to Memphis or Little Rock this week or next, so I’ll try to find some Indian groceries with which we can celebrate Valentine’s Day (we’ll do a Masala or some other red dish). Of course, we’ll do a Thai green curry for St. Patrick’s Day.
We missed a White Christmas by a day. We got a little over an inch of big, wet snow on the 26th. Pretty I must say, but I’m sure nothing some of you others have received.
We are now the new, proud adopted parents of a beautiful Chocolate Lab (possible Rottweiler mix?) that wondered into our yard 3 times in 4 days last week. He was undernourished, covered in his own feces and dirt, and responded to raised hands by dropping, shutting his eyes, and cowering, so, yeah, he’s been hit. We're keeping him this time around. He is a really beautiful & sweet dog. But he's BIG (his paws easily reach up over my shoulders when he jumps up). And he’s STRONG. And he bounds around constantly. He’s now a very happy dog! The vet estimates him to be a year and he weighed in yesterday at 90 pounds. Next Monday he goes in for the sex change. We haven't told him yet. We'll advertise him as an adoptable in a few weeks after he has recovered but new owners will be scrutinized closely. Or we'll keep him. He's too rambunctious for Pam to handle right now so when I head to the Geezer Reunion (a high school reunion that is being held in the Florida Panhandle this Feb.) I'll board him for those 5 days, if we still have him. If we do keep him (yes, I already want to, but the Boss isn’t so sure) I’ll have a proper & spacious run built for him. He’s waaay too big for in-house & his tail is lethal. He already has a doghouse we’ve used for other strays that is big yet toasty and I move it all into the garage if the temp is slated for under 35…or if it going to be wet. Of course that means Pam loses her van’s garage space, but we do have our priorities.
You can see that he’s already pulled the tree border up; this is still a temporary site. He’s gone through 2 big rawhide bones in 3 days…that’s the soggy corpse of one in the background. Oh, yeah, his name is Hershey as in the candy bar. He got away from me this morning (he looooves the woods!) and bounded around for nearly an hour then came back with smudges of something he must have rolled in. Of course, he was bathed and received his puppy shots just yesterday.
We are approaching our 2 year anniversary as Arkies. We still love it here and are constantly awed by the state’s beauty. We are going to try to get more & more day trips to local off-the-beaten-path sites this Spring. Of course this whole area is off the beaten path. We never even hear jets flying over. We get cars on our stretch of the road maybe 2 or 3 times a week that aren’t the mailman. Private and so peaceful.
I’ve put my old truck for sale (for you guys in the know, that’s “Medium Rare”). The truck is more vehicle than I really need plus it’s getting a clutch glitch that worries me. The Land Rover is perfect for this area and I love it. I wish it was not so thirsty in the gas department, though.
The next Kevin-in-Retirement project I guess will be to repaint the house this Spring since it is beginning to look a little shabby. I’ll try to do most of it but I know I’ll need some help. Anybody?
& I still have to learn how to take care of green things. Back in Vegas I just watered the rocks once a month or so to wash off the dust and bring out some of the color of those rocks which were Dust Brown anyhow.
The extra good news is that there is a petition going around to try to get a bill on the ballot for next November to convert this dry county to a wet county. The Thumpers are going absolutely CRAZY. Those who initiated the petition are getting threats and are being cursed and damned to Hell. That doesn’t sound very Christian to me. I think bars are like strip clubs and churches: if you don’t like ‘em, just don’t go, but give us the options to choose. And didn’t Jesus (the Saviour Guy, not the landscaper) do a miracle or two that included wine? And what would Jesus say about cigarettes?
Okay, enough drivel…I’ll probably post this to the Geezin’InArkansas site. I haven’t published anything there in months!
Best wishes for a great year…
Kevin & Pamela Keough
