Wait a minute Mister Postman

I am a dyed-in-the-wool letter-writer.  Email is fine for exchanging jokes, sharing photos and short updates with friends on the other side of the country or just down the street.  But, there’s just SOMEthing about receiving a letter or card in the mail from a good friend, addressed to you alone.  I think it’s knowing that someone cares enough to want to share this piece of their life with you.  It’s knowing that your friend knows that this could be oh-so-boring to other people – “I made a good, strong, hot pot of coffee this morning.  It’s gray and raining buckets here.  I have a massive headache, but I’m still going to try to do some writing this afternoon….” 

But Friendship is the bond between you.  It’s knowing that, upon opening this envelope, I am about to be transported miles from my home to a small, friendly kitchen in another part of the country…another part of the world.  I can almost see my friend’s face through the steam from the cup of coffee…almost inhale the woodsy fragrances of her home…almost hear soft strains of music wafting from the dining room…almost feel the warmth and silky fur of her cat on my lap…almost as good as being right there with her.

…I must be off now.  I think I’m going to go write a letter and mail some love.

Computer Literacy

It all began innocently enough.  I am not very computer literate.  I mean, I can edit photos.  I do documents in the word processing side of it.  I make greeting cards in Publisher.  And email.  So when I couldn’t download a game, I emailed my “computer guru” friend, “It’s telling me there’s not enough space.”  His response: “That’s impossible.  I’ll come and look at it.”

He did.  And you know that little pie chart that shows you how much space you have?  My pie was solid blue.  My friend, “How did you DO this?!”  My response was a deer-in-the-headlights look.  He continued, “This is a 7 gig hard drive!  It’s FULL!”

Now, this means basically nothing to me.  I have no concept whatsoever of how large a gigabyte is, nor kilobytes, megabytes, nor any of that.  I’m more of a “visual person.”  I can take a 5-lb. bag of flour, pour it into a bowl and, if it overflows, I need less flour or a bigger bowl.

“You can keep working,” he said.  But he was muttering as he left, “I gotta research this…how in the world…?”

So I just won’t play games for now.  Not that I’m a big “gamer” to begin with.  There are less than a dozen games downloaded to my computer – the usual like Solitaire, maybe two or three hidden object games, a word game, a trivia game….

I can write letters, get and send email and download photos.  That’ll tide me over for a while.

When I know something, you’ll know, too.

Wonder how many gallons are IN a gigabyte?

The Greyhound with Attitude

Mia Pasha a.k.a. Miss Mia, the Greyhound with Attitude!  The story begins when I started to foster her around springtime last year.  (The idea behind fostering is that the Grey stays with you until a family wants to adopt them.)  It was a complete surprise when I decided to adopt her.  Didn’t want to.  Wasn’t going to.  In fact, she and I had a rather rocky foster period!  But…well…she kinda grew on me.

Probably, the most difficult thing was stepping back to let Mia BE Mia.  What happened was that my favorite girl, Callie, crossed Rainbow Bridge about five months later.  Callie was an exceptional Greyhound.  Callie was also a red fawn and black brindle.  And she was MY girl.  But Mia is more independent.  Plus, she had learned some unacceptable behavior before she came to live with me.  Nevertheless, no matter WHAT she did, I compared her to Callie.

But I made myself stop comparing.  “Mia is NOT Callie,” I told myself.  “It’s unfair to expect her to be Callie!  Their personalities are polar opposite.  And that’s not a bad thing.  Just different.”  I had some hurtful disappointments, but it finally sank in.  Mia Pasha is NOT Callie. 

And you know what?  Since I gave permission, both to me and to Mia, to let Mia be herself, she is growing into her own personality.  She likes to play and pounces on everything!  She is VOCAL!  Her tail is very expressive from whipping about like a snapped cable to the three inches at the tip wagging side-to-side when she is on the floor.

I think mutual love is growing here.  Who would have thought?

Meet my 4-legged "kidz!"

I hope to cover a variety of topics on this blog:  Greyhounds, recipes, Multiple Sclerosis, volunteering, the Answer to life, amateur digital photography, books, humor…and YOUR ideas about where you would like to go on this journey.

I think I’ll begin with my four-legged family.  I am a Greyhound Mom, and adopted my first retired racing Greyhound in 2002.  I will talk about ALL of my “kidz” later on, to be sure.  But I have only two right now—the oldest is my fawn-colored boy Max who will be 13 this May.  The second is a seven year old red fawn and black brindle girl, Mia Pasha, and each of her names is from my two closest friends.

My favorite story is about, Max.  A few years ago, I was fostering another Greyhound in addition to mine.  She found the basket of stuffie toys that I have for my Greys, she found a toy she liked, and promptly trotted out the dog door with the toy in her mouth!

I was outside on the patio and thought that I’d just retrieve the toy when she dropped it.  But I didn’t have to!  Max then came out the dog door, looked at me as if to say in disgust, “Doesn’t that new dog know any better?!  We don’t take our toys outside!”  He went up to her and took the toy from her, turned around and took the toy into the house!  I never taught him to do that!

But he is a very smart boy…well, he’s an old man at 13.  Ah, he’ll always be Mommy’s Boy!

I’ll think of a story to tell about Mia Pasha tomorrow.