Everyone spoils my dog.

Which is cool with me, he’s a prince, he -should- be spoiled. My neighbors give him a treat at 9am every morning, and he knows it, because he’ll whine until he gets it. Then he does his exercise routine, running around the yard like a damned idiot for a few hours, barking like crazy.

They encourage it, talk to him, make funny noises at him, call him “Streak” because he looks naked when he runs.

This is all very cute and fine with me.

Now my neighbors are my dads cousins, which would make them my second cousins, or whatever. Their son would be my third cousin, he’s about early 30’s (still living at home, but rich as a mother fucker).

He’s a bit more grumpy. Rich people are like that sometimes. When he goes outside, my dog gets excited too, since he loves people, so he barks at him.

Well UNBEKNOWEST to me, he’s been shooting an air rifle at him to get him to shut up when he does his routine. It’s just air, so it’s not hitting him (if he ever shot my dog, I’d beat the living shit out of him), but yesterday apparently my dog growled at him.

And he never growls. We’ve raised Bastian to be a very friendly pittbull, and he’s never snapped at anyone or growled at anyone or anything. The only time he’s growled is late at night when he hears something outside he doesn’t like, which is what we -want- him to do.

But if my neighbor is going to provoke him into doing something mean, and he -can- jump the fence if he wanted to, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to start some shit. My dad is planning on saying something today, but if he doesn’t stop, is there some sort of ASPCA or something that I can call?

I’ve posted some pictures that I took this weekend, mostly of my father/dog and our old and new water heater. They all open up into very large photos for detail.

As you can see the old one is fairly grotesque:

Keep in mind it’s 28 years old, as you can tell by the label (also in the series of pictures). That is what was holding our water! Gross.

Our new one is tre awesome (and I’m sure more energy efficient):

Keep in mind this all comes out of our pocket. Though we may see if the landlord will let us take it out of the rent for the month.

My cat has ran away. She snuck out last week through the doggie door, but came back early morning. We were attempting to be careful about the times we leave the doggie door open for my son, but my dad fell asleep in his recliner and she snuck out Wednesday night and hasn’t come back.

We’ve called all the neighbors, we gave her description to the humane society, but I do not have high hopes.

1. Given that all of our ducks have now been maliciously stolen/murdered/eaten by some critter over the last month, it’s entirely possible that the same beast of burden has made lunch of my cat.

2. She’s entirely lost, given she’s an inside cat, in which case #1 is still viable. (Though I think animals are a bit smarter than this)

3. She’s found a new home, with a familiy of dishonest jackasses that would keep someone elses pet, even though she clearly has a collar and rabies tag (though worn and possibly not distinguishable). She had a name tag with all her vitals on it, but I believe she lost that a few months ago and I haven’t remembered to get her a new one.

Here’s hoping she somehow finds her way home.

[Edit]: SHE HATH RETURNED! 2 days later, but she hath returned!

My father is very proud of his flowers. We get little old ladies that stop by all the time to ask if they can get some seeds and ask how my dad can grow such beautiful flowers. It just comes natural to him, and he works very hard to take care of all of them. I don’t know whether I have the green thumb that he does, because the portion of our garden that I take care of is miniscule compared to his.

Anyway, he asked that I take some pictures of our tall sunflowers to submit to Birds and Bloom magazine (one of his favorites). I’m not a photographer, but I think they turned out alright. Keep in mind that my father is 6 foot tall.

Sunflowers

Cannon Lilies

I also got tackled by My Son at some point today. I was going to give him a bath yesterday, but I’m glad I didn’t, because this is what he got into today:

My muddy dog

And yes, he jumped on me

I really liked this one, my dad wants me to get it on paper

These are some random July 4th fireworks that I took. I don’t go out with anyone to see fireworks anymore, but we can see some over the trees from our house.

Night fireworks

Night fireworks

My dog went crazy while I was in the shower. I didn’t know what he was barking at until I came out and saw that one of our snake-skins fell halfway off the wall. Guess he thought it was alive

I actually think we have one in our basement at the moment, which is fine by me as long as he stays there. Since we have a dirt basement, we have some four-legged critters down there (mice mainly), so there’s plenty for him to eat, and it keeps him away from our chicken eggs. I know we have a 6 foot one in our garage that fell down from the rafters on me once.

A couple years ago one actually got into the house, I believe through the air vents. I was sleeping on the sofa in the living room at the time, when I got woken up by my cat hissing and some other foreign hissing. My cat was attacking it and pissing it off, and it was right next to the sofa. Eesh.

They’ve all been black snakes though. We have copperheads around here, and when we had our farm, we’d find them in the barn a lot (they can disguise in the hay bales very easily). Black snakes (not poisonous) have the abililty to suffocate copperheads (poisonous) though, so that’s another reason we keep them around. When we were kids, my dad always told us when we were trecking back to the lake, to keep our noses open for a musty celery smell, because that’s what copperheads smell like. I don’t believe I’ve ever run across one, thankfully.

Boy that turned into a longer post that I intended it to be…

I upgraded my Wordpress today, and I am currently working on a new layout (It’s been a year this July). So things might look a little funky until I am finished.

In the mean time, you can enjoy a recent picture of my son (you can’t tell me he isn’t fuckin spoiled):

I decided to break out my crappy photography skillz and take some pictures while my dad and I were watching the sunset with my son, My Son.

My dad playing with My Son on the tree swing

My Son with a tree backdrop

My Son so cute

My Son looks so regal in this one

Dad made a damn chicken sleigh out of the wagon and chicken I got him for Christmas.

I think chipmunks are hiding nuts under my mustang

Not as sunny out today, but I’ve been able to enjoy it regardless. Dad is plowing gardens for the neighbors, I’ve been cleaning and sewing (just bought myself a cheapass sewing machine for $40 and it works great). And I’m about to make some mushroom and chicken quesadillas for dinner, though my dad is driving up to Pennsylvania to visit his sister for dinner. It would be nice if my sweetheart could be here, but I’ll be eating alone.

Making use of some John Deere fabric I’ve had to make hankerchiefs for my father: