4th of July 2009

4th of July photos
4th of July 2009 in Las Vegas, NV
My Neighbors put on a heck of a show! Do click the link to see all the nice photos from this adventure.

Sister Suzanne’s Birthday

Today is my sister Suzanne's birthday so I thought I might tell a little story about her.
Little sisters are generally pretty good to their older brothers but on more than one occasion mine went above and beyond.

Once, in particular, was when I was living in New Mexico and I had a motorcycle accident. I had ridden mine off a cliff, breaking my back, several ribs, and my collarbone. I was in pretty bad shape and Suzanne came out to take care of me. She was only about 15 at the time and I am sure my mother is the one who sent her, but she did not have to but came anyway.

I had just got out of the hospital and could move around but was in pain and wearing multiple contraptions to keep my back straight while it healed. Getting dressed was not possible as well as other inconveniences so Suzanne was there to help me get dressed, feed me and help me get around. She even went to work with me each day and helped me do my job. At the time that involved editing commercial reels and directing the news. I could not have done my job at the time without her help. Thankfully she is very smart and picked up quickly what I was trying to do and assisted me better than many of the people who get paid to do this kind of work. Since I had been away from work while I was in the hospital it was important to be able to work and earn my paycheck. I am sure that if not for her help I may have lost that job. And let us not forget the getting me dressed and fed part. I know I would have lost that job if I came to work hungry and in my underwear.

It was only a couple weeks of her life that she spent looking after me, but if not for her I know my recovery would have taken much longer. On my list of kind things people have done for me, this one still is very high on that list. Not only did she help me get better, she made the process a lot of fun too. We always have a great time and that was just the medicine needed to help me the most. She gave me happy memories of what could have been a painful point in my life.

Is it the cape or is it the fancy pantyhose?

Image by Fonzie's cousin via FlickrAre you one of those people who think that it's Superman's cape that allows him to fly? I tend to differ from the norm since I think it's the fancy pantyhose (tights). After all, Batman has a cape but he can't fly. I think it's special pantyhose that all the superheroes get from a special superhero store. The color of which determines which superpowers you get. My reason, all the superheroes always wear fancy pantyhose but not all of them wear capes. It is thoughts like this that have caused me grief on more than one occasion, for example.

When I was about five years old, I was out in the backyard playing with my friends. We were playing with a kids archery set. The kind with a little bow and arrows that have little rubber suction cups on the end. As children are prone to do, we got bored and started shooting the arrows straight up into the air. This led to several arrows landing on the roof of our house. It just happened that someone had left a ladder leaning against the house and I headed for the roof to retrieve the lost arrows. Once I had retrieved the arrows I found myself unable to get down from the roof. It could have been that someone knocked down the ladder or most likely it was my lifelong problem of getting back off the roof and down the ladder.

So I am standing on the roof enjoying the view and trying to figure out how to get down when my "friends" go and tell my mother that I am on the roof. My mom comes out to see what the problem is and just happened to be holding a flyswatter at the time. Not a good sign to a five-year-old. She proceeded to use my full name while ordering me down from the roof. When your mom yells something along the lines of "your full name here" get your butt down from there right now! You have no choice but to comply. Having watched a few too many episodes of Superman and having no prior knowledge that this was a bad idea, I said OK and jumped off the roof. You can imagine my surprise when instead of floating down to the ground in slow motion like they do on TV, I landed with a thud on the concrete patio breaking my leg in the process. Confused and in a considerable amount of pain, I could not understand what had happened. All my TV heroes jumped off stuff all the time and they never got hurt. Since I knew that my TV wouldn't lie to me the only explanation was that maybe I wasn't a superhero after all. Well, I had plenty of time to think this through while laying around with my leg in a cast. I was pretty sure that I was still a superhero, I just hadn't been given my superhero outfit yet. Once I got some of those fancy pantyhose this would never happen again.

The Second Funniest Thing I Saw While Visiting Florida

Image via Wikipedia
While driving around during our visit to Florida, I was looking out the window taking in the scenery. Which for me meant picking out the restaurants I wanted to visit. I was carefully adding to this mental list when I saw it. The second funniest thing I saw while visiting Florida. A "Rent To Own Tire And Wheel" store. I had never seen a rent to own tire and wheel store before and the only thing I could think was, who would rent automobile tires?

I could understand the need to rent a car, a boat, golf clubs or any number of items you might need to use on a less than permanent basis. I have had reason to rent cars, surfboards, and even a washing machine at some time or another myself. However, I can not picture the circumstances that would cause me to consider renting tires. How would that even work? When you decide you don't need the tires anymore and return them, how do you get your car home? The whole idea was hard to comprehend.

After struggling for days to understand I think I finally figured it out. Now keep in mind this is only a theory and has not yet been proven. I think that this business is a secret government operation to draw out, identify and tag stupid people. You know, kind of like animal researchers do with wildlife. They catch them, tag them for identification and then monitor their movements. Same thing here except instead of wildlife, it's stupid people. What a great plan and it even pays for itself from the tire rentals. It's so simple, just open one these stores and wait for the stupid people to wander in. Rent them some tires and now you have their name and address, and even know what they look like. You might even get a picture. Catalog all this information and then distribute to all the smart people so we know who to avoid. They could even give them all the same brand of a tire so that the rest of us might more easily identify them while driving. At least that is what I hope is going on, otherwise, somebody is wasting a perfectly good opportunity to monitor stupid people in their natural environment.

So, what was the number one funniest thing I saw during my visit to Florida? That would have to be Christmas Eve when my sister Suzanne and her entire family show up wearing matching black pants, red shirts, and Santa Claus hats. It was something right out of one of those sappy Christmas specials on TV. Without a doubt, the funniest thing I saw during the whole trip.

Traveling To Florida, Part 2

Image via Wikipedia
The drive from Nebraska to Florida actually quite nice, but since I tend to ramble on lets jump to the end.

About the time we were coming to the Florida state line, my Dad called to ask where we were. It turned out that my sister Leigh Ann and her son were only a few miles ahead of us and Dad thought I should call them and get them to stop long enough for us to catch them. He suggested that they could follow me the rest of the way. Fine with me, since I had good reason to take the lead, which I will get to in a moment.

A few cell phone calls and a stop at the wrong location later, we managed to meet up and continue our journey with me leading the way. We still had about 250 miles to go and I was well past ready to be there already, so non-stop was my plan and I was sticking to it. With less than 15 miles to go my wife informed me that she had needed to use a rest room for some time and was I going to stop soon or not! I was so close to our destination that no, I had not planned to stop. As I tried to make my case the cell phone rang. It was my sister wanting to know if we were going to stop soon, she wanted to stop for a bathroom break. I was outnumbered and overruled so asking why nobody said anything sooner was not going help, but I did it anyway. Potty break for everybody!

OK, now as to why I wanted to be in the lead car heading to the folks house. My mom had told us that sleeping quarters were first to come first serve. The unlucky contestant in this game of Home for the Holiday's would be sleeping on an inflatable mattress in the den. Having only a vague description of this "inflatable mattress", I pictured spending several days of trying to sleep on something that might also serve as a swimming pool floatation device. I wanted a real bed and was determined to arrive first. As it turned out, the "inflatable mattress" was much nicer than expected. Even if it may or may not have been purchased from a television infomercial. The big surprise came when my generously accommodating parents offered to give up their room and sleep in the den on the air mattress. Darn, I was so looking forward to making fun of the loser in this race and my folks go and do something nice.

Traveling to Florida

Image by calebism via FlickrI am not a big fan of airlines, with their lack of set prices, bad food, and the need to take me sometimes several places I don't want to go before delivering me to my destination. So whenever possible I travel by car. If time permits and it has been long enough between trips to forget the details of the last mind-numbing day long drive to visit family or friends. Once I start driving, I rarely stop until I reach my destination. For my Christmas trip to Florida, time was available and I planned on staying for more than a couple of days, so driving seemed the way to go. The fact that a round trip drive to Florida was nearly 3500 miles was somehow blocked from my thought process.

When you travel by airplane, you pack carefully and efficiently. Everything you might need will have to be carried in one or two bags. When you travel by car, especially one with a good size trunk, it seems that all reason regarding packing goes out the window. This became very clear as both my wife and I wandered from room to room in our house gathering as many of our household possessions as we could stuff into the car. Anyone who might have been watching our countless trips from house to car with armloads of bags, boxes and assorted shiny objects may have guessed that we were moving, not just loading the car for a vacation. It was my desire to be able to actually see out of the rear window of the car that prevented us from loading any more. After all, it is better to be prepared than find yourself miles from home without that pair of socks I haven't worn in four years or enough dog food to feed Ted the Wonder Fuzzball for three months.

With the car loaded, and after Ted has found the best place to stand for his viewing pleasure. Let the vacation begin, we have a long way to go, miles to drive and we ain't stopping except for food, fuel, and letting Ted add to his list of places where he watered the bushes.

Fighting Mr. Virus

Image via WikipediaHave I mentioned lately that I hate computer virus's and those who are evil enough to create such things?

Today when I went to check my e-mail, as the messages began to download from the mail server my anti-virus software began to sound alarms and display warnings that a message contained some nasty virus or another and would I like to delete it? Well, yes that would be a good idea. Unfortunately, that did not seem to be good enough for Mr. Anti-Virus software, it claimed that the in-box folder had been infected and the only solution was to delete it as well. Since I really hate it when somebody else opens a virus infected e-mail and unleashes it on others such as myself, I went with the safest approach and let Mr. Anti-Virus software do its thing. Problem solved right? Not exactly, this happened no less than eight times today. Each time I lost my whole in-box and all the messages that had not yet been read or replied to. Since my e-mail program checks for new mail every few minutes I kept getting hit with a new virus infected message before I had finished reading what had come in since the last attack.

Keep in mind that this was as the messages were downloading from the server, before I had the chance to look at the messages or foolishly open some stupid attachment. I think that Mr. Anti-Virus software may have been over reacting just a little bit, but with some of the poorly written and evil virus's that are currently running around I could not take a chance on losing more than just my in-box full of messages.

So it any of you nice folks have been kind enough to send me a message or joke in the past day or so, I seem to have lost them in my quest to remain virus free. If you would be so kind as to send them again I would be most grateful, and if any of you happen to come across one of those morons who write and send out virus's, if they somehow came up missing, I will gladly tell the police that you were at my house the whole time.

Florida For The Holiday's

As the holidays began to approach, my mom began to ask if I was going to come to visit for Christmas. Well, I already had planned my recent trip to Las Vegas, so a trip to Florida in December seemed like a bit much to pull off, so I was noncommittal but did like the idea of spending Christmas with the folks.

During a call to mom a couple of weeks later, she mentioned that my sisters were thinking of going to Florida for Christmas and it sure would be nice if everybody could come. Well, my sister, Suzanne lives in Southern California and sister Leigh Ann lives in  Alabama, so if they were going to go, then it would be nice to see them and it has been a long time since we all spent Christmas together.

On the next phone call, I was told that both my sisters were definitely going to Florida for Christmas and were making plane reservations or other travel arrangements right away. Well, if my sisters were going to find a way to go to Florida and since I certainly did not want to be the selfish, ungrateful sibling who could not make the trip, I committed to going to Florida for the holidays. All of us in the same house at Christmas would be great fun!

All was fine and dandy, and everybody was happy until .... my sisters and I began to call each other to talk about the trip. Each phone call between us seemed to go the same way. "I am so glad we are all going to be together for Christmas! I really can't afford to go to Florida right now but when I heard that everybody else was going, I did not want to miss out on the fun or be the bad child who would not go." Well, we may all be morons but it did not take long to figure out what had happened. We had been scammed, played off each other by our very own parents to get us all to go to Florida for the holidays. Each of us had received the same phone call informing us that the other two children were coming and how it sure would be nice if we all came. I am not sure who the mastermind of this plan was, but I'm putting my money on dear old Dad, it seems to fit with his style. I don't know who was the first of us to figure out what was going on but will credit it to Leigh Ann. She said that when she confronted Pop with the accusation he did not deny it and let out an evil little laugh.

So the whole family will be together for the holiday's, but some form of retaliation must be done for the blatant manipulation from those nice people I call my parents. We are still working on a plan but so far the best we have come up with is to go and eat all their food and leave the house messy when we go.

My Seafood Feast

Living in a small town in the middle of Nebraska has a few benefits, but if you have ever lived someplace with a few more things to offer you can find yourself shall we say hungry for something else. Well, that is exactly the problem, I am hungry for some decent food! In my town, you can get a great steak but outside of that unless Pizza Hut is your idea of fine dining you are out of luck. So my little vacation to Las Vegas was a big thrill for me in several ways. Yes, I got to visit with family, but the chance to eat some good food was what kept me awake for the 18 or so hours it took to drive. 

Las Vegas may be in the middle of the desert but they go to great lengths to accommodate millions of visitors with anything they want and that includes some great food. I ate large quantities of great food in several fine restaurants and even a couple of fast food joints that are not available in my area. The highlight of my eating binge was the night my stepson Dave and nephew Kevin took me out for seafood! 

Raw fresh oysters are a favorite of mine and Dave had found out which casino the "Oyster Man" was working at, so off we went. This casino was having a seafood buffet that included fresh oysters, crab, shrimp, several types of fish and other assorted seafood selections. I was in heaven and quickly filled a plate and ran back to my seat to enjoy. At the table next to us was a nice couple who seemed as thrilled as I was at the selection of goodies. On my second trip to the buffet, I was standing next to the man from that table as we both were deciding where to start next. This man was a foot taller than me and was easily twice my size, he commented that he would try and leave a little food for me. I took this as a challenge and told him I thought I could keep up with him. This got him to laughing so hard that I was able to get a head start on the oysters before he noticed I was gone. When he got back to his table he was so busy laughing and pointing me out to his wife that I was able to finish and get back to the buffet for visit number three just ahead of him. I managed to match his plate for plate for some time, but to be honest he was piling more stuff on his plate than I was. After many visits to the buffet, I had eaten all that I could handle and went over to acknowledge my defeat to the big man. He was working on a large plate of crab legs and was very entertained by my effort. He told me I was a worthy opponent but better luck next time. Yes I was defeated, but full and happy, and there WILL be a next time.

Making Fun Of The Son In Law

On my little trip to Las Vegas, I got to spend some time with my son in law. The 10 or so days I was there was the most time I had ever spent with the guy. In fact, this visit may have included more days around him than all of my previous time with him combined. It's not that I don't like my son in law, but just that he lives far away and my trips are normally short and focus more on my daughter than her husband. So far I like Ryan and as long as he keeps my daughter and granddaughter happy and healthy I will let him live. He was very polite and generous to me and my wife while we were visiting, as he should have been keeping in mind my protective nature towards my girls (wife, daughter & granddaughter).

The entertaining part of our visit, at least to me, was that my son in law is very into his new daughter and tries to do as much as possible to care for her. I know that sounds like a good thing, but in his overly ambitious effort to be as helpful and nurturing to his daughter as possible, he was asking for some serious trouble. Poor Ryan had failed to notice that the house also contained a new mother and grandmother who were in full on mommy and grandma mode respectively. The worst of which is a grandma who has to go home far away in a few days.

Being older and wiser and having lived with these women for some time I played it safe and held my granddaughter when she was handed to me, looked after her when asked, feed her when requested, but otherwise kept safely out of the mommy and grandma's way. Ryan, on the other hand, was taking his daddy role seriously and on several occasions walked right into the danger zone. Well, he is young and loves his daughter so I could only watch as he set himself up for the verbal abuse dished out to him after both mommy and grandma had reached their limits. Some things must be learned first hand.

So the fact that I found some entertainment in his getting yelled at by my girls and did nothing to prevent it, I will just consider it a perk of being the grandpa and hope I can be smart enough to avoid the same.

Getting Ready To Go To Vegas

Image via WikipediaMy wife has been in Las Vegas for the past week or so playing Grandma to our new Granddaughter. So Ted the Wonder Fuzz Ball and I have been making use of our time alone at home by doing guy stuff like sitting around in our underwear, OK so Ted still sits around in his fuzz coat but you get the picture.

We go for long walks (three times around the park), eat fast food (Ted decided French fries don't agree with him), watch TV and only do laundry when I run out of clean underwear. It has been fun, but this week we have to get ready to make the trip to Las Vegas ourselves. Ted and I both have new haircuts, I got a new pair of shoes and Ted got a new retractable leash, the underwear is in the washer as I write and the suitcase has been brought up from the basement.

Just a couple more errands to run and we will be ready for our journey. Hopefully, my 1100 mile drive with a small fuzzy dog will go well and by Friday I will be in Vegas and doing happy Grandpa stuff.

Details of Rachel

It is official, the stork has made a delivery. My daughter Caroline gave birth to the lovely Rachel a little after noon Las Vegas time. Both mother and daughter are doing fine and the proud dad is wearing out his new camera. Hopefully, they will share some of the photos soon as I am not scheduled to go to Vegas for another week or so. Anyway here are the details. Rachel is nineteen inches long and weighs in at seven pounds six ounces.

The whole family is thrilled and excited as you can understand but I still have not seen the child yet so my excitement level has not yet peaked. I tried to get one of the engineers from work to build me one of those Star Trek transporter things so I could get there sooner but he claimed to not have all the parts. So I will just have to wait a little while longer. Since I have some time before my trip I will do what any self-respecting grandpa would do. Look for some really loud toys, ones that make loud and continuous sounds that make little babies laugh and drive parents mad. After all, isn't that my job now, to do anything to make Rachel smile and laugh regardless of what her parents think?

Rachel's Birthday

Hey folks, by the time you read this I could be a Grandpa.   
As I write this note, my daughter Caroline, her husband Ryan and my wife are on the way to the hospital. Caroline and her doctor have decided that today is the day for her to have that baby. I don't know exactly how or what they intend to do to make that happen but they have a plan and they are sticking to it. 

Since I can't even watch a doctor use a syringe on TV and have been known to pass out at the sight of one in person it is probably just as well that I am over a thousand miles away from this wonderful event. The downside of being so far away is that I can not do anything except wait for the phone to ring and let me know everything went well. 

Hopefully, I will be able to provide you with the details tomorrow and when I get to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks I might even have a picture or two to share.

Ice Maker

Laziness and the desire for comfort are the true mothers of invention.

All the truly great inventions are the direct result of someone trying to make their life easier or more comfortable. The guy who invented air conditioning was just tired of being so dang hot all summer. The guy who invented heaters was just looking for a way to avoid chopping wood for the fireplace. Whoever thought of building a house was probably tired of sleeping under a tree full of birds. A bed is better than the floor, a chair is more comfortable than a rock, and we can't forget the most important invention of all, in-house plumbing. How comfortable would your life be without running water and toilets? 

Comfort and laziness inspire people to create remotes for my television so I can flip through dozens of channels, my microwave can cook a potato in a few minutes, I can have a pizza delivered to my house in 30 minutes or less. The creative and lazy people who come up with these wonders are never satisfied, they are always working to improve everything to make it better and easier to use. Laundry detergents promise to make your whites whiter, light bulbs that last longer, faster computers, safer cars, stain resistant carpet, viagra. Every day somebody somewhere is working hard to make some part of your life easier and more comfortable.

So here is my question, why does the ice maker in my refrigerator still put out quarter circle shaped pieces of frozen water that are the same shape as the sides of my glass. This makes drinking from my glass a challenge. Every time I lift my glass the liquid is blocked from my lips by these poorly designed semi-circles of ice. After all the advances in every other part of my life, why has the shape of my ice not changed to a more useful shape? You would think that by now we should have ice cubes that are cubes or at least a shape that does not impair the consumption of a cool iced beverage in your own home. Lazy people who seek the comfortable demand more from our home appliances. I would invent a better way of making ice in my own home but I guess I'm just not lazy enough to come up with a better idea.

The Great And Mighty Hoover

The Great And Mighty Hoover died Friday afternoon (September 21, 2001).

His tremendous spirit and that wonderful heart of his were just no match for joint problems and cancer.

Hoover and I shared and celebrated the same birthday of December 5th, this December would have been his 9th birthday.

When my wife and I hug, Hoover would stand up on his hind legs and join in, he always wanted to be included.

My wife gets out of bed earlier than I do and as soon as she left the bedroom, Hoover would come in, get on the bed and lay his head next to mine on the pillow. He never woke me up, he just would lay down like he was human with his head on the pillow and sleep next to me.

Hoover was not very tall and so to pet him or rub his head you needed to squat down. If you did this he would lower his head and press the top of his head into your chest and then lean into it. This became known as a Hoover hug. Once while we were at the doctor's for a vaccination shot I was trying to comfort him and get him to calm down so the Doc could give him a shot. I asked Hoover to give me a Hoover hug so that I might have better control of him. The doctor asked what that was and when I explained and Hoover demonstrated, the poor doctor got so tickled at this he was unable to proceed for several minutes.

A few years ago my sister, with her husband and two small children came to visit. This was the first time Hoover had met any of these people but he wasted no time in making friends. He never does. My nephew was just a toddler at the time and he and Hoover stood pretty much eye to eye in height. Justin was standing in front of Hoover munching on some snacks when he held out a snack and gently put it in Hoover's mouth. We all watched in wonder as Justin then just as easily reached in and took it back. Hoover never moved, he just calmly accepted whatever his new friend wanted to do.

Hoover loved everyone he ever met, with the possible exception of a couple of salesmen at work. Everywhere we went he was always on the lookout for someone new to visit with. When he went to work with me he would go around and say hello to everyone he could find before crawling under the desk to sleep on my feet. If we went to the park he would gladly welcome groups of small children rubbing and patting him for as long as they wanted. I never saw a child who was afraid to come right up and start petting. His entire being radiated warmth and love to the point that even small children knew they had nothing to fear and so they would run right over and pet the little puppy. They always called him a puppy, he looked like a puppy his whole life.

Hoover loved to play with anyone that was willing but he did have a favorite playmate. My buddy Marty worked with me in Alabama when we first got Hoover and they hit it off from the first day they met. When it comes to a just plain love of life and hearts the size of their bodies, Marty and Hoover are made from the same mold. Hoover and Marty played hard, so hard you thought they were going to hurt each other but they never did. When we moved to Nebraska, Marty and his wife moved with us. While Marty and I were busy building a TV station, Hoover would go to work with us every day and always had his favorite playmate handy. I know that a couple years later when Marty returned to Alabama, Hoover took it as hard as I did. We both had to make do without our favorite buddy.

He loved to go for a ride and it did not matter where we went, across the country or just to the office, the passenger seat of my truck was Hoover's seat. I could not tell you how many miles that Hoover traveled with me but to say it was thousands. Many more than you would expect of one truck or one dog.

Hoover loved to go for a walk so much that if I simply opened the drawer where his leash was kept it would result it what has come to be known as the "happy dance of joy". Once the "happy dance of joy" has begun there is no other option but to take him for a walk, whether that was your plan or not.

Hoover has his own chair. Some dogs have a doggy bed, Hoover has a recliner. When Hoover came to live with us the furniture from our previous home would not fit in our new house. One of the recliners was put in the second bedroom that I used as an office next to my desk. Hoover would sleep in this chair next to me while I worked and the chair has remained his ever since.

I can not explain the bond that I had with Hoover or how I knew what he needed or how he knew what I needed. We just understood each other.

My heart is broken.

Butterfly Rest Stop

We have all heard plenty of bad news & seen countless horrible images in the past few days. I would guess that like myself you could use a little happy news, so today I would like to share with you a happy little event that happened in my very own yard. 

Sunday afternoon I walked out of my back door to the sight of hundreds of monarch butterflies fluttering about and covering the trees in my backyard. It was a truly wonderful sight to see. These beautiful creatures had apparently selected my yard as a rest stop on their southern migration.

To me, there is nothing more delicate or graceful than a butterfly, kind of like flying flower petals. Groups of them covered sections of trees in clumps like orange leaves on a branch. The rest fluttered about from plant to plant around the yard. My visitors only stayed a couple of hours before moving on but I certainly enjoyed the visit. I am hoping this means that my house has been added to the butterfly travel guide and that I can expect more visits in the future.

Beloved TiVo

I've had kind of an odd day. Thunderstorms and lighting caused the power at my house to be out for a hour or so today.

The good news is that it was still daylight and I did not need to wander around in the dark. The bad news is that the several quick bursts of power on and then power off as the electric company attempted to fix the problem killed my beloved TiVo video recorder. If you are not familiar with a TiVo, it is a DVR device that records television programs to a hard disk, and those of us who use such toys become very spoiled by the features and use of said toy. Needless to say I was distraught by this loss and after a very long phone call to customer support, who tried every trick they could come up with to bring my toy back to life, the verdict was that a power surge had ended it's life too soon. 

Well at least the computers in the house survived and I will be shopping for a better surge protector and back-up power supply for the other toys I can't live without tomorrow. While I was on the phone with customer support I noticed a cricket crawling across the floor. Lately we have had a couple a day of these little creatures enter the house and roam about until I caught and removed them. You would think that Ted the mighty hunter would attack and dispose of such intruders, but he just looks the other way and offers no help. I find this odd since I watched him chase and catch a fly in mid air only this morning. That was a sight to see, the Mighty Ted running from room to room in pursuit of a fly! I was amazed when he caught, chomped and then dropped to the floor his prey. He left the disposal of his catch to me of course.

A Trip To The Park

It cooled off a little the past couple of days and it was pretty nice this evening so I thought the dogs would like a trip to the park. I opened the drawer where we keep the leashes and before I could pick up the first one, the Hoover & Ted Happy Dance Of Joy had started. Bouncing, jumping, yelping, dancing on their hind legs, racing to the door and back, wiggling and doing everything except stand still long enough to put the leash on. This goofy dog pre-walk celebration goes on every single time we go out and would be entertaining if I wasn't the one trying to hook a leash to their collars. 

Ten minutes later we were finally out the door and headed toward the park. When we got to the park I looked around to verify that we had the place to ourselves and I let go of the leash. This is my favorite part of our visits to the park because both dogs have to find out what other dogs have been there since their last visit. They rush off, noses to the ground, running in some random pattern following every scent. To me it looks like a kind of fast paced furry vacuum cleaner dance. It was still pretty hot outside so after they had run around a while we headed back home where they emptied the water bowl before flopping down on the kitchen floor to rest. 

A half hour later I had cooled off, the dogs were snoozing, the house was quiet, everything was fine, then as I was looking for a battery in the junk drawer I opened the wrong one. You guessed it, the Happy Dance Of Joy drawer. :)

What Kind Of Name Is Hoover?

I had heard the name as given to a dog a some point in my life and thought it sounded like the perfect name for a dog. If you have ever watched a dog in the kitchen or around the dinner table, most dogs are watching the floor with great concentration for anything that falls. Since Hoover is the brand name of a vacuum cleaner, and just mentioned floor cleaning skills of dogs, what better name for a happy dog? So this would be the short version of why I named my dog Hoover, but you know that's not the whole story. Any dog cool enough to get a web site named after him has to have a better "How did he get his name" story than that, right?

Way back in the years before we meet Hoover, I had mentioned to my wife once that when we lived in a place where it was reasonable to have a dog, that I wanted to get a really great dog and that I wanted to call him Hoover, for the above mentioned reasons. She agreed that it would be nice to have a dog when we had a yard and thought the name was cute. A few years later we moved into a nice townhouse in Alabama where I had accepted a job with a local television station. One of the things I did at the station was to set up a program with the local animal shelter to feature a couple of animals each week in commercials to encourage people to adopt pets from the shelter. Every week a nice lady from the shelter would come by with dogs and cats to be used in the commercials. One week as we were watching the production team try to get the puppies to sit still long enough to take a picture, this nice lady told me that they had just received a litter of Lab/Rott mixed pups. That combination struck me as a wonderful mix and that it would make a good looking dog with many nice qualities. So I called the wife and asked her to meet me at the animal shelter to take a look at the puppies. 

When we arrived we were led to a pen that was full with no less than twenty puppies of various breeds. The only way to examine the ones we came to look at was to get in the pen with them. So I knelt on the floor surrounded by puppies all playing and running about while I tried to get a good look at the new batch. From the moment I touched the floor this one little dog was all over me, climbing up on my legs to get at my face, jumping, bouncing, barking and using every cute puppy move in the book to get me to notice him. He was not one of the Lab/Rott mix that I had come to see so I tried to ignore him, but this little guy with the short legs was not giving up. I could not get a good look at any of the other pups with this puppy climbing in my lap and doing everything he could to get as close as possible. He was a Labrador/Basset mix and he had decided he was going home with me. Unable to resist his charms, the wife and I decided he was right. We went back to the front desk to fill out the adoption forms and take home our new friend. While filling out the forms the nice lady from the shelter asked what we were going to name him. Now that long past conversation with the wife on this subject had all but been forgotten by me, but without a second of hesitation, my wife answered "Hoover, we are going to name him Hoover". 

So there you go, now you know about the day Hoover adopted me, how he got his name and you probably have a good idea of why I married my wife.

What Is A Hoover?

I have a web site is called Hooverdog.com, the jokes are Hooverdog Jokes, so just what is a Hoover? 

Hoover is a Labrador Retriever/Basset Hound mix born in December of 1992. He is black in color to the casual observer, but actually a very dark brown, short version of a Labrador. The size of a Basset but the look of a Lab. Kind of a permanent puppy, the best kind of dog to have around! With his short legs and muscular body he is amazingly fast and strong enough to pull you or your car down the road. I have been tempted on several occasions to tie him to the truck for help getting out of the snow. All I would have to do is throw his ball and off he would go, pulling along whatever was tied to him. I learned this the hard way by holding onto his leash and then not letting go fast enough after throwing his ball in the park one sunny afternoon.

From the day we met he has been my best friend and constant companion. Loyal, attentive and completely unaware that he is too big to be a lap dog, he has accompanied me to work, occupied the passenger seat of my truck for thousands of miles, entertained countless friends and business associates, and offered anyone he thought needed it, a comforting Hoover hug! His favorite way to greet people is to stand on his hind legs, walk toward you front legs open until he grabs you around the waist and says hello. He likes long walks, romps in the park, small children and belly rubs. His favorite food is the last bit of whatever I am eating, it matters not if it is steak, pizza or salad, he figures that if it is good enough for me it is good enough for him. His favorite beverage is water but he does enjoy a little milk every now and then, and he does not care for Kool-Aid. Hoover does like to get e-mail, he seems to really enjoy hearing the comments folks send in regarding his latest joke. So if you wish to let him know anything just drop us a note, he is usually laying close by whenever I am at the computer and I will pass along your thoughts.

If you would like to see what Hoover looks like there is a photo of him.