What color are your eyes?

Yep, my drivers license expired on my birthday. I had to go get it renewed. That is really a fun process, isn't it? It was about a 2 hr. wait and that was even in Loveland. In the future, it might help if they had more than one DMV person working to help people.

I had plenty of time to reflect as I sat and waited for my number to be called. I remembered when I first got my permit in Iowa. You get your permit when you are 14 there! Exciting day for sure! There was a long line behind me when I was getting my eyes checked for my permit. The lady was asking me a series of questions and then asks me another one. Although I did not hear this one as a question. I thought this is a weird thing to ask me to do. But I do it anyway. All of a sudden, I hear the lady say..."what are you doing?" I open my eyes and say, "what do you mean?" She says, "why are you closing your eyes?" I said because you told me too. She said, "I said what color are your eyes??" Ohhhhh...that makes more sense. Oh, they are green, I say. I hear snickering behind me. She sighs and give me my permit!!

Well my number finally got called at the DMV in Loveland. The lady taking the pictures was critiquing everyone that she processed. She actually said to one lady, you look much better in this one. You didn't look as good in your last license! Haha.. funny. Oh, but I'm next. What will she say about me? She takes my picture. She looks at it. Yeah, um.. that's okay. Whew! I'm glad I passed. The DMV is a whole other world... even in Loveland..

P.S. They will probably never ask you to close your eyes at the DMV.

Rusty

My boys' are really wanting a puppy. Actually Dylan really wants a puppy. Brian and I love the idea of a puppy. We will eventually start looking into it. Although we know in the wee hours of the morning, Brian will be taking the puppy outside for us all. Jake is not so into the whole dog idea. Not sure why but he is content with Dylan just getting a hermit crab. I am ready for a puppy, as long as it is not a Dachshund. Its not that I am against that breed of dog..it is just that it reminds me of Rusty. Here is where my story begins.

Well, I must say I never thought I would be writing about Rusty in a blog. I think the time period is around 93(ish)? We were living in Berthoud and my grandma, Rene, lived with us. She had sold her house a few years earlier and had built an addition onto our house. She brought her horses along with her and it was perfect, since we had the land for them. I look back now and realize I took that place and time in my life for granted. It was a special place to live and I have so many good memories of my family in that house.

As my grandma was and still is an animal lover (she is 95!) she decided to adopt Rusty. I love dogs, but Rusty highly annoyed me from the get go. He was a licker. It doesn't matter what was going on..he was always trying to lick you--legs, arms, you name it. So, the only time I really interacted with this dog was to say, "Move Rusty!" "Get Away, Rusty!" Poor Rusty.

Another one of Rusty's fun traits was the he liked to roll in the horse manure. Awesome. With having all the horse manure right at his disposal..you think he would have stayed close to home. But no. That was not the case. For some reason, the lure of the other neighbors' horse manure was too much for him. So, one day the neighbors called and said, "I think your dog is here in our pasture." No one else was home, so, grandma called on me to help get Rusty home. Well, I wasn't going to walk up there. It was a good little jaunt up the hill and hey, if you can drive- why walk? I got in my car and drove over there. I spotted Rusty right away and jumped out to grab him...ahhh, disgusting! He had been rolling in the neighbors horse manure and was totally covered with it. Fantastic. And he was trying to lick me! This dog does not know when to stop. You think by the look on my face that there would be no attempt to lick me. How am I going to get him home?? I should have walked over with a leash! Well, I will tell you one thing-- he was not going to set foot in my car. Hmmmm..I am only 1 minute away from home and there is breathable air in the trunk. I gingerly pick him up trying not to get anything gross on me and put him in the trunk and closed it. I drove back home hoping grandma would not see me. Don't think it would be a good idea for her to see her beloved Rusty being pulled out of the trunk. I look around. Coast seems clear. I pull Rusty out and as I am doing so I see grandma's shocked face in her window. Oh no. Busted. I let Rusty loose and grandma comes out to see us. "Angela, she gasps!" I said he is okay--look at him. And there he was happily coming up the steps to lick grandma! Grandma definitely did not think that was funny, but she was a good sport about it. Now Rusty may or may not have been traumatized by the trunk incident. I don't know. I do think he definitely was traumatized by some coyotes (they took him on a wild ride) later on, but that is another story. He did get some redemption in the end. Years later, when grandma moved into an independent living facility, she found some great people to take Rusty. They absolutely adored him. He got dog massages and was treated like a prince!

Maybe I should have tried to like Rusty more, but one thing is for sure...I love my grandma. She is a pretty neat little lady. And I still love her compassion for all animals great and small.


This is my "I am tolerating Rusty" look

Maybe think before you leap

About 3 weeks ago, I was in serious pain in my back. I went to my chiropractor and she says, “what in the world did you do?” I say, “I have no idea. So, she has been working on me for awhile. A couple days ago, the beach scene flashed before my eyes and I remembered how I had hurt my back. I had blocked it out, I guess. So, that is why my back is jacked up!

Let me take you back to the scene at the beach….we were in San Diego for spring break last month. Love San Diego! Anyway, the first day we got there we went go to check out some beaches. We were walking along and saw a really neat one in La Jolla. Hmmm….one problem. How in the world do you get down there? The only way was to climb down some rocks and then..jump! No problem. Brian says to me, “you know you will have to climb back up and that is not a tiny jump. Are you sure?” Yes, I am sure. I had just seen a rather large woman sitting on that beach, so I knew there had to be a way out if she was down there. We climb down and jump. The boys’ had a great time romping in the waves! We proceed to leave and I’m confused why it looks so steep to climb out? Brian hoists me up and then tosses the boys’ up. He is about to figure a way up when the larger woman on the beach comes up to us. She is with her daughter (who is about my age) and they are collecting their things to leave. She comes to the bottom of the rock and looks up. She says, “I can’t climb up that rock” She is right. She cannot. This is something she did not think about before she jumped down. Something my husband pointed out to me just a bit earlier. Brian tells her we will try to help her. He gets in a position to push from behind and I decide to grab her arms and try to pull her up. Note: the daughter is just watching all of this- not bothering to help. I am straining to pull up this 300 pound woman, while Brian is frantically trying to push from below. Did I mention she is still in her bathing suit? I realize, oh dear…I can’t do this. Why am I doing this?? We come to the realization that Brian and I are not going to get this woman up the side of this rock. The lady and her daughter decide to go try and find another way out. No thank you or anything..they just walk off. Now if this lady had been by herself or if they had asked for more help—we would have A. found a ladder somewhere? B. found a large group of really strong men or C. called the fire department. I don’t know how in the world that woman made it out, but I do hope she did.

So, moral of the story: do not try to pull a large person up the side of a cliff…you might hurt yourself. And sometimes you need to think before you leap.

Bonfante

Well, I have all of these stories rolling around in my head and I feel the need to share the love. I love to write..so, this is a good outlet for me. I am not sure why embarrassing things seem to happen to me a lot, but they do. I am writing this story for one friend, in particular, my dear friend, Kimmy. She was there to console me after my humiliating display in front of a large crowd of people! Our two families took the kids one day to Bonfante (now called Gilroy Gardens). I just want to interject here that I love this place and is the best for an outing with the kiddos! Speaking of Gilroy, did you know it was the garlic capital of the world? Even in San Jose you can smell the garlic in the summer morning air and it smells delicious. Mmmm…garlic. Oh, where was I? Yes, Bonfante.

So, we are skipping along having a great day in the sunshine. We come to the pond with the swan paddle boats. The kids shout, yeah let’s do this! We get in line and it ends up that I won’t have a partner. I am fine with that. Brian gets in with Dylan and they happily paddle off. My boat floats up and the attendant helps me down into the boat. As I had been talking and not paying attention, I did not realize that all the paddle boats were two seaters. For some reason, I thought that since I was by myself they had given me a single person paddle boat. I get in and get situated and I am immediately confused. My feet could not reach the pedals?! So, I keep trying to stretch my legs to get them to reach. I can’t be this short, right?? I finally yell out to the attendant, “Hey, um…my feet don’t reach the pedals. Can you help me out?” She looks down at me and says, “Ma’am, you are supposed to sit on one side of the boat to pedal. I realize with horror that I am straddling the paddle boat!! I basically looked like I was in labor and about to give birth to a giant swan paddle boat baby. The best part were the long lines of people looking down at me watching this whole thing…like I am a spectacle in a zoo. Really? Did that just happen? I had two choices…I could leap out of the boat and run and hide or I could muster up what dignity I had left and finish that ride. I chose the latter. I slunk down onto one side of the boat and pedaled away…that was a long lap around the pond.

I guess the moral of the story is when you make a fool of yourself in front of a large crowd—soldier on! To have friends that love you and to laugh with is priceless. I will never look at paddle boats the same way again, but I will always think of Kimmy when I do. And that made the whole thing worth it.