Popeye

"Bull in a China Closet" I'm sure most of you have heard that description and it was usually used by a frustrated parent whilst issuing a verbal scolding to a clumsy offspring for breaking a cherished memento. Here at Menagerie Manor it was quite frequently describing Popeye, MeMa's Boston Terrier. He could never just walk into the house, he would stand at the door with the other dogs and then when the door opened he would bolt through knocking the other dogs out of his way and sometimes the unlucky human that opened the door and was not privey to his great need to enter quickly. If one were to thumb through their dog book and come across the page devoted to the Boston Terrier they would be welcomed by the pleasant description of said dog as " the American Gentlemen among dogs" ???????

 

He was our eldest son Nathan's dog for the first few years but came to live with us when he and his wife seperated. I tried to rant my way out of it saying "Nathan can come live here but that dog will not step foot in this house.....he pee's on everything......he is not a normal Boston, he is rude and that farting could kill one of us."

 

Soooooo, when Nathan and Popeye moved back home there were alot of adjustments to be made mostly on my part because MeMa was in a state of joy not only having our Nathan back in his old room but our grandson Brooklyn as well and Popeye to boot.

The other animals were in the same camp as myself when it came to Popeye. There were several skirmishes between the other dogs that very easily could have ended badly but I was fast on my feet to break things up. Betty was very tolerant and I chalked that up to her earlier training as a therapy dog, no it was usually the "Little Nazi" Sophie who has no patience for rude behavior.

A short while later Nathan told us he was taking an apartment but would not be taking Popeye because of a no pet policy. MeMa assured him that Popeye would be fine living here.....and that I was in complete agreement.......?

 

I have to admit he was no dumb, dumb, every rude or unacceptable behavior that was met with a stern verbal reprimand was usually never repeated but there were a few times that he was banished to the sunroom to spend some time alone thinking about his bad behavior.

 

Soon he was part of the crowd at Menagerie Manor and a fare amount of peace and tranquility was returned to the house.

Popeye loved to go for rides in the car and his favorite treat was going with MeMa for her cup of coffee because the nice people that worked there always gave him a dog treat. When his MeMa was away he would sit and watch the door for hours anticipating her return.

Once in a moment of weakness I felt sorry for him so I drove him out to the airport in MeMa's litttle Volkswagen Beetle to pick her up and he watched every plane land with great interest.

 

As I wrote in an earlier post he developed Cushings disease, we knew that his life would be cut short. His vet advised us that we should make him comfortable as the treatment for the disease was dangerous and only prolonged the life of the dog by one year. We tried several natural remedies and nothing worked as the disease progressed. As it is a canceer of the pituary gland he was ravenous at all times resorting to eating his own feaces and anything else that had an oder to it. Most of his hair soon vanished forcing him to depend on his custom jackets that we had made to keep him comfortable.

 His vet told us that we would know when it was time to end his battle, that happened last Wednesday. Nathan joined us to say goodby and see that his life ended peacefully and with some dignity.
After, MeMa and I returned to Menagerie Manor so that our Sophie could see that Popeye was at peace before taking him to be cremated.


 

Popeye

5/18/07 to 4/13/16

 

 

That's Going To Hurt........And It Did

This getting old stuff is getting painful.......ouch!
Every Thursday's routine finds this old gardener and MeMa getting up at 5:30 and heading over to the youngest son's home feeding breakfast to the two "little terrorists" while their Mommy and Daddy stumble around getting ready for work. After breakfast MeMa takes Taeya off to school then we clean house and take little Lucy to her gymnastics class back over on our side town. Then we head back to Menagerie Manor to eat lunch and Lucy helps me take care of the animals. Lucy has a short nap in the car as we head back clear crossed town to pick " Sissy" up at school and back to their house were we do homework and fix supper before Mommy and Daddy get home from work. We all eat supper and leave the rest for lunches or whatever! And then MeMa and I drive the long trip across town getting home around 8:00 pm.
MeMa had a poetry reading to attend to tonight at 6:00, so the morning routine was the same except when we picked Taeya up from school we drove across town (one hour) to Menagerie Manor, did some homework, made supper and let the girls have a good romp outdoors. MeMa headed off to her poetry read while the girls and Poppi ate supper. And next is the part of the evening where it all went wrong. Lucy came in from the garden while I was doing the clearing up and said "Poppi...can you come play tag with us?" "Of course",  I say and like an old fool I head out to the garden and the chase was immediately on. I was standing on the patio when Lucy screeched, "You better run", which I did. While screaming like a girl I ran across the patio, crossed the foot bridge, crossed the flag stone and just stepped into the gravel on the walk way where I lost my balance and skidded to a halt on my face coming to a complete halt when face met the brick that lines the walk. I stumbled up and turned to face Lucy who was in hot pursuit of her victim, Lucy screamed as blood gushed from my forehead her older sister heard the commotion and rallied like a trooper, ran into the house to return with a towel to hold to the wound then took charge of her frantic little sister calming her almost immediately so this old foolish gardener could go clean himself up. When Mommy came and picked her scared girls up things had calmed down. A short time later MeMa got home and this old gardener was looked after quite lovingly and it was decided that I may have also broken one of my toes.......jeez!

Spring Fun

Another surgery behind me........."cancer free".....??????? But that was what I was told before. Not that I am negative about the whole thing, I am quite the opposite actually. I am feeling so much better and have quite a wonderful last couple of weeks. Easter Sunday was spent with my beautiful family, laughter and a fantastic brunch prepared by MeMa, the perfect diversion the day before surgery. All that is out of the way, life's returned to normal. MeMa and I decided we needed a little fun so we headed to the coast. It was also the day that my surgeon would call with results on the biopsy. First stop was in Salem for a hearty breakfast at the Pancake House and lots of coffee. Then on to our first casino. My surgeon removed three tumors but there was a suspicious area that he biopsied. While at the casino we received the call telling us that the results of the biopsy say no sign of cancer. With that news MeMa said, "Let's go for a walk on the beach." So out of smokey casino air and out into the fresh salt air.

Selfie

A new light was on the day ahead of us, we jumped into the car and headed inland to get lunch and another casino. We dined at McMenamins "Hotel Oregon" in the town of  McMinnville. We recently purchased McMenamins "Passports." The object of the passport is when visiting a McMemamins establishment, you receive a stamp on the dedicated page for that particular restaurant or bar (Hotel Oregon has six). When we received our first five we were given a mission to find a painting of the hotel's resident ghost blowing smoke. The hotel is ancient and its many floors have winding halls and hundreds of paintings and posters everywhere. We found the painting on the third floor down a very narrow passageway, took the required photo with our cell phone and returned to the main lobby  where we received our last stamp and each received a free gift.

John the resident ghost

There are many McMenamins establishments all over Oregon and Washington states and all are in historic buildings purchased and decorated by the McMenamin brothers. We both did well at the casino's, did some shopping at the outlet mall but I think the most fun was at lunch and completing that first page in our passports.
Then it was back to Portland and home where the sun was shining and the garden vibrant with spring growth and color. One of the newest additions to the garden is a yellow flowering Magnolia called Sunburst, not only a beautiful yellow but very fragrant as well.

Sunburst

 

Turtle Heater

I have mentioned in previous posts that MeMa has two box turtles in her care. Ruby and Elmo are both rescues who are housed in the laundry room. Ruby has been aged at 100 + and Elmo is just over 50. Last year we had central air put in and during the process they told us we would lose the heat vent in the laundry room because the equipment would block it. At the time we thought nothing of it because the laundry room has always been extremely warm and assumed since the furnace was in there it would remain warm even with the loss of the vent........wrong! It is not anything close to uncomfortable, quite the opposite actually. But evidently MeMa's charges think just the opposite and have tried unsuccessfully to go into hibernation. Today we have put an end to their feeble attempts to sleep until June by purchasing a "turtle heater". Our local hardware store had a very limited supply of one and we just were not prepared to spend nearly $100.00 on a heater thats sole purpose was to keep two lazy turtles awake for a couple of more months,  sooooooooo we did the unthinkable and purchased the same heater from a " big box " store for $40.00

 
So with this purchase we should start seeing a flurry of activity in the laundry room turtle population, woohoo!
 
 
Ruby

                              Elmo

Breathing Through Changes and Welcoming Spring

There have been many times that I have been frustrated with fellow bloggers who seem to just drop off planet earth. I wonder why it's so difficult not to just post something, anything for their followers to stay connected. Well I am assuming that I have a follower or two that feels the same about the fact that my last post was December 28th, even if those followers are family.

Hello, I am still alive.........yes........I just pinched myself and it hurts. I retired in October and I have come to the conclusion that I rather like it. Although it took some adjustments to reach that conclusion. MeMa is still working two and a half days so it leaves me with rather a lot of time on my own. My recent and much detested checkup has shown that my bladder cancer has returned, not the thing you want to hear your doctor say. To say the least I was crushed and could see the same in MeMa's expression as she stood next to the doctor while he navigated the camera through my nether regions and quietly explained what they were looking at. Three more tumors and a suspicious area that will be biopsied when they remove the tumors on March 28th. I have to admit that I became quite depressed over the next week, but I am quite convinced that I am in the best possible hands. Life has been very good to me and I have no intentions of leaving it now, so I quickly got off the pity wagon and faced the day. After all, spring has sprung and there are jobs to be done. I am right where I have always wanted to be, retired and working in the garden.

This old gardener has a stock of projects to busy himself and an heir or two for their lifetime.

First on the agenda I catalogued the contents of the pantry and freezers so when I do the weekly shopping I am not over purchasing. One of my new loves is cooking. I have always enjoyed eating, but now find that most of the enjoyment of food is the creation and hearing my wife saying she really likes what has been set before her. Forty two years she has planned, shopped for and prepared every meal set before her family. Fortunately for myself over all those years MeMa has amassed a very large number of recipes. Unlike his wife who can gather items from the pantry and prepare a delicious meal without a recipe, this old gardener can cook but only with a recipe to follow to the letter.

drawers full of recipes

on the top shelf there are two rows of recipe books, one row in front of the other.

The latest project in the garden is almost finished, it required a couple of  trips to the masonry shop for cement blocks. What used to be the kitchen garden is now be three raised beds for MeMa's dahlias. Each bed has a graveled two foot wide walkway so she will be able to keep her feet clean while she picks flowers

I use tomato cages to keep each plant in control and each cage is tagged with a numbered brass tag which corresponds with a page in my record book. Then in the fall I give away any that do not perform well and plant a new one in its place.

Since the 50's the property behind ours has been nursery, which takes up a five block parcel of land. The block directly behind our house has always been a utility area closed to the customers so it has always been very quiet. Economics has brought about change, the property has been sold and houses are to be built on four of the five blocks of land leaving the last for the retail portion of the nursery.
There has always been that worry in some small dark little niche of our brains, but it's something that we would scoff at and ignore.

Our house is 100 years old this year, we are the second owners having purchased it in 1976. We have had terrible, good and great neighbors on either side of us so might as well stick around and see what the future holds at the back fence. With the coming of spring I have already started dressing up the window boxes and filling pots.

Spring is bursting in the garden, mostly on time but with our unseasonably warm winter everything is bumped up a bit. The ancient star magnolia is the first to bloom early. Usually it follows the spring bulbs but this year its snow white blossoms are ahead of the bulbs.