Bunday June 2007- July 22, 2014

There once was a sweet old man bunny who lived his final days out in a tiny house. A house bunny unlike most, this rodent of unusual size frightened grown men and sent them running in terror- not that a bunny is a rodent, but "Lagomorph of unusual size" doesn't roll off the tongue in quite the same way.

This bun wasn't a mean bun, he never bit a human or a dog or a cat ... and never once chewed a power cable. He was happy to lay at your feet, waiting for you to lean over and give his ears a rub, or sit in a window sill watching the world go by. He would do anything for a piece of banana or a grape.He loved to steal scraps of fabric while his person sewed, or would run off with a ball of wool in his mouth while his person knit. He had patience enough to train two dogs to become his friend... one old lady dog and one psychotically bouncy puppy dog, and was clear to announce when he felt they were well trained (taking a year for each) by jumping over the baby gate that kept them apart.

This sweet old man bunny was named after the bunny in the book "chocolat",  lived for 7 years, grew to 21lbs and 3 feet long. He shed enough that his person friend could have spun wool enough for several sweaters. He needed a litter tray the size of an under-the-bed storage container and wore size medium dog clothes...

not that his owner ever dressed him up.

much.

“My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.” ― Richard Adams, Watership Down

Pontouff Pony

For more random bunny adventures over the years, click on this link:  Monday Bunday 

Witness to a crime

I love a late night walk.
I've seen the entirety of town beneath the streetlights.

Friends from less safe cities shudder at the thought of walking the streets after midnight. They worry.

A few weeks ago, not too late...  I was walking the town, bratty dog at my side,  when I was witness to a crime.

Sort of.

Standing outside the store was a young man in a hoodie. Hoodie up, face covered by shadows, smoking. He threw the butt on the ground, glanced over his shoulder and scurried in the shop door. It was weird. Nearly midnight on a friday. There were no cleaning vans parked nearby.
I looked closer, there were more figures lurking about in the store's shadows!

I slowed our pace. I didn't know what to do... do I call the cops? Do I call one of the store's employees? I tried to take a closer look.

There was something.. off. I mean, I try not to categorize people, I try not to think in terms of stereotypes... but one of the guys looked suspiciously like the guy from the computer store... and one looked like the guy from a rival trivia team who works at a local internet provider... one was drinking a bottle of pop. These guys were more geek than hoodlum.

But why were they lurking around in the dark in a bookstore?

I watched for a little while and decided that they probably weren't stealing things, or at least they weren't causing damage.

The next morning I mentioned what I'd seen to one of the store's employees.

Did you know there's Dungeons and Dragons group that meets on friday nights at the bookstore?

*edit to add: or maybe it's "magic, the gathering" *  

And she's up!

Well, I can show my face in public again. Today I finally got the hammock up. And... in the weird way that my world turns, things worked out perfectly.

Yes the first post, the one I broke, was in the "perfect spot" for a post, but once the new one was in the ground I realized that I'd avoided a pretty huge and equally humiliating error. The new post is another 6 inches back from the tree, behind the first post hole- with a few inches of clearance for the trailer to pass it on it's way through the backyard to it's parking space.

I hung the hammock from the chains on either end of it's neatly tied ropes. It's a huge hammock... part of the issue was trying to find a big enough space to put the freaking thing... I watched it swaying gently, high off the ground, surprised again at how big the hammock was, then slid myself onto it...

And sat on the ground.

Yup.

Brand-spanking-new hammock has a lot of stretch to it's unused ropes.

Not to fear though, all was not lost! I just had to hang the hammock on the first ring rather than on one of the chain links. BUT.
If that first post hadn't broken, the distance between the tree and post would have been just slightly too close, and no amount of adjustments would have made that hammock swing freely. I'd be napping on the ground.

Yay for stupid mistakes!

*Now it hangs at dog-nose-height... this makes Ruebendog very very happy. I napped and he brought me little twigs, his toys and pieces of bark from his current favourite log... all things that he deposited on me while I slept.

"Handy"

I'll just say it wasn't my finest hour.

Last summer my big project was to build the new fence and gate and tear down the old one. True, I have to rebuild a portion of the fence... but I was pretty proud of what I did.

I thought ahead too. When I tore down the old fence I was able to save two fence posts to use for other projects... like, to fix another portion of fence. The posts were in great shape. One post went to the dump, it was kinda crappy and cracked after a decade of being a fence.

My goals this summer include the two repairs mentioned, a little back deck, and a hammock.

I want a frickin hammock.

Unfortunately I don't have trees the right distance apart, and while I've purchased myself the perfect hammock, I've either got to cough up the cash for a stand (nope) or, I can install a single post the right distance from a tree. If I do it right I can build a fold down table off the post to use by the campfire too.

So yesterday I bought myself some quick set cement, dug the hole, measured the post, cut the post, placed it, poured the cement, tried to jiggle the post to help get rid of bubbles.... and broke the post.

Broke the post in the quick dry cement.

Because I threw out the wrong post.

Every time I've stepped in the backyard (or even just thought about the backyard) since, well.. there's been a lot of swearing and stomping.

I've just dealt with the problem.
"Fixed it".

I had to dig down around the post enough that I could fit my hand saw below the soil level, but not disturb too much soil because I have to dig a new hole (for a brand new post) not too far from the original perfect post hole space, because.... well... it was perfect. Not to close to the berry garden, not too close to the campfire, not blocking the trailer's parking space, shade for most of the day.

I'm still swearing.

There's no photo evidence, it was too embarrassing.

Bad wolf

Know when you just need a really good cry? Not for any one reason in particular,  maybe a run in with an old acquaintance or an off hand comment or an embarrassing encounter with someone you're interested in... in addition to the regular weight of life.

I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to bring on a good sob session. The sure fire way? (Get ready to geek out) Watching one of the two episodes of Dr Who that end in heartbreak on Darlig Ulv-Stranden.  The first one is where the Doctor says goodbye to Rose (for the first time), and the other episode is where he says goodbye (again) to Rose... and then leaves Donna with her family...
oh my nerves.
I weep openly every time.

So tonight I needed to drop the things I was carrying in my mind so I put on that second goodbye episode.
And right as soon as I was welling up, letting go... the dog went coo-coo-bananas. I'm talking sonic crazy.

It took me a good fourty five minutes to get him to chill out, and this was after we'd just gotten back from a long (embarrassing) walk. I still have no idea what his problem was, but he very nearly got himself rehomed tonight.

The show isn't nearly as sad when you watch it in short bits punctuated by a barking and spinning dog.

It happened more than once

March 20th

A late thursday confessional: one year for the pie off I didn't even bother to bake a pie .. I just played up the smack-talk and led people on with a gazillion pie posts on pintrest. It was awesome.

A bad habit

Sometimes I lie a little to get out of spending time with people I don't know/ people with the potential to take a lot of energy from me.

Wow. Seeing that written down makes it seem pretty terrible.

I'm a bit of an introvert and sometimes I've used up my emotional capacity for social excursions by the end of the day.

No, really. Stop laughing. If you're laughing we don't actually know eachother and I'll probably have to tell you a little white lie at some point.

Case in point, tonight. I spent most of the day supporting someone I know at their first chemotherapy appointment.  It took a lot out of them, and in turn, it took a lot out of me. It was eleven plus hours of being "on", upbeat and positive even when we hit a medical emergency snag that put us off course for hours. Yes, it's not about me, but at the end of the day the last thing I wanted to do was spend time with people.

*so of course I ran into several acquaintances on the way home.... including one who just got engaged and... wow.. seriously... I'm so shallow, I'm not even going to allow myself to keep that next sentence I typed on here*

At fairly-late-o'clock I got a txt from a person asking me to come over to meet some friends of theirs who were visiting from out of town, wanting me help with some music they were recording. Well, and to meet one friend who is apparently a nice single guy....

I just couldn't do it. And for some reason saying "I don't have the emotional capacity to be fun and flirtatious and focus on new music in this late hour of the evening" wasn't something I was comfortable saying.
No, instead I was comfortable lying.

"I'm already in bed", she typed while laying on the couch starting a movie.

Sheesh.
Ok. So, I've got that to work on.

I'm in bed though for real now. I'm being eaten by mosquitos.  The Catholic upbringing in me is so happy to pay penance. The "terrified of crawly things in the dark" part of me wants to throw on all the lights once I've stopped my internal screaming enough to find the switch.

This is pretty much every week.

March 27

Thursday confessional: when I changed the sheets on my bed this week I found three books, a pen and a sudoku.

Yeah, I'm still not sure.

May 22nd
 

Thursday confessional, I decided to hop on the smoothie-making train. Turns out there's a bit of a learning curve involved before you get it right. For example, I spent the first day staring at my blender and ingredients for several minutes trying to figure out how one actually goes about making a smoothie that ISN'T alcohol based. I'm not even kidding.

Canada day

This summer is about three things.

1) community

2) reading as many books as I can

3) drinking gallons of lemonade

Happy birthday Canada,  I've celebrated by doing all those things today.

Later edited to add: I just started reading the Griffin and Sabine trilogy and I'm deeply in love with the artwork and the story. I'm going to have to try to pace myself reading the next two books, to try to make them last.