new experiences

Reinee had a new experience today. At about 6:50 AM, following LaVerkin Creek through Confluence Park as we headed back toward the car during our morning run, she took the opportunity to get up close and personal with a skunk. This skunk crossed the trail ahead of us about a week ago, but Reinee was closer to me that time and I was able to call her to me and keep her a good distance away from the critter, as he "high tailed it" across the trail. This time, I think he was waiting for us to return, and, tail up again, he walked out just as Reinee reached his observation point. I yelled at her to go "back", and she finally obeyed, reluctantly. He followed her! She stopped, he sprayed and he walked into the bushes on the south side of the trail.

Reinee shook and snorted, then trotted to me when I called. Fresh skunk spray smells different than you'd expect, but I had been sprayed once myself and was with Sam when he was sprayed, so I recognized the odor. We walked a short ways, and Reinee started to veer toward the bushes on the right. I was about to call her back when I was relieved to see that she backed off on her own. I shifted to the berm on the north side of the trail. Sure enough, as I passed the spot where Reinee had stopped, I was entertained by the sight of the back end of a skunk, tail straight up and fluffed out. There's not much uglier than the business end of a skunk, even if you aren't aware of just what that business is. That villain had walked along through the bushes parallel to the trail and was waiting to ambush us again. He didn't squirt me, but I didn't get very close.

Because I didn't want Reinee to stink up the car, I sent Terry home to get the pickup. He had a hard time starting it, so I guess it needed a run anyway. It took some doing to coax Reinee into the back with me, but finally we rode the half-mile home in the open air. I think she enjoyed it. Then, after giving her a quick drink of water at the front step, I took her out back and went looking for some tomato juice. When I came back out, she was sliding around in the gravel and getting all covered with dust, especially her face. I doused her with tomato juice, rubbed it in with a rag, and hosed her off. Since she likes to "bite the water", hosing her off wasn't as tough as it might have been. I didn't want to hose off her ears, though, and they had really taken a good squirt from Pepe LePew. I rubbed them with the juice-soaked rag and wiped them off after rinsing the rag.

I toweled Reinee down and washed the towel along with my shoes, shirt and pants and Terry's jacket, scented when he lifted her into the pickup bed.  She didn't smell too bad, but there was an aura wherever she went. Then I made my big mistake. I sprayed some Febreze in her direction. I don't like Febreze; it makes me sneeze, but I figured a couple of small squirts wouldn't be a big deal. Ha! Where it hit Reinee's fur, I guess it cancelled out the tomato juice, because it brought the skunk smell back! So I hosed Reinee off once more. She's drying out, slowly.

wireless mouse

I now have the wireless mouse I need to make the old laptop usable for photo processing. No more excuses. Desert flowers would be a good place to start, because it's been a wonderful year for spring bloom here. I'll put together a scrapbook's worth, and go back and identify the flowers later.

photobucket

I'm still working on procedures to use photobucket pro for photo sharing. I was disappointed to find I couldn't edit my 2 MB originals directly on Photobucket, but I can see that other people wouldn't need to do this, and it does avoid some potential problems. That means I'll be PhotoShopping on the old computer with the dead wireless, and transferring to the wired machine Ihat won't install PhotoShop correctly so that I can upload edited photos to Photobucket. Not an insurmountably obstacle, but annoying.

Woohoo

I've been having so much trouble with this computer that working around it uses up most of my free time. I can't get PhotoShop to work on this computer, and learning new photo programs is mindboggling. I had an old computer repaired and upgraded, hoping to use the old PhotoShop, but when I plugged in my thumnb drive with the camera flash card, the USB ports weren't working (I thought). The wireless doesn't work either. Despair. But yesterday, I tried to use laptop speakers through the USB port. First try failed, but the second port is working. I must have tried the same port twice (ditz!) with the flash card. So I can go back to PhotoShop without the nightmare of copying to hard drive and CD and then to the old hard drive. WOW!
Maybe I'll get back to posting here. I've missed it.

Dogfest, roaring water, cracking rocks

The most interesting thing this week was a trip to Rockville for Dogfest at the Doggy Dude Ranch. Unfortunately, Reinee had an anxiety attack about being there with all those dogs and owners. She'd been there once before, as a test, to see if we could leave her for a few hours, and she did OK, but yesterday she went bonkers and had an attack of extreme dandruff and shedding, her way of expressing high anxiety.


In the yard, I just keep after the weeds. The stakes holding the honeysuckle away from the back fence (so that they don't get herbicided by the city) gave way, and I had to find a new way to tie the wire trellis back. The wind really works those over. It's still a temporary fix but will help for now. We found another apricot that had survived the April 6 freeze -- so now we have two apricots (that's individual fruit, not trees). Aphids are attacking the apricot and the plum. I've seen ladybugs, but they are not keeping up with the supply of aphids, so I hose the undersides of the leaves off every couple of days.

The birds must be feeding hordes of little ones. They've been eating a quart of thistle seed, a quart of sunflower seed, and two quarts of mixed wild bird food (mostly millet) every day.

Our run through the hills was interesting today. The road ahead didn't look like much, though after a while I could see we were approaching a chasm, no uncommon thing around here. Then I noticed a faint roaring sound, which I ultimately realized must be water. Surely, there's not that much water in the river, I thought; there must be a waterfall, or at least some rapids. And then we saw ...

We think this is the dam that provides power for the local irrigation water system. Our street is one of the older ones, so we don't have irrigation water. We have to use culinary water for our plants, so we are definitely in favor of xeriscaping.

Along the side of this chasm, there is an extensive web of clefts in the rock.

Many of the cracks would be easy to step over, and there are photogenic scenes beyond them, but I'm afraid to pursue them because Reinee is busy chasing lizards through the brush as I work. I'm afraid a lizard may go over the edge, and she might slip into a crack. She's a leaper, and would be OK if she saw what was there, but I don't want to take the chance.

She never catches the lizards, who slip by faster than a shadow, but she loves the chase. Here she is saying, "Just one more lizard, Mom?"

On the way back to the car, we see a couple of large vultures headed toward Virgin. I dream of spotting one of the condors someday.

flowers, lizards, rivers and hikers

Reinee had fun chasing lizards today. I actually saw one this time. They are very skinny and move faster than a shadow. She'll never catch one and wouldn't know what to do if she did. She just likes to leap and bound over the bushes in the chase.

Flowers are abundant in the desert this year. A great time for photography. This yucca will be a knockout when the blooms burst out.

Sego lily (to the right) is the Utah State Flower.

I've put together a slide show from today's run. It shows water in the Virgin River. At the end of the walk we spotted some hikers climbing the hill where we started out.

Here's a link to the slide show:

Reinee's Run, May 7, 2010

Thomas Dolby: "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" | Video on TED.com

Thomas Dolby: "Love Is a Loaded Pistol" Video on TED.com