Our Little Oddball

Leave it to us to have a slightly weird dog. Robin is just great: beautiful, funny, smart, talented and very fast... and probably a slew of other things I am forgetting to mention. But she's also a bit, well, unusual.
For example, she's left handed. (Or make that left pawed.) I discovered this fun fact while we were enrolled in that doggie obedience class last summer. During one particular exercise, the instructor pointed out Robin always went for the treat in my left hand first and was therefore demonstrating her dominant side. I then observed that she often gallops across the yard with (mostly) her left paw extended first- like a horse being on its left lead. A little canine leftie! (Must take after Bob...)
And last week, I had Robin rolled over on her back and was scratching her belly. She loves this; possibly most dogs do. But then I was sort of being silly (not too hard to achieve) and was running my fingers down opposite sides of her body, matching up her nipples. I kept coming up one nipple short of her lower abdomen, kind of across from where her navel is. Sure enough, a through investigation through her fur revealed... she's short one nipple! She has an uneven number of nipples; in this case, nine. Weird! I started worrying that possibly she had an "undescended teat" or some other medical paradox.
I resorted to the Internet and discovered that while it's uncommon, this does happen and there's nothing wrong with having an uneven number of nipples. Leave it to our dog. Here's our little odd ball in action:

Well... I was attempting to prove that I'm an "old dog" capable of performing new tricks but my nifty video of Lil' Robin the Good doesn't seem to be coming up. Not sure why.

Anyway, here's a lovely still photo of Robin out surveying her empire:

The end of the day light was so nice and just touched the tops of everything. Robin thought I was wasting my time with the camera instead of kicking that nice ball for her to chase.

And I haven't been able to post a blog recently as our trusty camera decided to up an die. Not sure what happened, but it seems to have had some sort of permanent lens error. I took these pictures with my old work camera, which I borrowed for the weekend. I am antsy to figure out what to do as I am approaching my 500th blog posting and am not ready to give up yet! Another 500 posts are probably in the works!

Happy Birthday to Me! (Warning: Contains graphic images)

Yeah, that kinda gross! My birthday week has been filled with stupid little accidents, mini-medical predicaments and lots of nice presents... and cake! The first thing that happened was Bob looked across the breakfast table at me and informed me that my eye was all red (an understatement). A broken blood vessel is to blame; I have been prone to these in the eye that I damaged. But this one was a bloody gusher and was awful enough that I called the Yale Eye Center. But they were less than impressed at my description and dismissed my concerns with a blase, "We really don't see people for those. It will go away on its own". And it is fading- finally- but I look like The Bride of Frankenstein and it's still enough to scare small children.

And then, as if to compliment the red theme of the week, I developed an heroic case of poison ivy (or oak) and broke out in itchy festering pustules. It really is nice when Nature conspires to make a physical wreck out of you for your birthday: it reinforces that underlying theme of mortality and the inevitable downward spiral to death and decay. Fun!
But despite these less than flattering additions to my 61 year old body, I really had a nice birthday week- and it's still continuing because friends are coming over on Tuesday to help celebrate. Family members gathered on Wednesday to shower me with delightful foods and wines and offer gifts in the form of clothing (to drape over the poison ivy) and smoky eye make up (to disguise that red eye) and fabulous plant material, in the form of two wonderful lilacs to add to my rapidly expanding shrub border and a variegated Physostegia virginiana to fill in one of the holes that has developed in the garden. (And contrary to the opinions of certain family members, I do NOT have too many plants and no where left to place them! I can easily think of at least ten specimens that I'd love to squeeze into my horticultural madhouse...) But where was I? Celebrating my birthday!
It's been a good birthday, despite the above afflictions and the intense heat. Bob and I had a nice, quiet birthday celebration, with more gifts and cake and sushi...
, which turned out to be a good thing as I needed all the rest I could get. When I returned to work on Friday, all hell was breaking loose because of the excitement provided by an estate sale as well as an auction. People were predictably rude and demanding- that's nothing new. But on Saturday, an elderly gentleman who is a regular (pain in the ass) showed up to do himself one better in the annoyance department. He became insulting and abusive after the prices on some books that he wanted to buy were higher than he liked. My supervisor advised me to call the police (fortunately located directly across the street) if he wouldn't leave. Believe it or not, he returned three times (!!!!) to harass and lambast us. He also stood in the parking lot and harangued my boss. I am happy to reoport that he didn't go home and get a gun and shoot us all, but it was a stressful day. Thank goodness that blasted sale is over!!

Collusion, Conspiricies and a Political Rant

Interesting when the universe conspires to give you socks and sweat pants that match... or maybe it's collusion? That's a popular word of late.
How cheerful we all are here at the BobnRita Ranch now that we're (every last one of us!) off our meds and smearing Russian dressing on everything. That story involving Don Jr. has done as much to heal us as the antibiotics and horse pills we were all downing. Don't laugh; it felt like a dispensary around here. My morning ritual was elaborate and I inevitably was the last one served. It ran something like this: Come downstairs and distract the dog while smashing up major horse pain pill and mix that with a grated carrot and molasses to add to Maggie the Mexican Pony's morning feed. Take food to Maggie (who was suffering mightily from a summer-time version of her winter hoof abscess), and then mix up Robin the Good's special rice/organic chicken broth/turkey crumble easy to digest breakfast slops while tricking her into consuming a peanut butter enrobed doxcycline tablet (she caught on in week two). Then it was prepare a Kong for her post-breakfast enjoyment/entertainment. After that, it was time for my favorite drug- caffeine- and my own course of doxcycline. We were all joined by Bob, who was taking amoxicillin for his own charming case of Lyme disease. See why I'm glad that we're past this particular episode?

But yes, recent news tidbits have buoyed our spirits... who's lying now? Everyday adds another character to the list of guest appearances at that infamous meeting at Trump Tower. While I would applaud a quick good riddance to corrupt, cruel, and crooked occupants of the White House, I am actually hoping all of these investigations from Special Prosecutors and House and Senate Sub Committees drag on until well into 2018. I want this boil to erupt right around mid-term elections so there's no doubt as to who caused what when. The not always swift population of this fine country (yes, the very one that helped Russia "elect" The Orange Menace) has a notoriously short attention span and if things come to a head too soon, by November 2018 our citizenry will re-elect some of the mobsters responsible for perpetuating this present charade. Just what IS wrong with rethuglicans?!?!? How much is too much before even they have to admit that there's plenty fishy about this last election and there are more than enough ethics violations to go around! Yeeeesh!
Hey! That felt good! I got a lot off my chest and the sun's shining and maybe it's a new morning for America... where have I heard that before?

Needles and Pins

It's official! Bob had Lyme Disease! That means the only member of this household who hasn't had a tick-born illness if Maggie the Mexican Pony. (Don't get any ideas!) It's bad enough that I'm about half-way into a course of doxycycline but I'll now have company in my pill-ingesting regimen. Bob's knee had been swollen, hot and uncomfortable and he has suffered from regular headaches and like me, he's been tired. His doctor confirmed that his Lyme titer was "lit up like a Christmas tree". Happy holidays!
So we have his'n'hers antibiotics and I've been referred to a chronic Lyme Disease study and ain't life just great? It is pretty depressing to think that every trip outside is fraught with peril and plague. Listen: in addition to Lyme, there is also Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Powassan Virus (Lordy! A "new" one!) and that classic Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. (Fortunately, I don't think that's made it's way here yet!) Chose your poison...

I'm looking at the bottom of my pill container and counting the days until I'm through with this round of medication. Interestingly, some symptoms- no matter how arcane or non-specific!- manifest every time I contract Lyme Disease. F'rinstance, my oft-mentioned desire to lie on the floor, or my suspicion that "my thermostat is broken" to more typical signs like a general achiness and fatigue. Then there are always new and novel symptoms: like this go-round, my toes and fingers tingled intermittently (neuropathy). But these clusters of symptoms are pretty vague and mimic other serious diseases like MS and lupus. Oh joy! I am certain my current doctor was skeptical of my self-diagnosing, but after having Lyme Disease the number of times I have, I'm some kind of an expert...
Bob and I have shared stories of how devious and sophisticated the Lyme bacterium is. It has a real streak of self preservation that compels you to do weird things like not take your pills.(Part of that is how tired you become of simply taking meds.)
And one more fun fact: my ongoing (over two years) neck pain has diminished. I am thinking that either Lyme Disease had centered in my neck and the course of doxcycline has rooted it out, or the acupuncture that I've been getting is really working. I don't care which it is as I'm taking way less ibuprofen than I have and that's a good thing.
I'm looking forward to a stretch of 100% health!