We Are Still Here

It's been not quite a month since our last post. I have been busy with some VW stuff, some hiking, hanging out in the warm sunshine and I admit, a few afternoon siestas. The hounds and the dog are okay. Heidi is a little gimpy the past couple of days so I am waiting to see if a vet appointment is needed. Her lower back is showing signs of old age and that is never a good thing. Walter and Henry play non-stop, sleep together at night and are still digging for gold or copper in the backyard when I am gone. Stella is just Stella as you will see in the photos below.

It's not Walter that does it but it's Henry ... drags everything out to the backyard from towels, shoes, water bowl including the rug it sits on, all of their bones and believe it or not, one of those small Brinks padlocks I use on the dog crates in my bedroom. Yes, I found one in the backyard from by the sun's reflection.

He is the biggest eater I have ever seen for a puppy or an adult dog. He wants his food twice per day plus the food from the others. Here I have just told him one early morning that he cannot take food from Heidi's, Stella's or Walter's food dish while they are eating.

With the daytime temps reaching into the 50's and 60's, Stella find the heat from the sun to be perfect.

We had our first rain of the winter this week. Some one said they had collected .46 of an inch in their water meter. It was nothing more than a light rain over night. We are way behind where we should be for annual precipitation. This time last year those mountains had snow on them.

Does that look like a bone that belongs to Walter and Henry?  No, it's just another one of my things or something that belongs in the house that is not Henry's. It is the door stop to the patio door.

Stella always looks for the doberman next door when she steps outside. Diesel is not barking as much as he use to back this summer. I am glad I changed my mind about moving.

Those houses don't look anything like Arizona because it is the New Jersey shore. I had the urge to buy the 1963 VW Panel van I sold in 2007. It is back online for sale, but to do that I needed to sell my 1964 VW Double Door Panel (2 doors on both sides of van). I put it on eBay and it was sold to a young man that manages a surf shop. He flew out to Tucson, never been in this area. I picked him up at the airport and he left the following night, driving that '64 cross country to New Jersey with no problems.

One of the few times that Walter has a chance to be by himself and just relax. If Henry is awake, Walter has no peace with non-stop playing, now running full speed and wrestling with Henry.

Of course when you are growing as fast as Henry is and all the energy he has ... he has to rest sometimes to catch up.

During my one day tour of the area for the buyer of the VW bus, we stopped in Big Nose Kate's 

Saloon in Tombstone for some lunch. As you can see they have spread the tables out following the state's requirement so they can stay open. Great food.

Before the trip to Tombstone I took my new NJ friend up to Montezuma pass. That dark line you see crossing the photo heading NW in the photos is brand new border wall. They have been building 10 miles of wall per week across the Arizona border this summer.  Yes, people do cross in that area which is south of Sierra Vista. The line of green going left to right about 3/4 of the way up the photo in that valley is the San Pedro River.

I decided this year to cook a meal for Thanksgiving. Remembering 2017 or 2018 I did NOT buy a Marie Callender pecan/pumkin pie. Yet I knew at 3:00am I would be reaching for the bottle of TUMS in the dark. It was worth it ... the meal tasted great. Here you see the hounds and the dog in line waiting for any size of turkey, pie, or anthing food related.

Henry already has his look down for knowing how to beg.

You will not believe how long Stella stood there deciding whether to lay down there or at the other end of the couch.

What is this you say ???  I had the same question one morning. I was getting my second cup of coffee while glancing outside in the yard I see Henry just chewing away at something. I had never seen this before. Not in the yard for sure and it had to have come from the house but what was it ????

For some reason that gray clay or putty fit inside that white thing but I had never seen anything like it. Once again Henry had found something in my house I had no idea that I had. I went from room to room looking for a place it might belong. I checked all the bookshelves, the wood cabinet the tv sits on and I even went outside in the garage just to double check. It was not identified until late afternoon as I walked into my bathroom. There it was !!!!  On the side toward the shower that is not seen, it is the white plastic cover at the base of the toilet that covers the bolt that attaches the toilet to the floor. Another room where I now have to keep the door closed because of Henry.

Heidi is doing more and more of this. Sleeping. At times she acts lost inside or outside. Her appetite has decreased, sleep has increased. She no longer wants to go with me and Stella on our walks. Reviews of a dog food almost seem too good to be true but we have nothing to lose at this point. People have said this food has changed all the things that Heidi is having back to being a younger dog, with their older dogs. I just opened the bag this morning of Purina Pro Plan "Clear Mind" ... I'll keep you posted if I see any changes for all of you that have older dogs.

How can you ever get mad, no matter what he is chewing, with a face like that ????

I had my one year follow-up appointment with my hip replacement surgeon. While waiting for him I took a picture of this on his exam room wall. He looked at x-rays and said things looked fantastic. He was happy I was still riding the bicycle although I have not returned to the frequency I was doing last May. I told him the two issues I was having. He recognized one, "the billfold feeling" on the side of my hip is mentioned by other patients. It is due to the nerves that were cut during the surgery and those muscles around it have not fully grown back to normal.

The other one he did not recognize. When riding my bike sometimes at the 10 mile mark my surgical side pelvis feels like there is no muscle between the bottom of it and my bike seat. Other times I don't feel it at all. He mentioned he had found that bicyclists or athletes take almost two years before everything feels back to normal. I requested a copy of my x-rays and got more than I thought I would. I thought I'd get a copy of the ones I had last week, but they mailed a disc that had x-rays for all of my follow-up appointments last year. 

After looking at them I wasn't sure I needed to see it. It was somewhat of a rude awakening. I did see what might be the cause of the severe pain in that right pelvis ... due to my body compensating for the injury my lower back needs an adjustment or treatment to bring it back in alignment. My bottom of my right pelvis is just slightly lower than my left, which means more of my weight is on that sugerical side while I am riding my bike.

Yes, all the dogs still get along.

I could not resist this when I saw it online at the Toyota Dealership downtown. MINT and I mean MINT condition inside and outside. It does not even have the common rock chips on the front of the hood. It's a 2014, the last year they made them. It came with brand new All-Terrain tires and is an automatic. My other one was a 2007 6-speed manual. Once you have a Toyota FJ, there isn't another 4x4 vehicle that you like. Believe me, I've tried most of the others.

Notice I moved the bulldog statue out into the yard hoping to give the puppies a little company while I am gone, even for short periods of time. Prevent their digging due to boredom ??? Nah ... see below.

Here is another photo of my old 64 panel out on the shore of NJ. I continue to look for a stock single cab pickup and/or a stock VW Panel (no windows on sides). If I find a good older '58-'63 VW Single Cab pickup I will sell the one pictured below.

I hope this catches you up on the hounds and the dog along with life in the "wild west" in the SE part of Arizona.