Deputy's Girl's Blog

The Deer Hunter

Dogs have personalities, just like people.  And like people, their looks can be deceiving.  Take Catfish for example.  His fancy smancy pedigreed name is, Ashwind Cedarbrook Gone Fishin'.  He is arguably one of the most beautiful English Cockers ever to be bred in the United States. 

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Big boys and their toys

When you're married to a retired homicide investigator it tends to make you re-think the way people live.

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Love, Actually

I got a new haircut day before yesterday.  To say that it was a mistake is the understatement of the year.

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Morning has broken.....

Morning has broken.....

Baby it's cold outside......

People think that it doesn't get cold in the South.  WRONG!  We are expecting a low of about 7 degrees tonight and it only got up to 32 degrees today. 

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Shoveling Rocks

Today, I am going to shovel rocks.  Sounds thrilling doesn't it?  The truth is, that after four years of construction debris during the gutting and remodeling of our house  [what were we thinking?]  just the thought of getting to do something other than redo the work we paid contractors for is a thrill.  

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Easter

This is the last Sunday before Easter.  There is just this Sunday of nominally Catholic, low church nonsense to suffer through before going home for Easter and a proper Triduum Sacrum.  However, that's not really what's on my mind.

I miss my parents.... their poodle, not so much.  But I want to see Mama and Daddy and I can't wait  to see my daughter. 

I haven't seen her in over six months and in that time she's become a completely different person.  She looks better and happier than I've seen her in more than five years.  In point of fact, she looks and seems like *herself* again.  And besides that I have desperately missed my grandkids - the eldest of which was my "time-share baby" as an infant.  I am so anxious to get there that I am going to attempt to convince my Pal that it really would be rather a good idea to leave here at three a.m. on the day we're scheduled to travel. 

Sadly, things will be a blur for the three incredibly short days we'll be in Texas.  There's so much to do, no time to do it and I'm going to have to prioritize, which seems so very unfair.

1)  I want to have a four generational professional photograph taken with Mama, Sissie, Tink and myself but it will depend upon Sissie's work schedule and Mama's inability to adhere to anyone's schedule but her own.  (That's not tacky by the way, it's just the way she is.)

2)  I want to see a dying friend.  I've known her all my life (my mother's best friend) and this is probably the very last opportunity I will have to see her alive.

3)  I want to spend time with my cousin who isn't well and has recently had surgery, as well as her sweet husband, with whom my Pal instantly bonded when they first met.  I love them dearly.  Dennis and I both miss them.

4)  Lastly, I want to attend as much of the Easter Triduum Sacrum at St. Mary the Virgin as I am able. 

Thank goodness most of the solomn rites (church services) for Easter are vigil masses and occur at night after the parental units close up 'the lockdown', the cousins are snug in front of their television set watching sit-com re-runs, and the grandkids are settled at home with their Mom, and because she worked all day is not likely to be able, or willing to go anywhere - much less a two and a half hour Catholic mass!

My job then, for the next four days, is to make certain I get everything done here so that the three precious days we are there won't be spoiled worrying about anything but the need to make certain I spend as much time with the people I love, doing the things I went home to do.

 

Life on Mars

Last night, the ONLY television program my husband and I watch ended......in an absurd, silly, shoddy and completely unsatifying way.

Those of us who have been watching 'Life on Mars' since it's beginning, have had an enjoyable time imagining and discussing just where Sam really was and how he was going to "get home".  Was he in a coma?  Was he dead and this was his after-life?  Would he and Annie become a couple, or would she be an old woman when he got back to 2008?  Would he choose to stay in 1973?  Was there a reason for the year 1973?  Now we know, and the answer was anything but thought out or pertinent.

ABC has a lot to answer for.  Not only did they cancel - in our opinion - the only program worth watching in their otherwise lame-excuse-for-entertainment line up; they allowed sophomoric hacks to write the ending.  I COULD HAVE WRITTEN A BETTER FINALE.  The so-called writers, responsible for the final episode, didn't even follow the basic story writing principles taught in elementary school!  Viewers were left with the impression that those hired to write the last episode never even saw the program.  They simply threw together a random group of scenes with which to end the series in such a way as to make it impossible to resurrect.  In a nod to the actual story line, the writers threw in one or two gratuitous references to it's original plot but no real resolutions.  Many of the interesting twists and threads in Sam's story were left dangling in mid air - or should I say space? (Bad pun intended.)

I suppose it's a sad statement of just how small our lives have become when we even care about the outcome of a television program.  But, to my mind the sloppy, half-thought-through finale is simply another case in point, illustrating the degree to which craftsmanship and pride in one's craft no longer exist or even matter;  hey, it's only about the money anyway, right? 

Not every film or program has a happy ending. Such is life.  But my Pal and I were truly appalled that writers who are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year were allowed to violate all the accepted rules of story telling, and in doing so subject talented professional actors to their excremental dribblings.  Personally, I feel sorry for the actors.  The new faces introduced to us through 'Life on Mars' proved to be good solid thespians led by one of my old time favorites, and in the end, the script writers made them all look foolish.  It is a testament to their professionalism that they carried off the last few scenes of the last episode with straight faces.

The Power of Laughter

I love my alarm clock.  It makes me smile. 

On some days it even makes me laugh out loud.

No, I'm not completely mad; well at least not yet.  The reason I love my alarm clock is that it wakes me with a beautiful melodious British voice saying the most outlandish, ridiculous and funny things.

The clock is voiced by the English actor/comedian/author/director Stephen Fry.  For those of you not familiar with this seriously funny lunatic he has been a stalwart of the British screen for at least two decades now.  For years, his 'employer' and bane was actor Hugh Laurie of American television's "House" fame.  Stephen Fry played 'Jeeves' to Hugh Laurie's 'Bertie Wooster' on a popular BBC adaptation of the Wodehouse novels written in the twenties and thirties...but I digress.

Someone had the idea that alarm clocks don't have to be the irritating harbengers of morning, but instead could wake us with humor.  I hope they give that guy the Nobel Peace Prize.

It makes all the difference in the world to be jerked into conciousness by humor rather than some obnoxious noise.  For example, yesterday morning "Jeeves" woke me with the following:

"Good morning Madam."  "Your physician rang."  "He is very concerned for your health."  "He advises madam that she needs all new shoes, and if they aren't purchased immediately, he can't be responsible."

What woman wouldn't want to hear something like that first thing in the morning?!  I realize it doesn't translate as well on paper (well, computer screen), but the sheer silliness of it, delivered in the lovely voice and measured tones of your own personal "butler" is guaranteed to make waking at a specific time much more pleasant.  Who wouldn't love to have someone catering to our every whim instead of the way it really is?  And, who wouldn't love to be 'advised' to go shopping - especially for shoes?  Additionally, when the button on the front of the clock is pushed to turn off the alarm, the voice then says things like "as you wish Madam"....it cracks me up.

Definitely a better way to start the day.

 

 

Free Entertainment

Yesterday morning, when I went outside with the pups there were about a dozen deer standing just under a slight rise in the south pasture.  I could clearly see them peacefully grazing the newly green grass.

Seeing them, Catfish, ever vigilent, flew out the front door and off of the porch at light speed - well, as fast as his little short legs and fat puppy bottom would go anyway - making a bee line for the intruders.

Funny thing was...he didn't make a sound.  Usually,  he barks his little head off in a frantic "how dare you" voice as he charges their position.  But yesterday, half-way there he paused to hike his leg and  *water* a tree, after which he only ran about another fifteen feet, stopped dead in his tracks and sat down.

The deer on the other hand couldn't even be bothered to run; they simply stood there looking at him as if he were giving a performance strictly for their personal entertainment.  After about ten seconds of the deer staring at Catfish and Catfish staring at the deer, he admitted defeat, got up, turned around and trotted back to the house.

Wish I'd had a video camera.