Share Your World – July 23, 2018
In regards to puzzle what’s your choice: jigsaw, crossword, word search, mazes, logic or numeric puzzles, something else, or nothing?
Puzzles used to be crosswords, but it’s hard to find good ones anymore. They are either way too easy, or way too hard. I like ones that are challenging, but not impossible. I used to be a serious devotee of the crosswords in the New York Times, but the guy who wrote them passed on and no one else has done nearly as well with them.
These days, I settle for almost any word game. Again, most of them are either far too simple or close to impossible. Otherwise, I can play pretty much any card game including bridge and any board game, even digital versions. But mostly, I haven’t had any time to play anything lately.
I feel just a little bit like a hamster on a wheel. I keep running and the wheel keeps turning. I sure hope I’m at least generating some electricity!
List at least five favorite treats and it doesn’t necessarily have to be food.
Sushi is always a treat unless it’s really bad. One of this week’s more astonishing moments was when Owen and I went to the cafeteria and discovered that they had three REAL LIVE JAPANESE SUSHI CHEFS preparing FRESH sushi. At UMass Memorial Hospital cafeteria.
You could have knocked my socks off.
It was one of the strangest meals of my life: perfect futomaki … and a great cup of New England Clam Chowder.
You got two treats right there. Great New England Clam Chowder — there are several other types of clam chowder including New England, made with milk or cream. Rhode Island, made with a sort of spicy broth, and many others which use some kind of broth or a tomato-soup base.
They all include clams and potatoes, though. Which makes them some kind of clam chowder. New Englanders might challenge that assumption.
Other treats? That depends on the season, the time, my mood, and what’s available. In the fall, I’m thrilled by the change of color of the foliage. A lot of times, the treat is the opportunity to photograph something sublime.
On a good day, it’s getting out of bed and realizing nothing hurts! That’s a very BIG treat.
Vacuuming the rug and watching the dog hair vanish and realizing the rug really isn’t gray, but actually, is a black background? That’s a treat!
Fresh, brand-new percale sheets are beyond a treat. They are a luxury. Nothing feels as good as they do, especially if you have just taken a hot shower.
What is your favorite type of dog? (can be anything from a specific breed, a stuffed animal or character in a movie)
Terriers and hounds are my favorites, though, in the name of continuing our sanity, we have moved on from hounds and have two black Scottish Terriers, Bonnie and Gibbs. We also have a very strange cross-breed named (by Garry so don’t blame me) The Duke after “Mr. Tall In The Saddle, Duke Wayne.”
Duke is not tall and doesn’t ride a horse. No one knows what he is, but the consensus is that he is a cross of two Asian breeds, possible both purebred. An accidental love match of maybe a Chin and … a Lhasa Apso? Something mid-size because Duke is just about 35 pounds of wild enthusiasm, stubborn determination to do it his way, and a passionate eagerness to be the family’s Top Dog.
Lucky neither Bonnie nor Duke is a fighter. For that matter, lucky for everyone Duke is stubborn and smart, but not a fighter. If we were more agile, Duke is a dog who would like being trained. He needs a job and unfortunately, we don’t have one for him.
I suggested he rewire the house, but Garry didn’t think that was such a good idea. I can’t imagine why not.
What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week?
Right before Garry’s surgery, we took Duke and Mr. Gibbs in for grooming. Duke had never been groomed. He isn’t a dog who really needs it. A regular brushing and the occasional bath would do it for him. Or, as the groomer said, “He is a once-a-year customer.” Gibbs has finally calmed down and stopped giving them a really hard time, but that’s okay since Duke tore the place down.
But when they came out and after I tried not to faint from the price (it takes at least two people to work on Gibbs and it took three for Duke!), they felt delightfully soft and clean.
And they SMELLED good, too.
