I haven't posted on this blog since February of last year.  Such a long time while life still went on behind the scenes.  I lost my beloved Tinker in December and told myself that I would never get another dog.  The loss was too painful and the crying never seemed to stop.

My grandson and his fiancee live in Corpus Christi and they were working in their yard when a dog came up and started to play with their dog Charlie.  She had no inclination to leave and so stayed the night.  In the meantime a very persuasive Zach was on the phone to me telling me that a stray dog had come into their home and they would love for me to have her.  I knew I didn't want to take on another animal at that time so I said no way can I take her.

As things turned out, I now have another pet in my house by the name of Isabelle.  She's a lab or lab mix, is about 2-1/2 years old, has had at least one litter of puppies and is very, very affectionate.  She has become my dog in a very short time and follows me everywhere.
She answers to Isabelle, Isabella, Izzy, Bella and as Jill Symons had coined her name, "Isabella Mozzarella". 

Meet Isabelle......

Snow Week

Although we don't usually get a lot of snow here in Texas, this week we did, in small doses.  First it was the ice coming in on Tuesday and it finally snowed so that we could see it on Thursday night.  Schools were closed all over Texas for the whole week!  Too bad the weather was not predictable far in advance because this week is Super Bowl Week and both Fort Worth and Dallas had prepared a lot of big shindigs to welcome people from all over the country.

I love this picture of the snowflakes falling in my back yard at 2:30 am in the morning.  Steam is floating over the outside light as each flake vaporizes when it hits the warmth of the light.

The metal bug on my deck is the

true measure of the depth of snow that fell last night.  All told the accumulation was about 2 inches. 

February is usually the worst month for ice and snow here and it's only the beginning of the month so I guess we'd better prepare for more.  It's a nice time to take a vacation to Hawaii!                                 

Almost

Let's talk about those New Year's resolutions.  I did START to clean out the bead room/office and I gathered three large boxes of clothes to take to the Women's Shelter.  I threw some papers away that were four years old and I figured if I didn't need them in four years I wasn't going to need them at all.  Same for some magazines that I couldn't resist keeping.  Oh and I went through the computer manuals for how-to about Windows 98, Adobe Photoshop Version 6, Learn how to fix your own computer and Learning HTML the easy way.  I am taking them all to the second hand book store, I know I won't be using Windows 98 ever again and I won't be fixing my own computer either.

I didn't start exercising and I didn't lose any pounds except maybe for two seconds just before lunch.  I haven't made any jewelry and I haven't even unpacked the kiln, the glass cutters or any of that wonderful dichroic glass.

I haven't gone outside to take a walk except to the mailbox and I haven't lost any pounds.

My excuse?  It's been too cold outside and I'm just getting over my after holiday blues.  Next month I'll try again to finish at least one of those things I started.

Resolutions

Once again it's time to share my New Years resolutions.  It took a few days to decide what was in the realm of possibility since last year I did absolutely nothing.

1.  Get exercise and lose some pounds.
2.  Start making jewelry again.
3.  Start fusing glass again.
4.  Start using my new Kindle instead of buying books and stacking them up just to smell the paper.
5.  Get exercise and lose some pounds.
6.  Stop spending money on unnecessary things.
7.  Clean out all unnecessary things, put them in boxes and give to a shelter for women.
6.  Take more photographs and organize the photos I've already taken.
7.  Get exercise and lose some pounds.
8.  Write more than twice a year on this blog.
9.  Get out of the house more often even if I have to give up some reading time.
10.Get exercise and lose some pounds.

This list is not necessarily in order as I'll probably start using the Kindle first thing and continue reading.  I've already read one book on it and today is only the 4th of January.  The treadmill is waiting and I can read while I walk (just as soon as I clean off the boxes that are being stored on it).

Book Reviews

Although I have never reviewed a book on this blog I find that I'm compelled to tell you about two books I read this week.  Each one is entirely different from the other but both fascinated me in an all consuming way.

The first book that I started at the beginning of the week, Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne is the historically accurate account, data the author has taken from many books, personal diaries and articles, is the story of the Plains Indians, the nomadic warriors of which there were several bands after their migration from the Northern Plains to the buffalo hunting grounds in the Southwest.  After a raid which killed many people at Parker Fort, Cynthia Ann Parker was taken as a nine year old.  Little is known of her life until twenty five years later when she is recaptured by the whites and taken back to live with her family, the Parkers of Parker County, Texas.  She grieved for the rest of her life for her two sons who disappeared in a raid by the Texas Rangers on one of their encampments in the Panhandle of Texas.  Her daughter, Prairie Flower died while she was with her family in Texas.  Cynthia Ann, who saw her husband Peta Nocona killed at the hands of the white man eventually starves herself in her grief for her Indian family.  During the many battles between the Texas Rangers and the various Indian tribes who eventually band together and ride against the encroaching whites, the Civil War begins and ends.  Quanah Parker the eldest son of Cynthia Ann and Peta Nocona becomes the most powerful Indian chief at the time they all surrender to live on a reservation which is now Oklahoma.  We learn  cruelty from both sides, atrocities commited by both the Indians and the whites.  Author S. C. Gwynne gives a most thorough review of those years and of the different Texas Rangers who became excellent Indian fighters.  Living in Texas I can associate the places where battles were fought, possibly very near where I live.  One of the last pictures of Cynthia Ann (and pictured in the book) was taken in Fort Worth, Texas.

The second book, A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron, is an extraordinary story of one dog who is reincarnated four times, each time taking along things he has learned about himself and the humans he encounters and loves until he fulfills the true meaning of his life.  Told from the viewpoint of the dog, the story is funny and also heartbreaking, much as life is.  Any dog lover will love this book.  I read it in one day because I just couldn't put it down.  It is not a history like Empire of the Summer Moon but I was equally entranced and totally moved by it.  Can you tell I am a dog lover?

Ho Hum!

Ho Hum, I am so sleepy.  Tinker just cracks me up!  I was watching TV the other night and I looked over at Tinker and she looked like she was watching TV also, getting bored and about to doze off. 

Looking Through a Lens

I finally did it. I bought a new camera body that will fit the lenses I have for my other camera. The Nikon D90 will suit me just fine, it has some new gadgets that the D80 doesn't have and I think I absolutely need - like a larger LCD viewing screen. I recently bought a Nikkor f/3.5 - 6.3, 18 - 200mm for a walkabout lens and I want an f/2.8- 300mm lens to take to Africa with me. The 300mm lens weighs 6.4 lbs. and I imagine I'm not going to like carrying that around, it's not a zoom lens but to take pictures of wildlife, it's essential.

TCU has adult education classes and I signed up today for their photography class that starts in May so that I can truly learn all the secrets that the D90 holds. Wish me luck.

Hope that soon I'll have fantastic photos to post.