In case you are interested, I now have all my web work on my netbook. This means I can sit in the living room with the beagles and work on the web site. Can also watch the NASCAR race( like today) and do web work or any other computer work. Also connected up a home wireless network so I can retrieve files from my desktop or use the printer. Very sweet and I think I am done fiddling with it.

This winter I  got myself one of those fancy new smartphones, the Droid. You may have seen ads for it – this is one wild phone – a phone on speed. It is a computer that is also a phone – not a phone with some computer features. Web browsers, email, camera, wireless as well as 3G, applications for everything. Just out of this world. Taken a lot of time and fun to get up to speed on it.

Like to give a shout out to a couple of beagle friends.

Ethel Bellomy just had an endoscopy to remove a rock from her stomach. This process sure beats surgery! No stitches and no E-collar. How a dog that is always on a leash can eat a rock is beyond me but she managed it!

Our longtime buddy Annie Amaral has been having a rough time with cancer and cushings. Her mom is doing some traditional treatment and some alternative treatment.  The latest report is that Annie is looking like her old self. We hope that continues, especially for those summer days on the porch or walking along the ocean.

and a shout out to our human friend Lori. Get your strength back

Hoping to get back into photography this summer. Have plans to paint the fence also. My friend Kathy has volunteered to help with that.

All for now….

First, my parents moved back to New England over a year ago. It has been great having them near for all the special days as well as the ordinary ones.

Friends – I have great ones! Shelley, Warnie, Kathy, Joy, Michal, and so many others. We can share stories, lifes ups and downs. Help with projects, talk about our pets, give advice about everything. Share the fact that our bodies are falling apart!

My beagles – Ruffles, Jake and Rudy. For a while I really thought I was losing Ruffles this year but it turned out to be a really bad tooth, stomach issues with eating rocks and very bad ears. She has always had the bad ears but this year they were worse than ever. So she cleaned out my bank account (once again!) with tooth removal, cleaning and a little ear cleaning. Then Dr. Kilgore recommended a new herb for canine ear infections – it is working great! No crying in months! No one can believe it is the same dog. She is like a puppy – running around, howling for food and attention.

Home. I love being at home. It is so comfortable. Small, cozy and just the way I want it. My neighbors are the best – we all look out for each other, just a friendly, old fashioned neighborhood in a very small New England town.

Comrex. The company I work for is a lot of fun. My job is varied and challenging. At the end of the day, I know exactly what I have done to help both our company and our customers. We have ‘Cake Day’ or ‘Pizza Day’ to celebrate happenings or for no reason at all.

Yes, everything is not perfect, nothing ever is. Taxes keep going up along with prices. I am in the same crunch as most of America – trying to keep up with it all. It does get harder everyday but  not quite impossible! Some of it is my fault – probably went overboard on improvements to the home but I do so enjoy the ktchen, the deck, the redone porch. and all the other work that was done over the years. Went overboard on toys – cameras and computers.

It is the little stuff that works for me. Janet letting my dogs out. Breakfast with my folks, breakfast with Kathy on Sunday mornings at the AirField Cafe. Once a week dinner with Shelley and Warnie. Taking Rudy to work with me. Having all three dogs in bed with me. Seeing my little town have a Christmas parade where everyone can participate and Santa arrives via helicopter!. Seeing all the seasonal decorations and light displays. Shopping downtown instead of at the mall. Having neighborhood kids mow my lawn. Living in New England with water and mountains.

I first upgraded my Sony Vaio laptop (about 5 years old) that was running the release candidate of W7. This went so smooth I was in awe! No issues, no hassles – worked perfectly. Even found my wireless connection and added it.

Then it was off to the desktop. Turned out my desktop was running Vista Business and this required the W7 professional version to do an upgrade but I could do a clean install – meaning I would have to reload my applications. The Pro upgrade was about $100 more and I did not need the extras so decided to do the clean install. Every once and a while it is good to clean out your computer – a little like the basement (how this this get here????)

I backed up my documents and went at it. Again, very smooth. Re loaded some of my applications – FireFox, Thunderbird, Open Offce – all went great, no problems. Ran into a problem with Corel’s Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate. Could not find my serial number. Gave customer service a call and had the number within 10 minutes. Everything went great from that point on.

Email, Web, internet, printers,Magic Jack (that strange phone app!), Blackberry Desktop – all working like they had been there forever.

So far liking the W7 – not sure it was a must upgrade but sure is fun to play with – if you enjoy that sort of thing. Here is a photo of my desktop taken with the new snip tool.

There is enough out there on the web for you to find out the new features and see if it is right for you. But if you are a casual user, I can recommend it heartily!

This black and white shows off her devilish eye.

Well, Ruffles is now my oldest beagle. About 13 or so. She was adopted from Buddy Dog in Sudbury and here is her story. I wrote this for a small book titled “Peeing in the Wind”.

Ruffles Ruffles Ruffles – yes a very funny name. One that always has someone saying “Ruffles have Ridges” Good thing she has a sense of humor.

Ruffles was turned into a shelter because the family could no longer care for her. I am never sure what that means. Did they turn in their kids at the same time? Did they trade in their car for a less expensive model? How can you give away something like Ruffles? I kept having these thoughts as I saw her picture on a web site. It would be gone – good she got adopted. It would be back – why was she back? The circle continued.

One day, I said “Why is she here – does she eat small children?” “No” they said “She is overweight” Well, I looked down at myself, looked at the lady on the desk and thought “Well, who isn’t these days!

Ruffles came home with me. She had very soft fur, a lovely heart on her head, was lemon and white. Oh yeah – she also weighed 50 pounds. Her records indicated she also had a food allergy. But it appeared they had never figured out what she was allergic to – just kept changing her food. Obviously, she got plenty of food.

Ruffles licked her feet, licked her belly, shook her ears, rubbed her bum on the floor – this was a beagle with an itchy body! Her feet looked like she was wearing little red booties. This was a result of the constant licking, staining the fur.

Our vet said she had to loose weight; get down to 25 pounds. And we had to find out what she was allergic to. On a diet she went. We changed food, kept records, and watched her itch. Nothing helped – oatmeal baths, beta dine soaks, anti itch sprays, we tried it all. Nothing helped. She was losing weight slowly but the allergies were painful to watch and must have been painful for her to bear.

One last try. Blood test for allergens. It was only money! Well, the results were astonishing. Ruffles was not allergic to food. She was allergic to just about everything outside – grass, shrubs, trees, pollen, etc. The lab said she had the most allergens they had ever seen. That was not encouraging. But we kept going. They made up the special concoction of anti allergens for the ones she was most allergic to. I started giving her shots on a weekly basis to build up her system.

A year later, we are at one shot per month. She has white feet and she is a happy beagle who just wants to be loved. She still has the beagle ears and requires two to three times a week ear cleanings but it beats the alternative.

By the way, she has gotten her weight down to 27 pounds and was told to put start eating a little more! She still has the name of Ruffles. Somehow it seems to fit her

Well, it has been three years since that was written and we have been through a lot. But she is still my little girl. She still weighs 27 pounds. Her favorite sport is sleeping or holding down the couch.

Dr. Kilgore

This last week she had so many things that were not right, I thought it was the end. But our great vet, Dr. Alex Kilgore of Littleton Vet Hospital, has fixed her up. She pulled a very abscessed tooth, put her on soft food for her gastro issues with some antibiotics for the tooth and chinese herbs to help her ears. We are off and running again!

There comes a time when it right to help your dog to the Rainbow Bridge. But apparently this was not Ruffles time – she just needed some patching up. She had a lot going on that made it look bad but each symptom had its own cause.

My deepest thanks (as usual) to the whole team at Littleton – Tracy, Jude, Carol, Sharon, Heidi and Dr. Kilgore.

P.S. Here is a photo of Ruffles doing what she does best

These are great pieces of real estate that used to be railway beds and are being converted into trails. They go through beautiful country, over bogs, swamps and lakes. Through town centers. Some are paved. Some are dirt. You can walk, jog, bike, Rollerblade, skateboard, do just about anything that is not motorized. Hence the quietness.

Massachusetts has a great number of these trails and more are on the way. Just takes people to get behind them.

I have been rail trail riding with my bike this summer and it is great! You can go as far as you are capable, then turn around. For a bike rider (and the car drivers!) these trails are super. I am no longer afraid of getting run over while I bike and there are less bikes on the road for me to worry about when I am driving. A WIN for everyone.

The picture above is the Hudson MA Bridge on the Nashua River Rail Trail.

Here is a picture from the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

And one from the Assabet River Rail Trail.

]]> http://maynardbeagles.com/?feed=rss2&p=33 0 http://maynardbeagles.com/?p=28 http://maynardbeagles.com/?p=28#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:44:34 +0000 marsha12151 http://maynardbeagles.com/?p=28 My time in  Maine is over. My sincere thanks to Joy and Larry, their beagles (Wylie and Minnie) and their foster beagles (Houdini and Pip) for letting me enjoy their part of the world.  Special thanks to Joy for showing me the sites and enjoying eating out as much as I do!

My favorite restaurant is Andrews Harborside. If you ever get to Boothbay Harbor – you have to eat there. For breakfast the cinnimon roll is a true wonder of the world. For dinner there is lobster as well as steak but my fav was the Maine Shrimp dinner – small shrimp fried with great cocktail sauce.

As many of you know, when I am on vacation I always take a picture of my feet enjoying the view.  It is my way of remembering my friend, John Cheney, who always advised me to “go for it cause you never know what tomorrow may bring” Great advice. Well, here is the Maine photo. My feet on the railing of the upper deck at Joy and Larry’s.

Today is clean up day at the homestead then back to work on Friday. I thought working one day would give me a chance to catchup and then start fresh on Monday.

Marsha

When the weather got clear, Joy and I went to the botanical gardens. We had lunch there and strolled around. These gardens are only three years old and already wonderful. They have a sculpture exhibit of animals created from scrap yards. The photo on the lest is an example of the work.

This is one exhibit that I loved. They were showing ways to use plants and this dog house had its entire roof planted in succulent plants. Really cool looking. Again, more photos on Flickr. (link on the right)

Well, we are off to my last Andrews Harborside breakfast. Then I hit the road for home.

Marsha

Joy and I took a boat over to Squirrel Island. What a wonderful place. No cars, only a few golf carts. Otherwise you walk. No stores – there is a town hall, a church, a post office, and an ice cream shop open Wed thru Sat. There are boardwalks and sidewalks all around the edge of the island. Great views. Lovely old homes that have been in the family for generations. It has two beaches – one that allows dogs and one that dosen’t.

The only way to get there is by boat. So the way to get groceries is to boat to the mainland, get your car from the private Squirrel Island parking lot, do your shopping, then lug it all back on the boat. And carry it in your wagon to your home. Pretty amazing lifestyle. But only for the summer. No one appears to winter over except for the island caretaker.

This is the post office. It appears to be the activity hub of the island. All meeting notices, items for sale, etc are posted on the building. Inside is a very old style post office – charming!!! The post master window looks at the ocean – not bad work.

More pictures on flickr.

The interesting thing is that you have to know about Squirrel Island. There is no advertising. No promotion. Even the boat that gets you there is a harbor tour. It stops at the island 1/2 through the tour. You walk the boardwalk, go to the beach, etc until the next boat comes through. Then they finish the tour

This is my host family – Joy and Larry as well as (left to right) Houdini, Wylie, Minnie and Pip.. Wylie and Minnie live here. Houdini and Pip are here for a short time on their way to a life long family. If interested, contact Cascade Beagle Rescue.

Time to go sit on the rocks, get some sun and read. I will check in later.

So far I have slept late, had breakfast outside – take a peek.

Then I sat on the rocks, reading. Watching the ships go by..

For more pictures, check out the Maine 2009 set on the Flickr site. Link on the right.

More later!

Here is the photo of my tree guy sitting on the tree, talking on the cell phone while waiting for the crane to return.