A Real Howlabaloo

The quiet pastoral area where we live wasn’t so quiet last night. Every dog in the neighborhood, and from the sound of it, there’s at least 36, had a full moon party last night. It seems unfair that those rascals can now sleep all day and the rest of us have to pretend we’re rested. I must give our dogs credit- they knew what was good for them and didn't participate. However...

In other countryside news, Annie (the black lab) had another encounter with the chickens last evening. The chickens are free-range and spend every afternoon out of the pen. Since Annie's rampage when the chicks were small, our dogs have lived peacefully with the chickens. We have 2 roosters and trust me, you don’t have to train them to have cock fights, that’s what they do. They were getting into it and Annie just couldn’t resist the temptation to jump into the fray and she had one of the roosters in her mouth when Jim came riding to the rescue on his tractor. He’d been mowing, and the tractor patrol put the petal to the metal and separated rooster and lab. They both survived. Now I know why roosters have a whole bunch of feathers- it’s protection.Somber local news is that the man who I think of as the patriarch of our neighborhood died yesterday. He had a stroke and moved to the best neighborhood of all, but his many children & grandchildren, who all live around here, will miss him a lot. We are expecting at least a dozen people at our house tomorrow for a cook-out and “family fun day” and the funeral is during that time. We’ve decided that he would rather us celebrate family and love and look out for his widow on a daily basis than cancel everything to wear black for him. I hope that’s the right decision. I truly want to show my respect to the family. Any thoughts?

Hope you experience fullness & joy in your life this weekend. I saw this photo yesterday and it made me smile and reminded me of one of my sister’s sayings, “whatever blows your skirt up.” I think that’s supposed to mean “whatever makes you happy”.