Saturday, June 26, 2010

Back where I belong

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If you can believe it, today is the first day I actually have full internet access in almost four weeks.  My addiction was raging out of control with no salve to calm me down.  Bouncing into the condo from Lane’s I headed straight to the computer since owner was actually NOT HOME YET and WHAT?  crappy internet.  I was not a happy dog.

Usually I go to Lane’s and just have a blast.  Roll around in some dirt, lie on some other dog’s bed just to piss him off, grab a few rays in my favourite spot out near the tire.  I like to see the action but not have the action jump over me, land on me, or yank at my ears.

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This time I just wasn’t feeling up to snuff.  Couldn’t quite put my finger on the problem but soon discovered I had two abscessed teeth, a potential kidney infection and maybe something called a thyroid.  The only good to come out of this was  a few extra car rides to the animal hospital.   Bittersweet rides they were because every time we got in the car I thought I was going home to owner and curly haired.  NOT!  Feeling better now but my coat is embarrassing.  That thyroid seems to have made me turn a weird colour in big patchy bristly spots.  Vanity is my second  name and trust me no one is asking if I’m a puppy now.However, as old pops says (granddad to you), “you are only as young as you feel…hmmmm…OK have to work on my attitude too.)

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Talking about old pops.  He lives up on the Ontario Quebec border. You all know what happened up there right?  Pops was sitting alone in his house when suddenly he felt his favourite chair shaking all around. He just knew it had to be his girlfriend, Margot, joking around since  no one likes a good laugh better than Margot.  Quick look over his shoulder told him, Nope, no one there.  Briefly it flashed into his head that perhaps the house was collapsing; it is over 100 years old.  As he got up to check out what in heck was going on a far more worrisome thought popped into his head.  Could it be?  Surely not! Had Marilynn, owner’s mum who died quite a few years ago, come back to haunt him because he has a girlfriend.Kathy - Mom and Dad   They had loved each other pretty intensely and she had been of the jealous persuasion to put it mildly.  Stranger things have happened right? In fact I see ghosts all the time, definitely one of the finer aspects of being a dog.  Luckily pops turned on the TV and realised he had just gone through an earthquake not a haunting. I’m sure he had a momentary yearning for the good old days when you think life is never going to change….a yearning owner feels now.

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My real life back in Telluride has returned.   I’ve marked  my territory to let everyone know the Caseinaimagetor is back and on the loose. Owner is dreamily looking at all the photos from Italy and Spain.   Curly haired is down in his office with the telephone stuck to his ear twenty four seven….don’t know why but all of these things just make me feel safe. Life as I know it shall go on.

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Off we go to hike the Wiebe.  It will be easy since owner is not altitude acclimated and the hike will be painfully slow for Curly-haired.  I, on the other hand, love those long slow hikes where I have time to sniff every bush, roll twigs over with my nose, pee on an unclaimed rock and revel in the fact that I’m alive and loved.  Is there anything else?  See ya later.

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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Even a repeat is new again…

Hello everyone.  Travelling has made it hard for Casey to get her blog out. For the first time in almost a year you will see a repeat.  The good news is that with over 80 readers on Facebook alone many of you will not have read this post.  This is an opportunity for you to get a few ideas of what it is like to live in Telluride.  Once Casey gets home, minus a few teeth that had to be pulled,  with her diagnosis of thyroid or lupus problems and her kidney infection, she will once again get her postings out regularly to all her loyal fansReally she’s doing fine, don’t worry.

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If you can’t tell, that’s me getting up close and personal with my favourite water source on a hike!  It just makes so much more sense than the water bowl thing that my owner has to carry for me. I hear she’s thinking about me carrying my own water next year; personally, servants are the way to go but you can’t always get what you want.  And, to get what I need I’ll do what it takes.

At any rate  we headed out recently on one of our  jaunts and halfway up the hill there it was, the white cold stuff.  Ah, P1020941Nirvana I say.

How great it is to live somewhere where the natural world is always in an obvious state of flux. Change is right before your eyes.  Texas is where I was born and raised you know and although it can cool down we rarely get this stuff.  It has happened twice in recent years.  Both times I was already here  rolling in a  thick white carpet of snow  so I missed all the excitement back at our old homestead.P1020964

P1020966 Snow changes everything.  Smells change, views change, people’s moods change.  This town has a long history with snow and it is one of the most welcomed events of the year.  Most of the time  people walk around  town smiling  due to the sheer beauty of our location.  Snow, however,  makes the grins wider, the hellos heartier, and   hearts beat just a tiny bit faster.  Everyone is  dreaming of their big run down the mountain…albeit some glide an awful lot faster and crazier than others (I can pretty much guarantee that this would NOT be my owner.)

DSCN2001 Now skis I can do without.  They take everyone away from home.  People   rush through the morning walk with me so they can go home and dress up to take off for the day.  The general mood is happiness.  My owner on the other hand  has been known to get grouchy and say things like  “I can’t wait until they invent spray -on ski clothes.”  She then groans, whines, moans and grumbles as she stuffs herself sausage like into her long johns, ski pants, helmet, gloves, goggles.  Even I know how much she is sweating at this point because she has told anyone  and everyone within hearing distance  about fifteen hundred times.     Usually curlyDSCN1963 haired  tries to ignore  her and wanders away on some urgent matter.  I’ve watched him…he’ll see if snow has gathered  under the car or he’ll act like counting icicles is a logical thing to do just so he can get out of her vocal  range.  Many is the time though that he has patiently helped her stuff her “I know they are going to freeze off” feet into those gigantic moon boots they wear to go skiing.

Then they disappear and I’m left lying on my mat wondering when they’ll be back .  I lie there knowing  I will  have to cross my back legs for an hour or two before I get out for a pee break and some checking of the neighbourhood  pee-mail.

P1020966 Anyway, we are still a long way from ski days.  I bet Bobbi at the bookstore could tell us exactly how many hours and minutes are left until the lifts open – depending on the snow. Knowing her mania for skiing she likely hikes up huge mountains to ski down them long before the ski area opens. 

Although I’m not in town I hear some snow  has fallen a few times and everyone is getting wound up.  As I said it is early days yet and  you never know what is going to happen in  our beloved San Juans.   So for  now I’ll wait for my owner to come back home to Telluride.   I’ll dream fondly of wintertime  and the snow we had just before I moved down to Lane’s house to hang with my second  family.

( Not to complain but my family has done their fair share of dumping me this year….well maybe just a tiny complaint.  Family, what the heck are you thinking?

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It can be Paris, Israel, Canada, and a jaunt to Maine or ME? I mean look at that camel’s ugly mug!  You are not making intelligent decisions guys.  I should always be more important than a vacation.So you made some cool memories…what about the cool memories we missed out on? huh?  eh?) 

P1020916 So when I do get home  count on me to give you lots of great photos of snow, ice, frost, cold toes, and frozen noses. Yes, theP1020902y will all be of me and hopefully the photos won’t all be of me eating my way through a snow bank.  As you can tell, I do love frost…. I love what it does to our everyday landscape.  It keeps me excited about what is headed our way.  What storms will we have, how much snow can I actually dive into and manage to dig myself out of without floundering and  looking ridiculous?  Will I smell a mouse under the snow bank?  Oh so many great things to dream about over the next month or so.

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Some of you have never lived in the mountains.  Just so you know what kind of snow I’m talking about --last year in the month of December we received 110 inches…..talk about happy skiers! Telluride 301  There weren’t quite so many happy  people shovelling snow  but that’s the risk you take when you decide to live in a snowy fairyland. So I leave you now.  I shall continue to sit and and wait patiently to go home to Telluride. My dreams will be full of magically falling champagne powder.   See ya later.

 

 

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Friday, June 4, 2010

Complimenti al cuoco

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Dear Casey:

Italy has been fabulous so far.  However, I’m learning some important lessons.  One would be how important it is to to fill your food bowl with love.  Everything  undertaken  shouldn’t only be done well but done with passion. This will translate into  no more Ms. calm cool and collected simply throwing food into a pot. Equating food with love and showing love through food is something I’ve discussed in previous posts but now I’m not sure I knew what the hell I was talking about.  Frederico has moved me to a higher plane!

Never have guests come to my table and felt a tiny tear in the corner of their eye as I explained to them how I came up with the menu.  Never have they felt like they had to get up and hug me to say, “it’s OK, I understand your strong feelings about this food, this oil, this cheese and we will get through this together!” No…I sling some hash out on the table, expect guests to chow down and slug back a beer or guzzle a glass of wine and head on home.  If it’s a really good day they might get a piece of apple pie  that I made in “memory” of love because I can’t make a pie without remembering mum, my mother. (who did feed us love in every bite she prepared…thanks, mum.)

The other night after meeting up with our host, Frederico Isernia, everyone had small tears in their eyes.  Frederico had rushed in from work at the bank – not his favourite pastime – and thrown together a meal of teeny tiny local clams and pasta, fried up some local fish delicacy, shown us how to eat a piece of fruit we had never heard of and then  blew our minds with the best strawberries and cream on the planet.  Of course some incredibly  delicious white wine was  involved as well.  We had to stop him at the champagne as we were becoming overwhelmed.

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However, it was his words that made us want to cry.  As we were eating he told us that he had chosen this menu to demonstrate his passion. His passion for his country’s cuisine, his love of food, his delight in extraordinary ingredients,  his pleasure in the preparation of the food, and his presentation of delicious a delicious meal to welcome us into his home and his life.  Cooking without love is not possible  for him because  it is through his feelings for his guests that he chooses the right shellfish, the perfect wine, an extraordinary cheese.   Frederico’s guests can actually touch and taste the friendship he is offering.   Now tell me Casey, after a couple of glasses of wine wouldn’t you be extraordinarily moved as well.  I must admit though that Sylvestro, the cat who kept leaping the balcony to dine with us, didn’t feel Frederico’s love…..I heard capito stupido a few times and  Sylvestro was returned to his ledge with less than a gentle toss.

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After dinner we headed to Genoa with Frederico so he could indulge his other passion.   He and his former “best” student, Christina, are teachers  of the Tango here in Chiavari.  We whipped over to  Genoa at 10 p.m. to see the two dance – and it really does take two.  None of us moved a muscle as we sat at our table.  It was quickly apparent no one wanted us on the dance floor so we sat and passed commentary on everyone there – now there’s a pretty woman, wow that is one heck of a slit up the front of that dress, that guy LIKES that woman, etc.  Soon a professional couple all the way from Argentina hit the floor to show us how it is done.  Our jaws dropped.

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So Casey, we continue our trip through Italy.  Today we did the big hike along the sea coast of Cinque Terre, the Five Lands.  It was hot and the crowds were large but we had a good time.  Let me add no one makes lemonade like the Italians!   The beach at Monterosso was lovely and we all took little naps on our beach  chairs. Soon we will say good bye to Frederico and head to Sienna.

Miss you Casey but you’d hate it here as it is very hot and there aren’t as many dogs around as you’d like. I think you would enjoy chasing Sylvestro around the apartment, however! See you soon. Love, owner and curly haired.

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