And now...

When we arrived home we were intending a trip up to Washington state to visit my wife's brother.  He is alone since his wife passed away and was going to have knee surgery which would require that someone be available 24 hours a day.  However, on the 10th he called to say the surgery was going to be delayed until later in the year.  Since we were going to leave on the 11th we were glad to hear from him.  I have to admit it was rather a relief because we were both wanting some 'at home' time.  

So, what to do?  Of course we went out to lunch.  What else does one do to celebrate?  And, at the end of the lunch my wife asked "How about going over to the dog shelter and see if there is anything there?"  Do I have to say more?  We went to the shelter and were shown two animals.  The first was a young German Shepherd; about two years old and full of steam!  She was way too fast for us old folks.  The second was a Shar-Pei, four years old and a little calmer.  Hmmm.  The little guy had just had surgery to remove his testicles and had a cone around his neck to keep him from licking the injury.  He was found by animal control on Christmas Day.  He didn't have a microchip; no one had called to ask about a missing Shar-Pei so he was up for adoption.  In the end we asked that they keep him a couple more days until he could be without the cone then we would take him home.

The pound uses some sort of computer name-game thing to come up with names for stray animals and this poor little guy got named 'Goose'.  There is no way we were going to let that remain his name but we thought that 'Gus' might work.  He'd been called with that G word for a month or so and we hoped that the hard G would help him with his new name.  Anyway, now we have a new dog!

We have no idea whether or not he is actually a Shar-Pei or just partially but he does pretty much look the part.  That first photo was of him while still in the pound.  Here he is in our living room.

Of course now he is chipped and filled with shots and all that so there is no way he can get lost.  He is pretty stubborn and doesn't know any of the 'necessary' dog things.  We are working on his name, the commands for come, sit, down, heel, stay and whatever else.  He is smart enough but really wants to do what he wants to do; not so much what you are suggesting!

So this morning we woke to a surprise:  snow!  This is like the third snow we've had in the thirteen years we've been here so we are all excited.  It is only about an inch and a half and will be gone before long but, hey, it's snow!  

So that's all the news that is fit to print from here.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and stay safe!

Update:  10:00 and the snow was all gone.  The mountains still look nice and white but in the valley it is dusty as usual.