Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

To Cassie, With Love….Day Three Hundred, Thirty Eight

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There’s a song title, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys”. Personally, my heroes have always been soldiers.  19 months ago, my youngest daughter started basic training in the United States Army.  She was a hero to me long before that.

I ask you to forgive me for deviating from my traditional blog today and instead allow me to honor my beautiful, strong, brave, and smart daughter.

These past few days, I’ve been updating you as to what has been going on in our lives in the wake of Winter Storm Alfred.

I’ve kept you posted as to how we are surviving without electricity, and how we are making the best of how Alfred has affected us.

What I haven’t shared is how emotional this week has been for me.  You see, Tuesday we were supposed to fly out to Monterey, California and watch our youngest daughter graduate with honors from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.  The ceremony was today.   Due to the snowstorm and the subsequent loss of power, we had to cancel our trip in order to stay home and take care of our home and dogs.

We’ve had a rocky relationship, Cassie and I.  It hasn’t always been easy, in fact most of her childhood was hard.

Most of the reason our relationship was hard was because I didn’t have the vision to look outside the box, and acknowledge that all children are not the same, that we all have our own wants and needs.

I reacted to and raised her based upon my own childhood demons, not having the capabilities to see that what I wanted, no needed as a child wasn’t necessarily what she wanted or needed growing up.

I made mistakes, boy did I make mistakes.  I did things raising my girl that I am not proud of.

We reached a point in our relationship where she needed to be on her own, to learn and grow without the shadow of her parents looming over her.  We became estranged for a period of time, but then slowly we found our way back to one another.

We’ve developed an adult relationship these last eight years–one that I’ve learned to treasure.

Oh, but I yearn to go back in time and change things, rectify the mistakes I made, but if there is one thing I have learned from this woman I call daughter, it’s this:  The experiences and life lessons, no matter how harsh, shape us into the human beings we are today.  If we are proud of who we are, then we can have no regrets in life.  This is the lesson Cassie  has taught me.

I’ve tried to talk to her about my failings as a parent, and her response is, “Whatever happened in the past is what makes me who I am today.  When you tell me you are sorry it makes me feel like you aren’t proud of me.”

Did I mention my daughter is wise–wise beyond her young 25 years?

And that I am proud.  So very proud of who she is and what she has become.

Today our daughter received an award, one of only three awards given in her class.

Due to Winter Storm Alfred, we had to cancel our trip and miss this very important day in our daughter’s life.

Living without electricity and all the little amenities we take for granted on a daily basis has been inconvenient, but it is something I can live with.  I’m having a harder time with missing this important event.

So to my daughter, I am so very proud of you and all you have accomplished and I love you with all my heart.

Power At Work….Day Three Hundred, Thirty Seven

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We got called into work today to assess the power situation and low and behold when we got there, we had power!

It felt so good to be doing something normal again.  When I left work at 4:15 to come and take the dogs for their walk; the tree clearing had begun on the street leading to our house.   A HUGE tree came down during the storm and bisected the street, forcing cars to drive underneath it.   I was too afraid to drive under the tree so I drove the long way around.  But tonight YAY the road was cleared.

The electric company is saying we should have power back by midnight Sunday.   It is still a ways off, but I am thrilled to have a general idea.

My sister had us over for dinner and I thought I would take advantage of my niece’s computer and upload some pictures of our make-shift living arrangements.

This is the futon mattress where Sampson and I (and sometimes Delilah and Bob) are sleeping.  Even on this mattress Sampson has the majority of the sleeping area and I am clinging to the edge. 🙂

Our camp grill, where we make coffee every morning and until my sister took pity on us, where we cooked our evening meals.

Once the coffee has been consumed, the pot is washed out and filled with water; we then place it on the fireplace insert along with the tea pot so we have hot water for tea or dishes.

This is the inverter Hubby has.  It runs off a car battery and has a place for two plugs.  One plug is used to run the blower in the fireplace insert and the other is to recharge cell phones, or run the laptop for games or movies.

Well that’s all I have time for right now, I have to go home and feed the puppies.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and well wishes, we appreciate them.

 

Disaster Area…Day Three Hundred, Thirty Six

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Apparently President Obama declared us a disaster area. We still have no power and another day of no work. We are trying to make the best of it.

This morning I took the dogs for a long walk and worked at clearing some of the smaller limbs off our trails.  The picture above is our blue and yellow trail which I could not clear.

After our walk Hubby and I headed over to our friend’s house to help her clean up the yard.

We are managing to stay warm by using the blower on our fireplace heater plugged in to an inverter which is attached to a car battery.  The inverter converts the battery power to electrical current.  We get the fireplace good and hot, then tun the blower for a bit.

Because we are sleeping in the living room we are managing to keep the fire going 24/7.

We have a small grill that runs on the small bottles of propane and we manage to have coffee each morning and a hot breakfast and dinner.  Additionally we have a tea kettle that sits on top of the fireplace insert so we have hot water for tea and dishes. 🙂

The dogs are adjusting fairly well; certainly enjoying the long morning walks.

I am a bit concerned about their raw food, so this morning we took a cooler and filled it with snow and the frozen food. We then buried the cooler in the snow.  I’m cautiously optimistic that we can save their food.

Thank you for the prayers and comments, we do appreciate them and know there are others who are not as lucky.

I will try and get some pictures of our make-shift living arrangements.

Stay safe.

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