Seek The Substantial

Front bedroom.
Living room.
Miranda’s bathroom.
Back bedroom.
Living room.

I’ve been meaning to do this for quite a while and here are some before pictures of the house. These pictures were taken a day or two after the house was actually in my name. The next post of two will be additional pictures of the before stage of the house. In the next couple of days I plan on taking some after pictures so that we can all see the difference of what this house has become.

Blow me up dog.
Grilling some burgers.
This one was posted because Tony R. turned away.
The morning after.

My wife bought me Vans for my birthday and they came today, they fit perfectly, and everyone can take them off of your shopping lists for me.

I hope everyone (other than Ben) is taking the First Annual Five Pictures, A Day In The Life project seriously. I think that this could be fun and if you think about it, it’s the perfect time to take pictures. The landscape is turning green, the flowers are beginning to bloom, we can all start spending more time outside, rather than hibernating in our homes. I’ve started thinking that I should plan what my pictures will be, but what’s the fun in that. I think that it’s all about spontaneity and the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I plan on taking more pictures that just 5 and I’ll have to whittle it down from there, but I really think it will be fun.

I’m going to go ahead and call out T. J., Ashley T., Ashley F., Leslie R., Chris H., T-Storm, Stephen T., and Miranda. I expect pictures from you.

I saw this on Kottke a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be a good exercise in lists.

4 shows that you watch:
1. The Office
2. My Name Is Earl
3. Scrubs
4. Globe Trekker

4 shows that you wish you watched:
1. Sopranos
2. Boston Legal
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
4. Lost

4 shows that you’re embarrassed you watch:
1. Wild N Out
2. House Hunters
3. Good Eats
4. 8th and Ocean

More than likely, I’ll be posting tomorrow morning as well as I am not working for the next two days.

I cannot post pictures tonight and it’s very frustrating. Who wants to just read a bunch of content without looking at pretty pictures? I’ve tried turning off my computer and re-booting, I’ve tried simply posting a link to a pictures and I’ve had no luck.

This posting is to simply remind everyone that we need 5 pictures in a day in the life on Friday. There are no restrictions other than we need to keep it clean, but I certainly want everyone to be creative.

UPDATE: It’s the next morning and now I’m able to post pictures. Crazy.

For the next day or two I will be fighting this as the dogs run in and out of the house. Last time it rained I set out a towel by the door to dry off their feet and accidentally left it outside the next day. The following Saturday I spent about 30 minutes cleaning up the remaining shreds of towel. The funny thing is that none of the above pictures are Olive’s paws as she refuses to leave the porch when it rains and she refuses to go to the bathroom if the grass is wet.

Yes, yesterday was a bit much, but work and life is really starting to grind on me (much like the forbidden dance). I know that I really have to relax, but it is very difficult for me. Nevertheless, I will revert back to my lighthearted banter and quasi-interesting links.

I want to give everyone enough notice, but here at puppydogblue we are going to do a day in the life on March 17th. I want everyone to break out their digital cameras and take five pictures, or a day in your life in five photos. I do not want to tell you how or what you should take pictures of, but these pictures do not necessarily have to be of yourself, i.e. no restrictions. If you do not have a blog then send the pictures to me at puppydogblue@gmail account or my private gmail account. So long as you identify yourself, I’ll do a very special post for each one of you that sends in your pictures. If you have your own blog then send me the link by email and I’ll post it here as well.

Great photo essay on The Morning News: “Cities change so quickly their postcards rarely resemble their current faces. Touring Europe and the U.S., French filmmaker Julien Donada restores a gallery of yesteryear’s cards to their original settings.”

Things to put on your sidebar of your blog.

I’m going logo-free this summer, but if you do not plan to do so then here’s Threadless.

So many things to worry about so little time. Work, job, family. It’s enough to drive a man crazy. Nevertheless, we as human beings continue to chug along despite the constant hiccups or bumps in the road. Lots of things to write about, but this isn’t the right forum.

Just sit outside and smell, I think there’s a storm on the horizon.

The grassy knoll.

Random building (I think it’s the Wilson Building)

Old Dallas County Courthouse.

Neat mural.

Reunion Tower.

It doesn’t take much. I took almost all of these pictures on Main Street from my truck as I was driving back to work on Friday. It pays to have your camera with you at all times. It doesn’t take much to create memories.

There is a fine line between writing about what was and what is. Sometimes I think I get lost in trying to recall memories of what was. Good times. Significant and sad moments. To balance that I think it is important to also write about the here and now, the problem of course being what is happening now is not all that exciting or splashy or memorable. There are moments that are fleeting and occasional that we should remember, but so many times these moments are like cars passing you on a highway. You see them, they pass you by and then they are forgettable.

Zoey will often sit in the yard, when we let her out for the evening to do her business, where she will sit, facing the wind and she’ll just smell. Not for a moment, but for however long it takes for her to appreciate what is in the air. I know it’s a cliche to say that we must all stop to smell the roses, and although it is can be insignificant, just stop to smell. Take it in. Relax. Make a moment.

I find that life if about being caught up in the rut. At times, I feel like I am hitting the prime of the rut. Work. Eat. Sleep. I am sure that the reason that I daydream about those past moments is that they always more seem fond than the present, but the reality is that the present is very good and wonderful. The rut is not a bad thing, it is life. It is a mortgage, it is a marriage, it is children, it is parents, it is family. If anything, be in that rut. Never be tired to take a moment, make a moment worth smelling. Take it all in.

I think that the world would be a better place if every ceiling in every home was painted sky blue. I really can’t imagine a more peaceful and calming color. I would also think that this color would be hard to replicate, but it’s such a nice color.

Spring break has been temporarily canceled. Miranda and I won’t be able to make it anywhere until she’s done with school. That’s okay with me, its just that it seems like I’ve been going non-stop for a really long time and my brain hurts. There’s only so much information that I can handle and I think I’ve reached the tipping point.

By the way, I am making every effort to make my t-shirts logo free. Except for the occasional Tech or Tulsa t-shirt, or incredibly awesome Hanson shirt, I am going logo free. I have found that Gap is making some very comfortable t-shirts and they don’t have tags, which is an added bonus.

Duk mentioned that he and Mo might begin thinking about coming down to venture visit and would insist upon a visit to Lone Star Park. Their facilities are top notch and here’s the 2006 calendar.

The Morning News has a tournament of books. Don’t ask me how they determine a winner, but I’d be willing to bet that these are all pretty good books.

I miss Rage.

Rage was my first puppy dog.

Rage was a puppy from Snickers (a chocolate male lab) and Jewel (a black female lab) and she was the runt. She was born on July 1, 2003 and I knew right away which one I wanted, she was the smallest one of the litter and she was full of energy, but incredibly sweet, even as a puppy. I took her home with me in early August and that first night with her, I remember sleeping on my parents tile floor with her. It was her first night away from her siblings and her crying tugged at my heart strings. I always thought the strangest thing about her was that she could drink a ton of water and drank water all of the time. Eventually, this ended up being one of her defects that explained her downfall, but more on that later.

My Mom lovingly looked after her during the day, until I could get home from work, and if my Mom had to work she stayed in her cage until she was big enough to stay outside. Once she was bigger whenever I would come home, the first thing that I would do is let her out of the gate and she would literally race around the yard one time and then come to a screaming halt once she got within two yards of me.

I cannot count the numerous nights that I would come home early because I knew that Rage needed companionship and I needed hers. I have always been more sympathetic towards my dogs than a normal person. The nights that I would stay home, Rage and I would stay in the little house and she would lay right next to me as I would lay on the couch. She was always content to simply be with me and that was an incredibly comforting feeling.

Things seemed to be clicking along and I brought Rage with me whenever I could when I would work on the house during the weekend. Once my wife and I got married we were one big happy family with Zoey, Olive and Rage.

About a month or so after we got back from our honeymoon I started to notice that Rage’s tongue was not as red as it usually was and she seemed very lackluster. I took her to the vet a couple of times and he couldn’t really figure out what was wrong with her. After a couple of weeks it became incredibly apparent that she was not well and I told the vet that she needed help and I didn’t know what to do. The vet ran IV’s in her twenty-four/seven and one day there was a glimmer of hope when she seemed to be getting better. The vet said that it appeared that her kidneys were starting to fail her. He recommended that I take her to College Station because they have the best in the business. I let my boss know that this was something that I needed to do and if I could save her life then I had to do it. We drove to College Station, she was incredibly weak and could barely stand-up. She was emaciated and I’m sure that every other dog owner thought I was mistreating my dog by not feeding her. I cannot tell you how many times I cried that day as I drove her there. On my arrival in College Station and after the visit with the vet there, he basically told me that she had little time to live. Her kidneys were disfigured and were never formed completely. Most likely because she was the runt. This is why she drank water all of the time, to compensate for the kidneys that were failing her. I cried more on the way home. I stopped at a gas station to let her go to the bathroom and the clerk asked me what I was doing with my dog and I explained to her that I was trying to save her life, but I could not. I broke down right there on the counter, my head in my hands trying to stop the sobbing but I couldn’t.

That night I knew that I had to put her to sleep the next day. Miranda and I moved the spare bed onto the floor and she and I slept together much like we did that first night, except this time I knew that there would never be another opportunity to be with her again. The next morning I took her for a drive. She stuck her head out of the window like she always did and then I took her to the vet to put her to sleep.

I had never cried in front of my wife before, but for two or three straight days I cried uncontrollably.

In fact, as I sit here tonight writing this post I cry about how much I loved her and how much I miss her.

She was my Puppy Dog Rage.