The Manic Mechanic

My (not so, anymore) little Snickles is a Miniature Pinscher. Min Pins are the result of crossbreeding Dachshunds with Italian Greyhounds. The result is what appears to be a tiny Doberman. Of course, Snickles likes to think of himself as a full-on Doberman, complete with a Tasmanian Devil growl (it's hilarious at times) and a take-charge attitude. I have to remind him that he is really just a sausage dog on stilts. Nowhere can this be demonstrated better than with his big, wonderful ears.



It is usually common practice to dock the tails and ears of Min Pins for whatever reason, I guess to give them that Dobe style. I see it as cruel, since the ears and tail of this dog are so expressive. Nothing beats the sight of a wagging tail, especially not an oscillating stub. As for the ears, da Snick and I are brothers from a different mother.

Yeah, I'm a dog intactivist I guess.

Edit: Don't let all this cute fool you. A few minutes ago he somehow managed to get hold of a ballpoint pen and chewed it to smithereens on the freshly cleaned living room carpeting. Yes, the carpeting is ruined now.

Today is my honey's birfday! Happy birthday, Jeff!

Sadly, the gifts I ordered for him did not make it in time, but I managed to surprise him with roses and a corny card (with my own added loving sentiment) this morning before he went to work, and we spent the evening at like omg the mall eating Chipotle and doing shopping. All in all a great day for a great guy in my life.

So together, we are all of a hunnert years old now. Here's to another hundred!

This is lots of fun. What happens of you combine the Muppets, those darlings of all that is youthful and fun in humanity, and OK GO, the catchy rock band noted for some of the most amazing and entertaining music videos since the heyday of MTV (y'know, back when EmptyVee actually used to have music videos)? Yep, exactly what you'd think.

I have been away for a little more than a week, first to Hillside then up to P-Town in spite of for Bear Week, in our first true vacation in three years. I'm happy to say that, despite the circumstances with my health, we managed to have a great time. I managed the walks to and from the center of town using my walking stick, and I discovered that bicycling is not a lot different that when I was "healthy" by the simple fact that the hunched over riding position puts minimal stress on my spine and the low impact pedaling beats even light walking. I was unable to try out biking as a form of locomotion (not to mention as exercise) since the bikes had been stored up in PA at Jeff's parents' house since last year. While not nearly as energetic as I was in years previous, I still managed to surprise myself by having a minimum of problems until the end of the week, where it finally caught up to me. Still, the time to relax and get away for a bit was excellent therapy in itself. The weather was decent, with only one rainy Tuesday night to contend with. Despite not doing quite as much as years past, we did manage to take in our first Blowoff, where I watched Jeff sinfully gyrate on the dance floor while I managed to stand against a railing holding it for support and mildly sway to the beat. The walk home in the pouring rain replaced the shower I was going to take afterward, and was not entirely unwelcome either. In fact, it was a perfect Cooloff.

Our biggest surprise of the week came not from the excellent food, friends both expected and unexpected, acres of eye candy or other sights, but from Kodi, formerly known around Casa Mayhem as CrazyDogInsanityPooch. At our first weekend at Hillside, Kodi was the usual skittish bother with his typical separation anxiety any time either (or both) of us left the campsite as well as a bit too much barking at people and other dogs. This had us reconsidering our decision to take Kodi with us to Provincetown rather than leaving him with Jeff's mom and dad for the week like we had done prior. We decided to give it a try, with me thinking that he'd have a good time and not be too much of a bother. Well, we soon begun to question whether we had accidentally picked up someone else's dog. Since the beginning of the trip, Kodi was a bit calmer than usual, and during the dreaded 9+ hour ride from Hillside to P-Town Kodi quietly sat in our laps or napped quietly in Jeff's lap (a total first), not fussing one bit between the couple stops for food or fuel. More importantly, no tossing his dog biscuits all over the interior of the truck! He was perfectly behaved during stops, and once up to the campsite, pretty well behaved for completely unfamiliar surroundings. We were beyond impressed.

The surprises continued as we took him into town, where he was not only well behaved, but an absolute rock star with the people we encountered. This was magnified even more as Jeff carried him in an over-the-shoulder bag made expressly for carrying pets, and even more so when he rode in a specially designed bicycle basket. People stopped us to pet Kodi and ask about him, kids adored him, and the gheys even more. And the wake of comments, finger pointing and photos that accompanied him while he rode in the bike basket was unmistakable. And he soaked up every minute of it. When it came time for us to go into the center of town without us, he dutifully climbed into his crate without the slightest fuss or peep and cheerfully awaited our return. We were both totally dumbfounded. And this was a daily occurrence! We even took him to a restaurant (Bubulas) where we ate outside and Kodi sat next to Jeff near the sidewalk. The only disturbance came as a drag queen rode up on a little motorized tricycle and began making a loud, humorous fuss over Kodi to the delight of everyone nearby. Kodi did some barking, but it was all in the fun context. :)

Sadly, our time in P-Town had to draw to a close, and, for me at least, not such a bad thing. My legs were giving out on a regular basis, and the effort I undertook earlier in the week caught up to me and left me exhausted, but in a good way. Our trip home was uneventful, with our one and only Kodi Moment happening in Connecticut whereupon Kodi blasted the center console of the truck, along with my cell phone, one of two GPSs and everything else with the lunch he had about a half hour before. This was entirely our fault, as we had stopped to make ourselves some lunch at this midpoint of the trip, giving Kodi just a little bit too much food and delaying our rest stop just a bit too long. This resulted in at least a half hour of cleaning up stuff before heading back onto the highway, where our planned rest area lay about a mile further down the road. This is where Kodi's impeccable timing reigns supreme - he will usually lay waste to a vehicle interior within scant minutes before arriving at the destination. We could not be angry at the poor pooch, after all, it was our fault overfeeding him and delaying the break, and he continued to be his amazingly perfect self the rest of the trip. We ended up in PA where we spent one more night of trailer camping in mom and dad's driveway in air conditioned comfort, and today we headed home. All in all, it was a great trip, much needed, and therapeutic.

Since it's been over a week since I have checked my LJ f-list, the sheer number of posts is overwhelming. I am trying to catch up, but am only able to make it back a few days. I have several tabs full of posts to comment on, and will do so in the next day or two. Still, I missed out on a lot. If there is anything of note that you want to inform me of, let me know. I'll be making some P-Town-specific posts soon.

It's fun to take trips, but it's always good to be back home.

It's coming down to the wire as Jeff and I work at getting things ready for our first camping trip of the season at Deep Creek Lake in western MD. We're still hoping for a mystery guest to join us, but have not heard anything back yet. I hope this post serves as a bit of cage rattling.

I installed the new water pump, fixed up all the fans, added RFI filtering to two of them that, when running, completely wipe out radio reception and the television. No more. The new water pump is in as well, with some mods to the mounting to make it quieter when it runs. The replacement is not quite up to the capacity of the original, but will do. I plan to add an accumulator/pressure tank in order to even out the water flow and minimize the pump cycling. I should be able to squeeze a one or two gallon tank in the compartment the pump hides in.

Trying to clean up the exterior has been a nightmare. We evidently live in a land of mutant flies which leave permanent 'specks' in the finish. Jeff managed to scrub through the paint in a couple areas and the specks (a polite term for fly shit, as well as crap from our swarms of box elder bugs) remain. We'll keep working at it and get the trailer looking spiffy. In the meantime, I only have to finish replacing the electric element in the water heater and flushing the heater tank out and the maintenance end of things will be done on the trailer. I have to get the truck ready with an oil and filter change, a fuel filter change (somewhat of a pain but made easier by removing the front right wheelwell liner), a good scrubbing and detailing inside and out and we should be good to go. I cant wait. We need this vacation badly.

More work has been done in the garage, and after we get back from vacation I hope to finish the door trim and front interior wall project that has been taking too long. The roofs get done soon, and I can finally work at getting the sunroom finished off, some intricate woodwork for trim and soffits, some too-cool lighting ideas to get built into said woodwork and much happiness will hopefully ensue. The next major project will be a refinishing of the deck.This will be a big undertaking since I will be removing each cedar board from the floor and running it through the planer to smooth out the wood and replacing the old galvanized nails with stainless screws. The railings will get a similar treatment, section by section. Everything gets a good coating of stain/finish. Despite the recent years of neglect, the deck is still amazingly solid for it's eighteen plus years. I did that one right the first time.

Jeff must work early tomorrow morning, but I will have Sunday and Monday off. This will be a short week for both of us and Friday we hit the road for our camping trip. Our next outing will be at Hillside, then P-Town, then two more Hillsides. I'm so looking forward to them all.