another update

Well, lets see, where to begin...Carolyn and the girls are here for the week. It's so nice to see Dolly and her daughters getting along. Life is really too short to be pissed off. Went to Wild Waters with Maria, Carolyn and the four kids (Dolly and me of course), had a blast. Even at my advanced age I enjoy the water slides and all the kid stuff. It's more enjoyable with the kids though, their enthusiasm is infectious!! Too bad that they need to leave on Saturday. However they will be back in October! Whoo-hoo!

The kennel is doin' great considering that we haven't really advertised. Thats exciting. I CANT WAIT until I can quit my day job........

There were some kids over by the kennel last night, claimed to have run out of gas but were doing a lot of hollering so I ended up calling the cops to come check it out. By the time they got there, it didn't take too long tho, they were gone. At this point Dolly was apparently hollering at me to find out who it was, couldn't find her gun, couldn't rack the shotgun and ended up pissed at me! Go figure. Sometimes I just cant figure people out. I mean, sorry I didn't hear you, I was talking to the cop, his motor was running and you were a loong way away. I'm a little deaf (too much rock'n'Roll? in my youth?) Anyway, I'm doin' the man of the house thing and I get the cold shoulder. I give up, I'm sure it will pass but what the F***? I'm sure some of you ladies are thinking "men!" well I'm sorry but I can't figure things out like this with no information. Jeez...

More pics

Uploaded some more pics of the kennel. It's really comin' along. We have Carolyn and the grandkids here for a couple of weeks. It oughta be a fun time. More later.....

Update (finally)

Well, I certainly have been the big slacker about updating this. I can see why folks will stop. It reaches the point where it's like, what do I say now???? Anyway, I had a good week, it was nice to have Tim come and visit and he and I and Andrew played much, drank much and otherwise partied our faces off. I still managed to get a bunch of work done around the kennel and the house. I was most proud of the new racoon habitat I built for the (now 7) coons we are raising. Or I was was until I realized that three of the little varmints found a way out. So now we have 3 young racoons hiding in the trees in the front yard. I will go to FWC and get some capture cages and set them on top of the habitat and try to capture them. They came down to eat the food we left out for them but they are *not* going to allow us to hand-catch them. These three are the unfriendly ones. 2 we had for a while and one was just given to us 2 days ago. This ALWAYS happens when we build new cages for them. The little devils are really sneaky and if there is a way they will get out.

I also am wrestling with my mother-in-laws toilet. I replaced the malfuntioning innards and now the tank leaks.....I hate plumbing. I will give it one more shot to fix and then I will throw my hands up in frustration and give up. Really adult wounldn't you say. Sorry but I don't mind working around the house and getting things done but I find it really dissappointing when things blow up in my face.

The kennel is doing pretty well off just the 3 day ad in the paper and referrals from our vet. We should have our signs up by the end of the week and hopefully that will increase biz some. I sort of like the slow start. It's very hard on Dolly to manage both the house (with her mom) and the kennel and all the other shit that needs doing around the homestead. Poor woman is exhusted half the time. It's even more frustrating that I have waste time here at the House of Dumb each day. I still have the following things yet to do (current list)

Salt in the water softener
Get the cages to (hopefully) catch our escapees
Install the water softener at the kennel
Build the counter at the kennel
Top the runs (some dogs climb!) (new ones, in and out)
Order the sunshade for the new runs
Fix the horses stall (he's busy knocking it down)
Worm the goats
Move the blasted riding mower out so Sears can come and fix it (yet again)
Continue to work with Peachtree software (biz software for the kennel)
Move one of the computers over to the kennel
Clean the porch (our previous racoon storage area)
Mow the lawn when Sears comes and fixes the riding mower hopefully Wed( mow you say? what's the deal, it's about 6 acres and now about a foot tall, I'll take a flare gun and some provisions with me in case I get lost)
Fix the *&^%%$*&;*&^%% toilet

Not to mention things like catboxes, dinner, bills blah blah blah etc

And you wonder why I sound so down sometimes? Thank God there are two of us!!

See you later...........

Midvacation

It's wednesday, half-way through my vacation. It's supposed to be 95 degrees. The weather channels web site just shows an orange box and the word hot. So, we'll escape to the movies, I have wanted to see War of the Worlds since I saw it was coming out. I just love that apocalyptic end-of-the-world kind of stuff. I like this story since I first read it as a kid. We've sort of been working at the kennel and other chores during the day and playing at night. It's been nice...

The kennel is doing as well as I could expect for a new business. Dolly groomed her first dog on Monday (a boarder) and so it goes, Slowly but surely we are getting the business. It is really exciting to watch it happen. I can see that we will be getting busier as time goes along. I mean we only had the one ad for the 3 days and no follow up advertising. We should really see the inpact when the new phone book comes out and we are in the listings. I guess we'll need to fork over the cash to yellow pages.......They are effective.

The 4th

Ah, the second day of my NINE days of vacation! That includes the weekends of course but I still like to count 'em. Tim made it up and we stayed up much later than planned catching up. Missed church this morning but Dolly was tired (bed near 1) and so was I and we don't need crankiness this weekend. We'll try for Wed night. Ma, Francis and Andrew and Melissa will be over for BBQ (hamburgers and brats, mmmmmm) this afternoon. 4 tenants in the kennel, oh I forgot the rabbit...We'll board anybody! It's getting late, this house is a pigsty and we got company coming. I guess I'd better get the rest of them up and begin the festivities!! Happy 4th all!!

Soon.........

At long last this week is coming to an end. The House of Morons has sent me to (in order) DeLand, Daytona and Jacksonville for 2 days in a row to help with training. A lot of driving....I really wanted to be here to help Dolly with the kennel. We have more dogs! It's really exciting. Our sun shade for the kennel arrived. A large sheet of screening material to cover the outside portion of the runs to protect the dogs from the BLAZING HOT sun. Good news is that I am off all of next week, Tims' coming up, my brother has the week off also. That will be nice.

I'm still pretty torn up about Loki. I guess it's good that I'm so busy now that it doesn't leave me time to reflect. I have been dreaming about him though.....It's odd, I generally don't dream about the animals (usually dont' dream period). I guess I will ultimately end up missing him terribly. Although we have numerous other pets/animal friends there was always something very special about him. I'm too heartbroken to tell Loki stories right now, ask me later and I'll be happy too...He was a very non-typical pooch, much more human than dog. And I'm not just anthromorphisizing (sp again)....bye for now....

Loki 1992-2005 RIP

I lost my Loki last night. I'm very sad.

At Last!

The Kennels open! The ad was in the Gainesville Sun today and will run through Sunday. Oh boy, I sure hope I know what we're getting into. I hope plenty of $$$$$$$$$$. We'll see though. Dolly checked the messages this morning be4 her mothers (cute the be4, huh?) dr's appt and we already had a call, a woman wanting several weeks for her 3 dogs in August. Yahoo! I'm between hopleless elation and having to shit. Is it always like this? Never been an entrepaner (there goes the spelling again) before. It's sort of exciting. I better get going, I think have to go to the bathroom........

Errors

I have noticed that my spelling is really bad sometimes. Just goes to show that I am so dependant on my spell-checker and I don't use it with this. It comes from being in a hurry and trying to post. It is sooo hard to keep up with the 25 hour days I have now. Gotta run

I am sore......

Well, finally (well very nearly) finished the &^%$$%^&* floor in the lobby. 700 hundred square feet of tile with, of all things, BLACK GROUT. I know why they get $1.50 to $3.00 a square foot for tiling. It took me 4 days too get that done. I can assure you I won't be doing that again soon. I'm a bit long in the tooth to be on my hands and knees for 4 days (no jokes OK?). Anyway I must admit it looks magnificent and was ultimately worth the effort. I just wanted to bitch about how sore I am. Makes me feel better.

Dolly has spoken to the newspaper and the ad for the kennel will be in this weeks (thurs, sat and sun) Gainesville Sun. I am psyched! It will go out to over 150,000 readers. I hope we know what we're doing.... Talked with the sign people and we should be moving ahead with that. Too bad I have to come to the House of Dumb for the day and waste my time. Well, at least I'm getting paid.

Our first guest. Black Lab named Mykola (?????) seems to be enjoying her visit. Since she is the only pooch she gets lots of personal attention and walks and so forth. While I was doing the floor she had the run of the kennel and amused herself with stepping in the cement if I didn't throw her squeaky toy for her.

I do have the July 4th week off. I have an old friend coming for a visit and will attempt tp dragoon him into helping me some with the kennel. It appears that my week off will be split between working at the kennel. Kennel tops, counter tops, transitions, etc etc and partying in th evening. It should be a busy weekend.

I know I keep promising pictures.......some day soon.......

Finally

It's been a little while since I posted last but a lot has happened since then. We had our final inspection yesterday! We passed. We are now open for business! Dolly has her first dog (paying!) as a guest. 18 days! We are most excited. I took a couple of days off of work and put together the kitchen and wired the tops of the runs and began work on the tile in the lobby. I have that about 70% done so I have my work cut out for me this weekend. I will try to post more pictures as we go along but time is always short, short ,short. More later........

Awesome

This is the most thought provoking and disturbing site I have seen in a looong time. Makes you think about your secret


http://postsecret.blogspot.com

Flicker Photos

Finally figured out how to do this (sort of) but kennel pics are at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinlife/

doh!

I had mentioned earlier to leave a comment if you would. I just realized that I have an option to restrict the posts in place. Dumbass. It should be fixed now.....

OK we're movin" again

Met with the Fire Department and got them to meet me half-way. Just a little limerock on the access road and we're good to go!. Contractor was there and we have the dirt coming today and should be able to get our final soon (this week?? maybe). This weekend has the tile and stuff coming so I'll be doin' all kinds of stuff (real work, not this pathetic burecratic bs that I usually do). Pics to follow........

ARRGGGHHH

The fire dept is giving us grief over the kennel. They now want a limelock (impervious surface) for the parking lot. We have had these plans approved for over a year. Now, right before the final inspection they want us to change this. I have only one comment (*^%$(&&$$^&(%*&^*&^*&^!!!!!!!. I have a meeting with the head mucky-muck on Monday to try to get this resolved.......Why do things have to be so gd complicated!

On a happier note, we have our first reservation!!!! Two week stay starting the 15th!!!! Yahoo!!

Movin' Along

OK, ordered a shitload of stuff from Lowes' to (hopefully) finsh this kenel up. Tile, water filter system, wood blah, blah blah, got 10% off, 12 months no interest and no payments AND free delivery. I LOOVE dealin'. Scheduled time off, 13th and 14th of this month and the entire week of July 4th. Whoohoo! Most of it will be working in the kennel. Tiling the entrance/lobby and building the kitchen. Can't wait until we open. It's a grand adventure. Now hopefully it will pay off. Everyone says "you'll do great, lots of people need this service" well, we'll see. It would be nice to get to be independent and work for ourselves. My new motto is "Get off the grid". I would love to be unconnected form the power co, phone co and have all my stuff be satellite or wireless. A little dream of mine. I read about this family in the mountains out west somewhere that has done this. It was really pretty cool.

I am pretty fortunate that my boss is a realist. I am getting to wonder about the futility of my job but having some one that understands that all this is a stupid game amkes it a little easier to swallow. I mean who's going to remember that I managed to accomplish this or that in 2 years? It's all numbers and all bullshit anyway. Boy am I getting cynical in my old age! Thats what growing up is all about, being able to (hopefully) separate the bullshit in life from what's really important.In retrospect, there is little that is really important in life, most of it IS bullshit. What is important are your family and living life in a way that is personally satifying (god, my spelling is horrible). The rest can go to hell. Well with that cheerful note I will spend the next 6 1/2 hours pissing my life away here at work.

One other thing. I have been watching my counter to see if anyone is looking and apparently someone is. Please leave a little comment once in a while. Thanks!!!!!

Dollys hobby! Fostering baby racoons!

See, he has to check out all packages for food? or mice? or things cats are interested in....

Us 2 years ago on a cruise (we loooove cruises) From Left Rosemarie (Dollys best friend for a looong time) me, Dolly, Ernie (Roes' hubby) and Dollys ma in the front. Since her moms illness this type of vacation is unfortunatly no possible.