Notes from visits with Starbuck's elderly friends

Starbuckeroo and I are making our rounds through the elderly care facilities that we visit. Quite a few elderly folks have difficulties communicating, and we have to judge cautiously whether they would like a visit from Starbuck or not. A lot LOVE dogs and are sad to see her walk by without a visit. A few HATE dogs, and we need to steer clear. So I try to judge from faces.

I am delighted to round a corner and hear a voice come up the hall, "Hello BAYBEE PUPPY!!! Come here BABYBEE moo-moo-boo-boo and give me a kissy!" Starbuck complies. Her lack of general dignity serves her well in this circumstance. The lady maneuvers her wheelchair so she can bend over and put her nose against Starbuck's. Starbuck politely kisses her face. "Awwwwwwww it's a bay-bee puppee moo-moo-boo-boo-kissy-kissy puppeeeeeeeee!" And I had been concerned that Starbuck's wolf-like appearance would make her job more difficult! It turns out that her desperate need to dispense love is evident to strangers, even at a glance.


There is LOVE in them paws.

This lady and I fall to chatting as she holds Starbuck's head in her lap.

"Where are you from?" she says. I know what she is asking, but I make people dig a bit.

San Francisco

"Oh!" Pause. "Your eyes look different from most people's! Like this!" and she proceeds to pull back her eyes a bit, that way that my second grade classmates used to do, mocking, "Chinese eyes!" But she's not mocking; she's making a straightforward observation.

I'm Chinese.

"Oh!" Another pause. "But I can understand you perfectly!"

Well... I guess you are fluent in Chinese!

"Oh! Maybe I am!" A longer pause. Then, gently, "Can you see okay out of those eyes?"

Yes! I've had them all my life!

"Oh!"

:)

Snoozy photos

Dachshund Dash!

DL and I attended a Dachshund race at the Fair this year. Yes, we did. I have nothing to add to these spectacular photos:

'Tis blueberry season again!

It's so nice the way the weather almost always turns particularly lovely around blueberry season... a heat wave will cool; smoke will clear; a rainy, wet spell will dry up; dark clouds will whisk away. Autumn is not up for long hikes any more, and Linden also gets tired easily, so we limit her to two long walks per week. Starbuck is a good berry picking buddy because she is very alert and attentive and would alert to a bear.

It was so clear, we could see Denali on the drive up to the top of Murphy Dome!


The little installation on top now has a wind turbine and a solar panel!


Denali from the trail:


Starbuckeroo sez, "Why are you stopping again!"


Wow so many berries in our favorite patch!


Berries with a view!


Starbuck sez, "Roo?"


She keeps a watchful eye:


She looks so sooooffffttt lying in the tundra that I need to go squeeze her:


Squeeeeeeeeeeze!!


*GASP* A WOLF in the berry patch!


Now this is a nice sammich!

Notes from here and there

Last week, after visiting her elderly friends at the Denali Center and Pioneer Home, Starbuckeroo and I took our Roo 'n me walk on the trails north of UAF campus.

"Me and Roo, and Roo and me, no matter how they toss the dice, it had to be..."


It was difficult for me to get the shot above. Whenever Starbuck hears my footfall stop, she stops and turns around to look at me.

"Whatcha doin'?"


"What?"


The forest:


The raspberries in our neighborhood are ripe and ready!


How cute is Booger?


The elderly ladies got new tags last weekend! The top strip, which dangles against the ring on their collar, wears to nothing... I decided that at 17, it was time for Booger to embrace being Booger! Starbuck's next tag will say "Starbuck A. Roo". :)

Oh! You guys!

"The Chena River has risen significantly this week after heavy rainfall, spurring the Corps of Engineers to activate the Moose Creek Dam on Wednesday, diverting water into the flood control project outside North Pole."

So the river is rising, and we are concerned about flooding. How does the Corps of Engineers respond?

DAM!

HAHAHAHAHahahahahahbaahahahahahaha!!!

Miscellaneous photo dump

Schweet Schweetie sleeps with her rawhide, so her sisters don't steal it!


She likes to bury them in the yard, too. I dig them up and leave them on her upstairs bed (where Starbuck doesn't go!). When she goes up to sleep at night, she finds a surprise. I wonder if she thinks she is digging teleportation holes...

What to do with freezer-burned salmon? Chowdah!


Tomato-beef chow mein and stir-fried garden greens: