A New Young Filmmaker

I have to plug my nephew, Ronnie. He is an aspiring filmmaker. What I found most intriguing about his movies is that he uses his mother's little Canon Powershot camera and edits his movies with Windows Movie Maker. I love the use of simple tools. Below is one of his movies. His channel on YouTube is here.

The Great Escapes and the aftermath...

Above picture: Peanut reposing after a busy week.

It's been awhile since my last post but it's been a hectic week.

We had two escapes last week. On Tuesday, Peanut scaled the front gate and ran down 9th street. Mir was able to get Peanut chase her back to our street. Boxer also escaped at the same time when the gate wasn't properly closed. Luckily no animal was injured.

Mir spent Wednesday fortifying the front gate. Mind you this is a 6ft privacy fence and gate. 

Thursday night Peanut got wind of a critter (cat?) in the back corner of yard. She got herself so worked up that she climbed the fence and went over. Did I say this was a 6ft privacy fence? The cross beams are on the outside of the fence - to prevent Peanut from getting any kind of leverage. Clearly this wasn't enough. So, Thursday night I go running down 9th street to 6th avenue in an effort to head her off. I was able to find her and bring her home. She spent Friday and Saturday at the end of a leash.

Saturday we went to Home Depot and came up with a plan to lengthen the fence height and to prevent Peanut from getting her paws on the top of the fence. Sunday was spent executing our plan.

It's only Monday but so far so good. Peanut has been eyeing our handiwork quite a bit but doesn't yet have an answer to our fortifications. We'll continue to watch her and hope that her days of escaping are over.

Brother, Can You Spare a Tire?

We've had the RAV4 since 1997 and today experienced our first flat tire. Technically, it's not flat yet - but it will be by morning. It appears we ran over a screw - it's stuck right smack in the middle of the tread.

30 minutes and one big hernia later we had loosened the lug nuts. The few extra pounds I've gained helped enormously on that last stubborn nut. I placed my foot on the lug tool, gently bounced up and down and slowly the nut turned.

Then the rain came. We decided to suspend tire changing operations until tomorrow morning - partly due to the rain but also due to Miriam exhausting herself getting the darn nuts off.
Stay tuned tomorrow when we attempt to answer the question, "How do we remove the jack that's attached to the floor board underneath the front seat? Where's the owner's manual?"

Houston, We Have a Problem

...And her name is Peanut.

Whenever we let the dogs out we check on them periodically - typically about every 15 minutes. With dogs, you have to be careful because it only takes a minute or two for them get into something they shouldn't.

Many of you know that one of the reasons we paid mucho dollars to have a 6-foot privacy fence installed was because Peanut had learned to climb our four foot chain link fence. It seems we didn't spend enough. Perhaps we should have splurged for an 8-foot fence.

I walked outside to do the usual check and called for Peanut. She did not come. I called again. She did not come. Peanut ALWAYS comes when she's called. Then I heard panting on the other side of the fence. I strode to the big gate and opened it. There she was in the neighbor's front yard - I called and she came.

Our neighbors have recently acquired some cats that they allow to roam. I'm fairly certain that Peanut climbed out in order to get a cat. From the looks of her, I think I can say with some certainty that she did not catch the cat. That's a good thing. The bad thing is that now she knows she can climb out and we're going to have to get very creative in keeping her inside the backyard. This is not the kind of challenge I like - I'm likely to lose a few years over this.

Happy 4th Everyone!

It's been a lovely July 4. Went to the park and played fetch with Peanut. Then came home and took the big dogs for a walk around the duckpond.

The flag is flying proudly, the yard is mowed and we'll soon start preparing our buffalo wings for a potluck later this afternoon.

Then, this evening as the locals light their fireworks we'll hang with the dogs and work to keep them calm.

Have a good one, everybody!