Song of the Day, Day 4

More Day 3

As we close out Monday night, Mark's phone is still glitched. It's possible that the problem was caused when <i>Samsung</i> pushed out an update, rather than Google. Mark has his tablet with him, so he was in online chat with a Samsung rep for a while this afternoon, but still no joy. Stay tuned.

In other news, Baxter the Smiley has provided us with his latest Smile of the Day.

His crate is in the master bedroom, and he has decided that he likes the master bed much better than his own, lol. He situated himself under the covers, btw -- he didn't need any help getting all comfy. :)

As I believe I mentioned in the previous post, Mark and I rented a two-seater surrey bike and rode the full length of the boardwalk up and back. In Willdwood Crest, we paused for a selfie.

No selfie stick this time, lol.

After the biking was when Mark visited the Verizon store, where they had no luck in reviving the phone, at which point he came home and engaged in the online chat, via tablet, with the Samsung rep. No luck so far. Maybe he should let me swear at it in Italian for a while. That's what I do when I'm fixing tech issues, and it usually works. ;)

But anyway, Mark decided to leave the tech woes behind for a while and we headed to the beach. This time, we went to the beach that's closest to where we're staying, rather than the dog beach. We're alternating between the dog beach and the humans-only beach, since sometimes Baxter gets overstimulated around so many strangers and dogs... he alternates between relaxing with us and even sleeping, and getting wound up and barky if a dog or a person gets too close. So I figure that it's best to give him a break between beach visits instead of making him go there daily.

Then came dinner. We went in search of a sit-down restaurant that was near Gateway 26, which is where Bernie Parent was appearing; we decided on Captain Jack's, from which we could SEE Gateway 26. :) They make great crab cakes!

And then, of course, the highlight of the day: Bernie! :)

He is doing signings every Monday to raise funds for a charity that helps homeless people. I love the fact that my childhood hero is just a flat-out nice human being. :) How happy does that make me? 

At the end of the day, we tallied up a lot of walking. The Moves app registered both walking and cycling, but it mistook a lot of the latter for the former... We slowed down frequently due to pedestrians on the boardwalk, and I think the app decided that we were walking, lol. 

And now, Baxter's disposition matches mine...

So good night!

Verdict from the Verizon Store, Day 3

The guy in the Verizon store told Mark that he thinks the S6 crash was the result of Google trying to push out an update (Android 5.2) that crashed. The phone still insists on being in Lock Mode, and neither Mark nor the Verizon guy could get past it. Mr. Verizon gave Mark the number for Samsung, because (surprise, surprise) they couldn't get through while Mark was at the Verizon store. I have a feeling that there's a slew of glitched handsets today and people are calling Samsung en masse.

Stay tuned.

I will text Larry and Judy (BIL and SIL, whose house we're renting) that if they can't get through to us on Mark's phone, they should use my phone.

Productive Morning, Day 3

You know you're having a productive day when you have burned nearly 600 calories, and biked 4 miles, all before noon! It's my goal to make this into a vacation where I have a bunch of physical activity to go with all the relaxing (and eating of ice cream, lol). I figure if I walk/bike/skate (that's for later in the week) enough, I can afford to have that ice cream at the end of the day. So far, so good on that score.

There's only one glitch so far today, but for Mark, it's a biggie. He woke up to find that his Galaxy S6 phone refused to power on. I used my iPhone to search for answers, and discovered that the S6 as well as the S6 Edge will occasionally whack out and refuse to turn on. The solution is to hold down all four buttons at once (Volume + and -, Power, and Home). But the person cautioned that the menu that's supposed to come up, includes the option to erase the phone completely. They said to use the Volume +/- buttons to move through the menu to select whatever it is, either Power On or Restart (I forget).

So Mark held down all four buttons. The good news: it powered on. The bad news: he thinks he may have held the buttons TOO long, because the phone promptly ERASED ITSELF. Arrrrrgh! So we decided to give the phone some time to get its act together, and went on our bike ride with a slightly later start than we'd originally anticipated. We rented a two-seater surry from a nearby bike rental (of which there are bazillions, all over the place... you are most assuredly going to be within walking distance of at least one bike place if you are staying in any part of any of The Wildwoods).

We did our biking, and rode the complete length of the boardwalk, up and back, plus riding to and from the boardwalk from the rental shop. That's approximately 4 miles, total. When we got back to the house, the phone was still fouled up. Fortunately, there is a Verizon store within close proximity, right there on the boardwalk. So Mark took a walk over there with his phone.

I'm just hanging out at the house with Baxter and rehydrating. I never did check my email when I got up this morning, because I was focused on getting ready and getting out to go biking.

Song of the Day, Day 3

Sunday Adventures, Day 2

For Sunday's first adventure, we took Baxter to the dog beach. It's a couple blocks from where we're staying, so we just walked on over with our chairs and new beach umbrella. We kept Baxter on the leash the entire time, which IIRC is the rule on that beach anyway. He was very well-behaved, but he did get barky if other dogs got too close to us. He also got barky at one little kid who kind of stomped up to him, despite his parents' warnings not to bother the dog. So I apologized for the dog's outburst, and the parents apologized for their son's insigating and upsetting the dog.

Then we came back to the house, cleaned up, ate dinner in, and went back out to the boardwalk. I wanted to walk the entire length of the boardwalk, so this is how we did it. First, we walked from here to the north end of the boardwalk, which is in North Wildwood. Then, we took the tram south from its starting point there to its end point in Wildwood Crest. Then,we started walking north again, stopping in stores and on piers along the way. We took some rides, too.

Watch the tram car, please! 'Cause we're on it!

The northbound tram.

We had to take this photo. Because bluetooth selfie stick. I also pretended to fence with another selfie-stick-wielding photographer. En garde!

Waiting to board the Giant Wheel.

The view from the top of the Giant Wheel.

And the distance I walked today.

Song of the Day, Day 2

Walking total, Day 1

Boardwalk, Night 1

I know where *I* will be on Monday! Hanging out with the goaltending deity. :-)

This bear had two girls carrying it. And one big guy with one hand on its head... thanks for the help, pal. 

How do you even get a critter that big home?

Wibbage

Found this one as we neared the shore (and the Philly stations faded out). OMG, they play all 60s and 70s music. AND they have an Internet stream! YES! I was a happy camper and we hadn't even arrived yet!

Vitamin SEA starts... NOW!

How about a little Bobby Rydell to get the week started? :-)

Urgent Message to the Feline World Order: Send Backup At Once!

Dear Feline World Order (FWO),

Today turned out to be the day when our treacherous hoomin staff hauled Agent Stanley and me out for the annual Interrogation By Veterinarian. Immediately upon our arrival, I attempted to secure the use of the computer, for the purpose of sending a message to the FWO Mothership, urgently requesting backup. To my frustration, the computer is password-protected.

The plethora of error messages all over the screen are not, repeat, NOT the result of my falling asleep on the keyboard. No sir, not me. It's caused by my repeated efforts to contact the FWOzzzzzzz.

While I continued to attempt to establish a link with the FWO, Agent Stanley was subjected to interrogation. He bravely endured the Temperature Probe inserted you-know-where, as well as a Ray Bees shot. I was not aware that bees had gained access to laser rays. I must research that further at my earliest opportunity, as we certainly could have used those lasers today!

Finally, I gave up on making use of that computer. Instead, I cleverly concealed myself and attempted to send the FWO a text message.

Regrettably, I was not able to contact the FWO in time to request reinforcements, and so I, too, was subjected to the Temperature Probe and the Ray Bees shot. I withstood this maltreatment with the valor befitting my status as a senior FWO operative.

Evidently, Agent Stanley and I are to be incarcerated on the Veterinarian's premises for the next few days, while the hoominz and their canine flunky visit a place known as DownaShore. Perhaps I shall be able to use this time advantageously, to gather all available data regarding bee lasers.

Respectfully submitted,

Agent Captain

GOOD GRIEF. Has it been that long?

Hey there... it's been a bit longer than I'd intended since my most recent post. I was inspired to have a look at my own blog after exchanging emails with The Other Donna in the past few days.

This week marks a good time to refresh the blog, as we have a dose of Vitamin SEA coming up this week. To that end, the cats have been taken to the vet for their annual checkup, shots, bloodwork, and boarding. Baxter will come with us "down-a Shore". Where we're staying, they even have a dog beach a couple blocks away. Last August, we introduced Baxter to the ocean. I wish I'd felt brave enough to actually handle my camera while the dog and I were standing in salt water, because the bewildered expression on Baxter's face was priceless. He watched as a little wave came up and swirled gently around his paws, and he was not sure what to make of this water that comes right up and meets you. Maybe this year, we can convince him to have a good play in the waves. But we shall see.

Captain and Stanley are 11 now -- go and look at the posts from January 2005 to find the time frame when I was just bringing them home for the first time. They were 9 months old then. How time flies!

Today's vet visit went as smoothly as can be expected. In prior years, both Captain and Stanley had gotten a bit overweight from free-feeding, so I began measuring their food. Fast-forward to now, and Captain is at a perfect weight, while Stanley has gotten a bit too slender. Combine this with the fact that the prescription food (to prevent crystals) they're now eating actually has fewer calories than the Iams they'd been eating before, and I worked out with the vet just how much to increase their daily food intake per day. Where they each used to be eating 1/2 cup in the morning, now they will get 2/3 cup apiece. That should make them happy.

Other than being a bit thinner than he needs to be, Stanley passed his exam with flying colors. Captain's weight is perfect, but the vet felt what could be nodules on the thyroid. There's also one small tooth that might be affected with gingivitis (that old bugaboo again) and need to be removed.

Both of them will have a complete senior blood panel, for which the results should be back about midweek, so if there are any issues going on, we should be able to flag it right away and start taking care of it. But I hope all will continue to be well. The good news is that they're as active as ever, playing and getting The Zoomies regularly. Stanley jumps to the top of the china closet, which is no mean feat, while Captain prefers the top of the refrigerator. I have stopped reprimanding them for this, figuring that if they can still make that kind of leap at age 11, then more power to them. Heck, Captain only recently resumed making jumps like that -- while he was a little butterball, he couldn't launch himself to such heights. Nobody camps out in front of the water bowl, nobody is lethargic or hiding, nobody gives any evidence of pain or discomfort, and there's no sign in the litterbox of any problems going on. So that's about as good of a track record as we can get, going into the annual senior bloodwork.

I'm almost completely packed for tomorrow. The only things left to pack are the ones I will still be using tonight and/or tomorrow morning. My goal is to resume blogging by documenting the coming week, and just keep going from there.

HOCKEEYYY is back!

The Flyers' first TWO preseason games are in progress, even as I type. They have one split-squad set of games, where half the players are in Philly playing vs. Washington. Meanwhile, the other half of the players are in London, ON, playing vs. the Maple Leafs.

I have the Flyers/Caps on TV, and Flyers/Leafs on the internet. We're about halfway through the first period in both games, with Caps 1, Flyers 0 in the one game, and Flyers 0, Leafs 0 in the other game.

HOORAY for HOCKEY! :)

Groundhog Day, seven months late!

HELLO. There's a big, greenspace area that Baxter and I pass on our daily dogwalk route. It's owned by the Port Authority, as it runs under an on-ramp to the highway that leads to the bridge to NJ. Tonight, as I was walking past the side of it closest to my house, I spotted something moving at the far end of the green area (which is surrounded by a fence). It looked animal-like, but I couldn't make out what kind of animal it might be.

We kept walking. I kept an eye on this moving shape. When we approached the far end of the green space, I realized it was AN ADULT GROUNDHOG. Surprise!

I took my camera phone out, but by this point, it had spotted the dog and me and bolted for cover. Oh, well. No photographic evidence for me. But yes, we DO have groundhogs in this part of the city. Emphasis on CITY, complete with row houses, parking on the street, and front lawns the size of a tablecloth. Who'd'a thunk it?

RIP Robin Williams

I am just heartbroken to see the news that Robin Williams has not only died, but apparently has taken his own life due to depression. I know all too well what a demon depression is. :-( It saddens me that someone I admired so much was engaged in that painful battle, with which I am all too familiar. And it grieves me even more that he lost one of those battles, and in doing so, the war.

Depression sux. Trust me when I say that if you recognize the symptoms in yourself, the thing to do is go directly to your doctor. Treat it as a medical emergency, because it is one.

RIP Robin Williams. Thanks for a lot of great memories.

Progress! LOL

Captain was heading toward the kitchen. Baxter was heading out of the kitchen. They had to pass within inches of one another across the same real estate.

As they walked by one another, they had this converstaion:

Captain: "PFT!"
Baxter: "RF!"

Then they continued right on past one another and headed to their desired destinations.

Just one brief, perfunctory half-a-hiss, and just one "Well, I gotta grump back at you" half-a-bark. Progress! LOL

DUCKIES!!!! <3

DUCKIES!

Just as Baxter and I were a couple of houses from home, on our morning walk, we passed a raised garden that someone has on the pavement and suddenly, there was a fluttering. At first, I thought we had surprised a squirrel, since that has happened before on that very spot. (I also think the tree nearest to our house has a squirrel's nest in it.) 

But then I realized that what we were looking at was a female mallard duck. She started dragging one wing and limping, and I thought, "Oh no, an injured bird!"

That was when I noticed, belatedly, five or six fuzzy ducklings peeping away. (It occurred to me afterward that many mama birds will feign injury to lead predators away from their chicks.)

This surprised me, because while we are less than a mile away from some man-made lakes, mama and babies will have to traverse multiple blocks of city traffic in order to get there. I have no clue where that nest was, but this is not the place where I would have expected to see one.

Baxter, meanwhile, was hauling at the leash, but I wouldn't let him anywhere near the ducks. I actually think he wanted to herd them, being part Corgi, but I wasn't taking any chances.

At this point, another lady also appeared on the scene, and when the duck family started to cross the street, she accompanied them in order to control traffic. I told her that I would have liked to help with traffic control, but I didn't want the dog near the birds.

So, that was my adventure for the morning so far. The duck family got safely across the street, and were heading in the direction of those man-made lakes. I hope they get there safely.

Prepping for Deaf-Blind Camp

I've been getting things ready to pack for Deaf-Blind Camp. I'll be there next week while Mark stays home and holds down the fort.

But one thing I categorically DO NOT want to take with me is this freaking HEEL PAIN. The Achilles' tendon area on my right foot, the one I need in order to drive, is swollen and is killing me, for no discernable reason. I didn't fall or have any memorable sort of mishap that would lead me to think, "Well, when that happened, I must have hurt myself." I just have this mystery freaking PAIN, out of nowhere.

Well, wherever it came from, it needs to go back. Like, yesterday. This freakin' issue had better be G-O-N-E by the time I leave for camp. I have no pressing desire to drive or four hours with this foot in this condition.

Poor Mr. Squirrel

Aw, shoot.

There are two parts of my daily Walk With Baxter where we tend to encounter squirrels. One is right near our house, and in fact I suspect that there is a squirrel's nest in our tree. The other place is around the corner, and this morning, we saw Mr. Squirrel looking fit and healthy. And Baxter got his morning entertainment barking up a telephone pole, when the squirrel decided that the human and the dog had gotten too close for comfort, and climbed to safety.

Well, we just had our dinnertime walk, and the squirrel from around the corner is now climbing trees at the Rainbow Bridge. He must have had an unfortunate encounter with a car sometime during the afternoon, poor thing. Romp in the sun, Mr. Squirrel. I hope you know I never would've let Baxter close enough to do any harm.

The one bit of GOOD news is that as we made our way home, there was a squirrel bouncing around near our house. So THAT squirrel clearly is not the same one as we'd see around the corner. (Which was a concern of mine. I'd hate to see something happen to the critter who I think nests in our tree.) So at least we still might get to see squirrels during our daily walks.