Katie’s Triumphant Return

This weekend Susan was out of town so Beacon and Belle were staying over. With Martti only working Monday thru Friday I asked him if he’d like to go to Red Top Mountain for a dog hike on Sunday (I don’t see how I could handle all 4 dogs by myself). Katie hadn’t been since last fall and the subsequent knee surgery. We had been to Stone Mountain where she has been enjoying swimming after sticks (even Clio is getting to be a good swimmer) and she hasn’t shown any problems with her leg, but I was still worried about Red Top because it is more strenuous.

Once again we managed to get behind the main group of hikers and dogs within minutes of the start. But at least this time it wasn’t from being out of shape (they rerouted the beginning of the trail and made it easier) but because we somehow lost Beacon in the initial confusion. We went back to look for her and found her eventually. Then we continued on, taking a shortcut that I hoped would get us caught up. We found a couple of other people with their dogs who I thought might be stragglers as well, but they said they had taken the same shortcut and the main group wasn’t there yet.

The water was very high from Hurricane Ivan, well up into the woods. So swimming around trees and over limbs wasn’t easy for my dogs. But Lucy and her owner, Matt, were there and Lucy displayed her fearless and enthusiastic swimming. Also one dog chased after a stick and got it confused with the branch of submerged fallen tree that was sticking out and tried over and over to bring the whole tree back pulling on the branch (someone said if all the dogs worked together maybe they could have done it).

Anyway, although Katie looked like she was limping a little at times, she turned out to be just fine. I get scared when I see her running really fast or tumbling around with another dog, but it seems like she has made a 100% recovery.

The saga continues two years later with Katie’s Other Knee.

One Down

Time continues to draw down. After working very hard all summer and earning some sales awards, Madis finished delivering his books ahead of schedule and has left Atlanta. He went to Nashville where the company is located to close out and then will stop by for a party in Gatlinburg to celebrate the end of the sales season before catching a bus up to New York and then home.

Continue reading “One Down”

A problem bigger than me

The last two Sundays I’ve worked a total of 10 hours on a co-worker’s home computer trying to get rid of a virus she picked up. The virus doesn’t destroy files but it wreaks havoc with Internet Explorer, replacing your bookmarks and installing toolbars with links to gambling and pornography sites. The toolbars are very difficult to remove and hidden programs go behind you after you delete files and replace them with new versions so that when you start Internet Explorer the toolbars return.

Continue reading “A problem bigger than me”

Harvest Time

Part 5

After I last wrote it looked like Martti would have to move out to be closer to a job he had lined up in Cumming. It made me sad to think of him going off without the other two guys, plus I figured I would have to lower the rent again. He had arranged the job through an Estonian that lives here and involved digging swimming pools with a Hispanic work crew. With no transportation and not even a driver’s license he was going to try to move in with this guy. But the guy wanted $650 a month for rent which is more than I’m charging the three of them. He went back to Kroger and said that a “Help Wanted – Produce” sign was out. He asked “What does that mean, ‘produce’?” It is a strange word that we’ve chosen to mean fresh fruits and vegetables.

Continue reading “Harvest Time”