See Ya Thursday

Merci:  Excuse my back but I don't have the energy to get up and turn around.  This heat and humidity has been a bit much for us old fogies.  And it didn't help that Jan spent yesterday trimming bushes and cleaning up the mess.  It was exhausting just to watch!!!!

Hopefully, Jan will behave herself and stop working in the yard so we can recover.  We didn't get a post up yesterday and we're going to take a couple more days off.  We plan to be back Thursday.

Percy:  Wait, don't hit publish yet, Merci.  I want to thank Pipo, Mr. Jack Freckles and their Petcretary for the lovely card they made for my birthday Sunday.

What do you think we should do with our time off, Merci?

Merci:  Zzzzzzzz.

Weapon of Mass Mowing

Percy:  Well, we would have had a post for today, except Jan moved a picture and then spent the next hour searching for it, tried to move it back, and searched again while muttering some no-no words at Winton.

Buddy:  You remember Winton (No Problem).  Oh, how Jan wishes we had reverted back to Win 7!

Percy:  It seems Winton only likes to play on his terms.  Otherwise, he packs up his left click Start menu and right click taskbar and leaves in a huff. 

Percy:  Jan says he's a bully.  She's very happy with the programs we use and doesn't want to use MSN apps to coordinate with other devices.

Buddy:  We don't have other devices.  And we've been talking to ourselves without help since long before Winton arrived.

Percy: We suggested Jan take some karate lessons so she can kick Winton's butt, but she said she swings a mean grass whip to mow the lawn so he'd better watch out!

Buddy:  I wish you hadn't said that.  Now I have this mental vision of Jan racing - slowly because she can't breathe when she walks fast! - down the street after a faceless bully while waving a lawn and garden tool.

Percy:  I can't thank you enough for planting that image in my mind too!

Buddy:  Happy to share with you.  Oh ... you were being sarcastic.

Percy:   Yes.  It's time to shut Winton down for the night.  If I see your legs waving in your sleep, I'll know you're chasing after Jan and her weapon of mass mowing in your dreams.

Seven Dollars and Change

Micah:  We've been very busy for a while snoopervising Jan, so please forgive us if we haven't been able to leave comments as often as we would like.  She is way behind in everything.

Merci:   Evidently humans creak and groan and yelp and crackle when they get old and have to prune trees and cut parts of a lawn by hand.

Micah:  She's finally recovering but the yard is on steroids and she is constantly having to swing a grass whip.  You wouldn't believe it to look at the lawn, though. 

Merci:  Our bushes haven't been cut back yet this year.  There are all kinds of things growing among them and they're riddled with those horrible vines with thorns. 

Micah:  All this has to be cut back from the house. She tried to tear out some of the thorns the other night and injured her leg on a pipe hidden by overgrowth. 

Merci:  To give Jan incentive, Marcus suggested we hide a hundred dollar bill in the bushes, but we checked Jan's wallet and she doesn't have one we can steal ... er, borrow.  Cyndi said two ones and a five wouldn't have the same attraction.

Micah:  What about change?  Did she have any change in her wallet?

Merci:  Yes, thirty-seven cents. 

Micah:  How much encouragement do you think we could provide her with for seven dollars and thirty-seven cents?

Merci:  We might encourage her to remember where she keeps the tools.

Micah:  Well, that's a start.  Where did she put her purse?

Merci:  You do realize we would be robbing Jan to pay Jan, don't you?

Micah:  Of course.  I read somewhere  that's how high finance works.

Marcus Exercises Brain

Marcus here again.  Here I am waiting to finally be rewarded with treats for my expert tree trimming supervision these past two weeks.  I have to admit I have never worked so hard in my life.  Trying to motivate a human just wiped me out!

This is a "before" photograph from my Monday post (Supervisor Marcus Report).  The branch disappearing to the left is in actuality two branches on the neighbor's pecan tree.  The higher one is over the neighbor's property, but the bottom one has grown over ours and blocks a chunk of light to our dog pen. 

I told Jan repeatedly she should cut that one while she still has use of the saw on a pole.  But she hemmed, hawed and complained she already hadn't had energy to answer the phone for a week, why should she endanger health and limb any more over a ... well, over a limb.  

But she really wanted to take down that sucker.  And guess what?  It fell off the tree onto our lawn.  With a lot of help from Jan and her borrowed saw on a pole, of course. 

The missing limb improves our view and adds a little more late afternoon sunlight.   Jan said the squirrel that hung around posing on top of the pen (yes, there is a squirrel there between the windows of the neighbor's house) is named Mini Marcus.  You can guess why - because I always stop to pose for photos.

With our tree and the neighbor's tree and high shrubbery behind us, the amount of sunlight in our dog pen will be limited, but for the time being there will be some.  It's a contest as to whether Jan is aging more rapidly than the tree is growing, or vice versa.  Jan says she will never, never, never, never N-E-V-E-R be able to attempt this again. 

I don't know why she is moaning and groaning.  She should be thanking me.  All she had to do was the labor, whereas I had to exercise my brain. 


We are joining Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Supervisor Marcus Report

Hey, Marcus here to tell you about the enormous amount of yard work I have personally supervised lately.  I'm sure Jan will tell you she did all the work, but let me tell you, supervising that human is hard work! 

This is the tree beside our dog pen.  Jan says the person who planted a mighty oak in a small yard only five or six yards from the back door needs a brain implant.   Because of it, the sun is blocked on all four sides from the pen where the only thing growing is green stuff on our back door, steps and siding. 

This is a better view of the branches growing over the pen and telephone line just short of our neighbor's privacy fence. 

This is what the tree looked like in late May.  There were a lot of dead branches  on the underside.  On Sunday, June 26th, Jan went out after a downpour while some lower branches were heavy with water and "easy" to reach.  Mr. Doug saw the big pile of debris at the curb and said Jan needed a saw on a pole.  Guess what he brought by on Friday, July 1st?

Yep, you guessed it.  Here's Buddy checking it out from a safe distance.  The saw is on the long orange pole, next to Jan's loppers.  I've been told - but it's only Jan's judgment - it isn't easy to balance or use a saw on a pole, especially when your human is *mumble mumble* years of age and already in pain. 

Mr. Doug sawed through several of the thicker branches before he left. Then Jan went to work sawing branches away from the telephone line, the electric line (not near), and the neighbor's property.  She added the branches to the growing pile - the second big pile.

It was still too dark in the pen, so Sunday, July 3rd she went back to work and finished opening the pen to the sun.

This is the new view.  Quite a difference.

There, that's better, isn't it!  I'm quite proud of my supervising job, but Jan wanted to fire me because I kept reminding her I work for treats and I wasn't getting any.

In between lopping and sawing, Jan cut the lawn with a grass whip and shears.  It needs another "mow" but she can't swing her arm. 

In case you missed us, we took last week off to help Jan recuperate.  It was a boring week, so we need a little excitement.  I wonder if I can balance a saw on a pole on my nose. 

Marcus Saves A Broken Nose

Marcus:  Today I'd like to tell you the story of how I saved Jan's broken nose.

Percy:  Did I miss something?  I'm not aware Jan has a broken nose.

Marcus:  We wrote some posts on the 2016 saga of our new city water pipes - the explosion, the flood, the dry pipes, the midnight dig by flashlight, the knee-high flesh-eating grass -

Cyndi:  Marcus, I think you're exaggerating a bit.

Marcus:  The pipe connection blew, it flooded our dog pen, we had no water in the house and a guy from the water company was digging in our yard just before midnight one Saturday ... Need I continue?

Percy:  I hate to ask, but where does the flesh -eating grass come in?

Marcus:  Well, I might have exaggerated just a teeny bit there, but it was knee-high.  The guys left behind a mess of uneven rocky ground and a deep hole where the old meter used to be.  Jan could have stepped in it and broken her nose and then who would feed us?

Cyndi:  Wait a minute.  Jan would break an ankle if she stepped in the hole.  How is she going to break her nose?

Marcus:  You know Jan.  Whenever she falls, she flies and crashes.

Percy:  So the city sent this huge machine to fix the hole?

Marcus:  No.  I just think it's the neatest thing since the pocketknife with all the gadgets.  This toy can dig the hole, haul away the dirt and then brush up the mess it made in the street.  I want one.

Marcus:  As we started our Friday afternoon walk, a guy stopped to admire the mess they'd made.  I U-turned and dragged Jan back to ask him if he could please fill in the hole before someone gets hurt.

Buddy:  I know.  I was poised to take a poop near the curb and suddenly I was being dragged down the sidewalk in a semi-sitting position.

Marcus:  When we got home, the rocks and an empty plastic can were in the hole.

Percy:  I saw the guys came by early Monday morning to finish filling in the hole.

Cyndi:  It looks like they did a pretty good job.   

Marcus:  And that is the story of how I saved Jan's broken nose.

Percy:  It sounds more like you're patting yourself on the back with a front paw.

Buddy:  So this week we are thankful Jan didn't fall into a hole and break her nose?

Marcus:   Would you be thankful if she had?


PS - Please excuse us if we are kind of quiet.  Jan is on a house cleaning, clearing, rearranging binge again and it eats up our time and wears us all out!  

Join Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop. 

Forget the Goat, Marcus

Cyndi:  Here I am reporting from inside my space ship.

Percy:  You are not.  You're sitting in a basket inside a plastic storage bin.

Cyndi:  You didn't need to tell everybody.  I was trying to add a little spice to our post.

Percy:  You've been reading too many of Marcus's posts, only he calls it "fairy dust".

Marcus:  Hey, aren't you guys going to tell everyone what a good job I did snoopervising Jan cutting that new grass by hand again?

Percy:  There's nothing to brag about.  You watched her work.

Cyndi:  She wasn't going to let it get over knee high again, so she went out Monday and cut a strip down the inside of the sidewalk with those grass shears.  Then she went back to the property line and started cutting the rest with the grass whip.

Marcus:  It was hard work.  She was huffing and puffing and-

Percy:  She thought she was going to have to quit because she could barely breathe and had a lot of pain.

Marcus:  And a knight rode up on a big white horse wearing a suit of armor.

Cyndi:  Are you on something, Marcus?  A guy rolled up in a white truck, jumped out, and came around the back of it waving his arms and saying, "Stop.  You can stop now.  I'll come back in the morning and finish this."

Marcus:  Jan fainted. 

Percy:  She did not.  She stared at him.  Then she took a second look at the truck.  Yep, there was the city logo on the side.  The city doesn't mow private property, not even a strip.  They do, however, send a county jail crew around occasionally to cut the curb side of the sidewalk, which they own. 

Cyndi:  The guy said, "Here, I'll give you a card with my cell number.  You call me tomorrow to remind me and I'll have this taken care of.   They (meaning the contract company installing the new water lines) used too much fertilizer."

Marcus:  Early Tuesday morning there was a man on a riding mower that cut the curb side of this block and then went across the street.  Jan was so relieved she wouldn't have to cut it all by hand she called the cell number to say thank you and said she'd finish our side.

Percy:  "No, no, I'll give the guy (on the riding mower) a call and he'll take care of it."  And he did.  "Someone will be along to blow it off the sidewalk,"  the mower guy said.  And after a while, here came the work crew down both sides of the street.

Cyndi:  She learned after the first grass cutting adventure that she is very allergic so she is grateful for being rescued again.

Marcus:  And thanks to a very sweet blogger who wanted to help Jan purchase a weed eater so she wouldn't have to cut that fast growing grass by hand again, but after this second "adventure", Jan realized she couldn't handle one with a cord.  (And she remembered the fiasco when she borrowed a power tool and accidentally cut the cord.)

Percy:  The only electric one someone recommended was too expensive and Jan isn't sure her shoulder could handle a cordless.

Cyndi: So she'll continue to entertain us.  And probably the neighbors.  She  liked the idea made in several comments earlier this month, but she doesn't think the city would be too happy to see a goat grazing in the yard.

Marcus:  I think that would be such fun.  I could chase it and we could play fetch and soccer.  I could have him for lunch and - 

Percy:  Forget about lunch, Marcus.  We're not getting a goat.

Off Center Mowhawk

MERCI:  Okay, we can't not do this post.  The irony is too much.

TAYLOR:  If you remember, Jan worked herself half to death last week cutting some grass with shears and after the rest was mowed, hauling wet grass to the dog pen for mulch.

RUSTY:  Monday she went out to pick up poop in the dog pen, heard doors slamming, turned and -  Yep, you guessed it.  It was the jail work crew.

MERCI:  They zipped along with their mower and weed eaters, leveling everything on the curb side of the sidewalk.

TAYLOR:  The guys stared and weren't sure what to do when they reached the neighbor with the now hip-high-to-Jan grass. 

RUSTY:  This is what it looked like when they finished.  They cut the grass on both sides of the sidewalk, but they don't cut grass on private property, so the neighbor's lawn now has an off center mowhawk cut.

MERCI:  Just as Jan snapped the picture, a car with a choking exhaust problem passed.  (See the cloud on the left?)

TAYLOR:  She tried again after the "toxic cloud" evaporated.

MERCI:  We took her for a walk later and when she saw all that beautiful, healthy mulch-to-be, she wanted so badly to go get a container and steal ... I mean clean up the loose grass to add to our dog pen.

RUSTY:  She wants that mulch!  It's just going to waste.  She restrained herself.  Fortunately, last week's mulching pain is too fresh in her short memory.

MERCI:  We know we tease her a lot but today we comment her for showing restraint.

RUSTY:  After all, if she gets laid up again, who is going to feed us?

TAYLOR:  There's a church across the highway with a community soup kitchen.  Do you suppose they would deliver to starving furries?

New Grass or Old Mud

PERCY:  Jan said she hopes the saga of the grass is over for a while because she cut and hauled so much of it in two days that she should have lost 47.3 pounds.

CYNDI:  If you remember, it looked like this in Knee High To Jan.  She cut less than half with grass shears.

MARCUS:  And in Pop The Top, a very kind man we met a while back on our walks brought a real lawn mower over.  When he left, the thick, tall grass looked like this.

PERCY:  It rained before Jan could start on the grass, so she spent the afternoon raking all that heavy wet grass, filling container after container, and hauling it to spread in the dog pen.

CYNDI:  She had trouble breathing and her legs kept trying to go out from under her, but she continued working until she finished.

MARCUS:  I asked her why the rush and she said there was no way in ... uh, you know where that she was going to mulch that healthy, fertilized grass so it could grow even faster!  Besides we had a barren dog pen and more rain coming.

CYNDI:  Jan planted new grass seed two or three weeks ago in hopes it will grow this year.  She wants the dog pen to look something like this but with real grass, not grass mulch.

MARCUS:  I don't know what the big deal is about grass.  I thought the mud pen was perfect! 

PERCY:  We were fortunate to get fed Friday.  Jan was so weak she could barely stand up and she listed left when walking into things.  It's been a boring weekend and she is still recovering.

MARCUS:  She opened the door Saturday morning and this is what greeted us.  Uh, Jan, I really don't have to pee now.  Maybe when the water recedes.

CYNDI:  Buddy took one look outside, u-turned and went back to bed.  If you notice, Marcus wouldn't go outside, but as soon as the camera appeared, his head popped out the door so he could be in the picture.  What a ham!

PERCY:  We didn't think the rain was going to stop.  It did finally.  At times such as this we cats are glad to have indoor litter pans and the dogs envy us.

MARCUS:  I guess we should know sooner or later whether we'll be celebrating new grass or old mud for this summer.  I'm rooting for old mud.

CYNDI:  Oops.  This was supposed to auto post almost 12 hours ago.  We're just getting online at noon and ... no post.

MARCUS:  You mean no one has seen what a great job I did helping Jan mulch the pen?

PERCY:  And just how did your snoring through the whole procedure help?

Pop the Top

Heard around the house Thursday -

BUDDY:  It sure is quiet around here.  Where is everyone?  I thought we were going to work on tomorrow's post. 

RUSTY:  I'm just hanging out on the computer tower.  The others are napping here and there. It's pretty boring when the biggest excitement of the day is Jan wandering around creaking and groaning.

TAYLOR:  I hear it's going to be getting exciting.  Thunderboomies are on the way.  I don't like them.

BUDDY:  Well, we did have a little excitement this morning.  Remember the guy who said he would come save Jan from having to finish cutting the grass with shears?  He showed up at 9 A.M. and kept his word.

RUSTY:  Yes, this Knee High To Jan grass sure was thick and hard to cut.  Jan says she feels like she's been hit by a truck and she didn't quite finish half the job.

TAYLOR:  I guess she won't be getting paid for it then?

BUDDY:  She doesn't get paid for it.  She does things like that because she loves pain.

RUSTY:  He's joking, Taylor.  She does them because she has to so we can continue to live here. 

TAYLOR:  Well, it sure was nice of someone to help her.  It looks a bit messy, though.

BUDDY:  Don't worry, Jan is trying to work up the energy to go clean up the mess with a rake and a broom.  That freshly mown grass will make good mulch for the dog pen.

RUSTY:  Well, she'd better get a move on it if she wants to finish between rain storms.

BUDDY:  She hitched us dogs up for a walk and discovered it was already raining.  We might have to lock her out in order to get the job finished.

TAYLOR:  I'm not sure that would be wise, Buddy.  Not with the way you and Marcus like to eat.  Remember, any one of us could rip open a kibble bag, but she is the only one of us who can pop the top on a food can.


We are joining the Pet Parade blog hop with hosts Rascal and Rocco,  Bionic Basil, Barking From the Bayou and Owned by a Husky. 

Knee High To Jan

Heard around the house Wednesday night -

CYNDI:  Hey, does anyone know why Jan is making so much noise tonight?

RUSTY:  Yes, she's breathing.

CYNDI:  Would you ask her to tone it down for a bit? Wait, why is she breathing like that?

RUSTY:  Probably because if she doesn't, she'll die.  Oh, you mean, what caused it?  Grass.

CYNDI:  Is she allergic to grass?

MARCUS:  I hope not.  We sure have an abundance of it.  Look at how tall the grass is where Buddy and I are standing.

RUSTY:  I thought we didn't have any grass growing in the dog pen?

MARCUS:  We don't.  After the new water line and sidewalk were installed, the contractor seeded the dirt on both sides and new grass grew ... and grew ... and forgot to stop growing until mowing season.

CYNDI:  Wow, it sure did.  Is this what you see along the route you walk Jan?

MARCUS:  Only on this block.  Our grass was sown first.  The weather was the perfect temperature and we had an abundance of rain, so now we have an abundance of knee-high-to-Jan grass.

RUSTY:  Oh, good, somebody mowed it!

MARCUS:  Actually Jan couldn't stand looking at it any more and cut part of the grass on our property by hand yesterday.

CYNDI:  What a mess! 

MARCUS:  It took her a couple of hours to do most of one side of the sidewalk.  The grass was so thick and tall she couldn't use the long grass whip.  She had to use those oversized scissors.

RUSTY:  She must be tired!  And sore. 

MARCUS:  And grumpy.  I'd suggest staying as far away from her as possible for a few days.

RUSTY:  I guess that means you'll have to behave?

MARCUS:  I always behave!

CYNDI:  This week we are thankful a kind man volunteered to come by with a lawn mower, so Jan might not have to finish cutting the grass with scissors.


Join Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.

And Ruckus the Eskie for Thoughtless Thursday with co-hosts Love is being owned by a husky and Barking from the Bayou.