Bluto is starting out with a basic Wubba, a training model, if you will:

He will, no doubt, move onto those that have special powers, such as a Santa Wubba:

No matter how much serious stuff is going on in life, people seem to be able to find something actually unimportant to trigger obsession. I was wondering if I should get my hair trimmed or wait until the heat/humidity of summer had passed.

First I gathered my shortish hair in a mini ponytail in back. I probably am being generous in calling it a mini ponytail, for I’m almost certain a rubber band would not be able to hold it. I think what I am doing is scrunching hair toward the middle with my hands and discovering a little might stick out the hole in an adjustable baseball cap.

That is not what is on my mind now. A while ago, it was and then I happened to look in a mirror at the hair length and I thought, I believe my teeth are too short. You really should not try such thoughts at home for you have too much time to do something crazy, such as look up teeth measurement on the Internet.

Yes, I did that. Pages of technical articles, pages of cosmetic remarks and many, many images of smiles with before and after shots. I have yet to actually measure my front teeth, but I know I will. I am going to be 70 and I am concerned about tooth length; I think that is not senile – it goes straight to crazy.

However, I did come across two images that put me off the idea of thinking about my teeth. Now I am trying to get them out of my mind.

#1 PACIFIERS:

#2 BABY WITH PACIFIER:

And now it is time to return the favor.

Perhaps Bluto will want it played over and over again, as someone here did.

Ah, so this is my kingdom.

We received notice that LZP has a new furbaby; his name is Bluto Frankenstein. We think he is about 12 weeks old or thereabouts. And, if you are not an expert at recognizing breeds, he is a Saint Bernard. He is going to GROW. We think there will be lots of stories and we will be reporting.

THIS FELLOW

from all of us at

The PBC & R

and from

Dog Heaven

In the morning, I usually check the news and the weather and email, and maybe surf a bit. Today, I did the first three and then decided I wanted to check on a couple of books at Goodreads. And so I did; I was reading about one novel when I noticed a small insert on the side of the page. It included a small picture of three book covers (I am trying to give myself a reason for my misinterpretation here – hence the double use of the word “small”.) At any rate, the book in the middle was “A Cupboard Full of Goats” and my curiosity was piqued.

I’d watched the movie “Men Who Stare at Goats” so I thought, well, why not take a closer look at this book? As it turns out, the real title is “A Cupboard Full of Coats.” I was bummed. I know, I know: the book is probably a good one about a group of people – a family or bridge club or whatever who hang their coats together. All sorts of stories could come out of the cupboard.

But I was psyched for goats. Knowing me, I may have to designate a cupboard in my house as the Goat One. (I’d slam the barn door on that idea, but the horse is already out.) I’m getting too old for all this stuff for when I was younger, it made me eccentric, but now that I am hard onto my significant next birthday, I’m afraid it would be interpreted as “Oh, she’s in her dotage.”

A further complication: Why isn’t the cupboard called a closet if it holds coats? Are they folded and stored? Well, that introduces possibilities of a different plot. Still a personal type story, but addressing other, maybe sadder, plot developments. I’m going to have to look it up now, because I CAN NEVER JUST LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE.

Still, I’m not giving up my Goat Cupboard.

It’s not that I locked myself out of the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse; it’s not that the power is out or we had a burst pipe in the Foo Bar. We’ve just been funking around and while funking can be restful for the funker, it would be boring to anyone having daily updates of it.

Perhaps after I had watched a couple of episodes of “Lost in Transition” which is about four married men transitioning into women, I found myself thinking, WHAT AM I DOING? HAVE I SUNK THIS LOW?  And the answer was, “Well, I guess so.”  I further realized I had been watching “600 Lb. Life” and Netflix shows about prisons. Der Bingle suggested that I needed to find one called “600 Lb. Transgender Criminals.” I felt like hanging my head. I have not exactly been on the Masterpiece Theater track.

Since I’m wandering down Confession Lane, I have to admit I have read three Kindle Unlimited escapist books, just bang, bang, bang. Ever so seldom, I would think I should do something productive, then I just pushed that out of my mind and kept doing the Kindle equivalent of flipping the pages.

If there is any news, it is that, although trying to lose weight, I have discovered Mushroom with Truffle Oil pizzas . . . and Goat Cheese Pizzas. I was fascinated by the names and had to try them; I am fairly certain I will not be fascinated by anything called Roadkill Pizza.

According  weather.com, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and a couple of other states are located within a Ring of Fire”. Perhaps the volcano activity in Hawaii has caused the folks at the weather website to make an analogy. It may be apt, but it is not a happy play on words for us in the new R of F zone.

I have been writing a lot about the weather lately; it may be my new obsession. I will just let it run its course, while the temperature heat-up does its thing. And, of course, I will be researching Indian Cool Down Dances, which are less-well known than the Rain Dance. (I will have to keep a careful for anyone with a cell phone video camera.) Caught on tape, my performance might by titled “Little Old Lady Crazy Dance.” It is a chance I will have to take.

I hope it is a slow dance, but maybe it will turn out to have echoes of Johnny Cash.

…EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON EDT /11 AM CDT/ TODAY TO 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ SUNDAY… The National Weather Service in Northern Indiana has issued an Excessive Heat Warning…which is in effect from noon EDT /11 AM CDT/ today to 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ Sunday. The Excessive Heat Watch is no longer in effect. HAZARDOUS WEATHER… * Long duration extreme heat event. Temperatures will peak into the lower to middle 90s today and Sunday, with middle to upper 90s on Saturday. Heat indices will reach near 105 today and Sunday, around 110 on Saturday. * Humid with low temperatures in the middle 70s tonight and Saturday night. IMPACTS… * The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will lead to an increased risk of heat related stress and illness.

Last January, I believe the temperature went down to way below zero and I typed that we were all going to freeze and I would probably rue those words come summer. I am RUE-ing, big time.  There may be a hot time in the ole town tonight, but this is one party I would be glad to miss. Two days ago the high was in the low 70’s; today when I left to go to the store, it was 90 degrees and “felt like 95” and I quote weather.com.

I know that I wrote earlier – a month ago, maybe – that I needed to get outside a bit each day and acclimate myself to warmer weather. It was like a New Year’s Resolution; I didn’t lie, but I doubted I would religiously follow through. Oh, God, I regret it now. I really regretted it just after getting into my black car that had been in a paved parking lot.

As I anticipate a “significant birthday” as my doctor called it, I suspect my heat angst has something to do with age. Whatever. However, I am going to make myself go outside in the cooler mornings and then add afternoon time so I won’t faceplant myself if I have to walk a few blocks, let alone mow the lawn. I figure about the time I get adjusted, it will be time for fall and cooler temps.

I am thankful for iced tea, cold meat sandwiches that are bite-sized and air-conditioning. And when I am hot and outside, I am glad for sweat, for it would be very bad for my insides to get as hot as the inside of my car.