Poor Jack

Meet Jack.

After my dad died, I had the brilliant idea of getting my mom a dog to keep her company.

My sister, my husband, and I took her to the dog shelter and she chose this guy.

A one-eyed dog with a sweet disposition.

My husband immediately expressed concern about the hair. Jack is (contrary to picture on left) a very fluffy, furry creature...even his feet are covered in thick "Grinchy feet" fur. Jack would be too much work for my elderly mother.

But my mom loved him. She swore he was meant for her. Like a kid angling for a pony, mom swore she'd keep him brushed and groomed. He wouldn't be a problem.

Besides, he was half blind, like my mother (she has macular degeneration).

And he passed the Hartman Quirky personality test. We're a strange family and our, umm, uniqueness isn't hidden, it's celebrated.

Jack was THE DOG, so I bought him and gave him to my mom.

Fast forward a few years. Mom got married, moved to Alaska...Jack went with her. A few years later, Mom came back to the lower 48 with a multitude of health problems, so I got Jack.

My husband did the usual spouse thing, "I knew we'd end up with the dog. I told you not to get a hairy one."

So, I got pet clippers. (For anyone who is about to suggest a professional groomer...you evidently do not know my husband. He doesn't even go to a barber for his own haircut, much less pay for a dog to get a haircut!) 

I gave Jack his first hair cut.

I did a decent job. (See the picture up top...not the roof pic, the first one)

Then this weekend, my husband decided he would help me out and give Jack his haircut.

Poor Jack. He looks like a teddy bear from Goodwill. Missing eye...mangy-looking fur with bare spots. My husband tried to make him look cooler by adding our son's football number in his side.

All I can say is-- I appreciate my husband's effort to take a few jobs off my plate and  I thank God poor old Jack has no self-awareness. I gave the poor pooch a slice of bacon and he went on with life like he was coiffed like a runway model.

Dogs are cool like that. To them, life is good if the treats are good. They don't even own mirrors.

Thanks to our hosts Lexa, L.G, and Tonja Drecker for this weekly good things check in! 

My oldest son will be flying home next week, which ALWAYS makes me a happy camper.

My mother is out of the hospital and nursing home back in her apartment and doing well.

The new puppy, Artemis, has gone weeks without an "accident" in the house...well, all but occasional dribbles when she's excited. I'm not sure what that's all about.

Join the goals hop!
 I totally forgot to do my monthly goal update for January, so I am getting that in toady. Since it's a new year. I decided to set new goals. From the specific to the general. Two goals that I can surely make concrete steps in finishing and two goals that are always ongoing and sort of limitless.

Congrats to PK! I read this book and it's original, fun, and entertaining.

IN THE GAMING WORLD YOU CAN ALWAYS POWER OFF. IN THE WORLD OF NIN, POWER IS FOREVER.

Buy Here

Soon the be ninth grader, Xavier Dare, is convinced there is no video game he can’t master. When a mysterious tattooed man loans him an outdated gaming system, and game called, The Keys to Nin, he gives X real-time access to a world on the brink of turmoil. Nin’s Big Boss is like none X has ever encountered, with a secret that X will have to come to terms with if he wants to keep his own world safe. If X doesn’t level up inside the seven magical yet primitive realms of Nin, he may just find himself doomed to roam there forever–that is, if he can manage to stay alive.

This is one game that’s about to get real.