Wednesday whine, whine, whine

Actually, I don't want readers to get the idea that I'm looking for sympathy by this week's posts. I'm simply reporting facts, and those facts, they do Hoover. That's what I used to tell my students to say whenever that s-word that rhymes with that f-word would come slipping from their lips.

I hated that word, and most kids from the '90s on would verify my claim. They heard from me whenever "That s----s!" came out of their mouths. I remember standing outside my Portable classroom with one daily offender. I'd gotten sick and tired of hearing it, and he was sick and tired of having to restrain himself.

In that doorstep session, we came to agreement, and I don't think I ever heard him say it again, in my classroom anyway. Granted, it IS a lot harder to spit out "That Hoovers!" Nonetheless, it shows one second of thought behind the utterance, and somehow the sound of a vacuum cleaner brand name is much more palatable to my ear.

Listening to "That s----s!" brings out the beast in me as instantly---just as the mere sight of a Hoover vacuum cleaner sends a dog or cat into conniptions.

Back to the whining scene. This week continues to emphatically "Hoover" on the "things that can go wrong" scene, although I did finally locate last year's Christmas lights hidden beneath some pillow cases in a box in the cabinet where they should have been stored. So, the outdoor light show has begun, and with any luck, Kea won't chew the extension cords.

So, no complaining there, yet.

Our indoor light show stands as is. We flip four switches in the kitchen area to create the same amount of light that used to brighten up the kitchen in the overhead light that refuses to allow Bill to fix it. And, Bill just plain didn't have time to fix that outdoor light last night because he was helping the Presbyterian minister with a home visit.

Annie Dog has infected ears, but they're not the expensive kind. Only $39 and ten days of scrunching her up against a surface while squirting a wash into each ear with a syringe and dabbing them with an antibiotic lotion. That situation seems to be under control.

But, alas, Willie called yesterday, and they had to take one of the grandpuppies back to the veterinarian. Her neck was swollen, and now they think she has juvenile cellulitis, so they've started her on steriods to the tune of lots of $$$$$. We're all keeping our fingers crossed and
praying that Brooke gets better soon.

This morning, there came a new surprise to add to the fun. Lefty didn't want to move too quickly out of his stall. In fact, he was downright lame. I looked closer and found a big
knot on his leg just below the hock. When horses play, they kick, and somebody lambasted him a good one. I'm wondering how long and how much treatment this injury is going to require.

But then, I must return to the theme of all these whiny postings. With horses in their pasture eating breakfast, I commenced with my morning shoveling while listening to the country station.

The deejay this morning was talking about "Fibber McGhee in a wheelchair." Yesterday all the talk was about how neat it was for people in the region to contribute to a fund for the poor 87-year-old in a wheelchair who had been beaten and robbed near a Spokane Safeway a few days ago.

Upon hearing that, the deejay on K102.5 bought a $100 gift card for the poor victim. He even got some good press on KREM-TV the night before last. Yesterday lots of folks were calling in telling him they'd seen him on TV, and he spent a lot of time talking about the generosity of the folks in his listening audience.

Well, the story all changed last night when Nadine Woodward came on at the end of the evening newscast with BREAKING NEWS. Seems the wheelchair man made it all up, and his wounds were self-inflicted. Seems a lot of generous folks got scammed.

Who knows the motive or the state of mind of this old fellow, but the whole unfortunate scenario can be added to the week's list of things that just plain HOOVER!

In the meantime, we've got good news. Those auto-executives have offered to take a cut in pay if the government bails them out. Just a dollar a year for their annual salary!

I want to know which Swiss banks they've used to store all their millions earned prior to their generous offer. Something Hoovers here, I'm sure!