Mondays With Faith ~ Joyful, Joyful

 Joyful, joyful, joyful,

as only dogs know how to be happy

         with only the autonomy     

        of their shameless spirit. 

–Pablo Neruda 

Taking A Short Break

 Last Monday, I went to have my lungs examined and while at their office, I asked to get the pulmonary vaccine. 

I've never had any problems from any vaccines, including the earlier one for our lungs. 

However, this version had some serious side effects, perhaps only for people, like myself, who have Type 1 diabetes.

For the entire week my blood sugars have been sky high and are stubbornly resisting insulin.

I've had Type 1 diabetes since 1990, I get vaccinated for what I believe is appropriate every year and I have never experienced any side effects before. 

Since Monday, I wake up between 1:00 and 2:oo a.m, find my sugars too high, stay awake to deal with it and monitor the effect of the insulin I provided.

I've had to give myself insulin in amount as high as 10 units at one time, something I've never had to do before. 

Since overdosing on insulin is very dangerous, could even cause death, I then stay up and monitor what happens. 

After five days of this, I'm tired and not able to come up with blog posts. 

So I will take a break, which I hope will be short. 

 

Valentine's Day

 

Mommy and Me 

Wish you all 

a

Happy Valentine's Day

Your's truly, 

Faith

Mondays With Faith ~ ~ Faith And The English Dogs

Hello, Roxie and Gilbert, I heard you wanted to meet me and I got so excited! 

My name is Faith and I haven't ever met another dog online. 

I live here in our nice house in the country. Mommy is retired so we get to spend a lot of time together. 

Because I love mommy very much and she's kind of old now, 84, I think she is, and I can't even imagine how old that must be. I can only count to five myself. Anyhow, because of this, I feel I must look out for her and protect her. 

I will be eleven years old in April. 

I'm what we call a mixed breed, my main part is Labrador Retriever. 

A person who doesn't like to exercise should own a retriever, mommy always says. All she has to do is stand there and throw the ball with the ball thrower thingy and I will run and run and fetch.

I never get tired of it, but I do get tired from running so much. 

So then we may go for a short walk. When mommy was younger, we used to go for very long walks. Called hikes. We climbed the hills together and it was so much fun!

Once I woke up neighbor Bob's horse who was sleeping in My yard, on My grass. 

Mommy was yelling at me to get away because the horse had long legs and big feet. Called hooves. Dangerous things that could kick me, mommy said. Afterwards.

So now you know a little about me and I, of course, would like to know about you both as well. 

I love your names, mommy says they sound very English. 

Nice to meet you, Roxie and Gilbert,

Faith

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

The mountains are calling and I must go...

John Muir

Sunday Morning Reflections ~ On Mass Shooting In Sweden

Sweden was in shock after the mass shootings last week.

So was I, so was Helena my Swedish friend here and, I'm sure, so were those of you who thought of Sweden as a very safe country. Which it was, the third safest in the world. Not sure if this shooting will change that.

I called Helena, we talked, but couldn't really help each other much.

This was just too much to absorb.

The mass shooting, which claimed 11 lives, including that of the gunman, was the worst in modern Swedish history.

The school where it happened and where the gunman had attended, was also attended by immigrants, from Syria, Iran, and Somalia, among others. 

Seven of the victims were women.

I just want to say that I'm so, so sorry, so sad, so upset first of all that this happened, then that something like this could happen in Sweden. 

I'm sure Swedish laws will change, gun control will be tightened, but who can change the hate needed to execute innocent people, mostly women in this way.

Can you imagine what some of these people left behind, say in Syria?

Can you imagine how very safe they must have felt in Sweden?

Nature Friday

 

Evening Sky

A Retro Post from 2010 ~ Samson Plays Doctor

Retro posts are favorite posts I transfer from the blog I started in 2009, where suddenly no comments would post and all comments between 2009 and 2023 disappeared. After that happened, I had to give up on that blog and start this new one.

At the time I posted this, Samson was a little over a year old and Angel was about 12.

Oh, hi Mommy, maybe you better take that camera and go away so I can examine Angel.

Ack, that nose doesn't look so good. It looks awfully red to me. I will prescribe some more medicine for you and discuss this with Mommy.

Now, let me check your ears. You are such a good patient, Angel, let me just sniff in there. It smells good and clean to me.

And now I have to examine the other end. I know you don't like it, but I have to make sure all your ends are OK.

Sniff, sniff: It smells good to me.

Oh, you want to go outside now? Ok, we can do the rest out there.

I know you eat very well now, but you're still awfully skinny. We have to do something about that. I prescribe some walks for you to make sure you get some more appetite and gain some weight. And I have to discuss your nose medicines with Mommy. Other than that, you are good to go.

These are my final instructions: Make Mommy take you for a good walk every day; eat all your dinner; let Mommy put that cream on your nose too -- those pills are not enough. And let me kiss your ears every time I come and see you.  Then you will feel at least a whole year younger. And that's seven human years.....

Someone asked about Samson's breed:

Samson was a Samoyed, an ancient breed, here's some of the breed's history:

The Samoyed is an ancient breed of dog that originated in Siberia and has a long history: 

• Origin

  The Samoyed breed dates back to 1000 BCE and originated with the Samoyede people, a nomadic tribe that lived in northern Russia and Siberia. The dogs were originally called bjelkiers and were used for herding reindeer, pulling sleds, and hunting bears. 

Samson was an awesome dog, he was the absolute best. 

Sunday Morning Reflections ~ California

Nowhere on the continent 

did Americans find a more diverse nature,

a land of more impressive forms and more 

powerful contrast than in California.

Wallace Stegner