Landlady came up last night with some unexpected packages! I was only expecting a couple of sacks of dog food, courtesy of Big Brother…
This brand of dog food is an indulgence on my part: Longtime readers know that I’ve had a problem getting dogs to live a long time for various reasons. I don’t know that diet has been a problem, but at least in Little Bear’s case I kind of suspect it was a factor. I bought a sack of this stuff when I first brought Tobie home, for the unscientific reason that D&L have two old dogs that have eaten it all their lives. Alas I was appalled at the price, which was not sustainable. Big Brother has kindly offered to help with that, hence a care package of two sacks.
BB has been regularly sending food for some time, actually…
…and this time he happened to hit on something I’d been thinking of sending away for myself…
I’ve been hoarding my last small half-bottle of crack sauce for … well, months. You can live on potatoes, onions and eggs indefinitely as long as you don’t run out of sweet chili sauce.
And he didn’t forget Tobie…
These treats are the only thing I’ve found so far that don’t give him the runs, and now we have a substantial stash. He’ll do pretty much anything for a Marro Snack, even including brief periods of good behavior. And he’s getting pretty good at catching them out of the air.
Here’s something else I wasn’t expecting…
Somebody, I don’t know who, hit my Amazon wishlist with a pair of Plan B boots.
Boots have been a recurring problem in the boonies. I went through a long period when I constantly bought cheap tennies because that’s just all that was available and because my worn-out left foot kept destroying the soles. For the past two years I’ve had a pair of really good boots I’ve grown very fond of…
…and my new left foot has allowed me to actually get years of wear from them. But all good things come to an end and these boots are on the downward slope. I was concerned about it but really didn’t have the money to pursue replacements. I appreciate somebody taking that problem off my hands.
Mail-order boots are always a crapshoot for me, I kind of fall between sizes…
…but these fit my meat foot well enough, or will when they break in. And my biggest concern proved groundless…
Sometimes the tongue is gusseted too high to permit passage of my plastic foot. But this one will work just fine. So problem solved, and thank you very much!
One last thing: My friend Ian’s taste in whiskey is exquisite – which means expensive and hopelessly out of my league. Just as an example, I never liked Scotch until he showed me why there’s a reason to – and also that I shouldn’t grow too fond. If you ever get a chance to sample an Islay Scotch, do that. I have a split of 18-year-old – 20, now – Highland Park I’m saving for a very special occasion that may never come. As long as I keep it, I can still taste a good peaty single malt again someday.
Anyway: Earlier this year he discovered a Finnish distillery that makes a rye that is simply to die for. I had a taste back in March or April, and if it isn’t the best rye whiskey in the world it can’t be far behind. Never expected to taste it again, because it’s from frickin’ Finland and not exactly sold around here. I don’t know and don’t even want to know the price of a bottle in America. But look what showed up at the Lair this morning…
C’mon, sundown.
Thanks, guys! You have turned a day into a really good day.
ETA:
Sit backm prop your boots up, take a 3 finger measure of that fine, and I do mean fine Rye whiskey and throw Tobie a couple of treats and that would be a nice ending of the day…
Is your fake foot manufactured in such a way that it takes a particular ‘side’ of boot? That is to say, if your left foot is fake, will the foot only accommodate left foot boots? I ask because if it is not particular about which side it gets, that would seem to open the door to wearing the right boot if the left boot wears out first, thus allowing you to just use the one bot from a new pair untils it wears out rather than having to start wearing both boots of a new pair at once.
Interesting notion. I haven’t tried that. We’d be going full Mad Max – I’ve never been able to find the same brand and model of boot twice, so they’d be completely mismatched. But the foot would probably accommodate either a right or left boot.
You’d be really easy to track, but the expressions on the faces of the first ones upon your trail would be memorable!
I am hellaciously difficult to fit in terms of shoes because my feet are extraordinarily wide. When I find shoes, I buy three or four pairs at once…all identical. And when one shoe of the pair wears out, I save the other one so that, eventually, I can ‘make’ a decent used pair out of the survivors.