October 5, 2009

People I May Know, Waste Management's Bad List and My Dog Needs Cesar Millan

Do you ever go to a concert or some other big event with lots of people and see someone you are sure you know but can’t for the life of you remember their name or where you know them from? This happened at the Journey concert. I was hesitant to approach him because:

A) It could be someone I didn’t like and wouldn’t want to reconnect with. I know that sounds bad.

B) I don’t really know him and it could be quite awkward thinking I know a person when in fact I really don’t. Plus he was with a woman I didn’t recognize at all and she might get the wrong idea.



I decided it best not to go over because as my husband so nicely reminded me I get people wrong all the time. Just the other day I thought that woman lawyer in the movie “Moonlight Mile” was that blond girl that always played in those Clint Eastwood movies. He informed me that Clint’s co-star would be at least in her 60’s by now while the woman in the movie we watched was only in her 40’s. I swear it looked just like her. Maybe she has a good plastic surgeon.



Some of ya’ll know I’m a tree hugger/recycling nut and do my part in my little patch of the world to be a good citizen. The other day I was on the phone with my husband while I was cleaning the kitchen. So I asked him, “I wonder if they will recycle steel wool.”



I hear him laughing on the other end.



“What’s so funny? It’s not gross or anything, it’s just gotten kind of raggedy and I didn’t want to just throw it in the trash.”



He says, “Waste Management probably has you on their bad list. They see your tub and go, Oh no, it’s that crazy lady that tries to recycle everything.”



So I said, “Well they should recycle everything. If they did we wouldn’t have Mount Garbage and Trash Hill.”



Those aren’t real names they are my made up names for the two landfills we have at either ends of Oklahoma City.



My poor dog has lost his noodles. He’s never been aggressive in his whole life but the other day he actually ran at the gas meter man barking and acting like he would bite the guy’s leg off. I had to go out there and call him off. I have no idea what’s gotten into him except old age. You know some men get real cranky when they get older and maybe that’s what’s wrong with my pooch. He has decided he’s older than we are and can do whatever the hell he pleases.



He’s also taken to eating the sheet rock on a corner in the hallway. I noticed he mostly does that if he didn’t get any attention that day. I fixed his butt. I put him outside and he’s staying there for a few days. It sounds much worse than it is. He has a crate in the garage with a flannel blanket I made him and a doggy door so he can go in and out anytime he wants. So it’s kind of like sending a kid to his room that has video games, computer and a television set.



“Who do you think you are eating my house?”



He’s been outside four days now and my husband gave me a sad face last night asking how much longer Basil has to stay outside. It hasn’t been long enough. I know that old stubborn dog and it will take a while for him to realize whose boss.



Funny thing is he was supposed to be my dog. Mark didn’t even want one but nobody told me before I picked out that breed that Boston Terriers prefer men so he’s not so much mine anymore unless discipline is doled out. He minds me better than anyone else even though recently he’s not obeying anyone so good.



Where’s that dog whisperer man when you need him?