Cleveland

 A garden is a community where difference is neither exploited or excluded but celebrated as a divine gift necessary for wholeness.

I found this quote on a railing in the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. This was the first place I headed on Wednesday morning on my little walking tour of the area we are staying at. It was a great place to wander on a warm, sunny morning. Throughout the gardens they had incorporated Lego statues, like this giant one of a hummingbird and flower made completely out of regular sized Legos:

It was fun, and I really enjoyed a nice, leisurely walk. I kept thinking that my grandson would have loved walking thru it too, with lots of places to see, places to play, even a Waterfall Garden I think he would have liked to visit.

Yesterday, I headed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and spent most of the day there because they had a show at the planetarium I thought I would go to, and that wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon. The morning one was Big Bird's Space Journey, but I opted out of that one. Walking thru all of the exhibits, I pretty much realized that I have, during my lifetime, seen just about all of it in one museum or another-dinosaurs, minerals, rocks, stars, how the earth formed, etc.

But, every museum has something to draw people to it, and I went there to see "Lucy!"

  

Of course I had heard about her, so it was exciting to actually see it in person. They also had a moon rock there, but I know I have seen moon rocks at other museums, probably the National History Museum in DC.

Today will be my last day in Cleveland. The sun is just starting to come out, so I think I will head over to the Art Museum and journey thru there for a few hours. Nothing special is drawing me there, but the building is fabulous, so it should make for a nice morning.

First Stop...Niagara Falls, Canada

We left Monday for a business trip to Cleveland. It's not my business trip, so I am having a fun, relaxing time visiting sites around the area. Cleveland is a long, 12 hour drive from Vermont, so to break it up a bit, we decided to detour over to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, since we have never been there. The "big city" is pretty overwhelming when you haven't been accustomed to it in a long while. The traffic crossing the border was heavy, and the commercialism of Niagara Falls is ridiculous. But the site of the falls is beautiful, and the weather both the afternoon we got there, and the following morning was perfect. We stayed in a Hilton Hotel so we could have a really nice view of the falls from our room, plus Champlain College would be paying part of the bill, so it was worth the splurge. Here are a few photos:

 Here I am looking over the American Falls.

 This is the Canadian Falls, which is just up from the American Falls.

 Closer view of the American Falls from our room.

 The sun rising over the American Falls. View from our room.

 It was a great stop, and I'm really glad I was able to visit it, but it's probably not something I would go back and do again. But I guess, for just about any major tourist attraction, you have to put up with the crowds and traps that generate the money needed to keep the area functioning. 

A Little Lonely...A Little Lost

Kuma and Mishka

10 February 2011

So, although Kuma is gone, we still have our little Mishka. Mishka is 2 years older than Kuma was, and she will be 10 in December. She often limps on her back right leg, but other than that, she seems pretty healthy. She has always been a sweet, lovable dog who yearns for all the attention you could possibly give her. She is calm and fairly quiet. She and Kuma had some great playing times when they were younger. They would do tug-of-war with pull toys, dragging each other back and forth until one finally tired out and gave up. They would roll around out on our porch when it was all screened in, stretching the screens to the max. One day they were both out there, and after awhile it seemed rather quiet. I let Mishka in, then looked around the corner for Kuma. No Kuma. But a large tear was visible in the screen at the far end of the porch. Had Mishka followed her brother out the hole? No, she was a good doggie. Had she barked to let me know he was running wild? Nope, not a peep. In fact, I suspect she was rather glad to see him go, and was happy with the peace and calm for awhile. They shared toys and treats and often finished each others food when no one was looking. They sometimes slept close to each other, but other times went their own way too. But if we went for a ride in the car, they were always together in the back seat.

Now, there's only Mishka, and she still seems rather confused. She won't lay in her normal spot in the living room. She takes awhile to eat in the morning. like she's waiting for us to put Kuma's food down too. At night, when I take her out before bedtime, she lags back because Kuma always took forever to get up. But the hardest is when we have to leave the house. She comes downstairs and goes to the door of the garage like she doesn't want to be left alone in the house. She sits there looking at me as if to say, "Please don't leave me by myself. It's too lonely, I don't know what to do." We have a trip coming up, and we have debated what to do with her. We had planned to take both of them to the kennel where we always leave them and where we also take them to be groomed. We do have a neighbor who would come over to check on Mishka if we wanted to leave her at the house, but we think it will be best to take her to the kennel. She will be with other dogs and people nearly all the time because it's also a doggie daycare, and we are thinking that may be best. We don't want her to feel completely abandoned in the house. It will be hard on her and on us, and I know we will be so glad to see her when we get back.

Mishka

10 August 2014

"Bear" in Japanese

Kuma

There are some moments in life that will forever remain in our thoughts. 

This is a picture of Kuma. A big, beautiful Samoyed; goofy, funny, strong, kind, clumsy, messy, full of mischief, a chewer of all things, lovable, determined, playful, gentle. He joined our family in January of 2007, while his brother went to my daughter's house in Maryland. As a puppy, I would take him to work with me at the small gift store I worked at not far from here. He would sleep in a little pop-up kennel, and I would take him out for short walks in the nearby park. People would hear him squeaking his little toys and be surprised to see him put his paws on the counter to greet them. Sometimes we would sit on the bench in front of the store and watch the people go by. But then I changed jobs, and no longer took him to work with me. Probably a good thing because he was way too big by then. 

Kuma was trouble. He pulled terribly while he walked you. He chewed up toys, and bones and chair legs and corners of walls. He barked loud. He never laid still to be brushed. He ate driveway stone and grass. He had to be on a leash always, and took forever to come home if he ever did get away. You could walk him up and down the driveway trying to get him to go pee, and somehow I swear he held it just to be stubborn and get an extra 5 minutes outside. 

But Kuma was fun. He loved to come up and put his big head in your lap and wait for you to rub his nose. He would roll over so you could scratch behind his ears and on his back. He played catch with his ball and loved playing fetch. He was overjoyed with every first snow. He would dive head first into the fresh snowbanks and eat as much of it as he possibly could. It took forever to walk him because he had to sample each new snow pile. He never bit or nipped, or got tired of a child being around him. He tenderly took treats from their tiny hands and never once got a finger by mistake. He loved his Sunday pancakes, and rides in the car. He was a good dog, and he is terribly missed.

Last Thursday we took him to the vet and they found 7 tumors had invaded his body. He hadn't really been eating at all for nearly 2 weeks. Only the oatmeal and chicken I would cook for him in the morning. Not enough to keep him going. There was nothing much they could do for him, and he wouldn't get better. He was so sick. And maybe in pain, but we wouldn't know. But he was weak, and getting weaker by the day. We sat by his side, and said goodbye and rubbed his ears and nose. He is everywhere I turn right now, and it will take some time to get used to his not being around. But he will always be loved. Run free Kuma.