Cornbread is now officially middle-aged. He turned 5 yesterday.
We celebrated with the dogs joining us on a trip to Lowes. The dogs love it because at least half the employees always seem to have treats in their vests.

At least one of them comes whenever what I’m getting is small enough to easily carry while holding the leash.

Then we found a new restaurant with a dog-friendly patio to visit.
The dogs hit the jackpot. The owner and all the waitresses took turns stopping by for pets, and since we were the only ones on the patio we knew they were there for the pups. The owner brought them each a little saucer of grilled chicken, and our waitress brought them cups of steak.

Ruby wore her festive shirt to celebrate. Unfortunately Cornbread is just too beefy for the one we got him.

A couple weeks ago I made a second attempt at my state’s level three water treatment test. Which oddly enough is the fourth level of certification.
Basically, after creating levels 1-4 there was a push to create a new lower level for folks that run water systems at camp grounds and the like which is called an A certification.

Well anyway I passed. On my first attempt I came up 2 questions short. Thanks to the fact that study programs still aren’t back to where they were precovid the most recent stats showed the level 3 exam having a 13% pass rate.

The expectation based on past conversations is that this means I’ll be offered a lead position that my facility hasn’t had yet. That should mean me being in line to take my bosses slot when it becomes available. That would probably be 3-7 years.
He expects to retire in 7 years, but his boss’s boss may retire in 3-4. My company has always been good at promoting from within. If that trend continues he may move up a step before he retires.

But it would be criminal not to drop everything and give Ruby attention when she does this.

What happens when I give Ruby attention? Jealousy thy name is Cornbread.

No worries, he got some love too immediately after I took this picture.

Let me set the scene for you. I’m outside with the pooches on a warm fall day.
Cornbread is barking across the fences to his buddies behind and beside us.

Ruby decides it’s a good day for me to chase her. She likes to play a game where she runs in circles in the yard, and I run back and forth on the deck to try and beat her to the other side.

Ruby can juke and jive with the best of running backs; passing by you at high speed with inches to spare

Cornbread, well, he does NOT have this ability. He’s more the one that just runs right towards the line and hopes a hole materializes. After Ruby had a couple laps in he decides he needs to join in the fun. This leads to me taking 85lbs of fur missile straight to the back of my knee. The knee is now slightly swollen.
As you can see, he is very sorry.

Back in the fall I posted a picture after seeing the only Toyota truck I’d fight our resident space crab for.

Well, it’s for sale. It’s out of my price range, but unless the rust is far worse than it looks I’m a bit surprised the price isn’t higher.
@Dr-Zoidberg
dually Toyota

And remind you that this would be a great time to get one, or seven, of your own.

Far be it from me to sound like I’m talking down about any other kinds of dogs, because I love every good boy and girl I’ve known.

However, if you want an easy to live with, low maintenance dog I have the dog for you!

I’ve had numerous different breeds in my life, and my greyhounds are definitely the most chill. Both of mine absolutely love going out on an adventure, but if all we’re doing is hanging out at home they’re happy with that too.

Not a lot of space? No problem! They roll up into surprisingly small packages.
Actually they’re often ranked as among the best apartment dogs. You’ll often be asked if they need a lot of exercise. I typically chuckle before letting folks know they sleep more than our cats.

When they do run though, it’s amazing to watch. My girl Ruby is pure, streamlined poetry in motion. Cornbread is a bruiser, and when he runs it sounds like hoof beats.

Cons: if you live somewhere cold and hate the idea of dogs in clothes they’re not for you.

If you love doing obedience training or want to do agility course they aren’t for you. We did obedience training with a truly phenomenal woman that has been involved in agility competitions for over 40 years. She was thrilled with even minor successes because she knows from experience what to expect with sighthounds. We don’t let them off-leash without a fence because as she said no matter how well they learn recall a rabbit a mile away is a higher priority. Given that they can hit 45mph in 6 steps you better scream for them to come back if you want to be heard.

Good news is the selective breeding of racers means they’re pretty healthy dogs, and hip displasia is pretty much non-existent for them because the hip joint is different as part of what makes them so fast.

A DC-3 that’s used by an aerial imaging company.

@AestheticsInMotion staying sober.

Many years ago on a lark I bought Pitch a Christmas bow tie. My expectation was he’d tolerate it for long enough for my wife to get a picture, and then we’d take it off so we didn’t risk suffering the wrath of an angered kitty and his raging death claws.

Much to our surprise he didn’t care in the least. Naturally that means whenever he gets a new collar it MUST include a bow tie.

I know I’m not the only Trekkie here. @Chariotoflove

@Roadkilled That Aurora was probably bought new after they retired from the GM plant and only has 67,000 miles.

@Chariotoflove A sure sign of your excellent parenting.

Im betting I spoke to the owner of that Crosley when I lived in Kettering. I mean, what are the odds of two in the same town.
He was a pretty big guy and said he drove with weight plates on the passenger side because he felt like he’d tip in turns.
I saw him driving it on a sharp left on a hill, and I’m thinking he may have been right.

@AestheticsInMotion The Crosley is also a manual wagon option.

@415s30 What I learned from this is that Sylvie would look great in a flight jacket.

@bison78
This guy will be at the door in no time, but the only threat is taking a supersonic, whip-tail to the leg
He has put a hell of a dent in a stainless steel trash can.

@GrindIntoSecond I can’t do outdoor lights since my loan outdoor plug is out back inside my screened in porch. I always loved decorating, but then I remember all the associated headaches.

Maybe one of these days I’ll make a few plywood cut-outs so I don’t look like a grinch.

@Shop-Teacher For extra awesomeness you could make it a spinning bow tie.

@іди-на-хуй-Влад-formerly-known-as-Distraxi Starting in a car and needing to be rescued by boat is never good, but this has to be close to the luckiest/stupidest way to end out in that situation.

@Poor_sh Thanks to the 138proof Plantation rum I feel like I can fight off whatever lawyers they send my way.