Back today after seeing the mum and dad over Christmas.
Well, actually back last night but that was far too late to write out a post. And probably more rattled than I should be by the standards of driving on the roads at the moment. It’s odd. It should be those who should know better who are misbehaving most. It’s not the kids without driving experience, it’s the older drivers who drive very obnoxiously. You know what I mean, the ones who habitually speed and tailgate.
It goes past that too – when I went to Bath, on the way back I followed someone who had two broken brake lights. His centre brake light still worked but if that went ? He’d have a certain smash from someone who didn’t see him braking. His response to me flashing him when he used his brakes (I do this twice but no more – more would be obnoxious in itself) was to put his fog lights on. Yep, respond to someone telling you that you have a serious problem with your vehicle with a bit of the obnoxious.
But enough about the bad stuff.
I had a good chilled out extended weekend with the family, including heading off to see the sister and D Senior (D Junior was off with his grandmum). It’s always good to catch up with the family. We think it’s one thing that really disrupted Ravenwolf’s thinking. She came from a very disfunctional family group and really couldn’t understand how people could be together for so long, getting on well. I prefer our version of family life, I didn’t like being exposed to her’s because I found it quite stressful.
And there’s this fella :
He was very close to saying Hi but was being distracted by smells of meatscraps. Ben’s a typical Staffy, he’s a bundle of love on four legs. He’s very definitely a People Dog. He likes to be around people, he’ll give them a sniff, followed by a big slurp. Especially if there are meatscraps involved.
Alhough it is possible to distract him away from the meatscraps sometimes. I actually took a few more pictures of Old Ben this weekend but they tended to disappear into motion blur like this one is doing with his head and that endlessly wagging tail. This was Ben saying “Happy Bacon and Turkey Day and Please Can I have Some More”.
It’s not all about Ben though, there’s a very active avian community that comes to visit the bird tables. Tough to get pictures of them though (I didn’t have my good camera with me so it was the slow shutter, no zoom iPhone)
It can get a bit too much for Ben sometimes though. This was while Xmas dinner was on the way and our Ben had to take himself away and went for the Apply Nose Directly To Pillow solution to avoid all the lovely smells coming out of the kitchen.
Bit tuckered out too our Ben. He’s getting very old now, we think he may have 1, maybe 2 more Xmases in him. He’s at a good weight, not too thin, not the barrel that he has been. His outside coat is in very good condition. He shows his age in that distinguished grey of his muzzle and a need to often take himself off somewhere quiet for a little sleep when it gets too much for him. Always around his people mind.
But he’ll always jump up and go bouncy when there’s a prospect of meat scraps.
Oh yes. There’s always room for more meatscraps.
We had a chance to see the sister’s two dogs when we visited. They’re a bit too protective and territorial though, so they get exiled to the backyard when visitors come. That doesn’t stop Murph though doing a Kilroy check to see if the visitors have meatscraps.
Yep. If you asked a dog what the Holy Grail looked like, it would be his dinner bowl, piled high with meatscraps.
Back to Ben – I entered the kitchen and did not emerge with meatscraps. Ben was very disappointed in me.
(You might notice a bit of a burr on his left paw there too – Ben might be heading for the Cone Of Shame … but it seemed to be improving over the weekend).
Ben’s a little camera shy but if you can catch him, he’s a gorgeous pooch. This is him making sure we got his best side.
But all good things have to come to an end. Ben is very attached to his people and misses them when they go. I actually caught him having another little sleep there but he does figure out when his people are going to go away for a while.
Right – time to get back to paying attention to the cricket on the telly (England took an advantage this morning and I’m watching it on time delay). I’m also watching the Totalbiscuit Arbitrary Game Awards. And I need to get more munchie supplies at some point.
Oh and I want to make my own virtual navy at some point too (a game called From The Depths that looks amazing) and I’ll be delving in some Dark Dungeons too.
Cya ! Hope you got lots of good loot (I did, I’m in the middle of reading Man Plus plus I got a few more things) and good munchies but most of all, great company.