Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the third day of the month is "Direction."
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In the year before we got married, I broke my hand and I had a kidney stone, both of which involved trips to the emergency room. I laughed about how this was good practice for our marriage, which has proven out. I am so clumsy. I literally just banged my knee on my desk. One of the main reasons I started doing yoga regularly was a friend of ours who is a physical therapist watched me do something (get something out of a tall cabinet, maybe?) and told me that my movements were all wrong and that I should do yoga to increase my spatial awareness of my own body.
I bring this up to tell you that what was a charming, if somewhat annoying, quirk when I was in my 20s has become a serious annoyance in my 40s because bruises and cuts and scrapes just don't heal as quickly as they once did. I scraped my shin on Saturday morning when I attempted to put our trash bin upright after the storm and since I was wearing flip flops and I had to climb over limbs and trash, I OBVIOUSLY scraped my leg on *something*. I imagine that the residue of this scrape will be there for the next two months, which is decidedly uncool since it's bare legs season.
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Hannah's nails are out of control long again. She hates getting them cut so much, so after our afternoon walk yesterday when she was still panting and exhausted, I wrapped her up in my arms while Dr. BB used the Dremel. It wasn't ideal, but it sort of worked. Now we just have to do that every other day for the next week or two until her nails are the length they should be. I feel like there's someone here who talked about how she hated cutting her children's nails. Are you that person? Because I'm that person, only it's my dog.
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Main Street has been reopened! I know you were all on the edge of your seats.
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The last remaining VERTICAL tree in our neighborhood has been removed by city crews. The city has not yet started removing all the limbs and branches in the terrace,
(sidenote: the city calls the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street the "terrace." This is city property, but homeowners are responsible for its upkeep. But until I moved here, I'd never heard of it called a terrace, but I called it the median (originally from Michigan, albeit in a rural area without sidewalks). My husband (originally from a city in Iowa) calls it the boulevard. It's a hotly contested term. What do YOU call it and where are you from originally?)
so every time the wind blows, sticks and leaves blow all over the place. Hannah is living her best dog life. So many sticks!
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On Monday night we introduced Hannah to Humphrey the Puppy now that Humphrey is all up on his shots. Humphrey is BIG (already about 40 pounds), but he was very scared of Hannah and Hannah does not have enough chill to stop herself from being aggressively affectionate. Hopefully their relationship will improve with more doggy playdates.
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What's the town gossip where you are? What do you call that area between the sidewalk and the road?
I honestly don't remember what we called that bit in Massachusetts, but in Florida it's called a swale. They tend to be sort of scooped out, so that the water accumulates there when it rains, before it goes into the street or on the sidewalk. When my parents moved down here in 1996, they arrived the day after some huge amount of rain had fallen, and my mother kept asking my dad, "Do you remember there being all that water in the ditches?"
ReplyDeleteSwale?! That's a new one to me. English is such a funny language.
DeleteHere in NEO we call it a tree lawn or a curb lawn.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, the powers that be have found yet another road project to make it even more impossible for me to get out of my neighborhood. There is now not one single road that is not under construction, and every path out of my neighborhood is a detour. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. I have to tack on an extra 15 minutes to every trip because that is how long it takes for me to get out. It's a nightmare.
Is there a way to buy stock in orange barrels?
Tree lawn is such a sweet term! I like it. Maybe I'll use it.
DeleteYou are destined to never be able to leave your neighborhood, Nance. It's a sign that you should just stay put!
I don't like cutting kid fingernails but my husband REFUSES (my best friend is the opposite; her husband cuts all the fingernails from infancy on for their kids)...oh well, needs must.
ReplyDeleteI get bruises so easily and I can almost never remember how I got them. I seem to walk into door jams a lot. I don't think of myself of clumsy (I almost never stub my toes), but my calves and elbows are forever covered in bruises. When I lived with my brother one summer and worked in an intense job (and was perpetually covered in bruises) he would beg me to wear long pants and shirts because I looked like someone was beating me. My bruises also rarely hurt. I have good clotting and no blood issues...I just...bruise easily?
I think we're probably on the same page re: bruises. It is rare that I don't have a mysterious bruise somewhere on my body. My bruises hurt if you press on them, so I don't press on them and it's fine. Ha!
DeleteI have to say that growing up with cats did not in any way prepare me for dog nails. The hubs takes care of all doggy hygiene needs and he is a hero.
ReplyDeleteIn my world the strip in front of your house is a "parking strip".
Parking strip? That doesn't even make sense. You can't park there?! I also think my husband's use of boulevard is dumb. Frankly, my median is dumb because it's not in the middle of anything.
DeleteWe have never, not once, done ANYTHING for the cat's nails. Never trimmed them, nothing. But Hannah's nails? Wow. High maintenance. (Note for prospective pet owners: Cats are a zillion times easier than dogs.)
I also call it a boulevard!
ReplyDeleteI could never cut my dog(s)'s nails, way too nerve-wracking. I just take the dog to the groomer's, which, that reminds me, I need to find a new groomer!
Barkley, after he was about eight, did not have patience with younger dogs. He would let them bounce around him for a moment or two, then would either walk off or give them a bit of a warning growl. Some dogs just don't want to be around pups, and he was definitely one of them.
Hannah does NOT have the patience for puppies at the dog park. I think she really wanted to play with Humphrey, though, but Humphrey was too shy. I think we'll do some regular playdates and hopefully they'll become friends.
DeleteI've always called in the median. I think everyone does arouns here.
ReplyDeleteMedian for the win! (I mean, it doesn't make sense because it's not the middle of anything, but it's what I call it, too.)
DeleteI think it's called a "road verge" generally (I googled that) but there are many local phrases. I think I'd call it the sidewalk or curb strip.
ReplyDeleteWow. Road verge sounds terrifying to me.
DeleteIn Melbourne we call it the "nature strip". I do not cut the dog's nails either, we get him groomed every 8-10 weeks and they cut them, but I think they wear down a bit on the concrete footpaths?
ReplyDeleteWhen we took Hannah to the groomer regularly, her nails were still a problem between appointments. I've read other people say their dogs' nails get worn down on walks, but Hannah's definitely do not. It's a constant struggle to stay on top of them.
Deleteoh my gosh-- I don't call it anything!!
ReplyDeleteI always think English has a word for everything, but obviously it does not!
DeleteI'm pretty sure we called it a "berm" where I grew up but Phil calls it the boulevard. If you google it, you will see a wide variety of terms for that strip of grass!
ReplyDeleteI moved in with Phil on a Friday and then the following Monday I had laparoscopic surgery on my hip to fix a torn labrum. Talk about trial by fire! I was on crutches for 3 weeks. But we sailed through that for the most part although he did get pretty tired of carrying everything for me/bringing me things all the dang time - I got tired of it, too.
I am so very out of the loop on town gossip. But there is a lot of turnover in our neighborhood as the house across from us has new owners, the house across from us on the other road (we have a corner lot) is under contract and then the house 2 down from us is on the market. Kind of crazy.
I think some of my Ohio friends call it the berm, but I think of berm as a synonym for the shoulder of a road!
Deleteooohhhh...so much turnover in neighbors! How exciting!
I'm terrified of cutting dog nails since I've heard it's easy to cut into the quick. Good for you and Dr. BB for using the Dremel. We may need to do that for Max.
ReplyDeleteI've never given much thought to the nomenclature of that strip of land between the sidewalk and the street--I think I tend to describe it: "you know, that little strip of land between the sidewalk and the street."
I cut Hannah's into the quick once. She bled ALL OVER and would not be comforted. I am terrified of doing it again, so my husband always cuts/trims her nails and I hold her. It's the only way.
DeleteOh, good gracious, dog nails scare the bejeezus out of me. More power to Dr. BB and the dremel. Smart solution, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI have no concept of where my body is in space. I routinely whack my entire side into a doorframe when I go through, misjudge distance, lose my balance, whack my head on things, etc. etc. It's terrible. So I feel you. And bruises - I swear, they never really go away!
Huh. I never thought about the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street, but... that's probably what I could call it. Ha! Not very creative of me...