The Dynamic Duo

A Guest Post
Panther, back from her honeymoon sent me this little journal kept by our niece Linda, who house-sat for her while she and John were at the Oregon Coast. I present it here in its entirety with explanations.

THIS DAY WAS OSTENSIBLY WRITTEN ABOUT BY JASMINE, PANTHER’S OLD, RATHER OBESE, BUT VERY SWEET BLACK LAB. FATZ IS THE VERY OBESE SIAMESE CAT, AND ANYA IS THE SPOILED LITTLE DACHSHUND.
Monday February 19 2007

Linda and her parents arrived after nine in the morning while Sara, Jason and Julie were still here. They all had smoothies and eventually everyone but Linda left. Jason came back once to get his sunglasses but after that it was just the four of us. Linda did all her laundry and folded it up and left it on the couches for us to sit on. She also left her crocheting out a lot for us to sit on too. We all sat on the loveseat with Linda downstairs (well, mostly Anya and me, but sometimes Fatz would join us) while she watched the entire Back to the Future trilogy (on her laptop), and ate wedding leftovers. Linda played on the piano all the time. She found Phantom of the Opera book and has been trying to learn songs from it all week. (see above—I think the TV upstairs wasn’t quite working right for Linda or something). Linda put me and Anya (who for some reason Linda is always calling “fathead” and “cheese”) out in the garage around eleven, but we could hear her moving around and playing the piano until one or two in the morning! I can’t wait for you both to come back!....Love Jazzmine

P.S. Some roses came for you Monday and Linda took pictures!

WRITTEN, AGAIN OSTENSIBLY, BY THE CAT
Fatz Tuesday (February 20, 2007)

Linda took Anya and Jazzmine for a walk when she finally woke up and they came back with the mail and newspapers. Linda did a good job cleaning my litter box, mostly, and even found my food and a place to put it (but that was on Monday, with Sara and Julie helping). She eventually got all my stools back around the bar with my cushions on them. But she forgot to get me water! So I tried to remind her by meowing at the bathrooms and she eventually caught on. I think she felt really bad for forgetting on Monday because she has changed it faithfully every day since.

I’m so glad you’re coming home soon. Maybe you’ll let me stay outside all night. Linda won’t.

Yourz,

Fatz

THIS ONE APPARENTLY WRITTEN BY LINDA HERSELF
Ash Wednesday (February 21, 2007)
Remembering that Wednesday is garbage day, I set my phone alarm for 7:30 so I had time to get the trash out by 9. After going to bed late on Tuesday, I was surprised to wake up on Wednesday before the alarm went off. I reveled in my earliness for a few moments before picking up my cell phone to see what time it was. Much to my dismay, I read 9:03 on the cell phone. I had forgotten, after setting it dutifully to 7:30 am, to turn my phone’s alarm ON! Whoops. So though I perhaps could have made it, I gave the garbage up for lost and took the girlfriends for a walk instead. Most of the day went much like the others: I spent a lot of time lazily watching movies and trying to improve my piano-playing skills with the Phantom of the Opera, ate lots of food. Around six I put the girls up in the garage and drove off to the seven o’clock Ash Wednesday service at my church in Caldwell. I was trying to acquaint myself with the Avalon and get comfortable driving it as I accelerated along the Emmett highway (always with the speed limit, of course) with a faster car tailing. I was just starting to feel pretty good a short way out of Emmett when the steering wheel started pulling back and forth and then I smelled rubber as I maneuvered the car to the right side of the road. I crawled over to the passenger seat and got out to discover that, indeed, the front passenger tire had blown out and was now fairly shredded. I climbed back in and called my mom before getting on the phone to AAA. The Northern California branch was transferring my call to Idaho when I remembered to turn on my (your) emergency flashers and just as the AAA people who could help me picked up, a Gem county sheriff car pulled up behind me. The officer seemed to know how to help, so I hung up with AAA and he started working on changing the tire. He got one of the nuts off, but on two of the others he snapped off part of the bolt with the nut. By this time it was dark and cold and he went and called the AAA emergency roadside assistance guy in town. The guy and his wife came down in a work truck but couldn’t get the other nuts off safely, so they had to go back and get the tow truck while the officer and I waited (semi-awkwardly, but mostly fine). They towed the Avalon to Les Schwab and took me home. Shawn commented that he recognized your house, and we pieced together that he had jumped my parents’ car there a few years before (I remember the incident!). He offered to drive me back down to Les Schwab in the morning, and I watched a chick flick before going to bed. Needless to say, no Ash Wednesday service for me. I love you! Linda

THIS ONE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY LINDA’S FRIEND RACHEL
Thursday (February 22, 2007)

Hello! I’m here, in your house…I’m sure you knew I’d be staying here with Linda, but, if you didn’t, now you do! I’ve been told Linda got the car fixed during the day, but I can really only testify to the night events I was around to witness and experience.

She very bravely drove out to pick me up from the airport at not quite 7 pm. I returned from Mexico very tired, and still kinda dirty, emotionally exhausted too, but it was such a welcome sight to come out of the big glass exit and find my group of companions gathered around a brightly smiling Linda. Oh, sweet loveable Linda!

While waiting for my luggage she regaled me as to her adventure of the previous day, so I am very thankful and impressed she still drove out to get me. That’s Linda, brave, confident, and committed to her friends!

I made a terrible navigator, getting lost in my struggle to depict my days in Mexico to her, but she, of course still managed to find Emmett and your house.

Once home, the dogs happily hopped around us, and even Fatz came out to sit on the couch with everyone. Linda drew me a deliciously hot bath; I called my parents, etc. She showed me the roses, which are very beautiful. I’m sorry they didn’t arrive in time. Sad!! But not too sad, of course. There’s too much happiness for that.
There isn’t much more to say except that I was really tired, got most but not all of the remaining paint out of my hair and off my arms, and soon went to bed. But I also want to take a moment to share in your joy. I’m so glad you found someone to keep you company to comfort and support you, challenge and defend you. I’m thankful God shared this blessing with you, so that you can share the rest of your life with a man you love, who loves you. I wish you both the best of luck and congratulations (It’s a wishing card after all!) Love, Rachel

AND HERE ANYA HAS HER SAY
Friday (February 23, 2007)

Linda and the new girl got up around 8 or 9. I think they were still tired because Linda let us in and into Sara’s bedroom with them, where they sat around petting me and talking about how adorable I am. They were really slow moving around, especially the new girl, but thankfully they knew what they were supposed to do and sat on the couch petting me for a while. Linda even gave me a tiny bite of good food, but she should have given me more. It was only a crumb and I very sweetly hopped about and wagged my tail to let her know I was hungry too! So they were a little rude, hogging the food to themselves, but I’m nice and forgive them.

We went for a walk this morning too. Jazzmine and I were so excited!! We jumped around a lot and I really told off these mean ugly dogs along the way. I’m so brave and smart and pretty! The people of course wanted to keep spending time with me, so we went even a bit further than Linda had been taking us. I let Linda carry me a little even though I wasn’t tired at all, because I’m sure she wanted to hold me.

At night they sat on your bed so they could hold me in their laps. But a very terrible thing happened!! I jumped off the bed to kiss Jazzmine and I hurt my foot! It’s very terrible. It hurts a lot and I have to put my let out in the air. They checked it and moved it around, but I wish you were here. They pampered me, Linda petting me to sleep, but I’m sure you would have known what was wrong and made it all better. Please come home soon! These girls sing all night when they should probably be showing me how much they love me. I’m sure you and John will know just how to take care of me and make me feel better.

Love, Your Darling Anya