Like many people (I suspect), I turn the radio on for the dogs when I leave the house in the morning. I’d like to think it makes them feel less lonely. Ordinarily I leave in on NPR, ‘cuz I figure if anybody is snooping around, they’ll hear talking and think somebody’s home (though they’d have to be kind of nuts to risk sneaking in with three rather large noisy dogs woofing at them – they have some pretty impressive big boy/girl barks).

Of course, living out in the sticks, sometimes the NPR talk station doesn’t come in that great (the Jazz station comes in, as does the Classical station, but they aren’t into Classical, and they Jazz station is hit and miss, depending on who’s working), and I’m constantly trying to tune it in properly before I make my way out into the cold, cruel world.

So a couple of days ago I tuned until I heard talking, figured it was good to go, and I left. It wasn’t until I got home last night that I realized I’d tuned to a Christian station. Now I know why the dogs keep asking me if I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior (I’d ignore them but, shit, they never used to talk before, so it makes you wonder).

Anyhow, I think I got it tuned into some kind of crappy music station this morning, so hopefully they’ll all quit staring at me and judging.

Speaking of dogs, it was an exciting Saturday as Peggy and Fritzi got to go to the vet together. Peggy got her Lyme booster and Fritzi got his rabies, lepto, and first Lyme (with 3-year distemper and Lyme booster to come in three weeks or so). This meant that Bud – for the first time in his entire life – was alone. He’s always had Peggy with him, going back to even before they were born. He was definitely not happy about it, and Peggy wasn’t exactly thrilled by the whole thing either (nor was Fritz, come to think of it). But we all survived and now Fritzi is legal again. And I, while I wasn’t exactly wealthy when I left the house, came back home with even less.

Good thing I’m a dead branch on the family tree, or I’d feel like I was squandering somebody’s inheritance. As it is, I’m just trying to make sure I die with as little money as possible (and I’ve been doing an excellent job of it lately, I must say).

Speaking of squandering money, I finally got my “Project Fi” invitation last week, and promptly signed up for service. My new phone was delivered this morning (and here I am, stuck at work), so that’ll give me something to play with when I get home. The downside of this is that I still have something like 11 months left on my Verizon contract, so I’ll have to pay ransom to get out. The good news is that the same basic plan – unlimited text and messaging plus 2 GB a month data – will cost me $40 instead of $80. On top of that, Fi will refund me for all my unused data.

Since I use an average of, oh, .15 GB or so per month, my bills should average about $22 a month versus $80. So paying off my contract will take me less than 4 months. Of course, I also had to buy a new phone, but, hey, who doesn’t want a new phone?

But the biggest news from this weekend was probably the end of the hunt for two escaped convicts from the Clinton Correctional Facility (or, as we all call it, Dannemora). It was kinda fun having them on the lam (since we’re at a very safe distance where I live), but all good things must come to an end. I don’t know if this was news outside of NY or not, but it was pretty big news around here. They kept calling the area they were in “Upstate NY” on the news, but that’s really “Northern NY” to those of us who live north of Manhattan (or “The North Country” or even simply “Up North”).

I knew those fellas were in for a tough time up there. While there are lots of places to hide (seeing as there are about 100 square miles of trees per person up there), it’s pretty miserable this time of year, bug-wise (fuckers will eat you alive), and if you don’t have survival skills, you aint getting much to eat or drink. Winter wouldn’t be a very good time to escape either. It gets really, REALLY cold up there, plus you’d probably be pretty easy to track and spot from the air. Next time these guys make a run for it (well, the one guy isn’t gonna be going anywhere ever again, but I guess the other guy could heal up and give it another go), they should probably shoot for late September.

One thing I found awfully confusing throughout all this was why the hell Andy Cuomo got so much airtime. Like he was doing anything whatsoever to help the situation? I really can’t stand listening to him – he has this snide, smug air about him that just makes me wanna puke. I hope now that this is over he can go back to being snotty where I don’t have to hear him.

Otherwise, the weekend here was pretty crappy Rain, rain, and more rain. Saturday was a total washout, and yesterday wasn’t much better. It barely got into the 60s – which is pretty cold for almost July. And now we’re already losing daylight – on the downhill slide toward winter and I’ve been in the pool a total of once since we opened it way too early back in May. And that was only for a few minutes. If I wasn’t trying to spend all my money before I croak, I’d be bitching about what it’s costing me.

And to make matters worse, this is my on-call week, so I’m here for five damn days. Good thing I took next Monday and Tuesday off.