BIg And Little

Gus and Brayden
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Gus is eight years in February and Brayden is nine months. Gus at 150 pounds and Brayden at 20 pounds. Gus lies around a lot, Brayden crawls a lot and walks if he can hang onto something.

View From My Couch

John Cole over at Balloon Juice created a post title that I've stolen and used for the same reason.

Not my couch, my Lazyboy recliner and Gus would like to have one of the Ritz crackers I'm eating. The camera is set on wide lense, I'm as far back as I get it, that is my knee, and - yes - the damn dog is bigger than me.

Gus 'n Brayden

Gus at 150 pounds, Brayden at 19 pounds. Having the grandson and daughter in law living here is different ... nice.

Randi told me she used to laugh at her brothers and friends for playing video games, right this moment she's playing Fallout 3 and jumping at surprises and yelling at the characters. Hmmm.

If you've never played the damn thing, don't be too quick to jump to conclusions.

Pictures By Request

Bath time means a rather displeased rather large dog and if you 're wondering I did get pretty wet in the process of him getting wet. He doesn't mind getting wet, it is the hose he disapproves of.

Just as a matter of providing scale, not because I'm ever so cute.

I suppose the other part he doesn't like is being avoided by humans. I am
quite sure he doesn't understand that his wet transfers and that the shaking it off really spreads the wet around and humans find that disagreeable.

He doesn't get many of these in a year, it isn't easy and a Pyrenees has a coat that is fairly much self cleaning.

Gus 'n Pals

Friends for Gus, Matt, my son, and Emily, his fiance, in from Florida to be here for us.

Matt is a good guy and Emily is as sweet as she is beautiful and that's quite a combo. For scale, I believe Matt is 6-2, they've just returned from a walk.

***As always click pic for full size

Last Of The Favorites

I know, a lot of doggy pictures for political blog. The last of Gus' four favorite things, the work truck. He kind of shares the seat, he's not allowed to drive, though. This is a '78 K20 Chevy, with a gadzillion miles on it. 400 SBC w/TH400 tranny, fulltime4x4 ordinary running weight 7500 - 8000#. There's a fullly covered roll top utility bed back there and that is a 40' Class 1A ladder. I've driven this truck for 18 years and Gus has been riding for 4 years, both are well known around town.

Don't bother giving me crap about American iron, this truck is 30 years old, it's on it's third engine and second tranny, two 350s and one other TH400. The 400 SBC gets about the same milage on the open road as the 350s but can pull grades better, a little worse around town. Good milage for this thing is anytime it gets better than single digits.

Click picture for full size.

Everybody Has Favorite Things

Everybody has their favorite things in life; Gus has four. The other day I showed one, his doggy snack dog biscuit. Here are two more, the bearded guy and the white stuff. The fourth is getting in the work truck to go to work with bearded guy. Sometimes the work truck involves all of those things, this time of year if there is work it probably involves snow and a stop at the convenience store drive through, the bank drive through, or the gas station involve dog biscuits.



*****Click Pictures For Full Size*****

Play is not something that figures large in Gus' life, he has one thing he considers a toy - a smashed 12oz dishsoap plastic bottle. Four years running it's smashed and tooth marked but intact. It gets pounced on, skidded around, carried and tossed. Catch and fetch are totally foreign to him and any other toy is of no interest. Snow is the one other "toy", it is for skidding around in, diving in, eating, rolling, and generally happiness. He eats a lot of snow.

Gus never looks small, not even solo in a photo, but to appreciate his size check the upper photo, I'm 5-10, 145 lb. That photo is posed, you cannot encourage him to take that stance, it involves taking hold of his legs and lifting him. Gus is polite, in the extreme. He does not get on furniture -ever, he watches me eat - from a respectable distance, and he does not jump on people.

Oh yeah, Gus is one of my favorite things in life.

Work Interferes And Intrudes

Regular readers may have wondered what has happened to daily postings at "Chuck for..." over the past couple weeks. Well, I'd like to offer an explanation.

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This 1890's construction house has a 12 pitch roof with the eave about 20 feet above ground and needed the composition shingles torn off and replaced with these new architectural shingles. The roof deck is plank, 1 inch thick rough sawn and cooked for a century so the nails were really stuck making a very tough job out of it. After the issue of getting the thing cleaned up there was the little matter of getting 90 pound bundles of shingles up to the roof and then up the roof...I was 45 ten years ago. Friday the Thirteenth made it ten years, I find that I get more beat up now. That's a consequence of having birthdays.

Work has been thin so there's just me out there (and Gus, I don't know what he's looking at). I like what I do for a living, but some days are rough and that can leave little juice left for research and composition. I'm on the home stretch, the side opposite the lower roof is now torn off and awaiting shingles. This is a good thing because two weeks of rain stopped this job in its tracks before it was a quarter done. The owners are nice folks and haven't complained about the mess of equipment and supplies.

Writing this blog is something I enjoy doing, but it also is something I only really enjoy if I produce something of quality. It is important to respect my abilities and my reader's expectations. There is no money or fame in blogging like this, there is only the satisfaction of doing it well. I hope you'll bear with me as I try to get this back into running order.

Roofing is exceptionally good exercise, but I don't recommend it for a starting program...or the faint of heart. Check with your physician before beginning any program of exercise - in this case he may send you to a psychiatrist.

Pets, Just Because

A study in contrasts, cute and burly, grace and lumbering, Marlin and Gus.

Yes, this is a 36 inch archway Gus is walking through and I am kneeling, thus face high.
Both of these are intelligent animals, neither cooperates with photography in the least. The photo of Marlin is after 12 attempts spread over 4 hours, the second I would squat down with the camera she would walk up to me, evidently happy to see me down in her region. A photo of Gus laid out is pretty easy to get or one shot from a distance but to get anywhere near him is either an invitation to be smelled or for some reason to leave. Neither is afraid of the camera, although Gus finds it's chirps and snicks peculiar, Marlin shows some interest in the hanging lens cover.

I suppose Gus seems a bit large for a house pet and the first time people see him indoors they are somewhat taken aback. He is a careful animal, he has never knocked anything over, even with his great vast tail (of which he is inordinately proud and extremely reluctant to have brushed). Nothing happens within sixty feet or so of the house that doesn't provoke a warning bark, things vibrate, like window panes and the floor. He doesn't shed much, but when he does it involves great masses of long white hair that the vacuum doesn't appreciate. The real drawback is dog slobber, he drools, shoe strings hanging from his face and when he is pleased he gives his head a shake - I haven't found any on the 9 foot 6 inch ceiling, yet, but some have gotten pretty close. I keep a slobber rag near my recliner that gets regular duty wiping his face. My wife keeps a very clean house so the dog and I are a constant irritant in that respect, but she loves him and tolerates me - most times. Construction workers are filthy beasts after all. One day I'll have to get a picture of Gus sitting in his work truck that he lets me drive, it is a '78 K20 pickup with a utility box, meaning the bench seat is where he rides (one seat, one driver, one dog). Sometimes there's a little shoving regarding shares.

Pyrenees are guardian dogs, their name comes from the Pyrenees Mountains where they guarded sheep. The practice of the time was to take the sheep to the mountains after the snow cleared and leave them and the dogs who kept wolves from being a problem. The dogs were placed with the sheep as pups and they printed on them as the pack. The breed is independent, if you want a fetch dog or immediate obedience dog, find another breed. The dogs are mild tempered and spend a great deal of time lying down, but once they've printed their loyalty is exceptional, protection is to the death. Nothing has ever crossed Gus, so I have no measure of his reaction, it would be a particularly stupid sort of thing to do. Weighing 150 pounds and 31 inches at the shoulder Gus is on the moderately large end of the breed. New Foundland and St Bernard were bred out of the Pyrenees breed. Some sources state they are the oldest established breed, though sometimes mistaken for it, they are not members of the mastiff family. The breed very nearly went extinct and were brought back in the Victorian era. There are two varieties of Pyrenees, the show and the working, Gus is a show, the working variety is somewhat smaller and has a less full coat. The coat is comprised of guard hairs which are long and somewhat coarse and an under coat that is extremely fine, silky, and very dense - it is virtually impossible to find skin - bathes are involved, to understate. Most Pyrenees in our area are show variety used as guardians.

Gus disapproves of all wild animals, trespassing cats, and any square bodied truck and most diesels. UPS, FedEx, and mail trucks are considered particularly bad items, though he cares nothing about the drivers. I've had Gus about 3 years now and he has been a joy. He is as well mannered as can be, stays completely off furniture, is gentle with children, and uniformly friendly with people. His judgement seems good, a drunk once tried to converse with my wife while she was walking him, harmless but unwelcome. Gus' response was to place himself directly between them, and that was all. His idea of a toy is a smashed 12 ounce dish liquid bottle which he has had for these three years, it is quite flat and dented. Nothing else seems to qualify, he is entirely disinterested in balls or other doggy toys and has no clue whatever about catch, if you toss him a snack it will hit him between the eyes.

Well, that's your dog story for the evening.

Non-SOTU

I got home from work after the thing had started and I tried to watch it. No, really I did try. It didn't work, he didn't pay any attention when I yelled at him and those people kept clapping while I fumed. I kept thinking, 'I've spent perfectly good money for a big screen, HD, and good sound for this??' until finally I lost my mind and went out in the 20F weather and brushed Gus the Pyrennes. He needed it and there was long white hair flying everywhere - I needed it too.

So if you're looking for succinct commentary on George W Bush's State of the Union 2007 speech here it is:

He pissed me off.

there's a surprise

Profile Enhancement

I mentioned Gus in my Profile, so here he is, along with a work pal. He's about as mellow a creature as there is, all 155 pounds of Great White Pyrennes that he is. Gus likes to go to work, it's an everyday thing, beat Chuck to the door, walk into the work truck, guard the jobsite - no UPS truck is going to sneak up on us or get within a thousand yards. He doesn't like diesel engines, UPS trucks, or any "oddly" shaped vehicles ( '50 Chev Pickups, mail trucks, ...).

He rides on the passenger side of the '78 Chevy pickup/utility bed, all of the seat except driver's, if the window is open slobbers all over the side, and generally makes a spectacle of himself. He's probably more recognizable in that truck than I am, or better known - anyhow.

He's extremely visually alert, anything that appears different is "wrong," a turned off ceiling fan qualifies and is something to be wary of. Only one object passes as a toy, a 12 oz liquid dish soap bottle, he's had it for 3 years and while it's flat and dented up, is pefectly serviceable.

If there's a draw back to Gus it's dog slobber, he's a drool machine - shoe strings hanging from his face whenever it's warm, which he shakes off, decorating whatever is near, ie: TV screen, ceiling, Chuck...

I'm real fond of him, so I thought I'd share him a little.