First, voting. Our ballots went out in the mail last Saturday. Arizona has a "where's my ballot?" site connected with the Recorder's office. It sucks. It keeps telling you to "pick one" of a list of four identifiers, last 4 of your SS number, voter Id number, state Id number, or drivers license number. When I get that far in my information, my voter Id number fills itself in. I always get bounced back to that section. I tried deleting that one, adding each of the others in turn, (I almost know my DL by now!), and still got bounced.
Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!
I gave up for a while, then went back and googled for another option. What I found was simple and functional, informing me in a couple seconds that my ballot was mailed on this date, received on that date, had the signature verified, and has been counted! Whew! Bookmarked that one for my computer for 2022. I also emailed that site to both of my guys and a few friends.
Now for the dog. Heather is definitely a lap dog. My lap. She has decided I am her person. She sleeps on my bed, follows me everywhere, jumps into my lap either by invitation or on her own, though she recognizes "No!" and "Down!" quickly. Mostly those happen when I'm on the laptop or eating. If I'm unavailable for a brief time, the couch works for her. If it's a long time, she'll check if Steve has a lap available, so long as he's in the living room. She'll follow whoever is moving around to see if there's some attention forthcoming, but as soon as I move, she's right there.
Out in the yard, she doesn't go far away. She has yet to explore out to the limits of the fence, mostly, I suspect, since I rarely head out wandering the yard myself. That will change real soon, since temperatures are supposedly about to stay under 100 after today, and I'll be out working on planting some baby agaves in the back yard. There's also a need to remove some dead ones (!!) from this summer's record heat sans rain, but that's another story. Those particular buggers are very spiny, lots of reverse curve along every leaf edge so hard to handle, and being dead means leaves are lying separated around the yard. Rabbits? A solution will arise... eventually. They were a lovely shade of light blue, and cut off a neighbor's offshoots and given away free. My perfect kind of planting. Four survived initial planting. but now we're down to two plus a "maybe."
I considered starting the planting this morning, but the tools have only just been located and it's already getting a bit hot for hard work. Besides, this morning is Heather's free well-visit with a vet, one of many who coordinate with the county shelter for post adoption checkups. I also need flea control, have a couple questions about other things, and presume actual money will be spent at the time. Good for the vet. When I contacted this vet, I was informed that I should call them once I'm in the parking lot, then wait in the car until they had an open exam room for us, so they can keep their lobby clear of multiple customers. Sounds good to me, and now their number is in my phone.
Transferring her microchip info is another animal. I contacted the company her chip is registered with, and talked to a lovely woman working with transfers out of her home. In Canada. That turned into quite the conversation, which we had time for because her computer kept freezing up. Apparently Heather started life "way up north", as Lena stated, sounding amazed she'd wound up in AZ. I reminded her that lots of people come down here to snowbird, retire, even to die, any of which might lead to a chipped dog being unclaimed. Border closings might further complicate things, leading our conversation to turn to the virus and a brief acknowledgment of political complications. From there we dipped into the issue of homelessness. She commented that she knew the problem needed solving, but that she wasn't sure if everyone "deserved" helping, that for some it was their own fault. I returned with, "It may or may not be 'fault', but it certainly was 'fact'. She liked that way of thinking about it.
By this time her computer wasn't about to be helpful, so she gave me an email address, and requirements for making the transfer, including a picture of the dog. Let's see, either she'll be a round black ball of sleeping dog or a prancing - thus blurry - black silhouette with a few white bits. Hmmmmmm.... We'll work on that.
Then there's the need for an emissions test for the car, so long as I'm out and about, and it's that time again. Long ago I heard that emissions tests are best done on a warm car, so best to drive somewhere else first. The vet stop seems ideal, and the emissions location is right near a Wendy's for my favorite salad and maybe burgers for the guys. I think we've got us a plan, eh? Time to get busy.
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