Presidents of the US

Mom and I are watching the Inauguration festivities in Washington and were talking about how many presidents she's seen in her lifetime: 17! She has lived through 17 U.S. presidents. Somehow, this amazes me.

The first one she remembers is Roosevelt. She says:

'Everyone loved him. He had fireside chats. Everyone hurried home to hear him because they really did like him. He had a wonderful voice - a very soft voice.'

She also remembers Truman. She says:

'Dad always said that he was a very good friend of Israel.'

Nixon? Of course everyone remembers him. I was 15 and at a party at Don Beckstead's house, watching tv when he resigned.

Both Mom and I are hoping that Obama continues the path he's laid to connect with the American people. We need and deserve just that.

Snow abounds today. We've got the fireplace roaring at the moment. Vet visit for wee Rita and Hops drained my wallet a fair amount. Hops, having 3 legs is starting to slow down just a bit - of course, he's almost 11 these days and muscle tenderness is setting in. Vet says there's not much arthritis (excellent news), so he's on muscle relaxants for 30 days to see if that speeds him up a bit in the morning. One problem is that this old farmhouse is mostly hardwood floors which is tough on Hops but, if I put more throw rugs down, it's tough on Mom. Not a toss up at all - Mom wins which means that Hops will just have to continue to slide around. But, whatever happens in the future, I think he's had a very rich, very wonderful life since being adopted at 11 months. He's quite the lover and, by far, my sweetest dog. I'll miss him greatly one day, but, for the moment, he's here, happy, and we should have years to go yet before he rests. He is, however, on a diet.....he's at 45 lbs (now, mind you, remember, this is just 3/4 of a dog as he's minus a leg...). I've been instructed by the vet to bring him down to 39 lbs or so which really shouldn't be a problem since I've, in turn, instructed dear Gert to STOP feeding him! She pouted a bit but she'll get over it.

We were watching Oprah a moment ago and noted that Joe Biden's mother is younger than Mom. She's 91. I figure that, if I had bundled Mom up, we probably could have gotten tickets - dammit!