when i explain why i’m late for a meeting after commuting from our westby office to organic valley hq and say it’s because i got stuck behind a logging truck and an amish buggy everyone will just nog their head knowingly.
Tag Archives: automobile
day 3346: lessons on love and loyalty and letting go and, eventually, death.
when we got the blood results back a few days ago we knew we weren’t going to have much time with him. his vet said that telling when a dog was in pain is often difficult with his type of condition. even when they are in severe pain they’ll wag their tales and come when called and get excited to go for a walk ( even when they don’t have the stamina to walk far ). the best indication is when a dog stops doing the things they love to do.
we’ve known he’s been sick for the past 6 weeks, but very quickly over the past few weeks, pushkin has stopped doing the things he loved to do. he stopped eating anything except raw chicken thighs and even that was very slowly over the course of a day. he stopped sitting in his favorite chair. and most tellingly of all he stopped licking us. he’s always been an avid licker and notorious for sneaking in licks when you weren’t expecting it. “pushkin can’t control his licker” was familiar refrain around the house ( we always said it was because he was “grateful” for us rescuing him from the horrid abuse he suffered as a puppy ). but no more.
there’s lots that could be said about pushkin. pushkin was a great dog and a loving, constant companion. in probably 90% of the photos i’ve taken of odin over the past 5 years, pushkin is within 10 feet of the frame.
just one story about how kind and smart he was. never once did he try to eat or otherwise taunt our chickens. we told him when we first brought the chicks home that the chickens were not food AND HE UNDERSTOOD! he’d watch them run around in the yard and not give them a second thought. he’d even protect them like they were members of the family pack. he would give any cats that wandered into the yard a chase if he thought they were going to harm the chickens. he’d even come over and give me a furrowed brow if he wasn’t sure why i was laying in the grass taking pictures of them.
we did a few special things over the past week like going to the drive-in but the reality is that pushkin didn’t have much stamina or interest in doing much except laying near us in the house. we made our peace with the decision as it became clearer that it was the right thing to do. in the past few days he would even get up and walk away if we approached him, as if he was trying to tell us it was time.
we got up and made him a breakfast of bacon and odin and i took a last ride with him in the galaxie. typically, he would eagerly put his head out the window, but not this time. odin noticed that it was another thing that pushkin would normally do but didn’t do anymore.
“poppi, i’m sad, but i think it’s best for pushkin to put him to sleep. i dont want him to be in pain.”
“i think you’re right odin. i think you’re right.”
odin probably said it best. “poppi, i don’t understand. why did this happen to pushkin? he’s The Best and Most Kind Dog In The Whole World. it’s Just Not Right.”
after the ride, we came home made pushkin a breakfast of bacon and shortly after took him to the vet and put him to sleep.
odin has learned a lot of lessons this week. pets teach us about love and loyalty and letting go and, eventually, death. and most importantly of all to enjoy the time you spend with the ones you cherish on this planet because you never really know how much you have.
day 3335: odin helps with his first “big” repair on the galaxie 500!
i can play a long game, but finally getting to being able to work on the galaxie with odin is one of the longest i’ve played. when he was barely a year old, i wondered about the day when he’d help me finish one of those projects that i’ve been always meaning to start.
when we were taking a ride for the first time with his cousins we all noticed that the passenger side window was getting hard to roll down.
aha! the perfect opportunity to clean up and grease the window regulator before it wears out and breaks. i know this because when i first got the car i ignored how hard it was to roll up and down the driver’s side door and stripped the teeth on the regulator ( you can see the window handle is off in this picture because i was trying to figure out how to get it to roll down ). i learned then that it’s much, much easier to clean and grease a regulator rather than try to track down a used one and replace it.
so, i showed odin how to take off the door panel and he was very excited to help out by using steel wool to scrape the ancient, hardened grease out of the “scissor arm” rails that roll the window up and down.
after he cleaned out the rails i showed him where to spray a little white lithium grease on the rails around the rollers. then he rolled the window up and down the distribute the grease evenly.
his eyes got big and he smiled a big smile when he saw,lo and behold, the window rolled up and down just like it would right off the factory floor!
we high-fived each other and odin said, “poppi, i really love working on the galaxie.”
“so do i, odin, so do i.”
i think we’re going to have a whole lot of fun working together on the galaxie and someday down the road i know he’ll be proud of all the work we’ve done when i give him the keys.
day 3331: tooling around in the galaxie, hanging out at a napa store.
after riding with his cousins in the galaxie 500 for the first time ( after patiently waiting for 8 years ), i know what odin’s answer is going to be when i ask him if he wants to ride around and eventually end up at a napa store to look for a replacement antenna.
“of course!”
when i see him in the front seat, i can still see him 8 years ago.
my uncle owns napa stores in calais and machias in maine and i have memories of running to get parts for customers when i was about odin’s age behind the parts counter of grandfather’s
buick dealership in machias so i have fond memories of parts places in general and napa stores in particular. it would seem odin has inherited the love of talking shop with the nice folks behind the counter.
we looked at a bunch of antennas and scratched our chins and picked out a couple we thought might work and tried to make them work so we could pick up an even wider range of AM stations on the factory original radio. but alas, none of the “universal” antennas fit a 50 year old ford so we’ll have to call around to specialty parts places sell replacement parts for ’65 galaxies.
day 3331: odin and his cousins go for their first ride in the galaxie 500!
now that i’m getting right with the galaxie and it’s all operational and street legal, odin got his very first chance to ride in the car after 9 years with his cousins when i took them to see percy jackson and the sea monsters.
Drove Odin and his cousins in the galaxie to see Percy Jackson movie. Fun! (@ Celebration! Cinema – @celebrationcnma) http://t.co/U3Qjx1Eetf
— Eric C. Snowdeal III (@snowdeal) August 16, 2013
he’s been patiently waiting for this day for about 9 years. he’s been asking since not long after taking this picture of him in the front seat when he wasn’t even a year old.
“oooooh, someday.”
well, that someday was today.
we took the backroads to the theater. they all loved every minute of it and unanimously proclaimed it “the best car in the world!” 🙂
and, wow, do you ever get a lot of “thumbs up” and smiles from folks while driving down the road in a ’65 ford with kids hanging their heads out the window.
“poppi, people sure like the galaxie.”
chicago traffic pays me back for all the years i cursed it and ruins my drink date.
i know complaining about chicago traffic is old news but, seeeeeriooooossssllllllyyyyyy, 40 miles of construction with a speed limit 45 mph while workers present ( they were ) from rockford to chicago outskirts landed me in the city at exactly at the dreaded 5pm end of the work day traffic jam and it was as craziest example of chicago traffic insansity as i’ve seen in years. it’s like was like chicago traffic doing a parody of chicago traffic.
the speed and view in front and the rear view mirror was essentially unchanged from o’hare to the skyway and turned what would normally be a 4ish hour commute from southwest wisconsin to chicago into a 7 hour commute.
worse yet, it ruined my drink date with jim coudal and andrew huff!
scenes from the galaxie: amish oak shocks and the organic valley wind turbines.
the next step to getting right with the galaxie is taking her on a 60 mile road trip along the back roads of wisconsin to get a feel for how she’ll perform on longer road trips.
driving down past all the pretty horses near odin avenue i noticed a nice view out the window of some amish “oat shocks” and the organic valley wind turbines and was reminded that 7 years ago i hatched a plan for a occasional series, “scenes from the galaxie”, while driving along the back roads of wisconsin to the upper peninsula of michigan.
i think it’s still a good idea!
i’m uh, torn, about fixing the tears in the upholstery. some might think they look shabby, but they remind of friendly lines of character on an aging, familiar face.
and yes, the galaxie sure does enjoy stretching out on country roads but you do really have to respect how she prefers handling curves 😉