My Uncle Ken and Aunt Ouis

I just got back from New Hampshire. My wife, dog and I had a wonderful time.

One of the highlights of the trip was spending time with my Uncle Ken and Aunt Ouis.

My Aunt is (well, I won't tell you how old she is), but easily could pass for a woman 20 years her junior. She really is one beautiful woman.

My Uncle Ken is 83 and even though he's had a stroke and moves slow, he still plays golf and has a great sense of humor. Boy, does that guy crack me up.

A few stories:

They live in a home with a bedroom on each side of the house. And they sleep in separate rooms. I asked my Uncle if he ever sneaks to the other side of the house at night for some hanky panky. (One of the things you must know, is that when you have a stroke, one of the side effects is memory loss, from which my Uncle suffers). So when I asked Uncle Ken that question, his response was "Yes, but by the time I get over there, I forget what I went for".

And Uncle Ken still plays golf. But with his stroke he can't use his left side to hit the ball, so he's lost power and distance off the tee. So he hits from what are called the Super Senior tees, AKA, the Lady's tees. Well, we were playing with his son and grandson, and us 3 would hit the ball from the regular tees. After Uncle Ken hit, I would drive him up to his ball. If his ball was ever past his son's, he would say "Good drive Brad, you almost made it up to me".

So you can see he has a wonderful sense of humor. My wife adores them both. We had a great time being with them and their generosity was refreshing.

Bugger Butt

This is my dog "Lady MacBeth", AKA Lady Bugs, then Buggers, and finally has evolved to "Bugger Butt".

This is my first dog ever, and I must say, I've come to love my dog.

There is no question that I have never given this animal a reason not to trust me. Her commitment to me is boundless, I'm sure if the situation arose, she would give her life to save mine.

A few examples about "Bugger Butt": I'm walking her while talking to my Father in Law. As we were walking, I would tell Lady what to do and she would do it. For me, it was no big deal. But my FIL was amazed and just couldn't believe it. After I was made aware, I realized, "Yeah, Lady really does listen to all these different commands that I give her".

Another example: I'm walking her very early in the morning. Like 5 AM. There is this dog that is in his backyard that is separated from us by a fence and a hill. Now I know Lady loves this dog. When Lady gets in the area, she kind of gives out this cry in her voice. But Lady also at the same time listens to me. Now I don't usually have Lady on a leash, so I said to Lady, "Go say hi".

Now with Lady, the only time I ever tell her to "Go say hi" is when people are around and I know she wants to visit with them and they with her. So when I told her to "Go say hi", I meant that she could climb the hill and visit with her friend. But what happened was that she turned around and started running to this woman that was about 300 feet from us. I had to stop and think what the Bugger Butt was doing, then I realized Lady was going to say "hi" to the woman. I tell you, even that one astounded me.

So Lady and I are best buds. Sometimes when I get up a night I will lie down next to her. She realizes to make the most of the opportunity, rolls over on her back, sticks her legs straight up in the air, having me give her a belly rub. She loves it.