The lummox makes a statement ...

... of a sorts. You know he has a thing about big dogs, possibly because he has short little stubby legs about 6 inches long. And penguin paws. And little ears that look like bat wings flapping around.

So I took him for one of our favorite short walks. Up the street, under the trees, and to the cul-de-sac overlooking the beautiful 421 Strip. Almost to the cul-de-sac is a tall steep bank. On the top of the bank is an enormous dog pen. Inside the pen are two absolutely huge dogs that don't like the sight of the little lummox too much. They yell at him. He used to get nervous and rush on by.

I think he has figured out, though.

This day he walks on by, and then immediately turns around and starts back before he had even reached the cul-de-sac, which is the end of his walk. He'd never done that before. He gets right under the bank where the two dogs are yelling at him.

And he squats and takes a very deliberate poop. The big dogs' heads nearly explode with indignation. Lummox does a little victory pawing at the ground with his hind legs and struts off.

Showed them.

Well, it was an exciting day or so last week ...

... what with the floods and all. Here is a TV clip of the flooding. The second clip shows our neighborhood. The shot of School Street shows the Pizza Hut about a block from our house. Fortunately we are up on a little ridge to the left, high enough to avoid the waters.

About 7:30 that morning Carmen was driving me to the bus stop, heading towards that Pizza Hut, when I looked up and in my usual calm manner screamed "Carmen! Stop the car! The street's flooded!" We stopped right at the edge of the water. At that time is was only about 2 feet high so after watching another car do it we drove through it. But when we got to the Community College where I catch the bus the whole lower campus was under about 4 feet of water.

If you click on the video to the right at the top you will see a little story about how the flood washed out the soil behind the retaining wall holding up the exit ramp to my house. My bus came through that evening before it collapsed and would have driven right over the weakened road except the police had already noticed the cracks and diverted us around it.

Personally, I blame the US Army Corps of Engineers.

and no - the folks at Fox8 don't know what a sinkhole really is.