Works like a dog

This year we have had many promotions at my former place of work, the Social Security Administration, which would be Paul's current employer. I said on more than one occasion when asked about a promotee - He/she works like a dog When it came out of my mouth it sounded somewhat crude. Would I have said that before Liam? Not sure, I know it is something that is said and meant as a compliment and that is how I meant it. I have never seen Liam work at all. I do know that dogs are divided into breed types and at Westminster Kennel show, Liam might be in any one of three groups; the gun dog group, for his Irish setter quarter, the utility group, for his Dalmatian quarter, and the hound group, for his dachshund and beagle two quarters. Hope that is 4 quarters. Liam is equal parts of each.
No, not the working group for Liam.
There are some working dogs thank goodness, for they help us humans so much.

Other "dog" sayings are barking and howling in my head:

a hair of the dog that bit you something I often heard my father say after a night at Breslin and Sweeney's in Woodside. As a kid this rubbed salt in my wounds-since being a"project kid" there was no hair of any dog in sight ever. I did not get the meaning of this one until I was older; from the looks of my Dad, it seemed to reference a long celebratory night out.
I did get it after my first hangover in the Hamptons. Still, I did not know where the hair of the dog expression" came from. Knew where the hangover came from The hair of the dog- I knew it meant to have another drink from the context, but why hair of the dog? Seems the meaning is this:
"Almost invariably associated with the consumption of alcohol, this goes back to the belief that the hair of a dog that bites someone could be used as an antidote against the bad effects of the bite. By extension, another drink or two after a drinking binge would be the cure for a hangover." from wwwbuy1or2

Top Dog/underdog I have been both. I believe Liam has only been one. Seems that sawing logs was often done in a pit with one man in the pit and the other above it, both working the saw. The one above was known as the "top dog" and the other as the bottom dog "underdog."

You can't teach an old dog new tricks could be one who refuses to learn something new, or as in Liam's case; an implication that the person/dog already knows more about the subject than the teacher

Dog Days Hottest most sultry days of summer; or a period of time marked by lack of progress
not so.
Really from the Dog Star, Sirius, brightest star in the heavens besides the sun and believed to cause the sultry summer weather. Obviously the Dog Star is not a working dog this month.

That Dog won't hunt I had never heard this until Bill Clinton said it Now all the politicians seem to have a use for it. translation-that plan or scheme will fail.


Every dog has its day
I hope so.

I have to go see a Man/Woman about a dog
idiom, meaning taking one's leave, Bye see you next time

Liam bird doggin in the garden
woof, woof

More or less

Retirement has caused a seismic shift in amounts of things in my life. I have many fewer pairs of shoes and pounds less of clothing. Last year, I gave away a great deal of my business attire to Dress for Success and to my niece (mother of grandniece, whose birth made me a great-aunt, see last LiamLicks) I held on to some for the second winter of retirement, thinking I might wear some; no, I did not, so I gave up the rest to a number of charitable organizations. I must have been prescient in saving all, of my many cardigans. How did I know Michelle O would make them acceptable for dress wear? Now I need to shop in my closet for bottoms (meaning skirts , pants.)

The shoes and boots I had accumulated and wore to work no longer have a place in my retirement life, so they all went last week, leaving spaces in my shoe compartments. I am so popular with Charities that they compete for my business. How do I know? They give me two -three bags for packing while my neighbors get one. They send e-mails. They text. They call. Dress for Success invited me to speak at their annual dinner. I declined, but did want to spy on the recipients of all my clothes when they donned them for their first day on the job. Imagine folks working in my clothes. All my suits had a story of what I had done and achieved while in them and now they were out in the world at new jobs adopted by new workers. Thrilling for a Leo personality!

Less - jewelry- no more frequenting vendor sales in the lobby at work- jewelry tree has spaces.

More-the recycles amounts are huge I now discard all recycles at home- soup cans, Starbucks plastic, ice tea bottles, weight watcher dinner trays, water bottles, wine bottles ( they would always have been from home) I also read several newspapers a day So these add to the paper goods to be discarded.

Less-fewer books from Barnes and Noble.

More-borrowed books from the Hillside Library.

Less-My dry cleaning is non-existent. I had not been to Chen brothers for a year when I went last week to repair a dress Liam had ripped with a joyful greeting During my working years I had a friendly relationship with the Chen family, When I retired they even said that they would miss my clothes as I had good taste and my suits were so perfect (thanks J. Crew). I feared Mr. Chen would not even remember me. A year had passed. He did remember. When I picked up my repaired dress, I brought him a gown to clean. I want to keep the relationship going. Two submissions per year should grow his business substantially.

More -laundry, I have added pounds of clothes to be washed. I wash, Paul folds. Everything is folded while Paul watches sports and placed in piles in the living room to be carried upstairs. Mostly all I now wear is washable, no more dry cleaning. Liam is always in the midst of all folded clothes

Less-My eyebrows are smaller and lighter. They had been getting that way for a while. See progression from growing
1952

1968 (Susan Boyle-like)
2005
Eyebrows are back-eyebrow pencil-see 2008

Less- undergarments- Liam has found and accessed the drawer full of intimate apparel.

More Uggs they have replaced all other shoes and boots for winter.

More Liam. the little pup has grown to maturity, about 15-18 pounds at adoption Now a full grown lad of 32.4, but not tall still gets mistaken for a puppy at 15 inches high.

More friends


Is all this the concept of yin yang ?
yin and yang- complimentary opposites within a greater whole seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to the other in turn (from wikipedia.) Everything has both yin and yang aspects, which constantly interact, never existing in absolute stasis.

or is it simply about change, looking at life in different ways,
from different perspectives
and different positions exploring

more or less.

Woof, woof

Great or Grand or Grande

I have had many great-aunts in my life. I have known some and only heard about some. My grandmother (mother's mother) had many sisters and some brothers (most seem to have been missing). My father's mother had a sister also. I do not remember all the names but some were Maggie, Kitty, Celie, Agnes (2- one on each side), Anna, Maize. My mother's mother was Rose.
One great-aunt actually did a fifties version of day care-I stayed with her while my mother worked. Her name was Anna Montgomery. As a toddler, I was not able to say her full name. I am told I called her Nanny Gummy. Makes sense-Anna Montgomery= Nanny Gummy. So there was a great-aunt babysitting me full time.
Now I am a great-aunt because my niece, Liz, had a baby girl in April, Kiera Grace. I have my first grandniece
A question has occurred to me. Why am I great and why is she is grand? Why are we not consistent in our titles? Either both great or both grand. If my sister is her grandmother, why am I not her grandaunt?
I checked the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for the definitions of great-aunt and grandaunt. It seems I am either great or grand. They are synonyms for each other.

Great-aunt, noun, dates from 1637, synonym -grandaunt
Grandaunt, noun, dates from 1826, synonym -great-aunt

The definitions of great and grand, apart from the relationship definition, are quite nice.
The Irish love to say "tis grand" and how many times a day do we say "great."

Merriam Webster Online has some meanings for each word-

Grand- Anglo-French -dates to 1548
Magnificent, imposing, majestic, lofty, sublime, stately, chief

Great- Middle English -dates to before 12th century
Huge, numerous, eminent, noble, main, aristocratic. distinguished

My relationship to Kiera allows me to be either Great or Grand, not both. I would like to be Great and Grand. We Leos believe we are. Ruth gets to be both as she is Kiera's Great Grandmother.
Great-Aunt Carol and Great Grandmother Ruth before they had titles
and Liam, Ruth's grand-dogger beneath famous water color, "Embrace" of Mother and Child (could be someone's grandniece)

I have decided to be not to be addressed as a great-aunt. Grandaunt is looking better.
I like more of the synonyms for grand than I do for great. In addition, there is no hyphen in grandaunt, smoother, more pleasing visually.

And there is another reason. I had some boring mind-numbing jobs as a teenager. There were times when I wanted to take a day off but knew that a young healthy girl calling in sick was not believable. I had to make someone else sick. So I started using my great-aunts as excuses. I would say "My great-aunt is very ill." It always worked. They were relatives, respected and distinguished, but not close enough to cause guilt in using them for playing hooky. I reached my nadir of excuses when I actually lied about the death of one. She was already deceased, so I rationalized it was okay. I would not mess with a "live" relative. When the manager came to see me to express his condolences on my return to work, I was mortified. I couldn't even remember which one I had summoned from the grave for my excuse! I realized how terrible killing off these great ladies was; even worse than enduring the temp summer jobs.
I never used my great-aunts again as excuses for staying home from work.

I so seldom used sick leave at my career Social Security job that I ended up with almost a year added to my pension, as credit for unused sick leave. I can thank all my great-aunts for that lesson.

Therefore, I think being called a great-aunt would tempt fate "sort of what goes around, comes around." I sure don't want to be used as an excuse to cut work or school by a young relative. I will be a grandaunt. I will spare Kiera the "great-aunt excuse" temptation.

Maybe even a Grandeaunt-my favorite Starbucks size drink being grande, mid-size between tall and venti. Liam licks a grande non-fat latte

Liam has been listening.

Liam wonders why there is a Great Dane, but not a Great Mutt, like him The great Dane is considered a giant among dogs. The synonym of great as huge would fit here. Liam is a small dog often mistaken for a mini lab (no such animal). So not great in size. Nevertheless, great in personality.

Liam the Great
Liam the Grand
Liam the Grande

woof, woof,
sleep well