Stay, Good Dog!

Dottie the dog is dead. She stopped eating and wasted away. We took her to the vet for tests but she died before the tests were even done. It was surprising that she lived as long as she did. At least 5 times, I was walking out to shoot her and didn't for some reason. I've never had a dog try my patience like that. She had good qualities. She killed woodchucks and usually offered me the back half of the rabbits that she caught. She had a good heart for a dog. I miss her but I don't think I'll have another dog until I retire. We think Dottie was 16. She had a good run.
The garden is still producing a little. The tomatoes are pretty rough but the peppers are still doing well. The leeks need harvesting and there's a nice stand of swiss chard waiting. I hope we can eat the chard before the frost. I still have to dig potatoes.
I'm reading the last book that I bought at the SF convention. Stacey still remains amazed at the speed that I read. She has to struggle so with her dyslexia. If you're interested in a good zombie book, I recommend Feed by Mira Grant. I enjoyed the method of creating the zombies and the fast paced overall action. The Peshawar Lancers by S.M.Sterling was a good read. I guess you could call it semi-Steampunk alternate history. Stacey worries that I'll run out of books and buy more. This isn't a small worry given the increase in price for even a paperback. Fortunately, there are plenty of free book sites on the net. One little chip and I can store a library. It's a bit harder to read on a netbook than on an actual e-reader but it's worth it.
It looks like I'll be driving even more now. We're picking up service work in Detroit, Columbus and Cincinnati. I'll be working close to traffic on all of them. It's not my favorite type of work but I'm still a long way from retirement.
I need to get back to baking bread. I'd still like to be able to make the kind of crusty, chewy loaf that I can buy in the better bakeries. I can make fairly good breads. My challah is pretty decent. I'll probably have to go to a sourdough yeast to get proper flavor. It should make a good winter project.
That's enough for now. I'll be off to Wauseon in a bit to fix a broken speaker. It's a pretty day for a drive.