#2850 three things: foxtails, jam bands, and dogs in cars

 

There is a theme to tonight's three things. Can you figure out what it is? (Hint: it won't be difficult.)

1. Foxtails are my nemesis. Our yard has a plethora of foxtails. When they are young, they are kind of pretty - they look like bushy foxtail, but in green. It's when they dry up and fall off the stem that they become the enemy. Those dastardly weeds stick to everything, it seems, and especially dogs. Harley doesn't have much of a problem because her hair is so short and fine. Mac has a thick black coat, and I can usually spot the foxtail on her. She rolls around on her back a lot, so that's where I usually see them. Stella now has very short hair, but when her hair was longer, I know she had foxtails in her coat. I'm sure when she got shaved, the mats were full of foxtails. It's one thing for the dog to have them in their coat, but once my dog Osi got one in her eye. It was awful. I had to take her to the vet to have it removed, and then she had to wear a cone while her eye healed. . Grrr. I hate foxtails. The following pics are from the internet.

young foxtail

evil foxtails

2. Jam bands are NOT my jam. You know what a jam band is, right? It's a band whose songs last 7 - 12 minutes minimum. There might be two or three minutes of singing, then the rest of the time is jammin', just playing music. I have nothing against a bit of jammin'. I like a good guitar or drum solo, or a couple of minutes of a band playing together for the sheer joy of making music. But a whole concert of jammin' is, well, soul-sucking for me. I recently volunteered at a jam band concert. They played for about two and a half hours, and I swear they did a dozen songs, and they all sounded the same to me. It was a long, long night. Now if I'm reading and the music is on in the background, I'm okay with that, but the job I was doing didn't really allow me to have reading time. I'm starting to learn who the jam bands are, though, and I won't sign up for those shows in the future.

3. Don't leave your dog in the car! On Sunday I was at Red Butte Garden. I got there around 9:30 in the morning, and it was breezy and cool. When my shift finished at 1:00, though, it had warmed up considerably and the breeze had completely died down. In my car, which was facing the sun, the temperature was nearly 90 degrees. 

As I was walking to my car, I heard some people near me in the parking lot talking about animal control and the police being on their way. One of the people pointed to a big white Suburban with out of state plates. The tinted windows were down about two inches on all four windows. That car was also facing the sun. People were peering in the windows and shaking their heads. An RBG staff person was at the car, writing down the license plate and taking information from the people around the car. It didn't take much thinking on my part to figure out what was going on. 

Every year there are stories on the news about people leaving their little kids or dogs in the car while they go to the store or something. It gets so hot here in SLC, it is not safe to leave littles and critters in the cars!

Though it was mild and pleasant when those people arrived at RBG, it heated up quickly. It just makes me sick to think of the poor dog in the hot car, no breeze coming in, probably no water left for it. It's just wrong. Don't be those people, please.