Today on Monday Musings, we’re offering a bit of a pun-ish haiku pi-ku for you. Celebrated on March 14, Pi Day is the recognition of that mathematical constant known as the Greek letter ‘π,’ you know…that transcendental number where 3.14 are the first digits (but which go on indefinitely). March 14 marks Pi Day because of the numerical date and because it happens to be the same birthdate as theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, who discovered the theory of relativity.
A ‘Slice of Pi’ ~ History/Background
Founded back in 1988 by San Franciscan based physicist, curator and artist, Larry Shaw, March 14 was chosen because the numerical date (3.14) coincides with the first three digits of Pi. Today is also Albert Einstein’s birthday. The official U.S. designation of Pi Day began in 2009 while UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) officially proclaimed March 14 as International Day of Mathematics in 2019.
Back in high school, we all learned that Pi is the calculation of the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. But did you know that Pi has been around since ancient times? Egyptians and Babylonians knew about Pi with the first known calculation made by Archimedes in 250 B.C. The earliest known use of the Greek letter ‘π’ to represent the ratio was made by Welsh mathematician, William Jones in 1706, and is thought to be some form of shorthand for the word “periphery.”
As noted, today also marks the birthdate of Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist. So for those who may prefer a different kind of tasty treat for a birthday bash (and we think Einstein just might be one of them), how about we serve up a yummy celebratory treat with this formula? Happy Birthday, Mr. Einstein.
Delicious coincidence? I think not.
Two additional, but all important questions for today then are: (1) cherry or apple and (2) with or without ice cream?
We hope your Monday is extra tasty with loads of smiles.
Today marks a national federal holiday (Presidents’ Day) in the U.S., originally implemented by Congress in 1879 to honor George Washington, the first president and ‘father’ of the country on his birthday, February 22 but subsequently switched to the third Monday in February on January 1, 1971 by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, honoring both Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays. Both Ranch Hands will tip their hats to the office of the presidency today so we may be somewhat late in responding to comments or reading your posts as Norman be visiting nurses and patients this week. As usual, I am merely the designated driver.
After a weekend filled with grooming, baths and more dog hair than I could have imagined, Norman is all fluffed and spic and span clean to mark Presidents’ Day at the same time Winter decided to reappear with a vengeance with snow and bitter cold temperatures for most of the week. Tomorrow’s HIGH is only expected to be in the single digits which makes today’s smile seem all too appropriate. Guess I’d better re-locate the extra warm gloves.
However you mark today’s holiday, we hope you’ll stay warm and snuggly. Here’s to a super Monday. And remember there’ll be no postal deliveries and bank’s will be closed.
Welcome to Monday, where we salute the week with a smile. Today is also Norman’s ‘Gotcha Week’ because everyone deserves to be treated extra special for [at least] a week (his actual Gotcha Day was yesterday). Can’t believe this adorable hunka-fur has been with me two years now. The time has flown by and with each day I count my lucky stars this boy came into my life. He brings such joy to all he encounters, In fact, he’ll do so later today and tomorrow when he’s visiting folks at the hospital.
Happy Gotcha Day, sweet boy.
Now for today’s secondary smile. We can thank Vince, the Sign Guy of Indian Hills. Given the latest turn of weather, it seemed rather perfect. Stay safe, warm and keep smiling.
Happy Monday, peeps. Hopefully our U.S. readers have recovered from any food comas and everyone else had ‘furbulous’ adventures over the weekend. We’re back from our travels and are ready to resume our regular routine. [Free translation = insanity since the end of the year seems to be well-packed with loads of activities and commitments].
Norman is clean as a whistle and ready for new adventures at hospital. He’s prepared to bring lots of smiles to nurses and patients. Over the weekend on our walk, he couldn’t help but wonder why a few people didn’t stop to receive his special kind of therapy.
Here’s wishing your last Monday this month is a good one and as you enter December, you are set to enjoy this wondrous time of year. For our Jewish friends, we send you our very best Chanukah wishes. Whichever holiday season you celebrate, make it great.
Hello mates, Norman here to share more photos from the weekend’s adventures mum and I had at hospital’s Fall Festival. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but any time I get a chance to ride in the car, I’m in. Just don’t forget to bring my costume, mum!
There were a lot of games for all those little people to play. I came “this” close to catching that ball till mum reminded me that I was there as an observer, not a participant.
But don’t cry for me, I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with lots of little people…some of them even tried to poke my eye out give me a treat.
No sweat, little guy. I like pineapples.
The Flight for Life helicopter made an appearance and all the kiddos wanted to sit in it. It was pretty noisy but great fun for attendees.
We had a great time hanging out with the other pet therapy dogs and their mums. Logan and his mum, Janet went dressed up as “Mardi Growls.” These guys definitely know how to ‘par-tay!’
My friend Delia, a hospital staffer, brought her recently rescued pup to the event. Bubba definitely won the dog lotto by getting adopted by her as she is one of the kindest people we’ve met at hospital. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of me so I was careful to be extra kind to him so as not to scare the little guy.
Nurses seem to be drawn to me, and you know what? I don’t mind one little bit.
Face painting and painting pumpkins were a bit hit with lots of diligent artists.
Our group led the pet parade for all dogs in attendance as well as anyone who wanted to walk with us.
Mum and I spread the word about the very cool backdrop at the photo booth. My pal Bindee and her mum, Joy took advantage. Isn’t Bindee just the cutest little pumpkin you’ve ever seen on a lap?
Our director, Donna has a beautiful and super talented black miniature poodle. Roxie, a champion dancer who also competes in nose work, is nothing like my sister and she made sure to tell me not all black poodles are Ninjas. Whew…that’s a relief!
Even mum and I decided to get in on the action at the photo booth. We’re just a “couple of jokers” having a good time.
It was good seeing our Golden pal Riley and her mum, Jaycee. Riley has been very sick this past year with an autoimmune disorder and is just now able to bring smiles to people. She’s a real sweetheart and loved by all who meet her.
A group photo of the pet therapy dogs show we’re a good looking and a well behaved bunch.
As events go this one was a nice family affair. It was good being able to spend time in the community after last year’s event was cancelled due to COVID. But I can assure you, I was one knackered boy at the end of the day. I fell fast asleep in the Ninja’s bed-something I never do (she wasn’t too happy about it but I was so tired and it was the first bed I found).
Mum and I are back at hospital again today after having great visits yesterday. We’ll share details about those adventures soon. What do you plan to wear for Halloween fun?
Greetings and happy Monday. Norman and some of his fellow pet therapy friends participated at this year’s Halloween Fall Festival over the weekend. This hunk continues to impress me with his calm nature, especially at an event with loads of sugared-up kiddos, absent minded adults not watching where they’re stepping and a loud entertainment system blasting hip-hop music. Still, a good time was had by one and all. Here are some photos from the event.
Norman continues to impress me around little kids. Many of them are understandably wary of this ‘Joker’ because of his size. But he was patient and calm, especially around the smallest ones and managed to drew crowds of both big and little peeps. Norman was only too happy to serve up kisses.
This smiling Princess was initially hesitant to pet Norman but then she realized he was soft and sweet. Soon she was very happy meeting Norman and he loved the attention he received.
There were a number of non pet therapy pups in attendance and this miniature Dachshund named Amelia was in dog heaven greeting them all with one of the fastest tail wags I’ve ever seen. She was very smitten with Norman despite the size differential. Norman and I tried to recruit her for the program because she was such a sweetie and just loved everyone.
Norman was thrilled to see his little pal, Bindee, who charmed the pants off young and old alike in her pumpkin costume. She didn’t seem to mind posing with this ‘Joker.’
There were loads of games and activities for kids to enjoy and a variety of good hearted hospital staff to greet them as well, along with a nice photo booth for family photos.
“Little Bo Peep” (and fellow pet therapist) Dawn was voted best huMom by all the pet therapy dogs for sharing bites of hot dog with the gang. Pictured with Norman are Logan, an agility champion (dressed as “Mardi Growls”) and her Dolly posing as a lost lamb, as Dawn shared bites for the gang. As a dog trainer she knew just how to enlist their attention and even though they are all professionals, events like this can be somewhat overwhelming.
Norman will be back at hospital today for visits with nurses and patients. He will post more photos from the weekend event tomorrow. We hope these costumed therapy dogs brought you a smile to start out your week.
On this date in 2005, a reddish-blonde knucklehead entered the world. Officially christened “Brians Yosemite Sam” with the American Kennel Club, he was simply known as “Sam” to his owners. For you newer readers, Sam was the inspiration behind this blog.
For years, Sam was a proverbial pogo stick. Bouncing straight up and down to express excitement with life, he bounced straight into my heart. Sam was the most unfocused dog I’d ever met, long after his puppy years. Most dogs grow out of that puppy exuberance, but Sam didn’t seem to recognize it was the natural progression of acting more dignified as he aged and was actually normal. When I brought him home, he quickly burrowed deep into my soul and made his second best friend my Old English Sheepdog, Puck. For his entire life, he adored her and even after she passed, he would always do double takes whenever we encountered one, thinking it was his long lost pal.
In 2015, Sam graciously and lovingly welcomed a very feral Ninja. He seemed to realize Elsa needed extra gentle loving and slowly earned her trust. Though never great pals like he was with Puck, he patiently and selflessly taught her how to be a dog instead of a shut down puppy-mill survivor.
Despite his buoyant personality or maybe because of it, it was hard not to just love on this goofball. I just needed to find out what his job in life should be, beyond being an absolute treasure of a companion.
It was clear early on that Sam had a special knack for bringing joy and smiles to all he met. He was the neighborhood concierge, greeting every two and four legged inhabitant walking past the yard with an infectiously charming personality. Everyone loved him and he made them all feel special. It seemed only natural to share his gift with others and thus began the process of training for pet therapy work. For weeks I was convinced he would fail since he just couldn’t seem to stay focused on even simple tasks. Sam’s mantra in life was “oooh, a kitten…look a butterfly…ahh…shiny object!!” More than once I nearly abandoned the notion of getting through classes. When the time came for the test, not only did he perform flawlessly, he outshined all his classmates. I was stunned but ever so grateful to be able to share his gift of love with others.
We began visiting patients and in no time, Sam became a beloved rock star at hospital but especially with mental health patients. He would calmly allow them to hug him (which most dogs would not appreciate) and patiently waited while they petted him. His crush on all nurses was legendary and he often had eight or more surrounding him, oohing and ahhing over those soulful brown eyes, soft fur and Swiffer-like tail that was constantly in hyper-motion whenever people were around him.
Sam brought such joy and happiness to everyone at pet therapy but especially to me. While I have Norman to carry on in Sam’s pawprints at hospital and the Ninja to remind me that “still waters run deep,” Sam will always hold an extra special place in my heart.
On his Sweet Sixteenth birthday, I send my very best birthday wishes to my heart dog. Happy birthday, Knucklehead. I miss you every. single. day. You’ll always be in my heart and soul. Love and miss ya, buddy!
Welcome to Monday where we tend to revel in the happenings from our weekend and start planning for the next one. Speaking of planning, it’s about time to start thinking about next year’s Spring bulb garden. Thankfully, neither of the Ranch Hands dig up bulbs, but a warning to all you gardeners…spring bulbs are toxic for pets.
Norman had his second evaluation on Friday and I wanted to express my thanks for all your kind words of support. According to our evaluator Amy, Norman did great (and even I didn’t embarrass myself). We’re hoping to order our business cards next and obtain Norman’s ID badge. Once any other outstanding bureaucratic items are completed, we’ll be officially considered the newest team in the hospital’s pet therapy program.
Welcome to the best day of the week-Friday where we join our ‘fur-iends’, Rosy, Sunny, Arty and Jakey from LLB in Our Backyardon their weekly blog hop. Be sure to click on the link to see what others have shared.
While the calendar says autumn is less than two weeks away, Mother Nature apparently hasn’t seen the memo and continues to bake the Mile High City with summer temps (it’s supposed to be near 100 today), dry conditions and smoky skies. Ozone levels have been abysmally high and exploring various elements of nature have been limited. Still there was a surprise guest in the neighborhood. While there are miniscule signs that maybe, just maybe the autumn colors might begin their annual change, autumn been slow to get started with a couple of exceptions.
Maple leaves are always a favorite this time of year. When walking the dogs yesterday morning, I found this lovely specimen though never did see the tree from which it came.
Here we have a smidgeon of color. Notice the leaf stress from the hot, dry conditions? Far too many trees are struggling and I can’t help but wonder if there will be more trees lost if we don’t get relief soon.
This week has been filled with lots of goings on my schedule every day and with the high ozone alerts, my time outside has been limited to very early morning walks with the dogs.
As we prepare for our second pet therapy evaluation later this morning, I realize we’re probably about as ready as we’re ever gonna be. The bathroom however is still recovering after Norman’s required bath (bathing this hunka furry real estate is quite the exercise in dog wrangling and achy backs but boy does he smell great!). I’m certain he’ll do just fine. As always, my biggest worry for this pet therapy team continues to be me as the weak link and can only hope I remember all the details critical for a successful pet therapy team. Fingers and paws crossed we can report back success next week with a few smiles for nurses and patients today and tomorrow.
We did manage to see one particularly unusual sighting this week. As I’ve mentioned before, encountering bunnies are not at that unusual but the frequency they’ve been spotted every day this week is. We typically pass through the backside of Sprouts grocery on our route noting the hotbed of activity in the early morning hours as vendors’ trucks line up with the day’s fresh produce. Seeing bunnies daily this week had me wondering if there isn’t a special time set aside for senior bunnies to ‘shop’ for discarded veggies. I saw 3 yesterday morning alone in different spots.
‘Washing up’ after breakfast
It seems odd that this week we encountered more wildlife than I saw in last week’s adventures in the mountains around Glenwood Springs. With all the development and traffic in Northwest Denver these days, foxes who used to be seen, have moved away to less inhabited areas. A fellow dog walker gave me a heads up that a fox was spotted ahead. Appreciative of the head’s up I gripped the leashes with white knuckle determination to keep the nearly 150 lbs. of prey driven paws by my side. I figured the chance of seeing it were likely Slim to next to nothing with Slim having left town before we’d get there but lo and behold, a red flash galloped across the street. A shy but leggy fellow dashed across the street. I stopped to admire the beauty of this fox and realized how much I’ve missed them when they frequently frolicked under my bedroom window ages ago. Forgive the poor quality of the image I had to really stretch the capabilities on the zoom of the cell phone but I think you can see how handsome this guy was.
The dogs were more than ‘intrigued’ so I tried to slowly walk away and then realized he was sizing us up. We stopped to admire this good looking boy while he no doubt hoped we’d keep moving along. That face!
How fortunate was that? Well I can only say I haven’t seen foxes in my ‘Hood for close to 15 years.
So much for this week’s nature in the ‘Hood. Have a great Friday and an even better weekend. For my fellow Westerners, stay cool. For those on the East Coast, try to stay dry.
Welcome to the last Friday of August. As always, we’re joining those adorable hosts, Rosy, Sunny, Arty and Jakey from LLB in Our Backyardon their blog hop. Make sure you click on the link to see what others have shared. This edition is literally a wild one, with commentary from both Ranch Hands.
Norman: Mum, it was a wild week, wasn’t it? I mean…I’ve never seen as much wildlife since being rescued and immigrating here.
Mum: You’re right, Norman; it was a ‘wild’ week, critter-wise. Given our location a mere 3 miles from downtown, it’s always exciting for us when Nature in its wildest form crosses our paths.
Norman: Right-o, mum. I haven’t seen this many rabbits as I did this week. What’s up with that?
Elsa: (imitating her best Elmer Fudd voice) Wabbits??? Where?!?!?! You know how I “LOVE” hunting looking for wabbits.
Norman: You almost walked past this one, little sister and missed another one at Sprouts parking lot.
Elsa: Harrumph…wabbits are wily but I eventually picked up its scent. But I spotted the third one before you guys did. Just wish mom hadn’t spotted this one first, otherwise I’d have turned her into a kite. For the record, I don’t think that spot is reserved for bunny parking, so there.
Norman: Mum scans the landscape for wildlife for that exact reason. But seeing rabbits three times this week was a bit unusual and nothing compared to what else we encountered.
Elsa: I’m still blown away from that whole experience. The fact that we were running later than usual and had we be out at our usual time, well…we’d have missed them by several minutes. Sure we’ve seen one or two on a couple of occasions but nothing like that before.
Norman: [Head shaking] It was quite something. I mean to be a witness to a whole ‘family of criminals’…well, let’s just say that took us all by surprise. Seeing wildlife like this makes it even more remarkable.
Check out this morning neighborhood criminal family!
Elsa: No kidding! Seeing those masked bandits so close to me and posing no less…well I momentarily froze in my tracks. Luckily, it was just enough time for mum to realize what could have been a potential nightmare for all concerned so she instinctively shortened my leash. Doggone it anyway.
Norman: At first I thought it was a bunch of odd looking kitties but could tell from mum’s reaction it was something else. I’ve never seen six ‘cats’ like that at once.
Elsa: At least I managed to react a short distance away from the porch which took her shoulder by surprise. Heh, heh. It’s good keeping her on her toes.
Norman: Oh come on, sister, it’s not really her toes you want her to stay on…it’s more like you prefer her backside.
Elsa: Sshhh, don’t let her know that. Jeez, are you trying to get me in trouble?
Norman: You’re well enough equipped to do that on your own without any help from me.
Elsa: Not one, not two, not even three…but four on the front porch of that house at the same time. I distinctly remember mum rubbing her eyes in disbelief.
Norman: She sure did, though I think she might have been still half asleep. As we passed the front porch, we saw the others on the fence to the side though there were {only} six raccoons in total committing a burglary.
Elsa: I was so bummed they decided not to follow us in the opposite direction.
Norman: They probably had more houses to burglarize visit before breakfast was over. I did notice that one fella coming out from under the chair had munched on the tassels on the chair cushion.
Elsa: Not much of a breakfast by my mind’s thinking.
Norman: This coming from someone who considers wool socks a food group?
Elsa: That’s different, bro. Besides, it wasn’t me who ate a felted mini-OES figure that mom spent 8+ hours needle felting last week. Do I need to remind you of the day you spent at ER?
Norman: Ahem…not my finest moment I’ll agree, but all’s good now right mum?
Mum: {Eyes rolling} Yes, ‘dear‘ Norman. Just make sure you don’t countersurf anymore and we’ll be all good, ‘kay?
Norman: Right-o, mum. I love that you accept me for who I am. Just a big hunka-chunk who is apparently irresistible to nurses judging our visit to hospital yesterday. If feels good getting the first of two evaluations out of the way. One step closer to being a full therapy dog.
Mum: Yes, dear boy…you definitely know how to draw a crowd. Much like us gawking at those raccoons, people just couldn’t believe their eyes seeing you and began running down the hallway to say hello
Norman: Yes, it was somewhat overwhelming. Yawn. I’m still recovering from all that therapy work while trying to get over that whole riding the elevator experience.
Mum: You’ll be fine, sweet boy. You have the whole weekend to recover.
Elsa: We’re so proud of you, Big Brother! Let’s plot plan some extra special recovery plans for the weekend…you know just to give mum a run for her money on her toes.
Mum: Sigh. Whatever you do this weekend, we hope it’s relaxing and fun but you give yourself plenty of time to see all the amazing sights Mother Nature offers.
