Sighhh....I guess we are big dummies or something. He's back. We tried finding him a good home; we put flyers up everywhere, tried talking other people into taking this good boy; for three weeks we tried and finally paid $30 to take him to a reputable animal shelter. The people there tried to get him into a loving home, but because he had been abused, he was so shy, when introduced to propective owners, that he cowered and shook. Maybe they didn't like the way his ears each listen to the beat of different drummers or something. Anyway, we told them to call us when his 'number was up'. They called. Decisions. Actually, there was no decision. He's a good dawg. Soooo, Cappy told me to go on and bring him home. I raced back over with a fistful of another 50 bucks to claim owenership of him. At first Raleigh acted like one of those neglected elderly nursing home residents who, when you first visit them, don't seem to register who you are, and seem slow on the uptake. I got down on my hands and knees and spoke softly into his ear, "Raleigh....Ra-aaaa-liegh, you wanna come home??" Suddenly everybody standing above me said in unison, "Ahhh, there it is...yep...see his tail?" Geepers, I hadn't even been aware of anyone else when they brought him out and I practically fell on him and hugged him. Kind of embarrassed, I stood up and looked at his tail; it was definitely up and slowly wagging. Usually it would be tucked tightly under him. Cappy was waiting at home to meet him, 'babysitting' with SparkyBear and MarkyBear. Cappy had been out on the boat during the whole time I had sought his owners, then took him to the shelter, and hadn't even laid eyes on his new dog. When I paid for him, got him home, Cappy and Raleigh had an immediate 'understanding', as Cappy calls it. This dog, who had been terrified practically the whole time he was with me before, trying to get over whatever trauma had brought him to our neighborhood in the first place, was now 'smiling' and 'hugging' Cappy and following him everywhere, coming whenever Cappy whistled for him.How did we name him Raleigh in the first place? We had been driving home from NYS, and in awe of the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. I was tired of the long drive and just wanted to get where we were going, but the road kept rolling on ahead of us for what seemed like forever. I thought we'd never get to Raleigh, and kept seeing the signs, Raleigh 154 miles, Raleigh 120 miles, and on and on. I hadn't realized we were traveling 'sideways' along the state, the LONG way. I kept muttering,"Raleigh, Raleigh... are we ever going to get past Raleigh??" I guess I had all this on my mind, cuz when we got home and Cappy went back out on the boat, this Rhodesian Ridgeback dog showed up looking for a home and what do we call him? "Raleigh-Rolly". We are still saying, despite everything, that if we find someone who would love him and give him a good home, he could be theirs. I had to laugh yesterday because Cappy's sister said that he's kind of like Cinderella waiting for her prince to rescue her, putting up with two mean 'step-sisters' aka these bratty Bichons who 'yell' at him, snapping and snarling if he tries to play with their toys or get any attention they think they should be getting, instead of him. They thought he was gone and were glad about it, and now, to their aggravation, he is back.Oh sure, they'll let him have this "Dirty Rotten Kitty" toy, cuz they don't like it, and now it looks as though even this toy doesn't wanna be nice to him or share the bed with pore ol' Raleigh-Rolly.
I happen to know 'Santa Claus' (see current pictures of Cappy), so if you'd like the perfect dog, neutered, gentle, protective, housebroken and loyal, oh, and with one lop-ear, have we got a dawg for you! If not, well, you get the picture.
Playtime is almost over and the time for this chubby Cajun to ship out for a month and pay the bills is almost upon us. I always kick
up my heels a lil 2 days before I go out. It's like a last hurrah. We use the last day to lounge around relax and get all the cuddlin we can done fore I leave. So, last night we fired up the pit, put the 
blues blaring and had our weekly bbq. I had a few beers, Peggy with a glass or 2 of wine, and were it not for her sore knee I'm sure we woulda been dancing on the patio. It was a very fun filled 2 weeks and I carry plenty great memories with me to keep me company on those long nights at work.
Last night the weather got just like our cookin'; kinda spicy. A nice storm came through with a hard wind and rain, then this morning every thing
was all fresh smellin', although a lil damp. The wind really did whip and when Peg and I got back from voting and eating lunch at one of our favorite lil joints we discovered that one of our banana palms had fallen over in the storm. It had broken over the fence in the wind and lay in the neighbor's yard. I had to chop it into pieces, pass it over da fence where Peg was waiting to haul it to the
compost heap. The bunch of bananas I saved may be big enough to ripen on their own, so I lashed em to the patio to hang there and try to ripen. The other bunch (pictured in an earlier blog) not being as mature, wasn't as heavy and survived the storm intact. The storm also knocked down several lbs. of pecans, which we gathered up. We already have a nice bunch shelled, and I toasted
some today for snacking. I made my famous brown suger and spicy Cajun roasted pecans, and judging from Peggy's reaction, they came out pretty good. Thank God, we are free of those @#$^$%&(sailor term)squirrels.
We pried ourselves outa bed this morning at the crack of 9. Yawning,stretching, scratching,moaning, sniffing, etc. and hobbled around trying to get our "motors " running. I limped into the kitchen to find Peg standing at the coffee pot with a fuzzy look in her eyes. She remarked "ya know, ya really need a cup of coffee to make coffee in the mornings sometimes". I had to think bout that one for awhile. I guess our slugishness this morning is due to all the wonderful fun we had this weekend. The wedding was great(more later) and it's always great seeing family and friends and meeting new relations. We had a great time. I offer this lil post in way of explanation. We have been very busy and haven't had time to do anything much. We got home yesterday afternoon, crashed on the couch and peeled some pecans while sitting there relaxin'. We planning to catch up today with a big ole pot of Monday beans on the stove. We will attempt to catch up on blogs and care packages promised etc.
Those of you who follow dis lil rant, errrr....blog of our Happy Life, may recall the great pecan-squirrel saga of past years. For those of you new to our lil world, look it up in our archives. If ya too rushed, uninterested or lazy to research the bowels of this tome, here is a greatly abbreviated,though,far less entertaining background report: We have 2 small pecan trees in our yard that we baby, pamper,and pray over every year, eagerly anticipating the fruits,(in this case nuts) of our labor. In years past, our entire nut crop ('bout 15 lbs or so) has been wiped out by armies of marauding squirrels. We shook our fist at 'em,cussed 'em, and in short, did everything shy of breakin' out da ol' 12-gauge and sending 'em to squirelly heaven.(that was the quickly approaching last resort.) Well, anyways, during our vacation/evacuation/hurricane road trip last year, the neighbors banded together and removed every last squirrel in da neighborhood. We have several theories bout dat, but prefer not to ask. I mean, let's let sleeping squirrels lie and not open that can of worms, if we don't have to.At any rate, the results of the afore-mentioned squirrelly eradication can be readily observed in the basket, pictured above. Now every morning Peg and I joyfully skip into the yard frolicking about, like kids at an Easter egg hunt, gathering our much anticipated nut crop. Pause for a moment and picture that, in yo head: 2 chubby Cajun grandparents "frolicking about gatherin' nuts". If dat don't make ya smile it's prolly cause ya picture it as it actually happens. Wit my bad knee,sore ankles and stiff joints, it's more like a creaking, groaning, cussing, beer-bellied morning stretch than a frolic. At any rate we are happy to report that the brisk Fall winds of the last few days are bringing us an average of 20 or more nuts a day, and already visions of pralines are dancing in our heads.
Well, it got to the point where we either had to go fishing or set the night-crawlers that had been living in our fridge for the last 3 days, free. The corner grocery where we buy our bait is kinda on the outskirts of town. We planned a trip to the ole fishin' hole sometime this week, so when we passed by
we picked up some worms in a lil styrofoam box. They keep 'em in the cooler (more on that later) in a kind of hibernation and they stay quite happy in your fridge for up to 5 days. Anyways, for the amount of bites we had, we could'a been sittin' out there without the @#$*%@%$(sailor term) worms. Not a nibble for 3 hours. We didn't complain though, cause the saying "It's hard to beat even a bad day fishing" is certainly true. We relaxed on this cool, breezy Fall day and really had fun; thas what 'joie de vie' is all about.
On the way home we were treated to a sure sign of Fall in south-east Louisiana; the smell of burning sugar cane. They are beginning to harvest the cane and will continue harvesting and grinding through New Years. When they burn the leaves off the cane they pick a dry, windy day like today and the whole area smells of burning leaves, its a nice arouma. That made for a nice ending to a very pleasent (even though fishless) day. 
Hi, Peggy adding my 2 cents. When I first moved to our town from western NY, Cappy warned me that during the harvest season, that the whole sky would be filled with smoke, so I was prepared. Cappy's sister, Maria, told me that when she first came to our little town during harvest one year, it scared her because she said it looked as though the whole world was on fire. In NY State when I was a child, people, as a matter of course in the Fall, would burn the leaves that fell in
their yards. Now of, course, that's against the law. I was surprised that the sugar cane industry burned the leaves of their cane in the process of harvesting. The cane farmers are starting to use the newer equipment which is out-dating the burning way of collecting the sugar cane, but it's an expensive proposition. Now every year when I see what looks, as his sister said, as though the whole world is on fire, it's rather exciting. Fall is here, the farmers have the many, many fires under control, as they have had for generations, and just seeing tremendously huge clouds quickly filling the crystal blue sky is jaw-dropping and amazing when it takes you off-guard. As good as Cappy is at taking pictures, these just don't show how massive and fast-moving the billowing clouds of smoke is.As a post note, do us a favor and leave us a comment every once and awhile. Tell us what ya think or just say "Hi". It feels like we just ranting to ourselves sometimes an a lil feedback is very inspirational and gives us the will to blog.
We had a great group of Trick or Treaters this year. Since I (Cappy) miss so many Halloweens, ya might say I go overboard on the candy, but hey, I gotta make up for lost time, don't I? Peg raises an eye-brow as I load the shopping cart with candies and goodies, but she forgets that I have big ole 'Cappy hands' and can dole out quite a bit of candies in one paw-full. Not only that, but I always buy an extra bag of her favorites, knowing they will never survive in the cabinet to see Halloween night. As luck would have it, our outside flood light, in an evil twist of fate, picked that moment to burn out, and me with no spares. Not to be detered, however, Peg took a cue from one of the neighbors, who had tiki torches blazing around their front door, and rousted out an old candelabra and set it in a dormant window box. The effect was so cool, we think we will do it again next year. Well, it was hard to tell who had the most fun; the kids, me handing out candy, Peg taking pictures, or the dogs laughing, barking and terrorizin' the kids. It was a great night and now I have good memories to carry with me through the next few Halloweens that I will prolly miss on da boat. It's ok though, the trick is to pack as much fun as ya possibly can into the time that you have. Thats the way we try to live our lives. The treat is to see pictures of the kids that came to our door, and to do that, click on the title of this post. Here's hoping you all had a fun Halloween as well.
Well, after 4 weeks on da boat, the first 2 days home were like a long deep sigh. I am almost ashamed to admit I barely set foot outa da house for those first 2 days. We napped, honeymooned,chilled,couch-potatoed etc., letting the strain 
of a long hard hitch slowly wear away. By Saturday I felt rested so I ventured out into the yard and kinda looked around,picked a few pecans, and admired our bananas(see earlier post). Well, you can figure where my thoughts went next; after takin' those pesky chickens' advice for 3 days, (see picture at top, of "chickens" and their "advice") I figured 'to
heck with it'; it was time to fire up da pit. The dogs looked on anxiously, sitting cozily on top of the sofa as I injected liquid spices into a turkey and seasoned it for smoking in da pit later then seasoned up some chicken and got the sausage that's required on any good Cajun's pit. It wasn't long 'til smoke filled the down-wind side of the neighborhood and they all knew that 
Cappy was home. With the smoke billerin', the blues blaring , and a cold beer, it wasn't long fore I felt truly at home, in peace. Peg was puttering in the house makin' some side fixins and came out to join me every so often, always willing to help and quick with a fresh cold, beer when I needed it. She is the ultimate bbq buddie. It's so much easier cookin' with Peg 'cause she anticipates my needs and together we do pretty good. She refers to our cooking style as "the dog a
nd pony show"; its kinda like organized chaos. With a 30 minute timer and Sparky the bbq hound perched in his chair by the pit, I could relax and enjoy the music and Peg's drive-by smooches. All was right in my world. That is until the Saints game came on that is. Those @$#%@$# (insert appropriate sailor
term) Saints, right when ya think they are really gonna do it this year, they start shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and penalties. Well, enough bout the 'Aints; even they couldnt dampen my spirits as I smoked up the whole 
neighborhood and had a relaxin' Sunday afternoon with my lil family. The chicken and stuff came out spicy, smokie and durn right tasty, if I do say so myself. A guy couldn't ask for a better way to spend the day, and after all the smoke wafting through the neighborhood all evening there could be no doubt that Cappy was HOME!!!
The thing I love most about my job is watching the swamps and marshes change with the seasons. Peg talks about how when the leaves start changing in New York, like they were when we were there, she gets "that Fall feeling". Well, for me that Fall feeling comes over me when I see the arrival of the white
pelicans. Louisiana's State Bird the brown pelican, is a year around resident of the marshes. His cousin, the white pelican, summers elsewhere and with our summer heat and humidity, I don't blame him sometimes. When these stately white birds are landed, paddling about on the water they appear solid white. It's only in flight
that you can see the sharply contrasting black wing tips. My first sighting of the white pelicans is what fills me with anticipation of the approaching Fall. A time of cooler weather, longer nights, camp fires, gumbo pots...... sigh, Who says our seasons dont change down here in bayou country.
I am always amazed when I stroll through our yard after a long hitch on da boat. It's been an extra-long time since I've had the chance. I was on the boat for 7 weeks and when I got home we left immediately for our New York vacation, and then got home just in time to go back to work. Well, after another 4 weeks
on the boat, I finally got to take that leisurely walk through our yard. Stuff is starting to slow down as Fall approaches, but Peg's mums look wonderful along the front of the house. Yall can't imagine how thrilled I was too see our banana palms were adorned with 2 nice bunches of bananas. Peg and I planted those palms 3 yrs ago and were beginning to think we had the non-fruiting kind.
Lord, please forgive me for some of the "sailor terms" I've called the nursery that sold them to us. Peg told me she was picking pecans, but it was nice to see big, heavy nuts hanging from our trees, ready to fall. Being a crusty ole bachelor, living most of my life on a boat, it was impossible to have things like flowers, bananas, fruit trees etc., in the yard cause I wasn't around enough to care for them. That is just one of the many ways my sweet wife has helped me to have a full happy life.
Sighhh....I guess we are big dummies or something. He's back. We tried finding him a good home; we put flyers up everywhere, tried talking other people into taking this good boy; for three weeks we tried and finally paid $30 to take him to a reputable animal shelter. The people there tried to get him into a loving home, but because he had been abused, he was so shy, when introduced to propective owners, that he cowered and shook. Maybe they didn't like the way his ears each listen to the beat of different drummers or something. Anyway, we told them to call us when his 'number was up'. They called. Decisions. Actually, there was no decision. He's a good dawg. Soooo, Cappy told me to go on and bring him home. I raced back over with a fistful of another 50 bucks to claim owenership of him. At first Raleigh acted like one of those neglected elderly nursing home residents who, when you first visit them, don't seem to register who you are, and seem slow on the uptake. I got down on my hands and knees and spoke softly into his ear, "Raleigh....Ra-aaaa-liegh, you wanna come home??" Suddenly everybody standing above me said in unison, "Ahhh, there it is...yep...see his tail?" Geepers, I hadn't even been aware of anyone else when they brought him out and I practically fell on him and hugged him. Kind of embarrassed, I stood up and looked at his tail; it was definitely up and slowly wagging. Usually it would be tucked tightly under him. Cappy was waiting at home to meet him, 'babysitting' with SparkyBear and MarkyBear. Cappy had been out on the boat during the whole time I had sought his owners, then took him to the shelter, and hadn't even laid eyes on his new dog. When I paid for him, got him home, Cappy and Raleigh had an immediate 'understanding', as Cappy calls it. This dog, who had been terrified practically the whole time he was with me before, trying to get over whatever trauma had brought him to our neighborhood in the first place, was now 'smiling' and 'hugging' Cappy and following him everywhere, coming whenever Cappy whistled for him.
of a long hard hitch slowly wear away. By Saturday I felt rested so I ventured out into the yard and kinda looked around,picked a few pecans, and admired our bananas(see earlier post). Well, you can figure where my thoughts went next; after takin' those pesky chickens' advice for 3 days, (see picture at top, of "chickens" and their "advice") I figured 'to
Cappy was home. With the smoke billerin', the blues blaring , and a cold beer, it wasn't long fore I felt truly at home, in peace. Peg was puttering in the house makin' some side fixins and came out to join me every so often, always willing to help and quick with a fresh cold, beer when I needed it. She is the ultimate bbq buddie. It's so much easier cookin' with Peg 'cause she anticipates my needs and together we do pretty good. She refers to our cooking style as "the dog a
