No one knows yet if this is our last York Bike night in downtown York where they block off the roads so the motorcycle parade starting from the York fairgrounds to downtown can run without interference. People line the streets to watch the parade. We usually like to go downtown and watch the parade and then walk around and check out the vendors and listen to the bands, but this year we decided to ride in the parade. They started lining up around 5 and it was very well planned out so it went off without a hitch at 6:00 last night. I just noticed the time is off on my camera.
I tried to take some pictures, but my camera was acting up. I bet there were at least 2,000 bikes and it seemed like a lot more than 2 years ago. We missed it last year because we were in Kentucky. I think everyone is afraid that this is the last one since Harley may be moving their plant and they are the big draw and sponsor for this event. People come from all over the country to have fun, socialize, take demo rides and ride in the parade, it’s a big event for York and pulls in a lot of revenue, if Harley moves their plant then York will be hurting. I’ll post more tomorrow.
Haines Shoe House
Address:195 Shoe House Road., Hellam, PA
Directions:Just south of Rt. 30, west of Hellam, north off Hwy 462 on Shoehouse Rd.
I enlarged my photo below so you can see the door into the sole of the shoe house that’s where you’ll find the snack bar area. You can get ice cream and drinks and you can also purchase souvenirs.
I have lived in York, PA since 1968 off and on and permanently since 1987 and as many times as I passed the shoe house on the freeway I never bothered to check it out till a couple years ago. Bill and I decided to take the tour of this unique structure that was built in 1948 by “Colonel” Mahlon N. Haines as an advertising gimmick.
It’s a wood frame structure covered with wire lath and coated with a cement stucco. It measures 48 ft. in length, 17 ft. in width at the widest part and 25 ft. in height. The interior has five different levels and contains three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and living room. I loved going through and the lady that owns it now has her guided tour tone all ready and you can tell she’s told this same history many times.
She tells you all about how it was used as a honeymoon cottage for the shoe company employees and tells funny little anedotes. You’re not allowed to take photos of the inside, but it’s adorable and my imagination and romantic side was working overtime. It has stain glassed windows and a lot of memorabilia. I loved that we finally took the time and took the tour.
Ducks For Pets
The duck and drake above live next door to me and Sadie is forever jumping at them when they come too near the fence so you may be able to picture the horror on my face when we had Shadow and Sadie out on Saturday and the Mallard decided to fly over the fence for a visit. I was dumbfounded, but not Sadie she jumped so fast at that stupid duck and almost had it in her mouth before I got my wits back and yelled for her to stop. Bill finally got a hold of her and put her in the house before the stupid duck either lost it’s life or all it’s feathers from all the shaking Sadie would have done.
Sadie Guarding The Fence
I sit on the balcony and watch these ducks flapping their wings and squawking all the time and I’ve seen the Mallard take off in flight several times, once straight out into the alley road which cars like to speed down. I’m thinking this girl might want to make a responsible decision and have the wings clipped if she intends to keep them for 20 fricking years. That’s how long ducks can live and they are very sociable birds so you should never buy just one if your thinking about one for a pet. I know Sadie’s dying to have one, but I don’t think as a pet.
Duck Eggs
The big white duck started laying eggs last month and the first couple she laid on the sidewalk and they cracked open so neighbor girl had to hose everything down. The girl told me I’d have to try one when she started laying good and I had to politely tell her not in this life time, but thanks. I will usually try anything once, but duck eggs aren’t on my list, my brother said they have a strong taste when I told him about the eggs. She now lays them all over their yard and the girl picks them up and puts them in a pile and just leaves them, I guess she doesn’t want to eat them either.
Her kids wont even go into the backyard without a 2by4 to shoo them away and feed them because they’re afraid of them. Those ducks make a run at those kids and it scares them silly and that’s usually my cheap entertainment for the day. However when neighbor girl is out there they’re very docile and love her and follow her around except when the Mallard was learning to fly and looked like the Red Baron swooping down on her head while she was grilling something. I also found that very comical, “Oh look kids we’re having Daffy for dinner.”
I’m not a big fan of ducks for neighbors, but at least they don’t bark all day and night like the poor dog she had 2 years ago and neglected. I wont even start on that, I’m trying to be a nice neighbor now. She called me over to the fence the other day and made me touch one of her duck eggs even though I said no thanks, she insisted so I gingerly reached one finger out and touched it and recoiled because it didn’t have a shell it was just the membrane encasing all that gooey stuff, yuck it was weird all the rest have shells.
I was reading about why some eggs might not have a shell and found out that it just happens sometimes or it could be from lack of calcium or caused from stress. Maybe it scared her just as much when she saw Sadie almost grab hold of her companion as it did me. She carries on like crazy when that Mallard decides to go flying. I really don’t want to have to check my yard every time before I let my Sadie out so I guess I’ll just have to prepare myself to see Daffy laying sprawled all over the yard someday and feathers sticking all over our Sadie and wait for Bill to come home and clean up the mess.
I am so glad I didn’t listen to people when they told me things like “If you truly love your friend, end his suffering peacefully and cherish his memory forever.” because I would have missed seeing my old friend walk and poop again on his own and enjoy all the sniffing he so loves and I would have questioned if I had made the right choice till the day I died. If I had thought he was in constant pain I may have considered helping him out, but he wasn’t. He’s been alert and bright and at times a royal pain in the butt because he wanted company.
I am also glad I didn’t try the Dr. Franks Pet Pain Spray because I would be praising that stuff to everyone instead of giving the praise to God and Shadow’s will to walk again, funny how things work out. To us this is a miracle because when he first got hurt the Vet gave him a shot and put him on steroids for a period of time. Shadow didn’t even try to move and the Vet said he would probably never walk again, but we still believed we would one day see a miracle. It hasn’t been easy taking care of a handicapped dog, but it’s been well worth it to see him walk again.
It has been 9 months of taking care of our beloved Shadow and when he started flip flopping over by himself instead of me having to switch sides for him we knew he was getting stronger. He can’t get up all by himself, but when we help him with the belly sling go out he walks around a little bit in the yard and even poops on his own now, we’re so proud of him and his strong will. Of course he gets tired and has to plop down in the grass and rest awhile, but when the ducks next door start up he’s raring to go again, it makes my heart feel light.
The only problem now is I took all the fences down and now he can get at my bushes and plants so when I plant my garden next year I will have to fence it off again, but I have at least found something great to solve another problem. I have recently ran into the perfect way to make sure my garden or plants are watered perfectly and it’s called Ooze Tube Vegetable Drip Watering. Now how great is that? Next year when we take our vacation instead of bothering the neighbor or family to come over and water my tomatoes and plants or whatever else I decide to plant and grow all I have to do is set this up and we’re good to go.
In some of the photo’s below you can see how the steroids and Glucosamine turned his white coat brown where he urinated and no amount of washing helped, but since he is doing his business outside now, I’ll work on that later. I had even stopped the Glucosmine for all that time because I didn’t see that it was working, but I have now started giving it to him again and hope it will help build his stamina. Just seeing him move around at all is a joy. He now goes out at least 3 times a day and seems to get a little stronger each time, but it’s tiring. He still likes to lift his leg and water my plants.
