On Calypso's Surgery And "Due South"

On Calypso’s Surgery And “Due South”
Aug 7th 2010
wolfmoonsleddog
Southeast
Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 12:58pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 85 degrees F (29 C)
Conditions: Partly cloudy, hot, humid
Forecast: Partly cloudy today and tomorrow. Highs in the 90s, lows in the 70s.

It’s a hot August day at home…

Calypso had knee surgery yesterday and is now back home and resting beside the chair where I am sitting. We’re looking forward (not really) to six to eight more weeks of restricted exercise for her. Maybe it’ll be cooler by the time this is “over.” The heat here is unreal. This is why I always leave GA in August (well, one reason). Because there is nothing I like about this kind of weather…However I understand that it’s not just the Southeast that is being hit with a horrendous heat-wave. I talked to Jen the other day and she told me it was 91 degrees on the North Shore. And that’s usually one of the coolest places in MN so I shudder to think what temperatures were like elsewhere in the state.

It feels weird going into August with no plans to escape go anywhere. The past two years it was back up to Minnesota. In 2007 my parents and I went to Alaska for the first time. But this year…I want to go somewhere where I can step outside without wanting to curl up and melt. I keep thinking about the Rockies and my trip out there last Fall. Seems like Yellowstone is one of the few places with decent weather right now. In the 30s there at night, I understand. Sweet!

But in the meantime, I’ve got things to do here. And I don’t even want to talk about the run-around about trying to find somewhere that offers the GED test in months other than May or June. Seriously…I just want to get that done and OVER WITH so I can actually move forward instead of standing in the mud like I feel I’m doing right now.

But I said I wasn’t going to talk about that right now.

Other things are going smoothly. And Calypso, yes. I was going to talk about Calypso.

She is a bit out of it right now and content to sleep and not do anything, which I guess is better than having her wanting to be bouncing off the walls when she should be resting. She looks kind of funny with most of the fur shaved off her left leg. Poor thing.

The other dogs are okay. We had Bonnie and Susan dashing around the house yesterday and then they both went and hopped on my bed. I swear, all they had to do was sit there and they got more and more hyper without doing ANYTHING. I said something to them and it was like the Great Explosion Of Wagging Tails And Doggy Laughs.

In the meantime, I’ve been re-watching episodes of Due South. I LOVE that show. If you’ve never heard it, do yourself a favor and at least find a copy of the pilot movie.

Due South aired for four seasons stretched between 1994 and 1999 but only the first two seasons aired in the US. The show was extremely popular in Canada and the UK (so popular that there were - and still are - Due South conventions) but for a long time it was near-impossible to find on DVD in America.

I found out about it because one of the main characters is a wolf hybrid played by a Siberian husky (except in the movie where he is played by a more wolfy-looking dog). Now of course I have a great internal struggle because, as I was saying loudly a few posts back, it drives me insane when people think my Siberians are wolves. And here is a show that is furthering that misidentification yet I absolutely LOVE THE SHOW!

The premise of Due South is as follows: Benton Fraser of the RCMP, along with his deaf, lip-reading wolf hybrid, Diefenbaker, are transfered to the Chicago consulate. There they meet up with detective Ray Vecchio and join forces to fight crime. It’s a culture clash comedy mixed with police/crime drama. Not slapstick funny but more subtly amusing.

I think the first two seasons are my favorites. After that, Ray goes undercover and Fraser teams up with a different cop, Stanley Kowalski. It’s still good but it seems to get a little sillier and far-fetched (okay, I know the whole thing is far-fetched). Seasons 3 and 4 are just kind of a different animal…Definitely worth seeing but I prefer 1 and 2.

And there’s a Car. All great TV shows of this type have to have a Car. This one is a 1971 Buick Riviera owned by Ray…and did I mention that Due South has awesome car chases (and dogsled chases in the movie)?

So yeah, I hadn’t watched the show since I first got hold of the VHS tapes and DVDs when I was about 14. So I’m really enjoying it second time around!

Also, as some of you probably already know, today is Beargrease sign-up. Of course I’m not going to be up there this year so I won’t be running the 2011 BG150 but stay tuned because I’m going to post the list of mushers who are as soon as it becomes available.

Over and out until next entry.

A

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2 Responses to “On Calypso’s Surgery And “Due South””
Dave Lukosik on 07 Aug 2010 at 8:27 pm # edit this

Beautiful log home in a beautiful setting! Wish I could change the weather thermostat! Read today that a huge chunk of ice broke free from one of Greenland’s main glaciers and is a floating island 4x the size of Manhatten. Best wishes for a speedy surgical recovery for Calypso! Yes, I remember watching “Due South”, enjoyed the program but wish there were more scenes with the siberian. You have to look up Sgt Preston of the Yukon. This TV series ran in the 1950’s when I was a kid for 3 years. Filmed at Big Bear in Calif in the Winter, but it looked like the Yukon! Remember Quaker Puffed Rice and Wheat were the sponsors, the stuff was “shot from guns” to puff it up! Got my “one square inch of the Yukon deed” by sending in the box tops. I think my Mom threw it out in one of her room cleaning spreys in my room as a kid. Most of my model airplanes I put together got distroyed this way to! “Sorry that got broken while I dusted your room.” I feel for the people up North, they aren’t used to this heat and humidity like us Southerns and displaced Northerners from Illinois! Keep cool and sane!

wolfmoonsleddog on 16 Aug 2010 at 4:45 pm # edit this

Thanks Dave. We like our house a lot.

Apparently in Oak Ridge, TN (where my grandmother used to live) they get an average of eleven days in the 90s. This year they have gotten SIXTY days in the 90s. It’s unreal.

Yes, I wish Dief was more prominent in some of the “Due South” episodes. Fortunately I like the rest of the cast, as well.

I have some “Sgt. Preston Of The Yukon” episodes on DVD! Much fun! I haven’t watched them recently though. Might have to do that.

Hope you are keeping cool!

A