The suspension sighed in relief as the detective heaved his considerable bulk from the interior of the plain white Impala. He approached the modest ranch style house, and grunted his thanks as the uniformed police officer lifted the yellow crime scene tape; stooping was not something that got any easier as mandatory retirement approached. "Whatcha got, Lou?" "It's a bad one, Bill; come on back to the master bedroom, but I'm warning you, it ain't…

Dad here; one of the pleasures of having a pack of goofy dogs is the chance to watch them engage in a fit of the "zoomies". The technical term is "FRAPS", or Frenetic Random Activity Periods, of which Charlie is the queen. She will suddenly take off tearing around the yard in wild abandon, fleeing in mock terror from an unseen pursuer, only to instantly switch from hunted to huntress, at least in her mind.…

Dad here; the girls have always put numbered the boys at the Casa del Whackos, and now that Oba is here from North Carolina, the estrogen brigade is even stronger. Now, although Oba hails from Okinawa, a fairly rural island off of the coast of Japan, she is convinced that everyone in Arkansas has difficulty wearing shoes and pronouncing complete sentences. This belief was reinforced when I let slip this morning that I sometimes engage…

The Casa del Whackos is set to experience it's first hard freeze tonight, but we aren't too concerned; have you ever heard the term, "three dog night"? That's from the old days up in the Ozarks when the chill inside the cabin was measured by how many dogs one had to pile on the bed to sleep warmly; of course, even the hottest nights at the Casa has the capability to be a three, maybe…