Canine Cavorting

This past weekend was a big dog weekend. DoodleBug and I helped out at the Rescue a Golden Meet and Greet at a local bookstore on Saturday. Seven goldens, and only mine rolls around on the floor, scratching his back, or sits in chair at the table like a person, or leaps straight up into the air.  Insert sigh here.

On Sunday, we staffed the Delta Society/Pet Partners booth at the 5th annual Autism Walk on campus. Thousands of people on campus, hundreds of people walking through the tent where our booth was, probably one or two hundred stopping to play with him.  One mother brought her 8- or 9-year-old son to see him. This boy was ambulatory, but pretty unresponsive, not talking, not making eye or face contact, with his fists up by his ears. His mother was kneeling, tugging at his arm, trying to get him to squat down and pet Cuddley, who was sitting there. Suddenly, the kid just collapsed right onto my dog, just sort of let go and sank right down on him, pointy elbows straight into his back.

My boy just sat there, a big, fluffy statue. Not a muscle moved. He didn't startle, he didn't flinch, he didn't react at all. The mom helped her kid up and they walked on and I gave Tall Boy a huge hug and told him what a fantastic boy he was.  I admit I was surprised he was so good, when he has so little experience visiting, much less with a population of kids like this.

He was super good with these kids, even the non-ambulatory, completely unresponsive ones. He sat next to the wheelchairs or strollers and let the parents try to pet him with their kids' hands. He did relieve his stress by digging into the blanket I'd put down on the ground, tugging on his leash, or leaping into the air when no one was around (but he was probably bored, too). But as soon as someone approached to pet him, he sat down perfectly still and wagged his tail and wiggled his butt, but that's all. He's got superb therapy dog instincts.

Some photos from Saturday at the bookstore:

I have tried re-sizing that middle photo 5 times, and it gets uploaded sideways every time regardless of size, so just bear with it; sorry.

Spring on My Shoulder

I couldn't really use my entire tax refund for my credit card bill, could I? It is okay to occasionally splurge on yourself, isn't it? I skimmed just a bit and bought myself this fabulous Tom Bihn Little Swift in kiwi. I love this bag, and I'm not even the purse lover my sister is. I'm so used to my Medium and Small Cafe Bags (also by Tom Bihn), that are more messenger-bag style, that a shoulder bag stills feels weird. But I love it. Love it! How can they discontinue this fabulous color? The only problem? Like all Tom Bihn bags, it will be indestructible.

Where've Ya' Been, Mossy?

I have not been ignoring you, gentle readers. I have been having massive cell phone/Internet problems at home, as two of the five towers near my home are down, meaning the other 3 are operating at way above capacity. I know this because of my twice- or thrice-weekly phone calls to a certain cell phone company/Internet provider which shall remain unnamed (but which starts with a capital s). After a couple of weeks of problems using my cell phone, I went to the s store and they told me it was my battery (which they nicely replaced for free). Same problems with connecting ensued over the week, so I bought a new phone, even though I really didn't have the money to do so. Imagine how cheesed I was to discover the problems persisting! And thus began my twice- or thrice-weekly calls to the customer service line and weekly weekend visits to the store.

Interestingly, every time I have to go through this step-by-step summary. Each very nice customer service representative tells me that they are very sorry; they are writing everything down; they will issue a ticket for a repair. Every single time. I finally got fed up and when the third person in the same half-hour phone call asked to go through it again, and I am ashamed to admit I got a little testy. What are they typing then, as I can hear the keys tapping over the phone? Sudoku? The New York Times crossword puzzle?

I am very frustrated. My students are taking their online exam in one week. When this all started 5 weeks ago, I told the s company representative, "Well, as long as everything is settled by the time my students are taking their exam on arch 28, so I can be online in the chatroom for them..."  At this rate, who knows when it will get fixed? Grrrrrr!

The funny part: the representative tried to call me, and couldn't reach me (the phone simply doesn't ring, one of the many issues I've complained about).  And they think they are telling me something I don't know when they say "It appears that the tower one half-mile from your house is not working."  Oh, really? Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. I guess that explain why my phone doesn't work and I can't get online from home.

I apologize. I swore I would never use my blog for ranting, and here I am, ranting. I hang my head in shame.

Color Explosion

I came home from work yesterday, threw my shawl on the dining room table, and took the dogs out. Came back in to see this color explosion.I love it! I always loved muted, calmer tones, but perimenpause has me longing for bright, active, energetic colors. Beats the hot flashes.

What's Been on My Needles and Hooks

The stashbusting continues apace, as these fleece blankets for Project Linus testify. The rose-colored blanket on the bottom is a lovely, thick blanket knitted with a bulky yarn; the rest are crocheted edges on fleece remnants. The only problem now that I've been so productive recently in making scarves and edging fleeces is that I don't have very many single complete skeins left, but lots of little balls, which means there may have to be a hexagon blanket in my future. Which means I get to practice patience. Ahh, those p-words.

Patience and Perserverance

I've had a lesson this past month in these two p-words (remember my resolutions?). My little cat, who was diagnosed with cancer in November, had rebounded, and was doing very well throughout December and early January. Then, bam! Two bad weeks she was still recovering from when we went to the veterinary ophthalmologist last week and the veterinary oncologist this week. She lost both the half pound she put on after the chemotherapy started working, and a half pound more. A whole pound. That was twenty percent of her body weight. The oncologist ran bloodwork, which she had done literally one month before, when Little Miss was doing so well and before the bad times.

And her kidney values came back better. Yes, even after the weight loss, the enema, the other nastiness she had to endure. One kidney value is now in the normal range, the other, while still elevated, is 20 points lower.

This little girl, with her sad history of being abandoned when her owner moved away, mauled and nearly killed by two big brown dogs, the blood clot, the chronic renal failure, and now the cancer, is fighting so dang hard. She hasn't used up her nine lives and she's not ready to go yet. Her regular vet didn't think she'd make it through Thanksgiving. Her acupuncture vet didn't think she'd make it through Christmas.Yet here she is, fighting. Perservering.

And teaching me some valuable lessons about being patient with myself, with nature, with life. About rolling with the punches and struggling to get back up again, but getting up nonetheless. Patience to make sure she takes those 11 medicines a day. Patience to hope and pray, really hard.

I don't know how long she'll be with me, but I treasure every day with her.

Lalecka, June 8, 2007

February 5, 2012

Five for Fifty

My friend J decided last year to celebrate her 60th birthday by going to Oaxaca with a good friend of hers. She left on Friday of last week. I love Oaxaca. The city is gorgeous, the food fantastic; granted, I haven't been there since 1988, but I'm sure it's still wonderful. And I was jealous. It's ugly, but I admit it.

Which got me to thinking last year, after she decided to do this, that I have a big birthday coming up. Oh, I know, not for a few years, but still, 50 is looming up and let's face it, when time is flying by as fast as it does now (shouldn't my niece still be in diapers and not turning 20?), 50 will be here by the time I sneeze. So what should I do for my fiftieth? A coworker jumped out of plane. No way! NO WAY! I did the half-marathon for my 45th, and I don't want to tackle a full marathon. I decided that since I enjoy traveling, I wanted to go some place, some place I'd not been.

Now, gentle readers, you know I've been lucky enough to travel quite a bit abroad and have been to some out-of-the-way places, and I loved that. But I decided to stick a little closer to home for this trip. Which left quite a bit of the ol' USA open for contemplation as the Place To Go. And even though I still want to take that cruise to Hawaii with Mom, that's really a trip for her, not me. For my fiftieth, I want to go somewhere where I can do the things I love to do. After all, I'll be the birthday girl! So ever since I decided upon This Plan, I've been pondering: where to go? And I have decided upon two choices thus far.

Yosemite Park. It's gorgeous. I love to hike and be outdoors. The lodge is spectacular. The Ahwahnee Hotel even more so. But I couldn't bring the dogs. (I could substitute renting a cabin in Tahoe or somewhere for some hiking with the dogs instead, and that's definitely a sub-option still on the table.)

Cape Cod. I've always wanted to go there. I know it won't look like the Cape Cod of the Asey Mayo mysteries of the 1930s, but I can live with that. And this is once place I think I'd rather do off season, when there are less tourists, since I'd rather be hiking and birding than sunbathing. My sister and her husband have friends who moved up there a few years ago, so maybe they might ask them to look around for a nice rental that they'd stay at themselves, and that's pet friendly. And it's far more likely that someone from my family would drive up to Cape Cod to celebrate with me than for them to come out here (I'm still waiting for that to happen and it's been over 23 years, so I'm not holding my breath even though some of my friends and coworkers think my family is fictional). 

With The Big Event still several years off, I have plenty of time to save money (barring veterinary disasters) and to make reservations (I think I'd have to make them at least 2 years in advance to get the Ahwahnee at Yosemite), so starting to plan now is essential. But the biggest essential is this: how to pay for it.

I decided to start my own little modified Christmas Club for myself. Sadly, money in my savings seems to get soaked up paying off the vet bills on my credit card, so I need a separate avenue for money stashing. I was remembering how, 27 years ago, when I wanted to go on my field school abroad, I knew I couldn't ask the folks to fund it, so I put aside as much of my paycheck from the bookstore as I could, and before I knew it, I had the $600 for the airfare in a tidy little stack of bills in an envelope. So why not try that again? And the it hit me--five for fifty.

I'm going to try and set aside any five dollar bills for my vacation. Not in my savings, where it will get used to pay off a bill. And not in an envelope under my bed, either. And not every week, because frankly, I have too many unexpected expenses that arise that might preclude a weekly sum (yes, unexpected $300 scheduled maintenance for Mr. Knightley, I'm looking at you here!).

So there you have it, my Five for Fifty campaign. I'm hoping to go somewhere nice, eat a lot of wonderful food, have a lot of fun outside hiking and birding, and inside, reading and just relaxing, and seeing new places. Want to come?