Someone needs to invent a dog powered snow plow

Over the weekend we got a lot of snow. Due to my being out of town I plumb forgot to move my truck to a spot in the driveway where I normally leave it so the plow guy can plow my drive way. The reason I hire a plow guy and save all year long so I can actually pay for this service is because I have calculated it and it is actually cheaper for me to hire the plow guy's services for the winter than it is to treat my fibromyalgia that flares horribly anytime I have to shovel my driveway. So I pay the plow guy. And my neighbors think I am nuts "Why on earth would that spry young 26 year old thing need to hire a plow truck to do her driveway?!" Well trust me, it makes sense when you otherwise can't move without screaming.

The point is, because I didn't move my truck to the appropriate spot and then my plow guy's truck broke down, when I got home I had snow in my driveway and no plow. I waited, I called, no response. So Monday morning when there was still about 6" of snow in my driveway and I knew I needed to get it cleared I started to shovel. (he did finally call me back at 3pm on Monday, apparently he had somehow believed that I no longer wanted his services because I forgot to move my truck before the snow came. Um, I signed a contract at the beginning of the season. Of course I want their services! I'm just a forgetful idiot and forgot to move my truck, you could still plow around it technically!)

And one acupuncture appt later, one massage appt later and a scheduled chiropractor appt later I am once again remembering why I hire the plow guy. Cuz I freaking hurt! And can barely move! And it's bloody expensive trying to beat the flare so that it doesn't cause me to be in pain for the next 2 months straight. And I had been doing so good too!!! With all my walking and regular exercise my fibro has been doing great. I'm not longer taking daily meds for it, which is really nice. I'm just doing management with regular light exercise and eating right and going to acupuncture and the chiropractor.

So hopefully this week I can beat it and get ahead of it and cut it off before it starts going full force and becomes a real problem. All for one lousy clear driveway. Ugh.

Good One for my Mum

So you know that street crossing near my house, near the corner, the one I'm always complaining about, where I've nearly been hit numerous times and run down more times than I care to count? Well my mum decided to do something about it! I guess today she called the town DPW (and now this is not the town I live in but the next town over) and talked to the head of the department about that crossing. He agreed with her how dangerous it is and they talked about various solutions and I guess he even has a close family member with autism so he was very personable and Mum felt that he 'got it' quite well and it overall was a very good conversation.

Mum was hoping that they will put up a sign to remind motorists that there is indeed a cross walk right there. The DPW head was going to see if he could look at the rotating schedule of this middle of the road sign they have (that I guess costs $400 which is why the town only has like 1 for the Entire town, apparently they have a very small budget) to put there on occasion to see if that would help. Part of the problem is at this crossing there is also a passing lane, so people will stop for us then someone will whip around them into the passing lane and nearly run into us going full speed without even looking twice. So because of that passing lane the DPW head wasn't sure they could actually put the middle of the road sign there at all, but he would see about it he said.

They also talked about how this area has a high number of people with various disabilities who walk or wheel as a main mode of transportation at this intersection as well as a large number of just regular pedestrians around here so it would be nice if the area towns did something more to make it safer. I know of at least 3 regular power chair users, 1 manual chair user, a guide dog user and James and me that are down there on a very regular basis plus a lot of elderly live in a nearby complex that walk down to the plaza.

So anyway we shall see if this results in any good positive change at that crossing. One thing I did notice today is that that town (or someone) actually plowed the sidewalk!! Last storm we had James and I were forced to walk in the street with the traffic playing chicken. This time they did a very nice job of plowing the entire side walk. Let's hope they keep it up the remainder of the season.

Either way I have a feeling my mother will continue to be on the DPW's case until something productive is done about this problem. Once she decides to act on something generally it gets done.

New Year, New Header

Last year lots of stuff happened. Some good, some not so good, some indifferent. But stuff happened (doesn't it always?). I have a tendency to say "Such is life." and shrug my shoulders a lot when stuff happens. My old blog header mentioned Obi and how he is no longer my dog. I don't want to think about that anymore so I decided to change my header and put some photos I like of James, Niche and Monty up there.

The photo of James is one of my favorites. It was take a long time ago, I think he couldn't have been more than about a year old, maybe 18 months, and he is just smiling his usual grin at the camera all happy and with a kind look in his eyes. It was taken in the summer in Vermont at dog camp where I used to teach. The photographer who took it liked it so much that she submitted it to a calendar actually, I never found out if it made it in. Either way I like it so it's now on the blog.

The photo of Monty is him doing what he does best- being cute and dirty and muddy. He's standing in the bog having just waded in the water. There are little white wild flowers around him and then in the background is his (ex) girl friend corgi Clara (ex by her choice she one day decided to hate his guts, poor Monty could not understand why!)

The photo of Niche is of him doing something he loves with all his little doggie heart- agility! I don't have very many good agility photos of him but I love this one with him doing his weave poles so intently. Niche is a very intense dog. And this shot just shows that to a T. I love it. You can also see his ears flying which happens all the time when he is bouncing and happy.

On the header it simply says above James' photo "By My Side" and then on each dog's photo it has their name in dark blue writing to match the blog colors. I kind of like it. We will see how long I continue to like it, and how long the header stays the same.

We made it home safe and sound

Yesterday we spent an enjoyable day with Holly and Leonard and the Visions Cardigans in NY. After a nice breakfast meal at the Coffee Bean (I got to make my own very delicious waffle!) we then went back to the house to prepare for the other guests for a small New Years Day gathering. The other guests arrived around noon and we all spent a few hours playing with the dogs and talking dogs. It was a nice time. One of Holly's girls is due to whelp on Wed so some of the time was spent talking about that and playing "Guess how many puppies" (up to 5pm EST tomorrow you can go place your vote on Holly's blog for how many you think Emma is carrying).

After those people left we just kind of noodled around, set up the webcam for the puppy watch, updated some computer stuff, I got to explore my inner pyromaniac with their wood stove (all those forced years of girl scouts as a child paid off apparently!), played some more with the corgis, munched on more snack food, ate some really yummy chili for dinner (and I usually don't like chili! But Holly does NOT use the yucky kind of beans I don't like in hers, no kidney beans, so that's probably why I like her chili!) and then played some games. As we were starting to play "Life" I started fading fast (it was only like 9:30pm!) and so it was quickly off to bed on the couch for me and James!

We woke up early, to quite a few more inches than predicted of snow, like 4" rather than 1", but thanks to 4 wheel drive on the Element, after getting ready, we were off once again to the Coffee Bean for breakfast (where I ended up wearing quite a bit of whipped cream, yeah, that was a mess) and then to the train station for James and my trek home ward.

Our trip home took us a different route. On the way out we went through Worcester then through Western MA. On the way home we stopped in NY/Penn Station for about 2hrs, then the train went through CT, RI and finally into MA. The trip out was a much prettier trip, better views. Though the trip from Albany to Penn Station along the Hudson was nice. Just after that was kind of ratty and boring. Going through the woods and mountains and farms on the trip out was much nicer. The only other cool thing on the way home was that on leaving the Providence station in RI we saw the Capital building all lit up! That was pretty neat!

Overall, I have to say I was SUPER impressed with Amtrak service. Amtrak has DEFINITELY earned my business in the future. 99% of the staff were professional, super helpful, courteous and just very nice, kind and friendly. They gave us reserved seating for persons with disabilities so James had plenty of space. They even kept me updated when a train was running late so that I wasn't overly worried that we were going to miss it. They helped me with my bag. They asked me, without being overbearing or pushy, if I needed assistance, and then were respectful with my decision when I told them 'yes' or 'no' as the situation warranted.

There was only one time when the ball got dropped that could have ended badly, had it not been for James' good training. I asked for assistance in Penn Station in getting to an exit door so I could take James outside to use the bathroom. As we were being taking outside I briefly said to the Amtrak employee "Part of my disability means I get very disoriented in places such as this station." We get to the exit door and she tells me, "I have to go meet another train, so I'm going to leave you here, you can find your way back, right?" And I said, "Um, what?!" But she left! So I take James to potty on the curb, put his harness back on, we go back inside, find the stairs back to the main level. Get down back to the main level and I promptly look at the crowd and go "Oh no, I have no clue where I need to go! Everything looks the same!!" Luckily this is a rather common phenomenon with me, since unless I have heavily studied the layout of a building, and even then, I have a tendency to get disoriented and lost, so James has a cue for finding the place we were last at. I told James "find our seat." He promptly takes off weaving in and out of the crowd for about 20' then takes a sharp right turn and we are right at the correct counter with our seat we started at immediately there ahead waiting for us. Relief!

Other than that one instance, we really had a very low stress trip overall. Which for me, when traveling is like unheard of! I have NEVER had such an uneventful trip when flying by airplane, usually by the time I get out of the airport I am having a major meltdown or have a killer migraine. These trips, by comparison, were delights. As I said, I was impressed. I will be a repeat Amtrak customer.

So we made it home safe and sound. Niche and Monty were very happy to see me, though they had fun and their "grandparent's" house. Now all dogs are sacked out in the living room and it seems life has resumed to it's normal routine. All is right with the world.

The fun has begun!

We made it to Holly and Leonard's safe and sound. Our train even got to the station in NY about 45mini early in Albany. Luckily the conductor told me just as we left Pittsfield that we were only about an hour away from Albany and I should tell whomever was meeting me that we would be getting there early and I had cell service so I quickly rang Holly to tell her and she was able to meet me at the station.

It was a really fun time too!

At first I was kind of worried where James was going to fit was my father had told me that when he traveled on Amtrak for work he had literally NO foot room, but when I boarded they gave me a special space reserved for passengers with disabilities and there was Tons of foot room as usually I think persons in wheel chairs go there, so there was plenty of space for James on his blanket. I just put his blanket down, same as I do when we're on the airplane, and placed him on a down between my feet and he was good to go for the 5hr trip.

I was also incredibly impressed with Amtrak personnel. Every employee was incredibly helpful and kind and friendly.

It also snowed for part of our trip. While I'm sure the train engineers were less than thrilled it was kind of nostalgic and reminded me of the pictures in the book The Polar Express that I use to read with my family this time of year when I was a kid. I even called my mum to tell her that. :-) The scenery was really nice. We were traveling through western MA and through woods and farm country and the Berkshires and I even saw some deer in the woods as well. It was really pretty cool.

Once we got to NY, and Holly had picked us up, we were greeted by the corgi brigade! And of course the cats. Twister handled James well and told him off, China and Pearl on the other hand like to run and so James had to be told "Don't Chase the Cats!" And of course we will probably not see Smokey as he never comes out when I am here, he gets to scared.

Holly made a really nice dinner and we had some good Butter Cookies for dessert. Tomorrow we're going to go to breakfast and then a few people are coming over for a New Years Day gathering.

We're now going to try to stay up to welcome in the New Year! Wish us luck! :-)

Train Trip!

I cannot tell you all just how excited I have become in the past oh, less than 4 hours! As James and I are now going on a real live Amtrak train trip to visit our friends Holly and Leonard in NY! Yesterday they invited me up to their place for a small New Year's Day gathering they were planning and I was like "Oh I would love to go but I'm not really driving right now and so I don't think I can come." then today I was talking to Holly some more and I had the brain storm and asked her "Hey how far away are you from a train station?" Turns out, not too far!

So I looked up some Amtrak prices and timetables and found a fare and route that worked so tomorrow morning we're catching the commuter rail to South Station then going out to NY, staying with Holly for a few days and coming back home over the weekend.

When I called Amtrak to tell them I would be traveling with a Service Dog, I learned that they also have a Disabled Passenger Discount, which was really nice and a welcome surprise and that of course James is welcome.

My parents agreed to watch Niche and Monty as long as I provided detailed instructions (don't I always?) Though Niche is getting depressed. He has been around long enough to know that when the suitcase comes out, most likely he is not coming :-( Monty, on the other hand is just like, "Hey whatever, as long as someone feeds me, and really those grandparents I can mess with their heads in true corgi fashion, it's GREAT!"

It's funny, I do like trains. For someone who pretty much hates all modes of other transportation other than her own 2 feet (and some boats), trains are something I've always liked. When I was a young kid, my sisters and I would beg my parents to take us into Boston to go to the museums or to go to Fanuel Hall or to go feed the pigeons and take us on the train. I've never been on such a long train trip as this one will be, so we will see if my enjoyment of train trips falters, but I'm hoping it'll be some fun.

So now I'm doing laundry and packing dog food for J and snacks for me. Making sure I've got lists for caring for the other 2 while I'm gone. Tomorrow morning we'll be off on our next adventure! Will hopefully be a fun time and we will hopefully not get lost in NY/Penn Station on the way home! :-)

Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

Let's just start this with it was so cold tonight that my students all chickened out and bailed on me and STAYED HOME from class! What?! They couldn't come out in the cold to an unheated horse barn to play agility with their dogs?! Am I the only one who has lost her marbles? No just kidding, only half of them were intelligent and called me or e-mailed me with that reasoning. The other half were physically ill.

That is just to point out how cold it is. When dog people. Die hard agility people, choose to stay home from class you KNOW it is cold out. Really truly COLD out.

Neither me, on the other hand, nor my dogs, are truly that intelligent. James at 12noon was bouncing off the walls going "TAKE ME OUT! I WANT TO GO FOR AN OUTING! I WANT A WALK!" I said, "James, dear dog, it is COLD out! You will be COLD! It is also really really WINDY out. Trust me, you will be COLD." Yet he insisted. "No! Mum, really I WANT TO GO FOR A WALK! Take me out!" So after 20 minutes of him going from me, to the closet, to the front door, I gave in. I threw up my hands and said, "Fine you insane mutt, I will freeze my rear off and take you for an outing, I need Dran-o for the kitchen sink anyway."

So I put on my: sweat shirt, my fleece, my winter coat, my nice crochet scarf, my sheepskin mittens, my SmartWool socks, my fleece socks, and all manner of other layers, harnessed James up and off we went. James says "Coats are for weenie dogs, I am not a weenie dog." (I just look at him and tell him he is insane with the best of them, but I digress)

We march, 1, 2, 1, 2, fast pace, since if we go any slower than a fast march we will turn to pupcicles! The side walk, due to all the rain we had, is mostly clear, a small section we had to walk in the road, but we got to the corner fine. Still can't get to the light button due to the drifts but crossing with the traffic surge goes fine.

Racing down the street to get to the other cross walk, trying to decide "should we walk on the side of the road with the cars or on the snow/ice covered side walk?" James decides/insists that we get out of the road! And do the sidewalk. So I agree of course.

Cross at the world's worst cross walk, manage not to get killed, walk through the plaza, James hopefully turns his head at the door to the pet store, I tell him "Not today." and down to the hardware store.

Get our Dran-o. Standing in line a very cute kid asks his dad quietly "Is that one of those 'Seeing Eye Dogs?'" Kids like that are nice, they don't harass me, they don't bug my dog, they're quiet, they're curious, but they're respectful and they're quiet. They're nice.

We check out and then retrace our route back home again to thaw.

Tomorrow? The other direction, we need to get renew the dog licenses!

Thanks to Dear Ol' Dad

We are having a rather unusual winter here in MA. In that we currently have what we usually have in late March/early April ie MUD. I was not planning for MUD in late December. And my brand spanking new porch is not finished. Therefore at the bottom of the steps where it goes from steps to yard, there is (was) about a 3" divot/trench then a nice round mound of dirt then a flat of more dirt then the yard of dirt and some grass which has become MUD. Slippery, shoe sucking MUD. It was an accident waiting to happen. So today I whined to my father. And he saved the dogs and I!

As you can see from the below photos, he went to Home Depot for me and picked up 5 bags of gravel, hauled them in his mini van to my house, carried them (ok I did help with that) from his car, across my porch, down the steps, then then dumped and spread them at the bottom of my steps filling the hole and killing all traces of mud in about 2' area! YEAH FOR MY FATHER!!!!

You can see in the above photo the mud in the rest of the yard, but the nice clean white (ok I know it won't stay white for long, but it is white currently!) gravel. The dogs are like, "White?! What is this?! Who does she think she is kidding?!" That's Brady the Bassett (yes he's here, still, until Wed) and Niche in the photo.

Yeah!! Now hopefully I will not wipe out at the bottom of my steps this year (I think I did it twice on the old porch last year, it hurt!) and hopefully this effort will decrease the amount of muck tracked into my kitchen at least marginally.

I should have taken "before" and "after" pictures, instead of just "after" pictures. Then you could all be even more impressed with my father, LOL. He really is a good guy.

Our reflective outing

So this morning Li came over and we went shopping. We had a list with 3 items- 1. Reflective for James. 2. Reflective for Katrin. 3. New pooper scooper for Li. We were successful with 1 and 3 and partially successful with #2. We also went to lunch and went on a very short grocery shopping excursion. We started our trip at about 10:30am and finished about 4hrs later. Not bad, not bad at all.

Last night I had sent an e-mail to my friend Julie as I knew last year she did an extensive search about proper doggie reflective gear. She told me that she found some good stuff at the Especially for Pets shop. So that store was on our list. As well as Coolen's pet store. And we went to Harbor Freight as I had seen some human reflective wear there that I thought might work (it didn't) and we went to Dicks Sporting Goods where I found some reflective ankle/wrist Velcro things for humans that I tried on James but they kept slipping off but I got anyway since I thought they would be a good idea for me if we weren't able to find anything else for me (we weren't able to find anything else, so so far that's all I've got for me).

For James the most successful place was indeed Especially For Pets. The employee was very helpful and she helped me try on a number of different things and what we ended up going with was a collar band from Spot The Dog but instead fitted it to go on his harness handle and then got a red/orange light to go on his harness as well. I see that Spot the Dog also has reflective all weather booties, I may have to try those, hmmm.

Image of James with his harness on in my living room with the bright silver and orange reflective band across his harness handle and a bright orange/red light hanging from his left side of his harness.

We decided not to get a collar band to go on James' neck since when he walks he tends to carry his head pretty level with the back of his body so it would be rather hard for people to see the reflective on the band on his neck. The employee and I both agreed, and Li too, that the band on the harness handle would stand out the best. And from the photo you can see it does do that pretty well.

And lastly we went to Coolen's where Li was able to find a PURPLE (her most favorite color in the whole world) Pooper Scooper. LOL. It was great.

That was pretty much all the shopping any of us could stand, so home again it was for the rest of the day to chill. My yard is currently a muddy mess from a lot of rain we got this morning, so of course the dogs are begging to go outside and play in the muck. Oh joy! We shall see just how much mud they can manage to track into my nice clean house :-)

Out for a walk

Today my mum was over on a cleaning kick in my house (ie disrupting my life and driving me crazy) and finally she seceded to go for a walk up town to the coffee shop. It's about a 2mile hike each way, so a pretty good walk. At first she was whining "We should drive, it'll be all snowy, they don't really plow the side walks!" But I convinced her walking was good for her, so off we went. Luckily it was a fairly warm day for late Dec so we were shedding layers pretty quick. I didn't even have to wear my mittens for most of the walk!

James was being a little turkey though! The side walk for most of it you could see a thin strip of black top through the snow and he decided that he, the dog, should walk on the black top and shove his handler on to the slippery white stuff! I don't think so dog! After a short discussion about that, he begrudgingly walked in the snow and let me have the better, dryer path. I think we have this discussion nearly every year the 1st time this particular issue occurs and then it's a non issue after that.

We go to the coffee shop and got our drinks, sat down and rested for a bit. Then we decided to stop in a the library and see if we could find any books. Mum tried to convince me to risk my good untarnished returns record by letting her borrow a book on my card but knowing her history with library book returns I said "Not on your life! Borrow it from your own library if you want to read it that bad!" And she pouted, but I stood firm! I found a few books that looked like the might be good reads so I got them out and then we started the walk home.

It was getting to be dusk as we walked and when we were forced off the sidewalk due to the snow we were walking with the traffic so always more risky, but luckily we had some reflective and James has reflective on his harness. Someone once told me about some really reflective velcro ankle things you can get for your dog and I want to get some of those for him but I've yet to be able to find them. There use to be this company called GlowDog that made AWESOME reflective dog gear and they were local, I still have a bandana from them, but alas they went out of business. This time of year it's nearly always dark when we walk and with the snow blocking significant portions of the sidewalk and us being in the road with the cars, I really do need to do some internet shopping and find us some better reflective ASAP. I'd hard to find reflective coats that would fit with his harness on and most reflective collars don't show with his longer fur which is why I've been trying to find those anklet things.

ed to add: Blue found what I had been searching for! Thanks Blue!!! http://www.fab4pets.com/category/24032707