Carmel

SUMMARY: Memorial, beach, friends.

(Reposted with a bit more stuff than earlier. 8:45pm PDT)

My random notes about today.

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A good day. Memorial for Lisa Pomerance on the Carmel beach with dogs and friends. She was so involved with so many animal communities. Much purple was worn. My dogs ran on the beach before and after, and walked around Carmel with friends afterwards. And I took no photos. Not one. It was a wonderful day.

Me, in my purple (after getting home), windblown, with purple beads from the memorial

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In Carmel today, one random person asked what kind of animal Chip was. My friend answered, "dog". He seemed disbelieving. Another said that Tika was clearly not all dog. I said that she was an Aussie mix, probably with Husky. He said, "Oh," and looked at her critically. Not sure he was convinced, either.

"What kind of animal?" I'm still floored by that one.

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The memorial was nice. Quite a few people wore purple and quite a few brought their dogs. People just got up and talked about how they'd met her, the fun times they had, the things she was involved in, and so on.

I took all 3 dogs and they got quite a bit of off-leash beach time. I wasn't sure what would happen with Chip with no recall, and he did tend to go farther away then either of the other dogs would, but he'd eventually come running back, so I guess he's attached enough to us now.

I got there with 2 cameras and realized that (a) I wasn't in the mood for taking photos and (b) it would be too hard trying to keep track of 3 dogs with a wide range of interests as well as concentrate on photos. So I took not a single shot. Fortunately I went with 2 friends with cameras so I'm hoping for lots of beach shots, maybe even with me in some for a change.

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The memorial--people brought their own chairs--was on the beach in the indentation where, in this Google Maps shot, there's a volleyball net (above-left of the letter B). The wind was fierce and became fiercer; it whipped away many of the words that people spoke; by late afternoon, the wind had blown away all but a few hardy souls from the normally crowded beach despite the sunshine.

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Fitbit says I walked:

Doesn't this mean that the dogs walked/ran about twice that while off leash?

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Shouldn't they all be sacked out after that? *I'm* sure tired.

BUT when I tried to take Boost's sacked-out photo, she jumped up, figuring that if I'm not at my computer, it's time to play. Now she and Chip are chewing on bones, playing with toys, and generally not being exhausted. That's the problem with having a  90-minute drive home afterwards: They can sleep all the way, but I can't sleep more than occasionally while actually driving.

Fitbit

SUMMARY: Cool thing!

I won a fitbit in an agility friend's fitness participation raffle! It's the Fitbit Flex, and there's a lot about it that I like.

That's it, next to my big black watch. Did my friend pick the perfect teal color for me, or what?

It looks imposing here, but it's soft, light, and flexible, and I don't even notice that I'm wearing it. That's good, because I've been sleeping in it, and THAT's because it tracks how restless or awake I am during the night, and tells me how many hours I actually slept. Very cool.

It also tracks numbers of steps taken, minutes of very active movement, and floors climbed (a "floor" is another way of saying 10 feet gain in elevation). It translates that into miles walked and calories burned.  I can view the current daily numbers on the wristband display. Also, it connects to the fitbit web site, where my dashboard syncs with the wristband to get the current data and displays my goals, accomplishments, and so on. It apparently also can help you track food eaten; my friend uses hers for that, but I don't.

So far--after 5 days--I'm liking it. It has been much more accurate in step counting than the brand new pedometer that I bought a couple of months ago, which adds so many imaginary steps to my count that I really have no idea how much I've walked.

I don't much like the clasp, which is very hard to fasten. (Not that, not only do the online reviews almost all agree with me, but there are lots of complaints about people losing their fitbits because they pop open when they brush against things and the people didn't notice). I hope they change it in future versions.

The only time that it seems to have failed me is yesterday.

Yesterday morning I did the usual various things around the house, then drove in to my client site, walked through the parking garage and down a long corridor to a meeting, sat in the meeting for an hour with a little bit of getting up and moving around, walked back to my car, drove to my dentist's office, walked into the office to check in, walked back outside. At that point, it said that I had walked about 1.4 miles, or about 2800 steps. Perfectly reasonable.

Because I was early for the dentist, I went for a walk. Walked 35 minutes briskly without stopping, and at that point I hit 3 miles (6000 steps). So far so good.

Then I drove home, walked around the yard (not a big yard) to pick up poop, threw the toy for the dogs a few times and played a little tug, watered the potted plants along the back wall of the house. Fed the dogs dinner, drove out to the movie theater, parked at the far side of the parking lot (maybe a couple hundred feet from the theater entrance). Walked to the theater to check the line for the movie, walked back to my car to get my stuff. Back to the theater, sat on a chair in line for 45 minutes until my friend showed up.

Walked my stuff back to the car and rejoined my friend in line. Stood there talking for 15 minutes, then walked into the theater, which was right off the lobby. Got a seat, walked out to the lobby to buy food (no waiting in line), back into the theater, back out to the girls' room (across the hall from the theater door), back into the theater. After the movie, walked back out to my car, drove home. Walked into the house, greeted the dogs a bit and threw a toy for Boost, sat down.

Fitbit now said that I had walked 10,000 steps (5 miles) for the day. There is NO WAY that that minimal activity added up to two miles, if 35 minutes of very brisk walking was only 1.6 miles.

So maybe it does track bumpy road bounces. Dunno.  Dang California's crumbling freeways. Anyway, something to watch for and figure out so that I'm aware of what's going on.

But I love having the info on my computer, I love its general accuracy, how easy it is to view the data throughout the day on my wrist, how comfortable it is to wear. AND I've found that I know lots of other people with fitbits. You can become "fitbit friends", which means that  their weekly totals of steps taken are then displayed on your dashboard, nifty for cross-motivation and for pushing to make your goals.

My current goals--I'm starting low-ish--are to walk 5 miles a day (first 3 days I aimed at 3 miles, but I made that easily, so I upped it) and climb 20 stories (still pretty easy, but I'm still pretty out of shape).

Fitbit, I'm sure, will be glad to help me. It's already flirting with me: After I recharged it for the first time, it displayed "LOVEU." Isn't that sweet?

Working on that Snooker Super-Q

SUMMARY: Steps I'm taking.

So, for the first time in many, many months, I've had the energy and enthusiasm to focus on improving Boost's agility performance in hopes of getting that danged last Super-Q.

I've actually been working on bar-knocking in the yard.

I actually rented the big field last saturday morning and again this coming saturday morning to practice just having Boost drive ahead over jumps. Basically I dropped toys in various places around the field where I could drive her over 2, 3, 4, or more jumps to get a toy. I felt that Saturday went well--she's very happy to drive ahead when she thinks there might be a toy out there. I noticed that she knocked bars when she wasn't sure where the toys were going to be, hmm, something to think about.

It was pretty warm, even at 8 a.m., so we rested quite a bit between runs.

Tika wanted to bark while I was running Boost--this is a no-no, don't want to disturb the neighbors, but if I ran her through 5 or 6 obstacles and then gave her treats, she'd be quiet for a while. Not sure what I'm going to do this weekend--have been instructed "NO barking," so we'll see whether it's cool enough that I can leave her in the car.

Anyway, will work on more of the same this Saturday morning--I decided to sign up ONLY for Sunday of this weekend's 3-day USDAA trial in Woodland, because that's the only day with a Snooker, and I just don't want to be out in the heat in the central valley for 2-3 days.

Tonight in class, there were only 2 of us! I asked whether JB would be willing to do some private lessons/evaluations on snooker, and then we agreed to spend most of class trying to do various snooker-like runs. Boost didn't knock a single bar! And she got all her weave entries! I made a few handling errors, but got no refusals, either. I hope this carries over to Sunday's competition; would sure be nice.

My back is still a mess, but my core muscles are getting stronger as I do my exercises (not as often as ideal, but enough that I notice a difference) and I've been doing some exercycling in lieu of hiking to try to let my foot continue to rest but still work my legs and cardiovascular system. I felt pretty good in class tonight, but with only two of us, I turned into a pumpkin before the full class session and came on home.

But, in other words, the enthusiasm that I've had in the past but not for a long while is back. Trying to hold onto it and keep on going.

The Stairs From Heck

SUMMARY: Some uphill practice.

As I noted yesterday, my goal --starting 2 weeks ago--was to go up these stairs at Communications Hill two times, three days a week.

We start here next to these tall, stately Italian cypress. See those teeny tiny Italian Cypress wayyyy at the top of the hill (upper right next to the condos)? That's where the stairs go.

The dogs would like to put in a vote for doing something more sensible, like walking around the block among the pretty townhouses.

It doesn't look so bad from the bottom--just these steps and then you're almost there, right?

But then you get to that landing--and it goes around a corner and up again. But after THAT, you're almost there, right? Just up to that overlook?

Then you get to the overlook and, despite having already done 129 steps, ha ha, guess what--there's more! 93 more, to be exact.

Once you finish, there are nice views, though (there's that overlook below us that had looked like it had to be at the top).

So--let's go back down around the hill and come up again!

Another USDAA Day Two of Two

SUMMARY: Everyone runs well, a surprise Steeplechase, and even a Q or two.

Best part about today: Last dog ran at 1:00! Still took over half an hour to finish up the paperwork and clean up the score table, half an hour to pack up, time to gather my ribbons, check the raffle, and a little time at the end to play frisbee with the dogs. Well--with Boost; Tika was more interested in scouting out the entire site for dropped orts (do you do crossword puzzles? Never seen this word used except there. Now *I've* used it somewhere).

Correction May 7 9:10 a.m: Left there about 2:15-- Home about 3:15, in time for a little yard play with the dogs, water some potted plants, and take a much-needed nap before meeting sister & spouse for dinner.

Tika's day--thought she was entered in only 2 classes--

• Steeplechase Round 2: When we left you yesterday, Tika hadn't qualified in Steeplechase because of a knocked bar (and Boost crapped out completely), so for the first time in a while, we slept in instead of arriving half an hour early on Sunday for Round 2. Pottied and frisbeed the dogs, and as I was walking back towards my set-up, The Voice came over the intercom, "Ellen Finch, are you running Steeplechase?" Doh. Despite being the score table person who is always tracking down nonqualifiers who get to run in Round 2 because a minimum of four dogs each height go even if they don't qualify, to make sure that they know they'll be running, I never bothered checking Tika's score, and sure enough, she got in by that rule as the #4 place.
  So, while someone held my dogs, they let me do a really fast walk through (more like two jog-throughs), then I raced to put on my running shoes, came back, and ran Tika. Another bar down! She's knocked only 4 bars out of 48 Steeplechase rounds 1 and 2 in the last 2 years, so odd to pull a bar both rounds in one weekend.
  But she was running quickly and happily again today. I think less than a second slower than the winner, but the bar dropped us to 3rd. Still, we didn't E, so a whole $9.
• Jumpers: Smooth on a course that stymied a lot of dogs or handlers; Q and I think 3rd place.
• Standard: Smooth ditto ditto ditto. Lots of 3rd places today.Correction: Tika won this class! 1st of 8, not the fastest, but one of only 2 who ran clean.
  Main flaw not wanting to go down on the table. New strategy: Just keep repeating "Down!" in rapid succession with a big arm gesture--funny seeing her go a little lower with each command until she was all the way down. Thank goodness she now needs only one more for her Gold Standard, then I think we're going to be done with Standard.

Boost's day:

• Started with Grand Prix, and OMG it was a totally beautiful run! The only flaw was leaving one contact early and starting to face me, so I had to "down" her for a moment to keep her brain together. Held her on the other two contacts. No refusals, runouts, bars, not even any major hesitations. Ended 8th of 34 dogs and a Q! That's 3 GP Qs in 6 months (out of 8 tries), after a dry spell of  three and a half years! (40 tries.)
• Next was gamblers--oh, what a disaster. Right off the bat in the opening I couldn't get her correctly into the weave poles repeatedly, and we ended up with barely the required opening points, and then wasn't even close to doing the gamble. Bleah.
• Next was Standard--ohhhhhh  my another beautiful run, no runouts or refusals, just a bar down! Feeling really nice running her!
• Last was Jumpers, and it was a tough course--and once again just beautiful; knocked a bar fairly early and at the end I got a little casual and so she ran past one jump that I didn't bother going back for (really, just a foot to her left and she could've gone over it--I *did* say "Hup!" and point to it--), but again it felt really nice.

It's those random rewards and those "Alllllmost"s that keep me coming back for more, I guess.

Boost won a bag of treats in the raffle (oh, and last weekend she won a backpack that I hadn't checked for size first, wayyy to big and so gave it back), so she continues to be my raffle-winning dog.

Me:

• Warming up. In the past, I'd do just a quick little jog to warm myself up, but since I realized 3 or 4 trials ago that that wasn't enough, I run before each run until my knee stops hurting and I can run comfortably. (Funny how that works--knee hurts less when I move it more.) I think that is making a lot of difference with me being able to move on course.
• Exercise program. I've been trying hard to get out every day and walk at least a couple of miles including going up (not down) 460 Stairs From Hell every other day at a nearby location--two weeks now, and maybe it's my imagination, but last weekend and this weekend already it feels like I have more endurance for being on course; my legs haven't felt heavy and droopy as they have so often in the last couple of years.
• Could all of this be why I'm getting some nicer runs out of Boost? I do a little extra Boost-specific training here and there, trying to keep my "new dog, new handler" theme going, but it's not a *lot* of agility training because of her having been sore.

I felt pretty good about today, even though right now my knee is very unhappy with me. Hardly bothered me all weekend, nor after last weekend. I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow morning when I next face The Stairs From Hell.

But Tika ran well, Boost ran well in 3 of 4 runs. Again, nice weather, great friends, fun but challenging courses. Tomorrow, ah, well, back to Work.

Questions

SUMMARY: Random ponderings.

1. I just mowed the lawn on Sunday; how can it be over the tops of my shoes again on Thursday morning? Isn't this still, like, winter?
2. I just swept and washed the kitchen floor on Saturday; how can there possibly be piles of dirt and dog hair and, for crying out loud, a cartload of pieces of grass under everything already by Wednesday? Why don't the dogs have the courtesy to wipe their feet and blow their coats outside? On the lawn?
3. After two weeks, I finally picked up that broken fraction of an old plastic pot and hauled it over to the back door to be thrown away; why today does Boost decide that it's the greatest playtoy ever invented and ecstatically run off with it to drop it eventually somewhere? On the lawn? Especially when there are already three--count them, three!--Jolly Balls already waiting neglected on the lawn?
4. Why is Tika sore?
5. Why does she like to take her empty Leo food dispenser outside and leave it on the lawn? The dining room carpet isn't good enough?
6. Why, when I'm out in the yard watching, does she poop in the far out-of-the-way mulched corners of the yard, but when I'm not watching, she leaves it for me to step in--on the lawn of course?
7. Will it please not rain this weekend, when two agility friends and I are planning on taking our SLRs and agility beasts into the off-leash hills for hours of hiking and dog and photo fun? And no lawns in sight? Will Tika please feel better by then?
8. Why is the rum gone?
9. Will Mr. Frog find a mate and raise a family and so my pond will be filled with algae forevermore? Will they take care of any possible evil mosquito larvae?
10. Where's Waldo?
11. I'm guessing out on the lawn with everything else.
12. How can I possibly gain 5 lbs in a week? Stupid easter candy. Stupid potlucks.
13. Can I possibly get back into the swing of getting lots of exercise every day? Working longer hours sucks. Wouldn't it be great if every day I had time to go for a long hike? AND then mow the lawn? If I could get at it with all the stuff lying on it.

Hikies

SUMMARY: A long, new walk with the dogs, plus a hill.

This Wednesday is not wordless.

Wednesday evenings are the Sierra Club Singles hikes. During winter months, that's a brisk 5-mile walk through the sidewalks and byways of residential Palo Alto. I find it hard to drag myself on a 30-40 minute drive (one way) to walk, on the flat, in the suburbs. I can do that here. Granted, I don't, usually, and there's something to be said for companionship.

But now I know (from boot camp the other day) that there are decent places to walk up and down Communication Hill. And it's only about a mile and a half from my house. So--walk there (on the flat), go up & down a bit, walk back--voila, should be 5 miles or so!

So that's what the Merle Girls and I did for exercise today.

I had looked up the moonrise time and hoped that I'd be able to see it with a sunsetty glow from on the hill, but nope, that didn't work out. Still, we got in a good walk (4.22 miles the route we took per http://mapmyrun.com), about 300 feet cumulative uphill, and a bit of a surprise, too.

Starting out, we caught the beautiful near-sunset golden glow on the trees lining the street. Boost didn't care: She kept trying to turn right, which is where the park is where we ALWAYS go to play frisbee when we come up here. Took several blocks for her to stop trying.

Another half a mile, and we had to wait 2 or 3 minutes at this huge and very busy intersection. Communication  Hill--our goal--is visible below the traffic lights.

Yet another half a mile, and we're getting really close now, and the sun's glow has just vanished from the hillside.  The road I have my eye is the one straight ahead, which wraps around to the right and then to the left behind the houses at the top. Between the upper and lower houses, you can just see the line of the walking path that goes gradually up acros the hillside. Also part of my plan.

Oooh, fancy fancy houses wot they've done bilt on this yere hill!

Getting darker every minute. I took only my cheap point and shoot, which is not happy in the dark. And Tika just wouldn't hold still. (And Boost thinks, not with the dang photos AGAIN--).

We started up the hill, and halfway I could see the Santa Cruz mountains making stunning layers of blue. Cheap camera makes it very grainy.

Looking back along the road we've walked up, the sunset starts coloring the sky.

I'm intending to follow the roads and walkways, but suddenly notice that the unbuilt part of the hill is grassy and not off limits. So we climb up the hill to the fence line and follow the ridge up to the top. This is such a pleasant surprise--we're far enough away from everyone and everything that I let the dogs off leash for a few minutes as we walk. This looks back down the fenceline. Off in the left distance, that huge green area? The future Martial Cottle Park, and Taj MuttHall  is on the right side of that somewhere.

Cheap camera, really grainy, but the sky is glowing over the city lights as the come on below us.

I *am* on communication hill--and there's the big communication tower.  We're at the top of the ridge, now, also a surprise to be able to get this high. The dogs are happily sniffing and the sky is lovely. In a couple of months, this will all start going to foxtails, but right now, what a glorious hidden retreat with tightly crowded buildings just below us.

We walk as close to the tower as we can before a deep ravine intervenes.

Still no moon visible, and it's getting dark, so we wind around the hill a bit, up and down 100 stairs, and head home. Partway there, the moon finally makes herself visible. Crappy camera.

Agility, Border Collies, Getting In Shape...the Usual

SUMMARY: Random stuff

An agility friend (Jersey and Sheila's human mom) referred me to the Pink Ladies boot camp. It's a casual, local affair, meets optionally three times a week at a local park, and costs only $5/session when you drop in. I liked the boot camp I attended a couple of years ago but it was a bit of a drive and more expensive, so I didn't keep up with it.

In heavy fog, I went to my first session Sunday morning. Good workout. We ran down and back up a flight of about 130 stairs. Fortunately there are landings every 20, and a level path between the two halves. (Here's the first 65.)

 Then we went down half of them again doing squats on each step facing left, ran up, went down doing squats on the right, ran up, went down doing a pushup on each step, and bunnyhopped up. Wait--there was one other set of down and up, too; don't recall what. We also did an assortment of stretches, pull-ups on the railings, and things like jumping jacks.

(For me, insert some quote marks: "ran up"--going up stairs is a known big weakness; my legs just give out. "bunnyhop up". I sort of lurched up; by that time, I couldn't bunnyhop even on the level. "pull-ups"--one leader came by to see my pathetic attempts and said, "C'mon, ALL the way up!" I said, "This *is* all the way up." As in, my arms barely even bent at the elbow. "Pushup", as in a slight dip from arms straight, or I'd never get back up again. Clearly I have work to do.)

I don't often sweat, but I sure did that morning.

The cool thing is that the hill is just an 8-minute drive from here. I had been over there before looking for exercise but found just closely packed houses lining narrow streets. I hadn't found the nice windy uphill road with grass on both sides and a view (well--if there was no fog--), or those amazing stairs in the park. I'll try to get over there more often on my own.

My parents gave me this very realistic Border Collie for an early birthday present. It's either getting some sheep moving or waiting for someone to throw the frisbee. Such a familiar expression. Tika, however, wasn't impressed.

With only one agility class in the last 6 weeks and no seminars, trials, or practice in 2 months, and me working overtime--dogs bored! Dogs barking annoyingly at anything or nothing. Getting into the trash. Tearing things up. Pestering me. You ever wonder why dogs with bad habits who get turned into the shelter get that way? People aren't giving them enough to do; got the wrong kind of dog for their lifestyle.

We have a one-day USDAA trial this weekend in the north bay. I'm pondering staying overnight halfway back and going for a long off-leash hike the next day in one of the east bay parks.

We all hope we'll have class tomorrow night.  Too bad the dogs can't do boot camp exercises. They'd be sore and tired like me today.

Meanwhile--back to work!

Best-Laid Plans

SUMMARY: So far the schedule has turned out pretty different. Plus walking with the dogs.

Original plans for exercise to make up for all the food versus reality--so far--

Thursday morning: Plan: 3-ish mile stroll with dogs and friend #1. Actual: Friend pulled groin muscle and can barely walk. Sat and talked instead and had homemade pumpkin muffins. (I did restrain myself to 1/2 muffin.) Dogs stayed home.

Friday morning: Plan: 3-4-ish mile strolled with dogs and friend #2. Actual: Friend is having problem in the ribs--could be cancer or medication-related.  Can barely walk or drive, so she stayed home. If you've ever cracked a rib, you probably know what she's feeling. Dogs and I went to a park a little way away that has a tiny hill; they got a ton of frisbee so I got only about a mile and a half of walking what with all the stopping and throwing the frisbee (oh, yeah, and taking photos--see below).

Saturday: Plan: Practice judging and run dogs at fun match. Actual: Forecast is for rain rain rain, so fun match is canceled. TBD what we shall do instead.

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Meanwhile, it's been c-c-c-cold; record-setting (or nearly so) lows for the date both yesterday and today. But otherwise beautiful out.

Here's our walkies from this morning.

The park has a huge grassy field that's excellent for dog frisbeeing--this is one side of it. There can be several people with their dogs on different parts of the field and never come close to one another.  It's 9:15 in the morning. Note the frost on the grass in the shade.

Boost would really like me to throw the frisbee. Doesn't seem to mind lying in the frost.

Frost limns grass and leaves so perfectly!

Looking out across the huge grassy field as Tika picks up the frisbee. That little greenish-brown hill on the right, behind the trees, is the hill we'll go up shortly.

In the sun, the frost has melted on this leaf but not yet evaporated.

No matter who gets to the frisbee first, it's almost always Boost who brings it back through the autumn leaves. Tika likes having an auto-ball-return device, aka Boost.

Getting closer to the little hill. It's not very high, but quite steep.

Now we're halfway up the hill. While I follow the path that goes straight up, the dogs explore off to the side under the pine trees.

Looking back down on the school yard next to the park. We do have some autumn color, depending on what trees have been planted. The coastal range is in the far distance.

Wow, good smells among the old dried vegetation, with the winter grasses just starting to come up underneath.

Going down the far side of the hill, Tika likes to lead the way.

Then we turn around and go back up. Now looking down across that huuuuuge green field, which doesn't look quite as big from up here. If you look verrrrry closely (click the photo for a larger version) at the row of nearly identical green trees lining the far side of the park, MUTT MVR is parked behind the 6th trunk from the left.

Gophers or ground squirrels live all through this hill. Tika is looking for them. Can you find Tika? What amazing natural camouflage!

There she is!

Back down to the grassy field for some more frisbee.

Half an hour after we first arrive, these tiny weeds in the shade still sport their delicate frost edging.

Merle Girls On Grass.

Such a Border Collie pose! Staring at the frisbee, willing it to be thrown.

With the inevitably flipped-over ear.

Just some of the crap I picked up along the west side of the park.

Are they tired yet? Can I go home now?

Walk to the Park Near Dark

SUMMARY: Wordless Thursday (because I missed Wednesday).

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