How I Have Drastically Altered My Wardrobe During Lockdown

SUMMARY: Just a summary...

From Facebook 4/11/20, in response to a friend, who said: "Someone on Twitter remarked that it’s going to be very difficult to go back to wearing “hard pants” after this is all over. Couldn’t agree more, as I haul on my (in)active wear for yet another day."

I wear jeans no matter what.
Work at a high tech company? Jeans.
Agility? Jeans.
Dickens Faire? Jeans.
Hiking? Jeans.
Disneyland in CA or Disneyworld in FL? Jeans.
Camping? Jeans.
Basic exercises? Jeans.
Travel? Jeans.
Going to the movies? Jeans.
Gardening? Jeans?
Meeting people in person for the first time?
Photo editing? Jeans.
Museums? Jeans.
Walking the dogs? Jeans.
Training the dogs? Jeans.
Out to dinner? Jeans.
When it's really cold? Jeans.
Warm enough so everyone else is wearing shorts?  Jeans.
Everyone else is in their jogging/sports pants for class?  Jeans.
Going out in the driveway in the morning to get the paper? Jea... well, sometimes bathrobe. But then I change into jeans because my legs get cold.
While recovering from hip surgery and knee surgery, when I was spending a lot of time in bed and/or icing my knee and/or physical therapy, I wore "leggings" regularly (don't tell anyone that was really long underwear), and it was kind of nice but, yes, my legs got cold. So--it's jeans.

COVID-19 quarantine where people see my body only above the chest for weeks on end and only because of WebEx? Yep, jeans.

How about the rest of you?

This is the World In Which We Live Now

SUMMARY: COVID-19? Normal reality? Somewhere in between?

Just a day in the life of... during lockdown... Monday, April 6, 2020

UPDATES APRIL 9, 11:30AM PDT: Added a bit more to the puzzle-doing and a related photo.

• 2 AM -- Poof! Awake! Why why why?  Don't need to visit the Little Human Mom's Room. No extraneous noises that I can  hear. Suddenly the sheets are scratchy, the pillow is lumpy. My shoulder hurts when I roll over. I roll back.
  
  This is not abnormal for me. I wish it were. Should not have stayed awake past 11, reading the Captive Prince books for the 3rd time in 3 weeks, where I dozed off twice with the Kindle and light still on, then slept for real--for a little while. Until 2.

• 7 AM -- Oh! Apparently sleep returned at some point! But NOW why awake?  I feel a little chilly: Darn it, electric mattress pad turned off at some point.
  
  It's nice that it does that after a certain number of hours, because I'd prefer that neither it nor my bedroom furniture catch fire. BUT if I turn it on early to prewarm my flannel-clad bed, then if I forget to reset it when I snuggle into bed, this happens sometime during the night or early morning.   No choice now: I rise and release the boys from their crates.

• 7:15ish -- Neither dog dashed downstairs immediately; instead, THEY are now  curled up on my body-warmed section of bedding. THEY don't care that it's Monday. So I have made my daily weigh-in and recorded it in my FitBit, chosen clothing (turtleneck and  warm fleece. And jeans, because always jeans), dressed, and taken care of The Usual Related Activities.

• 7:30ish -- Down to the kitchen, open the door to the back porch for the dogs. Gray skies and rain. I remind Zorro that he needs to get off the porch to Go Pee. Chip is self-monitored
  
• (Except yesterday afternoon when I heard this weird noise like Chip chewing softly on something unusual. Dashed around the corner of my desk and somedog had marked one of the cardboard boxes sitting there with Things To Do in it.  I still don't know for sure who it was  who Done the Deed, because he licks to clean it up so I have no way of knowing who left it there to be cleaned up, and I never catch either of them actually Doing It, and so I don't know whether I heard him peeing or licking. So there was some time mopping the carpet and box, applying Nature's Miracle, and so on. )
  
• Put the doggie door in: The door is clean and dry, unlike yesterday morning when it was covered with rainwater, on both sides, go figure, as it's resting closer to horizontal than vertical, but it gave me an excuse to clean the glass then.
  
• Stride confidently but carefully on my new-ish knee to the driveway in the rain to fetch the daily paper. 

• I always wonder--it's covered in plastic, which supposedly can hold COVID virus for up to 3 days, and moisture and chill encourage it, so how much decontamination must I do on the bag if it has been sitting in the rain for probably 3 hours?  This is the world in which we live now.

•  7:45ish -- What for breakfast? The Chef personally selects a prime cut of whole wheat sourdough from her personal freezer, places it into the high-tech defrosting/warming/browning device (yes! all in one device!), carefully spreads choice fruit puree from the cooling box, and pours a chilled glass of milk from only Happy Cows in California. Served at a private table. And A Baby's Arm Holding an Apple. Or, actually, only the apple.
  
  Eat breakfast, read some of the paper, start scrolling through Facebook on my Portable Time-Wasting Device, catch myself after not too long, and set it down.

• 8:30ish -- I have a 9:15 phone meeting w/client manager; I've been anticipating for the last couple of weeks that, despite earlier reassurances about renewing me, they don't have the work for me that they thought they did. So, anyway, for the client: download, read, and distribute emails or respond to them, check Slack for everyone's work statuses on the teams there, do a wee bit of work.

• 9:15 -- Meeting. Yep. 2 week's notice that contract is ending. One manager thinks there might be work there somewhere else, but nothing so far. My company is also looking for something for me. I REALLY wouldn't mind a couple of weeks off, even if it's unpaid.  But I also really need the income. With my company and my position, this is complicated. Might address in another post.

• With the current employment environment--higher than during the Great Depression in some places, and unemployment organization overwhelmed with applications, no idea whether a job exists anywhere for me.  This is the world in which we live now. 

• 9:25-11: Read client team's agenda for 11:00 meeting, more email, phone call, start this blog post, I dunno, work & leisure intertwined.

• 11:00-11:35 -- WebEx team video meeting. Status, what we're working on, what our plans are, and so on. Actually well organized and efficient, with 2 or 3 instances where some funny comment got us all laughing. Important in these not-really-end times.

• 11:10 -- OMD forgot to feed the dogs around 10! Chip gives me a gentle nudge, I pet him for a bit while continuing in the meeting.

• 11:35 to 1:15 -- Who the heck knows? Chat w/some people at client or at my company via Slack or email.  Feed the poor patient dogs.

• Start reviewing a website with a free How To Become An API Writer course, in writing, not dumb videos, which is exactly the kind of document that I wanted to write for my last project for the client but it turned into something else. This is billable in some form or other, because that's what I'm working on for the client AND for my company.
  
  Glad that I pointed it out to my client's writing team, because there are a couple of experienced writers who don't know the first thing about APIs or programming or documentation for such, and w/out my specifically suggesting it to them, they've already started working their way through it. I expect that they and my client will be enriched by it. So, I'm not the one who wrote it, but I am the one who typed the  link to it (big win for me! Yay! Gold star! Not real gold, though--).

• My mail-order fudge arrived! As did a mail order prescription in a plastic bag. 

• Mailman delivered to my front porch barehanded (well, gloves wouldn't have mattered), but did he disinfect his hands before handling it here or at the PO? Fudge is in a cardboard box, and I have my little spray bottle of alcohol ready; spray the whole  thing down, cardboard as well as the plastic tape holding it closed, because cardboard can hold the virus for possibly 3 hours or longer.   This is the world in which we live now. 

• Had lunch. Half can of spicy bean soup, hot for a cold wet day, combined with a big mug of hot chocolate. Hit the appropriate spot. Down side: Now I want a nap.
• 
  
• 1:15 -- Fudge package has been sitting now for about an hour and alcohol has dried.  I extract my 4 containers with different flavors of fudge (these folks do a PHENOMENAL job!). My order included a free flavor-of-the month, peanut butter banana, which I'd have never chosen on  my own, so I pull it out for a taste test... quarter of a pound later, yep, it's as phenomenal as all the other flavors! Shouldn't be reading paper & eating fudge at the same time.
  
  
• 1:31 -- Call vet to give him status of the lump on Chip's shoulder from a week ago. Looking good to me (so far diagnosis is simply a fluid-filled bruise, which he aspirated, tested blood & checked for cancer indications, and it all looks fine).

• 1:32 -- Bring this blog up to this hour.
  
  
• 1:45 -- OMG I really need a nap. Guess I'd better let work know that I'm taking another break. The day is gray and rainy; I try to survive by turning on every light in sight, but it's just not working for me today. 

• thru 4:00 -- oops, lost track of my time, so the rest of the day  is rough guesses. In bed, reading some, napping some, occasionally getting checked by the dogs, which wakes me some each time. Still, it's relaxing. I know that I'm really ready for sleep when I slip under the covers, put my head down, and everything immediately seems perfectly comfortable and safely enclosing.
  
  Fitbit tells me afterwards that I slept 1 hr 41 mins during that time, which is great, because last night I slept less than 5 hours.

• Thru 10:00 PM -- Some things that happened--
• I thought the yard guy wasn't going to be coming during the COVID lockdown after I paid him through May and said he should stay home if he felt more comfortable doing that; he skipped 2 weeks but showed up today with one or 2 assistants. So, while he was working out front, I went out back and started scooping poops. Seems like only a day or 2since I was out there, BUT there were little deposits everywhere! So my time sense was failing me again. It has been raining for a couple of days, so most of them were wet and heavy and partially melted into the grass, so it took a while. (I know you wanted to know all this.)  Finished just as he came through the gate. 

• We said hi, how are you, I'm good, from across the yard, and I went back inside. This is the world in which we live now.\

• After he left, I decided to go for a walk. (Walked yesterday in the rain with my brolly and barely a soul to be seen.)  Rain stopped much earlier, and things had started to dry out. It's about 6:30 and joggers are everywhere! My side of the street, the other side of the street, the middle of the street--   and I start wondering: 

• If  virus is detectable for up to three hours in aerosols (exhales), then is it safe for me to walk back to the house at all? Well, I'm not going to wait 3 hours, and anyway more people would be coming-- and there is a slight breeze for dispersal. So I go back home, a shorter walk than planned.  This is the world in which we live now.

• I did take a few photos while out. Posted a couple on Facebook. Probably spent a bunch of time on Facebook, too. 

• Ate more fudge. Way more fudge. It is really really really good, and so smooth! Until very recent years, I could eat sugar with impunity--that is, with no detectable symptoms--but in the last, I dunno, 3-4 years, my body starts feeling wonky. Can't describe it exactly, but it happens when I've had too much sugar. So: My body starts feeling wonky.

• I manage to have something small (because not that hungry now) vaguely healthy for supper--finish the rest of the soup, and some nuts?-- with a glass of cold milk, and now the milk is gone! 

• So am I going to go to the store? Scary! Am I going to order & pay extra to have it delivered? Expensive, plus will still have to clean things as they come into the house! How long do I want to go w/out milk? That means no oatmeal or other cereals in the  morning. And nothing to drink with fudge! Crisis!  This is the world in which we live now.

• Did a bunch of puzzles in the paper. Every other Sunday, they have the usual puzzles plus a bonus entire section with more puzzles. Crosswords are my main thing. For years I avoided cryptograms--did them as a kid but then they seemed like too much work. But a year or so ago, I did one out of desperation, and Lo! it wasn't too hard and didn't take too long. (The ones in the paper aren't all that challenging and give one letter for you. I typically finish them in 5-8 minutes, with maybe a max of 15 on occasion. If it's more than that, I do quit because it then *does* feel like work.)
  
  UPDATE April 9: The San Jose Mercury News, because it has hardly enough to fill the daily Sports section, has instead been filling another whole page with just puzzles! Sports have stopped. All sports. Tennis, football, hockey, golf, at high school, college, pro levels. All of it. This is the world in which we live now.
  Doing puzzles to avoid doing actual work or anything here at home that needs doing. Today is a day in which my stress level is high, can't concentrate, can't make even smaller decisions for the most part, feel completely incapable of functioning. 

• Pondering: It has now been 6 days without driving anywhere (back then, it was to the vet and get a few groceries). It was 9 days before that (groceries and Farmer's Market). And I think 10 days before that. I'd rather have it be more more more days w/out breathing other people's air or touching things that other people touch.  This is the world in which we live now.

• 10:00 -- Agreed with dogs that it's time for bed. But-- OMG, did I give them dinner?  I struggle to remember and can't, and I see that I didn't give Chip his mealtime medication. So I give them each about 1/3 of a meal and figure it won't kill them to have extra or to have a little too little this evening.

• 10:20 -- We are all tucked into our beds and crates. I read some but again doze off while reading, then eventually put that away and turn out the light, and it feels like reasonable sleep. Hope so, since the last couple of nights have been iffy. But I did get that nap in the afternoon--.
  
• Update next morning: 6 hrs 47 min sleep per Fitbit. Pretty good, for me.

Related images--

Walked in the rain the previous day. No one around.

Zorro with newspaper in its plastic bag

Who just stole my warm spot on my bed??

Chip resenting having his photo taken with the shaved spot from his shoulder-lump work.

UPDATE APR 9: Sports section with normal half page of puzzles plus
a whole 'nother page because there ain't no sports nowhere nohow!

What kind of face is that, anyway?

SUMMARY: Makeup

Backfill: Typed this May 20, 2019...:oops, why didn't I post it?  --- MARCH 25: Added first-grade class photo.

True story about me: When I was about 35, I went to a stylist who suggested that I try false eyelashes or at least mascara. I said no. But she talked me into finding a very pale mascara (light brown, I guess), which was hard to find, and it was OK, i suppose. Never used it much. But that's me--because my lashes are so short and straight, they needed a tiny bit of curling to show up even then. All too much of a pain for such tiny lashes. My newest cousin infant is lucky to have naturally long, curled-up eyelashes.

Me, at eighteen. What I think is interesting about this is that my eyes have always been listed as blue. When I got my first license, I asked the clerk something about the color, and she agreed blue. They sure don't look blue here!

Class photo, 1st grade -- they do look a bit blueish; I'll have to go find any photos at all from my youngest youth to see how blue they really looked.

My eyes today. About the color they've always been, I think.  Sort of bluish greenish. The Colors person I went to (different from Stylist) suggests bright teal or BLUE as my most flattering colors ("Dramatic", as in, if I walk into a room and I want people to notice ME and I'd look great in them--based some on eye color but also on skin tone). But see what she  put for Eye Tones? Not blue!

Me at 50. Depends on the light, too, I suppose.

Me at 47.

Added Oct 20, 2019:

Me, now. (Cell phone selfie, hence not so sharp, but colors are ok.) Not really blue...?

Dogs. And Agility.

SUMMARY: Pix and Ponderings about dogs, agility, nonagility, travel, activities...

This started as a blog about me and my dogs in agility.  And it pretty much continued that way for over a decade, with forays into random realms.

But I hardly ever post here any more. Mean to, really I do. Because the secondary purpose was to be my diary, since I suck at keeping a written one, plus can't click to insert photos into paper!

And then when I do post, it's hardly ever about dogs.   So, here's a dog. Waiting for the neighbor's dog to come to the fence so they can bark ferociously at each other. What passes for entertainment in the dog world.

Not too many weekends ago, I went to my club's agility trial about 50-60 minutes from here. Nice freeway drive through less urbanified areas. At least, early in the morning.  I worked. Took a few photos.  My heart wasn't into either one. I think what finally did it for me was that there was a snooker course with an element in it that is one of the spectacular Ellen-and-Boost-fail-to-get-a-Super-Q near misses that just broke my heart.  I let too many things break my heart in agility, I think, but even telling myself here and now that that didn't matter and I'd do anything to have my little blue border collie back, it just kept hitting me.

And I'm not that interested in the courses now--I'm nowhere near competition ready in that I have no agility dogs, even if I were completely physically fit.  (Actually feeling pretty good these days, but quite out of condition.)

Agility people are still wonderful. Lots of friends there. Chatted with several. And then they'd need to go run their dogs, or walk their dogs, or take their dogs to the doggie masseuse (really, she's wonderful; Tika loved her).  More and more people running, every time I go to a trial, whom I don't know from Adam.  More and more known people with new dogs I've never met and know nothing about So many of the people I became friends with--and dogs, too-- by being in classes and seminars with them for long periods.

I haven't done agility trials or classes or seminars now for over 3 years, except for a  very few small attempts at class with each of the dogs. I know that Zorro would love it and would be very good at it. I just can't spark my own interest in working on it.  Doesn't he look like he's ready for something new and more exciting?

And then, with that last trial, I just didn't even want to go to the next couple in the same location, and now there's one right here locally this weekend and I'm not going there, either. Can't exactly say why; I had planned on it. But didn't.

Meanwhile, I've been going more and more places and doing more and more things as I get physically better and better-- all the interesting and different kinds of places and things that I used to do a lot of before I started agility--

• Las Vegas and Grand Canyon in November, for a photo seminar and much more.  (I've posted almost none of the photos, but here are a couple.)
• Yosemite in March, and lucked out in having snow fall on us, something I've wanted to happen for many many years but haven't had the spare weekends also for many years. (Almost no photos posted, but here are a couple.)
• Walt Disney World in Florida in April. (almost nothing posted yet, but here are a couple of shots.)
• Arizona in May (even though it was for a memorial, still we got around and did things.) 
•  Later this summer, I'm going to Reno for the balloon races, something I've wanted to do since I first learned about them many many years ago. 
• Later still, in the fall, I'll be going to Ouray, Colorado, for a photo workshop on fall colors in the Rockies, something I've almost done several times and then didn't for one reason or another.
•  Tomorrow it's Big Sur: my sis and bro-in-law and I are going on an adventure--Driving there, taking the shuttle to the closed part of Highway 1, hiking over the brand-new trail around the damaged highway, then shuttle on the other side to Nepenthe, a restaurant that we like perched above the cliffs on the ocean, before it's too late and they finally replace the destroyed Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge and the shuttle will no longer run and Big Sur will no longer be isolated from the rest of the world (at least, from the North--who knows how long until they find the missing Pacific Coast Highway south of there). Until the next Highway 1 disaster.

Had I been doing agility, I likely wouldn't have done any of these. So, it's tradeoffs. Always.

And the dogs have stayed home through everything. So, it's a different life.

I still mostly think of myself as an agility person. Hard not to, with 20 years of classes and competitions and seminars and trips and parties and clubs and all. And yet--I feel that I'm slowly going back to being just a Boring Pet Dog Owner.  And yet--I'm still not ready to let the Agility go.

And then--Retirement is looking more and more like it could actually happen. Sooner rather than later. How cool would that be? But what would it mean for what and where and when and how and who? Thought for EVER so long that I'd travel around, hiking, doing agility, and like that. But--now--who knows!

The future is wide open.

Back on the Back Subject

SUMMARY: Yes, subjecting myself to this subject again.

If you've heard it all before, you may move along, nothing to see here.

My Life With Crapback is so prevalent  in my thoughts because it's so prevalent in my life.   Feels sometimes like I'm in limbo, as I seem to have improved as much as I'm going  to and my body is up one day, a little down the next, up one week, a little down the next, not getting much of anywhere any more.  Still, I have made a long, long journey upward from two years past!

Instead of having to go only to movie theaters where a friend can pick me up at  home and drop me off a few feet from the theater entry (and there aren't that many theaters like that here) so that I could hobble miserably through the entry and to a seat, I can now, as in the old days, park at the far side of the parking lot and cruise on over on my own.  But, in the old days, I could sit there carefree.  In the in between days, I could barely sit there if dosed up on painkillers and carrying a cushion or two to provide expert support here or there. Nowadays, carefree sitting just ain't gonna happen: I am either placing my hands under my hips or thighs and pushing up, or leaning elbows on both armrests and pushing up, to keep the weight off the spine, and adjusting frequently.  This, of course, is hard on my shoulders.

STILL -- I can walk into a movie theater! Across the parking lot! And sit and watch a movie more or less normally, munching on popcorn. As I did yesterday morning.

My paper-sorting days have been few and far between in the last 3 years or so (you know, taxes, bills, records of all kinds, interesting personal keepsakes, etc.) because it's hard to do that while lying or even merely reclining.  For over a year, I don't think I did any of it.  Now I am trying to catch up on those years.  In the old days, I'd just sit on the floor and sort things into stacks all around me  and power through all of it at once.  Now, sitting on the floor can be painful. Leaning this way and that to toss papers onto various piles is definitely painful after a short while.  So it has to be when I haven't already been sitting for too long or doing other activities that aggravate the back.

BUT this last month I have actually been able to make progress.  You know--work 20-30 minutes, maybe somewhat longer, then take a long reclining rest on the couch with ice on my back. But I'm DOING it.

My quality of life during these past 3 years has been so different from the first 95% of my life that it's hard to even accept that it is me that this is happening to. Hard to accept that it's not likely to ever get better.  Walking--I have to keep walking, and walking a lot, but not walking too HARD or overdoing it.  Have to keep doing this wide variety of exercises and stretches--knees, hips, shoulders, spine, core muscles...  and it's not merely a matter of toning up, it's a matter of surviving a normal life.

BUT lately I can actually function for a while  while skipping those physical therapy regimens, instead of needing them to even be able to get out of bed in the morning, and again to get dressed, and again to get in or out of the car, and so on.

And, hey! I can go grocery shopping!  I have to be vewy vewy caweful about how much weight I lift at a time for larger objects or shopping bags, but I can DO it! And walking normally?  Remember a couple of years ago when I could move around a store only by putting all my weight on the shopping cart and gliding carefully, smoothly, slowly? [hmm, was going to put a link to that, but can't find it in Mr. Blog. Must be on Facebook.  Will investigate later.] When getting something off a higher shelf or lower shelf required that I ask someone?  Can DO it now. I have to bend or stretch or twist carefully, but it has become a habit through necessity that I don't have to think about it too hard as I get through the store.

And I can drive--well, for whatever reason, driving in MUTT MVR has not been completely excruciating even at the worst of times-- getting in and out, now, that was a different subject for many long months.  But now I can get in and out of the car; I've adjusted how I do it and if for a moment I forget (which I hardly ever do any more), it's not going to lay me flat out for the next half hour as it used to.

My point is that pain and careful living are my constant companions, but that those are SUCH an improvement over agony and life-on-hold in a drugged stupor.

Every time I decide to take a stroll around the mall for exercise, or stoop carefully to pull a few weeds, or vacuum a room, or carry my own laundry upstairs, it still feels like a small miracle.

If only there were a big miracle around the corner. I keep on keepin' an eye out. As Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day."

Drought Disaster

SUMMARY: Some of our rules here in San Jose.

Because I'm completely jammed up inside on how very much I want to say about other things--

Instead, I'll give some links about how our water usage is being severely curtailed so that anyone here can easily look up the rules and anyone from elsewhere can be glad that you have water. (Although hope that you don't have too much of it.)

• San Jose Water company restrictions  coming per household
• General San Jose Water co. restrictions
• Some state of California restrictions
• City of San Jose restrictions  (the water co. is not owned by the city, and also provides water for some folks in other adjacent cities)

I haven't yet turned on my sprinkler system, and things are dying. Sighhhhh.

Counter Surfer

SUMMARY: Beach Boys song: Surfer dog, surfer dog, my little surfer dog...

Little surfer, little one,
Made my heart come all undone
Do you love me, do you surfer dog,
Surfer dog, my little surfer dog?

I posted today to a dog behavior group:

OK, since [the list organizer] posted this matrix, which includes "counter surfing"--

(Graphic by Lupe Matt, used with permission.)

I'd like some suggestions on breaking that. He was three when I got him, have now had him for 9 months. I haven't had to worry about dogs taking things from counters or tabletops for many many years, and I must say that I enjoy being able to leave things out that are convenient for me--my pillbox on the table, the banana bread on the counter for easy slicing, like that. (He hasn't actually eaten any meds or shown an interest in them, but since he started taking stuff off tables/counters, I can't in good conscience leave them out any more. )

He never puts his paws up when I'm home. (Well--once, when he first got here, and I most likely did something like, "Hey! Get your feet off there!" and clapped or similar action. Don't remember.) Anyway, I thought he got the message because nothing happened for about 3 months. Then he started pulling things off the counter or table. Bag of treats that I left on the counter. Dirty napkin. Frozen-food dish that I'd left on the table when finished. Like that.

Here's one thing that I know about operant conditioning: Random reinforcers are stronger than constant reinforcers. So he occasionally finds something, thereby randomly rewarding himself, mostly likely making the counter surfing into a stronger behavior. I've been trying very hard to never leave anything with any scent or hint of food on the table (like going to Yosemite and not leaving anything that smells like food in your tent or car, so I'm used to this concept), but I still come home to muddy toeprints on the edge of the counter or table, or some papers that I left on the table that are now on the floor.

So, when I see him glancing at the counter (he never stares at it that I have seen), I might say his name and ask him for some other behavior, like Sit or Down, and reward.

But it's not stopping. And I'm not perfect and never will be (yesterday it was a used napkin on the table). And I miss being able to leave stuff out.

I had this fantasy about removing the randomness--leaving exactly the same thing out on the counter in exactly the same place day after day after day, and then one day stopping it, thinking that that would extinguish the behavior faster. But, actually, I'm not going to try that experiment. :-)

Funnyish story--over Xmas, he spent the weekend with his previous owners--man and 10-yr-old boy. I commented that Chip had started counter surfing, and the boy asked, "what's that?" and the man answered, "Remember that morning when we came downstairs and discovered Chip standing on the kitchen counter?"

So it's apparently not an entirely new behavior.

Suggestions?

---

If you want a quick explanation of why random reinforcers are stronger than constant ones, see: Intermittent Reinforcement.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

SUMMARY: A step away from agility for today.

In Taj MuttHall, I usually try to focus on my dogs and dog agility. I often stray off into photos and photography, hiking, flowers and wildlife, and just random daily life, but not usually anything more serious.

Today, in honor of the excellent decision coming down today from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stating that California Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, I thought I'd take a moment to open the doors on where my money goes when bills and dog agility are done. Because I think that staying silent can be an error with dire repercussions.

Not in any particular order:

• Gay rights. Because I want all my friends to be able to go through life without being abused by individuals and by the system, to be able to marry the people they love and want to spend their lives with, to not have to fight to visit and make decisions for their life partners in the hospital when they're ill, to not have to go through extraordinary hoops to get the rights and benefits that heterosexual couples get simply by marrying. It is the civil rights issue of our time that I think that I can most do something about. 
• Environmental causes--in many forms. Because when the last plant dies, when the last of an animal species goes extinct, when a mountain is razed, a sensitive habitat is destroyed, a natural resource is used up, a stunning view is compromised, it's gone. Forever. There are no second chances. 
• Canine cancer research. Because our dogs live short enough lives already, and no one should have to go through what I went through with Remington.
• Breast cancer research. Because people I know, my sister among them, have experienced breast cancer and it's one of the most prevalent causes of death among American women.
• Feeding the hungry. Because hungry people can't be productive and hungry children can't learn, and starved people are ill people, burdening the health care system even more, and in any case, if I were in their place: Food is life.
• Consumer Reports. Because they provide an invaluable service, advertiser-free, for consumers of almost everything. This country is much safer and healthier, and my pocketbook and the quality of things I buy, are much better because of CR.
• ACLU. Because every time a right or liberty is taken away from an individual or group, it becomes easier to take away rights or liberties from other groups. Even if you personally don't like the individual or group.  As Ben Franklin said, "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." (Often paraphrased as "People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.") 
• The Cal Band. Because I had a really good time the year I spent in this organization, learned a lot, was drilled into possible the best physical condition I've ever been in, and the University no longer has money to support organizations like this.
• Clarion West. Because I had a really good time the 6 weeks I spent in this workshop and learned so very much. And because writers--and aspiring writers--mostly don't have a lot of spare money for things like this.
• Wikipedia. Because it is the most amazing compendium of human knowledge--you can find the basics about anything here and follow links to the sources for more detailed and/or accurate information--and it's free AND free of advertising. Millions of people have donated possibly billions of hours to make this information available to all of us, but someone has to pay for the servers and upkeep. I don't know what I'd do without Wikipedia; it's more helpful to me now than my bound Britannica.

(And to wrap it up:

• Announcement and info about today's decision that Prop 8 is unconstitutional because it "serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples." And that's clearly unconstitutional. We've already been through this with other minorities.
• A bit of analysis on the ruling. )

Dear Santa

SUMMARY: Please consider what I want:

• To be able to focus better on what's really important to me.
• To be a better friend and relation.
• To be able to enjoy the things I have to do as much as the things I want to do.
• To always do the right thing.
• To be able to think clearly under pressure.
• To not be unhappy about things that I am unwilling to make a serious effort to change.
• To make a serious effort to change things that bother me.
• To smile, and mean it, in agility no matter what silly things I or my dogs do on course.
• To not crave sweets so much.
• To always do my best when it's important, and to be able to let it go when it's not.
• To be able to let it go, let it go, let it go.

Related to the Same Subject

SUMMARY: Lifetime Gold and another blogger.

Also, on doing less USDAA: I was hoping to finish Tika's Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) Gold this year. We need 32 Qs. Last year we earned 85. So (in theory) I could do half the USDAA trials and still make it. Although--ahem--of course it would be nice to see whether we could actually make it to Platinum. That's Gold plus another 150 Qs. Two more FULL years like last year and then some. And she'd be over 12 by then. So we'd have to keep on with a full slate of USDAA.

Nothing like pressure.

Meanwhile, another blogger (Cedarfield, back east) just posted about her new agility life sans actual trials. I can see my life, if I were to stop trialing, roughly parallel hers. So it's great food for thought.

Her blog post is private but she kindly gave me permission to repost. So here it is.

My New Life
Feb. 15th, 2011 at 3:52 PM

Even though I'm still adjusting to this new non-trialing lifestyle, I can say that I'm definitely liking the slower pace and lack of pressure I feel. I no longer spend my Friday evenings dreading the thought of getting up in the cold pre-dawn to schlepp myself and all my stuff and my dogs out to some cold, damp, windy or otherwise inhospitable locale to spend the day feeling out of place among all the people who were happy to be there. And I'm loving that I can sit around on a weekend morning and just enjoy the company of my husband and dogs rather than always rushing off to be somewhere else. Why, last Sunday I actually spent a couple of hours reading a book. I can't remember the last time I did that unless I was on vacation.

And I'm still doing agility. I take a class once a week that I thoroughly enjoy despite having to drive 90 minutes each way after working all day and knowing I'll have to get up early the next morning. I'm teaching a couple of times a week and training my dogs when I have time and I feel like it. I'm still just as interested in agility as I was before but I've added a couple of new training interests and signed up for a Nosework camp next Fall. I'm also still working on getting started in a new activity that I don't want to talk about until it actually happens. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time but never had the time or resources to do because--hello!--agility trials ate up everything I had. I'm even taking a basic drawing class one night a week just because I've always wanted to learn how to draw and now I have the itme.

I definitely do miss being part of the agility community and seeing people and dogs that I've known for years. And even though I'm still doing agility with my dogs and teaching agilty classes, I don't see most of the people I've spent so much of my life with over the past 15 years. I feel a little like I'm standing on the side of the road watching busloads of people going past. They're all going to the same party but I got off the bus and now I'm feeling a little lonely and forlorn standing there by myself. It's what I knew would happen if I stopped going to trials. I've spent so much time trialing that I neglected to become a part of other communities. But despite feeling lonely sometimes, I know I'll find new things to do and new friends. I'll develop new goals and new interests and probably by next year at this time, I will have forgotten how I feel now.

I have actually entered a couple of local AKC trials for one day only. I want to get Zodi out there just to see what happens. I wonder if it will be fun or if I'll regret entering. If I find I'm feeling those old (negative) feelings again, I can just stop entering. There are also a couple of CPE trials that allow day of trial entry so I might do those, too. The people who go to local CPE trials are not the same people who go to the local USDAA and AKC trials so I'm wondering how that will change the experience. I don't usually enjoy going places where I don't know anyone but I'll give it a try and see what happens.

And the weather for the last month has been dry and sunny which will soon give way to perfect camping weather. This will be the first Spring in quite awhile that I'll have the time to do more than one quick trip. Another big thing on the horizon is the yard sale I've been wanting to do for oh, about 120 years. I think I've finally convinced my husband that it's time we parted with some of the accumulation of almost 41 years together. Every time a relative died and left anything behind, we somehow ended up with it. Both of us are so sentimental that we find it hard to part with anything but I have a good--no, a GREAT goal of what to do with the money. It's been almost 14 years since we've been overseas and this is the year I want to go.

We have friends who own a little house in the Greek islands that we plan to sponge off of for at least a week and then take a drive down the length of the Peloponnesus to see the Mycenean ruins. And I really want to see Paris and visit the Louvre and maybe take a quick trip to Cornwall. So, I'm clearing out the barn and the closets and having a huge blowout yard sale. It might not be enough for the whole trip but it will sure go a long ways toward the plane tickets.

I actually already started cleaning out the garage this weekend when I threw away almost all of my agility ribbons and notebook upon notebook of seminar notes, class notes, camp notes and notebooks. I don't know why I saved it all, it just seemed like anything I put that much time and effort into, I should have something to show for it. Unfortunately, I don't. It almost seems as if I'm waking up after a long sleep. What was I doing all those years? Yes, I had fun and stayed busy but what was it all for? It's not like I became a champion or anything close to it. I never became famous and gave seminars all over the country (although I did make an appreciable contribution to other presenters annual income). It was a pretty sobering exercise but it felt good to clear out all those old boxes and see the clean space underneath.

My Tax Dollars At Work at the DMV

SUMMARY: I am flush with driver's licenses that expire last week.

If you read my January story about how I have already acquired three driver's licenses that expire at the end of last month (here: http://dogblog.finchester.org/2011/01/dmv-service-is-um-improving.html), you'll be delighted to know that, today, I received another envelope from the DMV.

With another license that expires at the end of January 2011. That's four.

To be continued.

Could You Not Lie Under My Chair Sighing While She Whines and Paces In The Other Room?

SUMMARY: Dogs would like me to know that they are bored.

I've been BUSY. A long day of work, at the client site mostly but quite a bit here on the computer. I have a big deadline! This is important!

We DID go into the back yard and I threw the toy and played tug late this morning. Yes, with YOU TWO specifically, as there are no other dogs here, if you will remember!

SORRY we didn't go for our usual walk; I thought we'd have class!

And it's NOT MY FAULT that it's IT'S RAINING, you guys, and they canceled agility class!

You GOT dinner, fercryinoutloud, WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT?! Leave me alone! I have important stuff I have to do! I'm not in the mood for playing gingerly in the living room! You had the last of the bully sticks last night! Just--Go away!

Some times are just easier without dogs.

Guess I'll go play gingerly in the living room.

DMV Service is--Um--Improving?

SUMMARY: Another adventure in customer service.

As long as I'm contemplating giving up Dog Agility, I might as well ponder what Real Life holds in store for me instead!

The California DMV has redesigned its Drivers Licenses with all sorts of fancy doodads to make them harder to counterfeit. As a result (together with state budget cuts), they warn everyone that it takes 6 weeks for them to process requests for renewals or replacements.

My old license expires at the end of this month. If you remember, back in October, my purse vanished, and I had to order a replacement license (because it was too early to order a renewal, for some reason). I paid my $25 and, in mid-November, I got one of the brand new fancy licenses, which also expires at the end of this month. And meanwhile, my purse had reappeared, so then I had TWO licenses that expire at the end of this month.

On December 1st, I received a renewal form. Yeehah! No need to go into the office; I could just mail them a check and they'd send me my new license. The next day, I mailed the form and my check. Lots of time to spare before my old one expires.

Sooooo Saturday, I received in the mail--a *replacement* driver's license that expires at--the end of this month! Now I have THREE of them! (Which, BTW, according to their paperwork, is illegal.)

They've been touting their new online system, where you can register and have access to (and update) ALL your DMV-related material, like your license and your auto registration. So I went there, filled out the form (asks for name, driver's license, pick some security questions, and like that), and it said: "Data does not match information on file. Try again." And cleared the form. I tried it more than once, just to be sure. No dice.

So--what--I don't know my own birthday, SSN, or driver's license number? They don't like the security questions I picked?

They did ask for the issue date of my license and showed me a photo of where to find it. I put in the date found at that location--didn't like it. I put in the date which, on my license, SAYS "Iss:" (which is not where the picture showed it, and which is different from the date at their picture's location). Still no dice.

So I called the number they gave. Played games with the phone tree for about 5 minutes with growing frustration until I managed to figure out how to ask to talk to an actual person. Oh--another new feature! You can give them your phone number and they'll call you back, without losing your place in line! Cool! Because waiting time is "over 30 minutes."

Forty-five minutes later, I get a call back. Person comes on the line--and the connection is so bad that all I can hear when they speak is static. I tried a couple of times to talk & listen, but nothing. I said, "Can you please call me back?" and they hung up. Of course, no call back. I have no clue whether they were hearing me the same way I was hearing them.

They also have this nifty system where you can make an appointment ahead of time and then, in theory, go down to the actual office and not have to wait at all. Great, except that you can't get an appointment earlier than 2 months from now.

So I went down to the DMV. For non-appointments, their digital sign said, "Wait time: 15 minutes." Wow, that's not bad at all! I talked to the "Start Here" lady, who looked as puzzled as I was about the problem, had me fill out the whole form to get a license, and then gave me a number.

After about 10 minutes, the digital sign changed to "Wait time: 26 minutes."

After 26 minutes, the sign said, "Wait time: 40 minutes."

After 40 minutes, the sign said, "Wait time: 50 minutes."

At about 50 minutes, I spoke to an actual person. (So the sign, apparently, really tells you how long you ACTUALLY WAITED. I know they'll have a hard time believing this, but I actually already knew how to figure that out.) He looked at my license and at his computer, and said, "They sent you the wrong one." Really?! So he ordered a new one (I didn't have to pay again) and gave me a temporary license and in six weeks, we'll see what they actually send me. I'm hoping it's not license #4 that expires at the end of this month.

If this is Real Life, I think I'll stick with sending in my agility entry forms and promptly receiving confirmations by email.

Eventually continued here: My Tax Dollars At Work at the DMV

It's a New Year (Again) and Here We Are (again)

SUMMARY: Huh. Well. Am I done with agility? And facebook? And everything?

So, I had a great time up in the mountains. In my friends' beautiful, comfortable cabin with beautiful, cold, powdery, freshly fallen snow all around. They're fun people, and gracious hosts, and the food was good the whole time (I took some and cooked some, too). And the dogs were happy, got exercise, slept in the evenings instead of pestering me. Hiked probably 13 miles total (in the snow) in two and a half days; felt good.

Then I came home.

House is a cluttered mess. Even with all the cleaning and organizing and putting away I did while cleaning up before putting out christmas decor (and parts really do look pretty nice)...

fact is, it's a cluttered, dirty, half-finished-projects galore, mess.


The last many months, I've been winnowing out and tossing stuff into boxes and piles to get rid of, and mostly doing so--freecycling and giving to friends and family (I mean, most of the stuff I have is not junk--I've just become overloaded with good stuff and I really need to be much choosier about what I keep--anyone want a Hamilton Collection numbered collectible unicorn plate?)--

But SO MUCH STUFF and it's SO hard to winnow out. I've done the easy winnowing.

And it's hard to find time to work on the projects that take longer. 15-20 minutes a day, or 7 minutes, or whatever your favorite GET ORGANiZED NOW guru suggests, is all well and good, but finishing the kitchen stripping and painting is not a 15-minute task. It would take weeks of disruption in 15-minute bits. Can't bear the thought.

So then I read this article (titled in the local paper) What Life Was Like in 1995, in which 600 high school students gave up social media for a week. No facebook, no texting, no email, like that. They had to actually (gasp) call each other on the phone if they wanted to communicate; some had never done that.

I've been saying for a long time that Facebook is a huge time sink. Didn't mean to get caught up in it. Did. I get so much interesting info, and sometimes assistance when needed (or reciprocate it), and even useful info, as well as tons of laughs. But a big time sink anyway.

So I said, no Facebook for a week! (Two days ago now.) I'm actually liking it. Even though there are some aspects I miss. (And I haven't given up Prolific, the word game available through FB.)

Harder to give up email. Work and pretty much every community I'm part of uses email to communicate: 98% of invites for parties and activities come through email, and no one's going to stop and call me alone. Plus work. Plus the online services I use, and so on.

As someone pointed out--no blogging in 1995. Yeah--but when did I first start dinking with finchester.org? August 1998, I believe. And the Bay Team site around May, 1997. And I used to spend a LOT of time in those two places. Now it's mostly blogging and photos, because it's SO much easier to update those places!

I obviously haven't given up blogging or photos.

So then. Tuesday night, first full evening home after vacation. Agility class, first time in 5 weeks! It was cold, but not nearly as cold as the snow. Dogs were, as usual, excited to be going. Only 4 of us showed up for class (others sick, spaying dogs, whatever), so I got to run both dogs all evening, which is good for them and also probably for me.

Good to see my agility friends.

But, you know what, all through class I kept thinking, "Been there, done that. So what, it's agility. It's just like every other class--Tika's a model of 2o2o contacts and consistent performance; Boost is fast and eager but knocks bars and we don't communicate well at least once per run. And its going to be like this forever and ever and, so, big whoop, why am I here instead of at home, making my house more livable? Or reading a book, like I used to do in the old days? Or doing a jigsaw puzzle, which I used to do all the time but not in 10 years? (I got one for xmas this year, even.)"

Just totally blah.

This morning I did my weekly weigh-in at Weight Watchers and I've reduced my weight 10% from where I was in October--only about 6 pounds to get back to where I was 2 years ago (and for many (although not all) of the preceding 20 years). Feels good; clothes feel good, I feel good.

I'm doing some contract work at Apple; the project is interesting and worthwhile, the team members are great; I'm feeling good about my contributions.

The days are getting noticeably longer already--I was out in the yard with the dogs all the way until 5:30, cleaning up leaves, tossing the toy for them. That feels good, too--we're on our way (eventually) into spring and then summer.

I dunno, mixed feelings about where my life is and where it's going.

Gotta go now--time for a Bay Team conference call about worker compensation (at trials).

Happy New Year again, ya'll.

Life and Death

SUMMARY: Contemplating both.

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of year. I notice that I--and my posts--are a little on the down side. Sick. Ticks. Credit card problems. Furthermore, it has been wet and muddy and rainy in the yard all week and will be for the foreseeable future. Dogs are antsy and bored and I've been sore, tired, and grumpy with them. My second disk drive in as many months has failed. (Thank goodness for frequent backups.) Haven't done any Christmas shopping. None. The stress builds. I have ideas, but haven't gotten it together.

Still--last weekend I put up the tree and all except one string of lights. Last night for the first time since then, I had the energy to add the last string and a few ornaments. I can see it from my office. Or even--gasp--go to the living room and enjoy it.

But I have yet one more sad topic, as it's been on my mind lately.

Death.

I've thought about this post for a long time, and in fact I've repeatedly come to the conclusion that I don't really know what to say about it. I know how I feel, but (oddly for me), I'm not articulating it.

So, instead, I'll start by counting those whom I've known well enough to attend their memorial services [of the lot, three from agility]: Two with blood clots in bad places (both in their early 40s). Two from motorcycle accidents (40s and 50s). One from heart disease (80s). One from a brain aneurysm (early 60s). One from falling down while drunk and hitting his head (60s). And four from cancer (all in their 50s). On the other side, people I've known who've had cancer that seems to be in long-term remission: 3. And one who has just now been given a very close upcoming estimated closing date on her run with life by her doctor. I am so not liking the odds with cancer, and so not happy with it even existing in our universe.

My Friday Walkies partner has been fighting hers now for what seems, at times, an eternity, but has been only a couple of years.  She has continued to face life and cancer full-on and with perfectly directed humor in the face of the ongoing process of Getting Her Affairs In Order (although, as she notes, no one's around with her at 4 in the morning...):


But, as of yesterday, she knows specifically that it is only with great luck that she'll meet 2012 face to face, and even less likely that she'll need a 2013 calendar. So, she says: "Bucket list!" She has been planning and saving for her retirement and old age. Through her cancer, she has been unable to work most of the time, and when she was able, with this 11% unemployment rate, there've been no jobs. So she's been living with extreme frugality for these years--which, at times, seem like an eternity, too.

No more, she says. Sell the stocks! Empty the IRAs! Visit Hawaii, which she's always wanted to do. Replace the 20-year old carpets and the windows that have gaps where the wind blows through! Buy a tiny RV and tour as far and as fast as she can! So, yeah, OK, maybe everything will go amazingly right with the next type of chemo and she'll have such a boost to her immune system from having such a great time that it will go into remission and then she'll live for years and yet have emptied her cash reserves. She thinks it unlikely, and so does her doc. But, really, if she *doesn't* do it, then she doesn't have that chance to have those extra boosts to her sense of well being, enjoyment of life, and comfort. So she's gotta do it. She earned it! Cram that retirement into as few months as possible!

I'm thrilled about it. I'm scared about it. I'm happy for her to be able to try this. I'm more than sad about the reason for it. [As she says: "SUX!!!"] And I'm not her; I'm me. I can barely imagine what she's been going through, physically and emotionally, although she has shared a lot of it.

So here's the reason I'm doing this post--because of her determination, every step of the way, to get the most from life, to take some risks, to engage with others others around her, to continue taking care of the people who are important to her rather than focusing on her own situation, and finally to just say Wheeeee! This is it, I am going to have the time of my life while I still have a life with which to have it!

I think that's all that one can hope for in the inevitable face of death. Good for you, friend of many years!

Reminds me once again to not take things for granted, to stop focusing on colds and ticks and rain and stolen credit cards and dogs with cabin fever, and to work harder at crossing things off that Bucket List. So--

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care. Renter's bah humbug Scrooge, my wool stocking with my initial hand-knit with love by my mom when I was a mere babe, and those for my four most recent dogs, two still here and two gone but often remembered.

And try to remember more often this reminder, which sits at my computer terminal week in and week out:

Seize the day: Live. Love. Laugh. 

Water, Water Everywhere, But--

SUMMARY: Blog Action Day 2010: Water.

"Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action. This year's topic is water." (Read more about Why Water here.)

I signed up Taj MuttHall to post about the topic because it's on our minds almost constantly here in California, and possibly in most of the rest of the world. For example, fights among those who want water from the Sacramento River are never-ending: The salmon and other wildlife that depend on the flow of fresh water, the fishing industry that depends on the salmon runs, the central valley farmers, the people in the cities of the San Francisco Bay Area, and--yes--Los Angeles, which pumps huge quantities of our northern California water hundreds of miles south.

And there is simply not enough to go around. Fish are dying. Orchards are dying. The alkalinity of our water goes way up in the summer--salty water in the Sact'o delta intermingles with the fresh flowing water.

But of course we're nowhere near as badly off as many hundreds of millions of people in other parts of the world, who are sometimes lucky to get water at all, let alone clean water, let alone water for their livestock, or subsistence crops.

It's a huge topic; so much to talk about. But I'm just going to nip off a little slice and point out how some Californian agility clubs are trying to help with one of the problems:

"The US, Mexico and China lead the world in bottled water consumption, with people in the US drinking an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled. " (Read more.)

We actually have some of the safest, cleanest drinking water in the world coming out of our taps, but people don't trust it, or don't like the taste, or whatever--so they buy--yes!--tap water from someone else's tap, bottled into "disposable" plastic bottles. I'm as guilty as anyone else; I like the convenience.

For the first few years that I did agility, I saved all my water bottles, rinsed or washed them after every use, and refilled with clean tap water. Then I got busy (or busier), and the time spent washing and refilling got to be too much for me, so I went back to buying bottled water.

I do try to always recycle my bottles--but the news has reported that the city recycling service can't always find buyers for the plastic and it might sometimes end up in the landfill anyway. Depressing.

I have half a dozen refillable water bottles now--sturdy ones, meant to be reused. I still don't always like to carry them: They're bulkier than teh disposable ones, and heavier, and I have to always take them home with me, not simply drop into a convenient trash can or recycling bin. But I'm trying to be better about it. I've bought a lot less bottled water this year than in recent years.

Our SMART agility club last year gave out reusable water bottles with their logo as check-in goodies at their trials. Great idea, and I still see some of them around at trials. I still have, and use, mine.

The other thing that most clubs are now doing is making huge jugs of water available for people to refill their bottles from. Sometimes in place of coolers full of disposable bottles; sometimes in addition to them.

It's not a perfect solution: Someone has to keep those jugs refilled all weekend, and it's not likely to be cold water for the difficulty of getting and using ice all weekend. But it's a start. And it's getting people thinking.

Mario Brothers Agility

SUMMARY: Life imitates art: Getting to agility class.

I've never felt so much like I was playing a video game in real life as I did last night on my way to agility class. Spooky, how things kept stacking up, like some insane game designer was chortling in the background as he threw things at me. I wasn't sure whether to hope for, or fear, moving up a level, because then doesn't it get harder? Even though maybe you've gained a 2d20 vorpal sword or the equivalent? 2d20 front cross? Anyway--

Pedestrians were everywhere, which is odd, because in Silicon Suburbia, no one walks anywhere. And of course they weren't using crosswalks. Which I sometimes don't, either, but at least I have the courtesy to stay on the sidewalk or in the median as a car approaches. But no, they'd stop, so I'd continue at my 40 MPH, and THEN they'd step out into the road. Two different locations. How quickly can you say Stop? Or the guy walking along the narrow windy hillside road up to class. OK, if you're going to walk and you're up there, well, that's all you can do, be in the road. But scary driving by.

My Stimulus Dollars are going to work repaving the badly disintegrated roads in my neighborhood, which is great, but that means that there are no lines yet painted on the 2--or is it 3--lane roads with MPHs of 35 to 40. I know where the lanes are from experience, but apparently other drivers don't, so watch out for those weird drifting motions in front of you.

And I seemed to hit traffic lights at that awful "Do you stop or don't you" point, that fractional second where it's not clear which is better, then at one you decide to jam the brakes, then realize that the guy behind you has decided to go for it. Yikes. I think I was very lucky that he didn't hit me; all I could think was that the dogs were in their crates in the very back and that's where he'd be hitting MUTT MVR if he couldn't stop.

Then there was the bird in the grass next to Hwy 87 who decided to take off just when I whipped past at 65. Whap! I hate it; don't remember whether I've hit a bird before, but probably. I try not to think about little nestlings somewhere whose mom isn't coming back. Like the abandoned nest and egg on my back porch. I'm just lucky he didn't get 12" further along, because I could just see him hit next to my windshield. At that speed, I might have had a cracked window.

CHP vehicles were driving on I-280. And paranoid dingbats all slow down to the cops' speed, even if the cop is in the slow right lane bogged down by traffic and the dingbats are in the fast lane. Plus that merge from 87 to 280 is always a weave-fest anyway.

On Alum Rock, the major arterial leading up to the foothills, traffic came nearly to a stand-still; I could see one or two cars going through the next traffic light each cycle but couldn't see why so few. Finally got to the intersection, where there's a cop car and a broken water main. There are 3 lanes of traffic and NONE of them are blocked by this, just right turners. Had to have been the looky-loos holding things up. (I got a photo while stopped at the light.)

With long daylight hours and nice weather (only low 80s F yesterday), the road up to class is a popular place for bicyclists. Another popular thing that you'd probably never catch me doing; narrow and windy and wayyy too many cars. Scary when you're driving up and see a bike veering out into your lane coming down the curve ahead of you, and there were a couple like that last night.

AND cars doing the same thing! Yikes! Usually people are pretty careful on this road. Maybe they were pissed off about having to drive behind bicyclists.

Fortunately, no deer running out in front of me this time (that was last week; half-sized guy still with white spots). But at the driveway entrance to class, some turkeys were having some kind of family reunion. Couple of adults and a whole slew of teenagers. Yeah, REALLY turkeys. And they were not impressed that I wanted to drive into where they were hanging out. The finally dispersed; guess that when one of the adults felt worried enough to actually FLY up onto the fence, the others decided that discretion was the better part of valor and scrambled for cover.

Whew! And then I was at class, still alive, not bumped up one level to where it was impossible to survive. The girls did very well in class; Boost knocked some bars but not really a lot. Serps are still a problem both in bars (maybe I'm in her way) and in not wanting to come in to the serp jump. But everyone's contacts were lovely! Remember that when this weekend's trial rolls around... and we start feeding the quarters into the REAL agility NASCAR game.

Giving Away Stuff

SUMMARY: Giving it away is sometimes hard.

As a fairly active member of FreeCycle, I often OFFER to give away things that I'm trying to get rid of. Usually minor things--you'd be surprised at the interest in, say, large, sturdy, empty Almond Roca cans. Old plant pots or flats. Clothing with stains but otherwise usable. A huge lilac shrub I didn't want in the middle of my yard any more (they even dug it out for me).

But it's harder for me to give away things that I spent larger amounts of dollars on, particularly if they're almost new or in otherwise excellent condition, or rarer, or so on.

This, despite the fact that I have a beautiful oak entertainment center, like new, that I got for free on Freecycle (someone OFFERed it).

And a gorgeous, really heavy and effective wrought-iron patio umbrella stand, also for free on freecycle (I posted a WANTED--and got about a dozen offers for various types of patio umbrella stands!). I have a Lazy-Boy recliner (another OFFER) that has a broken bracket so it's not perfect, but is in really good condition and is quite comfy.

I try to remember those treasures when I'm waffling about being reluctant to post these items and instead save them for the garage sale that I'll probably never have and probably won't make financial sense anyway. (And actually taking photos and dealing with selling things on craigslist or ebay--too much time, and nothing's worth *quite* enough to make that time pay off.)

Sometimes WANTED postings come through for things that are easy to give away. Cardboard tubes from wrapping paper. Pieces of PVC pipe. Things that are already in my garage sale boxes, so what the heck. I always leave the things that people want (whether they asked for them or I've offered them) out on my front porch & they just come and take them away. I've left SO many things over the last several years; other things I've given in response to WANTED don't come to mind, but I know I've done many.

I've failed to give away the huge ancient satellite dish that needs dismantling, despite a couple of OFFERs and a couple of WANTEDs; previous owners really installed it solidly and in a complicated manner. Ah, well.

But then there are people's WANTED requests that I've got a match for that I don't really need or use but are in that second category of Things I Paid A Lot For or in the category I'll Use It Again Any Day Now.

Last year I finally broke down and gave away all my unused film to a student who WANTED some for classes. At that point, most of it was expired or about to expire, and I was coming to the conclusion that I wasn't really going to ever use it. That might have been a hundred bucks worth of film. (Sorry, Dad, I should've offered it to you first, but didn't think about it.)

And then this year I gave away my first-ever SLR camera to someone who WANTED one, the film one that I was going to use the film with. It was still a perfectly lovely camera, but I've become completely hooked on the ease of digital, and I hadn't used that camera body in 4 or 5 years. And I KNEW it wasn't worth much any more, having taken it to a used camera shop and been offered maybe $25 for it, although I paid hundreds for it only... erm, well, ok... 14 years ago. That was hard to do, even though I had given away all the film already.

Now there's my ZIP drive. I used it for backup enthusiastically for several years. I have forty 250 MB disks that I used with it. Of course, when I'm backing up 300 GB drives, that backup gets really tedious, really fast. So I haven't used it in a while, maybe a year or two. Or... erm...well, ok, someone posted yesterday that they wanted a ZIP drive for college. I looked at the dates on my backups. Latest: 2003.

So it's been sitting here, plugged into my computer, using energy and space (although it's really quite small), for 7 years without ever being used. SO despite it having originally cost me almost $300 (including firewire adaptor) and the disks collectively about $500, well, really, they're of no use to me know, they're obsolete technology and not really even supported any more, and this person needs the drive. So--

In the background, I'm running all 40 disks one at a time through the zero-out-er utility to be sure there's no private data that anyone could ever read. And then I'm givin' 'em away. If I had a Winibago, or a whole herd of Winibagos, I'd be givin' them away, too. (Or maybe I'd keep one for dog agility. But I don't, so I'm not.)

I just have to decide--what about all the storage drawers that were the perfect size for 3.5" floppies (oh, yeah, still have hundreds of those) and zip drives? Do I give away this beautiful teak roll-top storage box that won't really fit anything else neatly? Or do I throw smaller stuff into it randomly and use it like a general storage box? It was a gift, and it's really nice teak. Sigh...

Freecycle.org is the best thing in the universe since sliced dog agility.