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!

Another Agility Day. Or Two.

SUMMARY: Boost's weaves, class(es), not enough hours, sore.

Boost's weaves

I must be feeling slightly motivated this week, because once again we went out to the yard and practiced weaving poles. Boost's disaster from the previous day did not reappear [making me wonder whether it'll be like this in competition, too--weaves brilliant one day, disaster the next] but she did still miss a veer left into the weaves.

Whereupon I reverted to another old strategy of placing a small piece of green wire garden fence blocking the wrong entry. On her next approach, she stuttered when she saw it (in the old days, sometimes she'd hop over it), then >>whew!<< made the correct entry. We did it like that two more times, then I snuck the wire away, and she was fine the rest of practice. Gads.

The Night of Class

Last night was class night. This is different. We've been in Tuesday night class ever since we were bumped out of Thursday night class (because first it became World Team Night and then was abandoned altogether) which is where we'd been ever since we left Wednesday Night 8:15 Class (tearfully because I loved that group of people but had to switch nights for various reasons).

I've been wanting back into Thursday night because Tuesday nights are ALSO: My monthly Master Composter meetings, my neighborhood's monthly community meetings, and my every-6-weeks-or-so San Jose Repertory Theater season ticket nights.

Tuesday morning, Power Paws sent email asking whether anyone would be interested in a Thursday 8:00 class. Boom, a bunch of us swooped right in. (I think several of us who'd recently been in the Tuesday class for some period of time, after being in the previous thursday night class, who'd previous been in the Wednesday Night 8:15 Class, who... well, ok, sometimes we move around a lot, not always by our own choice.)

So I never even went to a Tuesday night class to say goodbye. Probably just as well. Always sad leaving a group that you've grown accustomed to.

Not Enough Hours

But another agility friend's post about another nosework class starting up on Sundays got me thinking: I've been very curious about the nosework stuff. Lots of people around here are involved in that, and it sounds like tons of fun. Plus something I can practice easily at home. Buuutttt... started thinking about my schedule and everything I'd LIKE to do:

• Monday: Boot camp
• Tuesday: See above
• Wed: Hiking w/sierra club singles
• Thurs: Agility class, boot camp (obviously not both)
• Fri: I don't schedule anything recurring on friday night
• Weekends: Agility about 1 out of 4 weekends currently. Boot camp Sunday mornings otherwise. Could be nosework on Sundays, instead.

I'm not thinkin' I'm ready for that additional commitment and conflict.

Class Revelations

So last night in class, the focus was on discrimination (we had no trouble doing the correct choice of tunnel or contact) and on getting to the back side of jumps. My dogs did OK on the latter if *I* was in the right place. Which was a problem--more in a moment.

But Boost: Knocks bars like crazy! Who'd have ever thought it! Sigh.

And can't follow me around a circle of four jumps! (Hate it when the instructor says in kind of a stunned voice, "Wow.")

And easily pushes off of jumps when I'm trying to rear cross!

And we're competing this weekend?! Why do I not work on these issues, whyyyyyyyyyy???

Did have a discussion with a friend there about how you can't really work on this stuff at home--the yard isn't big enough to get the kind of drive and obstacle distraction that you can get in a big field filled with agility equipment. And just finding the extra two hours here and there to go up to power paws to use their field...[see "Not Enough Hours"].

My back yard via Google Maps (weird--when did they take this, that there's no visible agility equipment?!):

Power Paws field, same zoom scale:

Sore Revelations

I have been using acetaminophen the last 10 days instead of my prescription indomethacin. Annnnnnd that is so not working for me. I could barely move around the course last night. Lower back sore. Hip sore. Knee sore. Legs felt like they weighed 100 pounds, with big vises screwed onto all the joints. I don't realize what a difference it makes. Doesn't affect me just walking, or even hiking, even briskly. But trying to sprint into position for a good serp or front cross--gah. Might have to slip in a trip to the pharmacy today. Either way, could be an interesting weekend of competition.

Haute TRACS, Here We Come!

SUMMARY: Gearing up for the four-day extravaganza.

Just One Week: That's it, folks, it's 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, and in exactly 6 days, 18 hours, and 30 minutes, I'll be dragging myself out of bed and starting the 2-hour drive to Dixon for the combined Haute Dawgs/TRACS trial. (Actually two trials, just one is thursday/friday and the next is saturday/sunday. Clever, huh?)

Confirmations: I've already gotten email confirming my entries (nearly a month ago, for once I didn't wait until the last minute!)--yeah, 22 runs each dog. Yow.

Both of my DAM teams have names: Tika and border collie Brenn are teaming up yet again, for the I-dunno-what-th time, as "Here We Go Again." The wild and crazy Boost is teaming with the wild and crazy border collie Beadle and the amazingly solid and reliable big old aussie (jumps 26") Chaps as "The BBC" (Boost/Beadle/Chaps--well, what can ya do.)

Statistics: We already have access to the statistics for the weekend--thank YOU again statistics hog Karey!-- like these:

	Overall	Thu	Fri	Sat	sun
dogs	305	215	240	267	236
humans	214	140	159	173	157
runs	3846	850	992	1080	924

The most common dog name is Maddie (4 dogs).
The most common human names are Dave, Kathy, and Linda (4 each).
132 of the 305 dogs entered are Border Collies. The next-most common breeds are Sheltie (30), Australian Shepherd (22), and Mixed Breed (20--including hand-counting the special breed names that many of us invent to sound more exotic, like Greater Hüber Hound or Zimbabwe Retriever--I mean, who knows whether those are more real than, say, the Danish Swedish Farm Dog (1) or the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (0)?)).

We already know what classes are running in approximately what order, and which groups we're running with (to optimize ring time and minimize conflicts). Detailed running orders will be up this weekend or early next week.

Camping and Friends! And today, actually, the first thing arrived that made me start to get excited about going and about being there: The layout of camping/RV assignments. I'm in spot #66, not far from the rings, not far from the restrooms (for those middle-of-the-night forays), and the huge empty space in the lower right is just the beginning of a ginormous field in which the dogs can run free.

And I'm excited because, in looking at this, all the memories come flooding back of hanging out with friends, talking and laughing the the field while our dogs run, meeting others around the edges of the competition as we walk with or without our dogs, potluck gatherings in the evening, lounging in our chairs around the ring and chit-chatting, enjoying the sun and the sky and the fresh air and each other.

Yeah, all the social stuff!  But I don't think I could go to a trial and spend the weekend there just to be social without competing. And I do like running with my dogs, no doubt about that. It's just SO MUCH TIME out of my life. (I know, you've heard it all before.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: Tonight I've got agility class, and next Tuesday night, and that's it--once again I have squandered my months of from agility to fix--er--what issues again? Wait, aren't my dogs perfect? We don't need no stinkin' training? Monday night I'm joining Karey and a couple of other people to assemble 3,846 scribe sheets.  Wednesday I'll have to pack.

This weekend I'll have to deal with *everything* (chores & errands & whatever) that needs to get done for the next month, because it's my last weekend agility-free until mid-May. Then, three weekends off, I think, except my sister and spousal unit have bought a house (almost) and we think they're going to be doing some massive painting and destruction and construction and packing and moving and I owe them big time, so guess what I'll be doing THEN, then 2 weekends gone to Arizona for wedding and vacation...

Back to the usual future: Ah, well, busy busy busy, and that's the end of my relaxed, getting-back-to-normal weekends for a long time. I'll be gone for the one trial in June that I normally go to, so 3 weekends off in June, not too bad. Three! (local) trials in July. Then three weekends in a row off in August before *4* weekends in a row of trials I'd like to attend, but I already know that that's two many in a row so will skip at least one of those.

Then maybe one each in October, November, and December.  It feels sort of like I'm cutting back, but when I count them all up for the year, I'm still at 15 trials--maybe only 13 or 14. That wouldn't be a bad number, but it sure still cuts into my "real life." Well, then. One step at a time. And maybe someday I'll work on those bar-knocking, contact-leaping agility dogs of mine.

Dogs Got Wednesdays?

SUMMARY: How do they know what night it is?

I don't get it. It's 7:30 Wednesday evening, when we have been leaving for agility class in recent months. BUT.

We haven't been to class in 2 weeks. (Anyway we're supposed to be going on Tuesdays but have been rained out.)

We went for a long walk to the park and some frisbee in the rain instead.

They got a full dinner instead of the usual quick snack before class.

I don't do ANYTHING DIFFERENT on Wednesdays than any other day, and in fact did stuff LESS like an agility class night tonight than I would on a normal class night. Why are they in here nudging me and pestering me and telling me it's time to get going? What do dogs know from Wednesdays?

Renter says it must be because he always brings home Chinese food (and always the same Chinese food) on Wednesdays and they always get the same little Chinese food treat (a single bite) from him. Is that really it?
Dogs are amazing. And I can see it's going to be a long evening. They've stopped nudging but are lying there staring at me.

NO CLASS TONIGHT, YOU HEAR ME? If you can identify WEDNESDAYS, you're certainly clever enought to READ MY LIPS: "NO class tonight!!"
Looking to my left:

Looking to my right:

Cutting Back On Agility

SUMMARY: Where to cut? How? Why? When?

I have vowed to cut back on my agility weekends.

My first thought was: I'll do only the Bay Team and SMART trials, because I'm a member and because they're fairly close to home--in theory meaning that I could sleep in my own bed on Saturday night and not have to get up at 4:00 a.m. to get there on Saturday. That would still be plenty of agility, because Bay Team is now doing eight (8!!) trials a year, and SMART now seems to be up to three a year. That's about one a month--sounds perfect!

There are two problems with this:

1) Four of the Bay Team's trials are now under cover up in Santa Rosa, which actually takes me as long to get to, or longer, than the VAST, NAF, Haute Dawgs, or TRACS trials in the central valley. Plus I have to go over a big bridge, and the traffic in the evening can be ugly. And I *do* have to get up at 4 on Saturday and I *do* have to stay overnight.

2) Those 11 trials aren't well spaced through the year. They actually run like this:
* One in late January.
* One in mid-March.
* One the last weekend in April and another the following weekend.
* Nothing for 6 weeks, then one every other weekend for from mid-June to mid-July.
* Nothing for 5 weeks, then one the last weekend in august and another the following weekend.
* Nothing for 3 months, then one in mid-December, which is really holiday time and I'm usually busy.

So I don't like the way it's laid out.

If I do only the ones where I can [reasonably] sleep in my own bed Saturday night, that drops me to only 7 a year. Not only am I not sure I'm ready for that drastic a cut [Yet, at any rate], that also drops all the trials from December through March, meaning that I'd have no agility from Labor Day until the last weekend in April. Ack! Can't be done, just can't.

But maybe.

The evolving schedule is a work in progress.

The Agility Blob That Ate the Universe

SUMMARY: Compare and contrast 1996 to 2008.

(Thanks, awesome Karey K who is at least as fanatical as I am about saving cool but barely useful informational historical artifacts and who compiled the original calendars!)
My first trial was in January 1996. I did 6 trials that year.

I never did, and still don't, do AKC, which are shown here grayed out. I'm not currently driving more than about 2 hours for agility trials (except Scottsdale), so these "local" trials are in bold (including the AKCs) and everything farther away is nonbold. (Carson City is about 4 hours, so a lot of local people go to those trials, too; others are 5-6 hours.)

Compare and contrast to 2008's calendar. Hoooooly moley! (I'm doing only 17 trials this year. Gotta restrain myself somehow--)

1996	2008
Jan 6 -	Jan 5/ 6 ElkGrove CPE
Jan 13 -	Jan 12/13 (MLK) ElkGrove HauteDawgs NADAC, San Diego USDAA
Jan 20-	Jan 19/20 SantaRosa BorderTerrier AKC, ElkGrove HauteDawgs CPE
Jan 27 San Martin Bay Team NADAC	Jan 26/27 SantaRosa Bayteam USDAA
Feb 03 -	Feb 2/ 3 Turlock VAST USDAA, SantaRosa AKC, ElkGrove CPE, Milpitas DalClub Zink seminar
Feb 10 -	Feb 9/10
Feb 17 (pres day) Pomona USDAA	Feb 16/17(prez's) ElkGrove NADAC, Madera NADAC
Feb 24 -	Feb 23/24 ElkGrove CPE, CityOfIndustry WVDS USDAA, Madera NADAC
Mar 02 -	Mar 1/ 2 Dixon MtDiableDTC AKC, Fillmore ContactPt USDAA, Madera NADAC
Mar 09 Fresno USDAA	Mar 8/ 9 Turlock VAST CPE, ?Fresno Sunmaid AKC, Wilton NADAC
Mar 16 -	Mar 15/16 Madera CAT USDAA, Dixon VallejoDTC AKC, ElkGrove NADAC, RanCuc DART USDAA
Mar 23 -	Mar 22/23 (easter) Sunnyvale Bayteam CPE, Dixon SheltieClub AKC, ElkGrove NADAC
Mar 30 -	Mar 29/30 Hollister PASA ASCA, Wilton NADAC
Apr 06 -	Apr 5/ 6 Dixon DDTC AKC, SantaRosa R2R NADAC
Apr 13 Nancy's agility funmatch	Apr 12/13 Dixon HautedawgsTRACS 4-day USDAA, CarsonCity NADAC
Apr 20 -	Apr 19/20 ?PP camp, SantaRosa NADAC, ElkGrove funmatch, CarsonCity MDT-AA NADAC
Apr 27 Santa Rosa NADAC	Apr 26/27 Prunedale SMarT USDAA, ElkGrove DOCNA
May 04 Davis AKC agility	May 3/ 4 Sunnyvale Bayteam USDAA, SantaRosa MensonaKC AKC, CarsonCity R@R NADAC
May 11 Hayward Chris Zink seminar	May 10/11 CarsonCity QAC USDAA, ElkGrove CPE
May 18 -	May 17/18 ElkGrove CPE, Hollister SCDTC AKC, Hollister PASA ASCA, Turlock VAST NADAC
May 25 (mem day)Dixon NADAC	May 24/25 (mem) Dixon TRACS 4-day AKC, Moorpark Happydog USDAA/mas, ElkGrove NADAC
Jun 01 dixon terv AKC agility match, border terrier AKC agility	May 31/ 1 Turlock NAF USDAA/team, Salinas DelMonte AKC, Madera CAT CPE
Jun 08 -	Jun 7/ 8 PaloAlto TervClub AKC, Dixon PowerPaws Camp, CarsonCity R2R NADAC
Jun 15 -	Jun 14/15 ScottsValley MBDTC AKC, ElkGrove NADAC, Reno AKC
Jun 22 -	Jun 21/22 ElkGrove CorgiClub AKC, CarsonCity ASCA
Jun 29 Hayward Sheltie AKC agility	Jun 28/29 Portland CAT USDAA/GP+, Dixon SheltieClub AKC
Jul 06 -	Jul 5/ 6 Sunnyvale Bayteam USDAA/3day
Jul 13 Palo Alto Poodle AKC agility (su)	Jul 12/13 Livermore Malamute AKC, Turlock VAST DOCNA, Eureka NADAC
Jul 20 -	Jul 19/20 Petaluma Bayteam CPE, Ferndale LostCoast AKC, ?CityofIndustry WVDS USDAA
Jul 27 Hayward Malmute AKC agility (sa/su),	Jul 26/27 CarsonCuty MDT-AA NADAC
Aug 03 -	Aug 2/ 3 Hollister PASA ASCA, ElkGrove CPE
Aug 10 -	Aug 9/10 Petaluma CountyWide AKC, CarsonCuty MDT-AA NADAC
Aug 17 Ventura West Valley USDAA	Aug 16/17 Dixon NapaDTC AKC, Eureka CPE, Carson City QAC CPE
Aug 24 Davis AKC agility	Aug 23/24 Salinas SMarT USDAA
Aug 31 (labor day) Daly City Bay Team USDAA	Aug 30/31(labor) Prunedale Bayteam USDAA/GP+, CarsonCuty MDT-AA NADAC
Sep 07 Bolton seminar, Hayward Springer AKC agility (su)	Sep 6/ 7 Dixon DDTC AKC, CarsonCity NADAC, Turlock DeltaAussies ASCA, Moorpark Happydog USDAA/mas
Sep 14 -	Sep 13/14 Turlock VAST USDAA, SanRaphael SirFrancisDrakeKC AKC, Ontario DART USDAA
Sep 21 -	Sep 20/21 Woodland TRACS USDAA
Sep 28 Ventura West Valley NADAC	Sep 27/28 Elkgrove WeimClub AKC
Oct 05 Woodside terv AKC agility trial	Oct 4/ 5 Elkgrove CPE
Oct 12 Xnadac nat'ls	Oct 11/12 Dixon Haute Dawgs USDAA, Hollister PASA ASCA, CarsonCity AKC, Moorpark Happydog USDAA/st/adv
Oct 19 Santa Rosa County-Wide AKC agility	Oct 18/19 Madera CAT USDAA, Pleasanton DelValle AKC, ElkGrove DOCNA, CarsonCity R2R NADAC
Oct 26 Fresno UDSAA	Oct 25/26 Turlock VAST CPE, Placerville HangtownKC AKC, Camarillo BVDTC USDAA
Nov 02 carmel bayteam alpaca demo, Sharon Nelson seminar	Nov 1/ 2 Madera FresnoDTC AKC, Scottsdale USDAA Natls
Nov 09 Hayward Bay Team NADAC	Nov 8/ 9 SantaRosa Bayteam CPE, ElkGrove NADAC
Nov 16 Hayward dalmation agility demo (su)	Nov 15/16 Turlock NAF USDAA, SantaRosa GR AKC, RanchoCucamunga DART USDAA
Nov 23 -	Nov 22/23
Nov 30 (turkey day) -	Nov 29/30 (turk) RanchoMurieta SheltieClub AKC, Moorpark Happydog USDAA/mas, ElkGrove CPE
Dec 07 -	Dec 6/ 7 RanchoMurieta SacDTC AKC, ElkGrove HauteDawgs NADAC
Dec 14 Fresno NADAC	Dec 13/14 SantaRosa Bayteam USDAA/tourney
Dec 21 -	Dec 20/21 (xmas)
Dec 28 -	Dec 27/28 (newyrs) RanchoMurieta TRACS 4-day AKC

Really Really Bored Dogs and Agility Schedule

SUMMARY: Pesterful dogs and agility coming right up.

The Bay Team is hosting a 3-day USDAA trial locally in Sunnyvale this weekend with regular classes and all the tournaments, and I didn't sign Tika up for team because I kick myself so hard when I mess up, plus she's Qed twice in team already this year. And who needs to spend the extra $50.

But I've been working away from home a lot the last few weeks, and we've had no trials, and of course only Boost's agility classes (in which Tika gets just a couple of runs) and I'm just not getting out and walking them every day and she's going stir crazy and driving me nuts--following me everywhere, leaning on me, hugging up close to me, staring at me, and she looks SO MISERABLY CRUSHED when I stop playing in the yard and go inside--so now I regret not entering her after all. That means that Boost has 5 runs on Friday and Tika has none.

Oh, well, maybe someone will have to pull their dog at the last minute and we can sneak in. Otherwise I'll just have to make a point of spending time playing with her when I'm not running Boost and remember not to just dash back to the score table--which, as usual, I've signed up as Chief Czar for. And which can suck up all my time shwooooooooofff just like that. And try very hard not to kick myself repeatedly if I make a mistake, which can ruin my weekend in Team.

It feels as if it has been ages since I've done any agility. And, in terms of my "traditional" agility life, it has been! Five weeks since our last trail! Then it'll be two weeks to our next one, then another 4 weeks after that. THEN it gets nuts: 6 USDAA 2-day trials in 9 weeks (oh, one of those is really a 3 1/2 day Regional at Labor Day), which should make the dogs happy, but I'm not sure I really want to--or can afford to--do that much.

Then it's probably nothing until January (since I'm skipping Nationals), unless I go to Elk Grove on Thanksgiving weekend for my usual fun CPE trial. Maybe just a day this time instead of 2 days. And Bay Team is hosting yet ANOTHER damn Team tournament in December, which I skipped last year and I just can't see getting excited about at that time of year, out of town.

The dogs will REALLY go nuts with months of no agility!

And what do I really want to achieve this weekend? Team Q for Boost! (Why, if I'm not going to Nationals?? Well, eventually it'll be useful for her ADCH. I hope.) Steeplechase Q for Boost! Ditto for Tika! Because I want to win it all and bring home big checks! (Oh-oh, there goes the idea of doing agility BECAUSE IT'S FUN! fffffoooooop, right out the door like that!)

And of course SOME day it would be nice for Boost to get a Standard Q and a Jumpers Q and actually earn her MAD.

But I am also feeling, like Days of Speed and others have posted in recent months, feeling still amazingly Been There Done That at the moment. It'll be fun while I'm there. Mostly probably. And it's always nice seeing my friends

In the Heart of Agility Country

SUMMARY: Yes, I'm lucky where I live.

In response to a comment about being lucky where I live to have 14 USDAA trials in a year--yes...yes, I am. Although, since I feel compelled to be at all of them plus a few CPEs as well (such is the nature of addiction), it would actually be nice to live somewhere were they *weren't* so convenient and I could spend my weekends doing something creative, exploratory, or even (gasp!) relaxing.

Here's a quick calendar of the USDAA events that I put on my personal calendar for 2007. Notes:

• The ones that are nearly 2 hours, I spend the night. So there are really only 3-4 USDAA trials a year where I can sleep in my own bed.
• The ones that are farther than that, I just don't go to (except Nationals), although many of my friends do, and I keep thinking that someday I might want to go to them again (did for a couple of years).
• And I haven't even included the Oregon ones, to which some diehards travel. And I think there might be a few more of those southern Cal ones (5-8 hours) that I didn't even note on my calendar.
• Times are actual driving times, not including stops.

January	Bay Team Santa Rosa	<2 hrs
	San Diego	7 hrs
February	VAST Turlock	<2 hrs
	Pomona	5 1/2 hrs
March	Fillmore	5 hrs
	CAT Madera	<2 hrs
April	Haute TRACS Dixon	<2 hrs
	SMART Salinas	< 1 hr
May	Bay Team	varies...used to be sunnyvale 20 mins, but in any case <2 hrs
	Quicksilver Carson City	4 hrs
	Moorpark	5 hrs
June	NAF Turlock	<2 hrs
July	City of Industry	5 hrs
	Moorpark	5 hrs
Aug	SMART Salinas	< 1 hr
Sept	Bay Team Sunnyvale	20 mins
	VAST Turlock	< 2hrs
	TRACS Woodland	2 hrs
Oct	Haute Dawgs Dixon	<2hrs
	CAT Madera	<2 hrs
Nov	Nationals	11 hrs
	NAF Turlock	<2 hrs
	DART Irwindale	5 1/2 hrs

Predestiny

SUMMARY: The challenges in trying to schedule my hours.

I'm coming to believe that my life is ruled by exceptions, not by regularity. I am arriving at this revelation based on a week's worth of attempting to schedule out exactly 9 hours of billable working time--more than I usually do--per weekday for a week, and being unable to manage it.

To start with, I assume that I'm schedulable from 7:30 in the morning, about my average time for morning rising, until 10:00 at night, when I (nominally) retire to bed. Subtract 9 hours of work, gives me 5 and a half hours per day for other activities.

It takes me about 3 hours a day to do only the basics--rise, eat breakfast while skimming the morning paper (and doing my average-8-minute crossword), shower, dress, prepare and eat lunch, prepare and eat dinner, do the exercises I'm supposed to do to strengthen my knees, go through my mail, clean the dishes...in short, just get by. I'm not even talking about bonus activities like reconciling my checkbook or doing the laundry.

Dogs consume a lot of my time on top of that. Two days a week, we have agility class (once for Boost, once for Tika), which is 1.5 to 1.75 hours of class time plus gathering oneself and one's dogs to go, driving there, and driving back. That consumes 3 hours each time, so for those two days a week, I have only 2.5 hours in which to do my 3 hours of basics.

But wait-- even on those days, there's just a minimal amount of dog attention that needs to be paid, let's say 10 minutes per dog sometime during the day (and that's not really enough to satisfy them, AND that has to include toenail trimming, hair removal, and such), that's another half an hour per day that's a high priority. More realistically, it's 10 minutes per dog twice a day, or I have bored, impatient, unexercised dogs starting to climb the walls. And even that's a minimum. And they don't count the time in which I'm rearranging or setting up agility obstacles for exercises or picking up 24 hours worth of three dogs' waste matter from around my large yard.

So I'm in arrears already from those 2 days unless I eat my reheated pizza over my keyboard while working, skip the exercises, skip the morning paper, skip the dog exercise--oh, wait, can't do that, dogs go nuts. OK, so I'm not going to manage 9 hours a day on those 2 days.

But the other 3 days should be fine, right? 9 hours of work plus 3 hours of basics plus 1 hour of dog exercise and I actually have 90 minutes of free time for those bonus activities like laundry or grocery shopping or watering the potted plants in the yard so they don't die or mowing the lawn before it overwhelms me.

So here's how my life is ruled by exceptions.

Last Tuesday, I was only a little behind schedule until 6 p.m., just needed 3 hours of billable time to make my daily goal. And a friend who's been living in Germany for the last 2 years calls. He's in town for a day or two. We'd like to get together. The only time our schedules look like they'll match is RIGHT NOW. So I bustle around, vacuuming up the dog hair and washing the dishes so at least there's a semblance of order and cleanliness. Then he's here for 2 hours and I actually kick him out so that I can get back to my billable hours. But I can't manage to stay awake and focused until midnight, so I'm out of luck.

The next day, middle of the day, I'm right on target. I have half an hour scheduled to bip to the bank to make a deposit and to the PO to drop off my bills. I'll sneak in a quick walk around the block with the dogs in a different neighborhood, by the PO. So I load the dogs in the car--and the battery won't go. I spend 10 minutes trying to trick it into starting, but no go. Unload the dogs, call AAA. Then deal with AAA when they get here, and it's not merely a drained battery, it's a battery on its last leg. Then deal with getting a new battery for the car. So I don't make my target that day.

The next day, I'm sitting quietly at my desk, enjoying a post-Christmas nougat, when a crown pops right off my tooth. I grab a paper towel to capture it, but Lo, my full stein of cherry soda is sitting on one edge of the paper towel, and now I have cherry soda all through and under my day timer, all over my desk, into and under the binder with my project info, all through the hardcopies of the document with my notes, and dripping onto the carpet. Cherry soda. There goes 15 minutes dealing with that, then call the dentist. That wasn't a lot of time that day because my dentist was out, but it rolled over into a 2-hour trip and procedure today.

This morning, I'm right on time for leaving the house to get to the dentist, except that as I start down the stairs, Jake vomits all over the wood in the hallway. This isn't something that can be left for later. I have to clean that up and hence am late for the dentist.

And as I'm putting things away, I notice the Discover magazine sitting by my door to remind me that my subscription has inexplicably stopped. This is after I already had to send them a letter a couple of months back, with a copy of my check, saying, "stop sending me past due notices because I sent you a check, here it is, please fix your records." So the past due notices stopped, and then my subscription did, too. So now I have to find the last issue that I received, get another copy of my check, find out when my subscription was supposed to be good through, and write another letter...

And then I have to come home and write about it in my blog. There's another 30 minutes down the tube. So I'll have to stay away for the rest of the week.

Oh, and I forgot to mention--my jaw is now throbbing and is approaching the moan-out-loud state of pain, and that's after a big dose of ibuprofen earlier. It's going to be hard to concentrate on anything requiring any thought at all, and if I take a codeine that'll put an end to any brainular function whatsoever. Tra la.