Hikies

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

This Wednesday is not wordless.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUMMARY: Random stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile--back to work!

National Hat Day 2011

SUMMARY: Not at all related to dogs.

Yes, kids, I know you've been waiting for this ever since last year's National Hat Day post! Indeed, here it is, once again, January 15--National Hat Day! Here are a bunch more fun chapeaux--and not to worry that I've used up my collection with the following display--I've found, bought, or received a slew of additional cool hats in the last few months that have me well stocked up for next year!

Summer's Almost Here

SUMMARY: Seasons are never static.

The sun has begun its steady climb to the north. Day by day it advances, like a slow heartbeat, setting a minute later each evening, rising a third of a degree more northerly every morning, flying a third of a degree higher each noon. With the winter solstice, Aten slipped below the horizon at his earliest, four fifty, with the afternoon barely begun. By summer solstice, we will see and glory in his blazing face until seven thirty.¹

A few days past, frost greeted me every morning. Then we had a day of rain, a day of sun, a day of clouds and drizzle, and today another beautiful day of sun. I'm sure I see the grass sitting up and taking notice and starting to take on its fresh summer new-growth green. Of a sudden, the DYCs² are bustin' out all over (yes, even with some trees not yet finished dropping last year's leaves).

I grabbed my dogs and a frisbee and strode briskly into the light that was quickly growing golden. Through the border fence, I could see Mount Hamilton capturing some of the pre-sunset glow.

At the park, we were able to get some good frisbee in as the sun sank and the wispy clouds came alive with color.

Boost's tongue got a great workout.

The sun pulled its last beam below the horizon at 5:13, already almost half an hour later than just before Christmas. I can feel summer coming, just in hints here and there. And fifteen minutes later, the colors reached their most intense, and then we headed home.

---

¹8:30 with daylight savings time! Find the times for your location here.
²Damned Yellow Composites. Hard to tell one member of the Asteraceae family from another.

Signs and Portent's

SUMMARY: At the mall.

If you were having a bad day, would you dare to shop at Downer Square? Or would you risk it to get Lucky?

Come on, folk's, how hard are ARE apostrophe's anyway? If it is a plural, add an S. No apostrophe's needed! Sheesh. 's.

How People At Bay Team Parties Really See Me

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

Thanks, Ellen C and Barbara S!

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

Taj MuttHall Year In Review: 2010

SUMMARY:  Agility statistics and observations for the year.

I did this last year, so I suppose it would be consistent to do it again.

Trials competed in: 13. Wow, a big drop even from last year (16), and wonderfully down from my high of 23 in 2003. So continued that progress towards Less Agility And More Everything Else.

• CPE: 1 trial. I did this one because it was Bay Team hosted, I was working score table, and it was within about 30 minutes from home. I wanted to focus on USDAA. Now I'm thinking that maybe I should do more CPE this year, and less USDAA, to allow The Booster and me to have a few more successes and earn a few more ribbons. Heck, maybe someday she could get her C-ATCH. At least it would be *a* championship.
• USDAA: 12 trials, one of which was only 1 day. (Same as 2009.)

Runs: 304 (that's weird--why is that much higher than 2009? Did I miscalculate last year?)

• Tika: 155 (145 Qable^*), 93 of them Qs (64%--that's pretty good in USDAA, I think!)
• Boost: 149 (146 Qable^*), 34 Qs (23%)
• CPE: 16 runs, 14 Qs
• USDAA: 288 runs (275 Qable), 113 Qs (many more runs than last year. I must've had dogs out a *lot* for medical reasons last year)

^*Round 2 of Steeplechase isn't Qable, for example. And that's also the main difference in the number of runs between Boost and Tika for the year.

Tika titles earned: 

PD3	Performance Dog (= Perf. MAD)	4/17/10	Dixon
ATD-bronze	Accomplished Tournament-bronze (15 Perf. tournament Qs with at least 3 in  each)	4/17/10	Dixon
PJ3	Perf 3 Jumpers (=Jumpers Master, 5 Qs)	4/18/10	Dixon
ARD	Acc. Relay Dog (=RMCh, 10 Qs)	4/18/10	Dixon
AKD	Acc. Snooker Dog (=SMCh, 10 Qs)	4/18/10	Dixon
AGD	Acc. Gambler Dog (=GMCh, 10 Qs)	4/24/10	Manzanita Park
APD	Acc. Performance Dog (= Perf. ADCH!)	4/24/10	Manzanita Park
LAA-silver	Lifetime Agility Award--250 Qs in Masters and Tournaments spread across all classes	4/24/10	Manzanita Park
AJD	Acc. Jumpers Dog (=JMCh, 10 Qs)	7/17/10	Carmel
ARD-Bronze	Acc. Relay Dog-Bronze (15 Qs)	8/28/10	Manzanita Park
ASD	Acc. Standard Dog (10 Qs)	9/5/10	Manzanita Park
AKD-Bronze	Acc. Snooker Dog-Bronze (15 Qs)	9/6/10	Manzanita Park
AGD-bronze	Acc Gamblers Dog-bronze (15 Qs)	9/11/10	Turlock

Boost titles earned: 

RCH-Bronze	Relay Champion-Bronze (15 Qs)	2/13/10	Turlock
MAD	Master Agility Dog	4/16/10	Dixon
SACh	Standard Champion (10 Qs in Standard)	7/17/10	Carmel
GCh	Gamblers Champion (10 Qs)	7/18/10	Carmel
TM-Bronze	Tournament Master-Bronze --15 Qs with at least 3 in each of the 3 tournament classes	8/28/10	Manzanita Park

Class	Q percentage
	Tika	Boost
Gamblers	64%	23%
Standard	48%	8%
Snooker	55%	20%
Jumpers	65%	10%
Relay	93%**	64%**
Steeplechase	73%	23%
Grand Prix	30%	0%
DAM overall (3 tournaments this year)	100%	66%
DAM individual classes (std/snk/gamb/jmp)	83%	25%

^** In relay, faults don't disqualify you if you and/or teammate are fast enough to make it up in time. Hence, much higher Q rate for fast dogs who knock bars, for example!

Notes:

• Tika went from APD (performance championship, 5 Qs in each class and tournaments) in April to ALMOST APD-Bronze in November (15 Qs in each class and tournaments--just missing one Jumpers and one Standard Q!)
• 
  
• Tika again qualified for Nationals in all three Performance tournaments (Steeplechase, Grand Prix, and Team); as you know, for the 2nd year I opted not to go.
• Boost qualified for the Nationals in Steeplechase and DAM Team.
• Of Tika's 17 performance Snooker Qs so far, 13 have been Super-Qs. Percentages I'd only ever dreamed about in Championship!
• Boost earned her FIRST-EVER Master Jumpers Q in April to complete her MAD... and actually managed a SECOND one in November. Who knows, maybe someday we'll also get a Snooker Super-Q.
  
• Boost qualified in Steeplechase 3 times again this year--and for the first time, in one Round 2, actually placed and brought home a little tiny check.
• Our collective Grand Prix Qs for this year, however, were dismal: Tika 3 for 10 and Boost 0 for 10. How come we can get Standard Qs but not Grand Prixs? I don't think the courses are harder than the Standards. (Well--hmmm, sort of: Boost 3 for 29 in Standard, Tika 13 for 29.)
  
• Tika finished in the Top Ten in all four Performance classes this year! I am *so* excited (if you didn't already know). Final numbers aren't in, but with only a couple of weekends of numbers missing, she's 6th in Gamblers, 4th in Jumpers, 4th in Snooker, and 5th in Standard. (There is also a Top Ten for Performance Tournaments now; however, thanks largely to our dismal Grand Prix numbers, I don't think we'll even show up in the top 25 (not currently posted).)

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.