As I mentioned yesterday, we decided to take a minor day trip to our old stompin' grounds today. This is only 2.5 hrs each way, so 5 hours of driving. Nice. I am not a morning person. We rolled out of bed at 3:30 am, and I was not being a very nice person, but we loaded up in the little red Jetta and set off. About 3 miles down the road, I started complaining that I wished I had brought a little kennel for the pup. ha. The Man Of The House does not have a very good time back-tracking, but back-track we did. Now back in the car, pup in kennel, I felt a bit more settled, but still had the "I forgot something" black cloud over my head.
FFWD: I slept through the drive.
Arrived: In-laws house, and realize I forgot my running shoes. This pretty much cast a whole new black cloud over my already PMS-induced bad mood.
FFWD: I feel asleep again on MIL's couch and slept until 9:30. HA.
At this time I spring off the couch, feeling guilty and wondering what I have missed in the last 3 hours. The first thing I realize is that the kids have taken the pup to the pond. OK, so someone reading this must not realize the significance of taking an Australian Shepherd to the pond. A long-haired dog vs. a muddy, scummy, algae-infested pond. Yummy. Black. Slimy. Dog-Heaven. Oh boy.
During a little chat with my MIL, she offered her Jeep for me to drive to my parents' house. Side note- there is no way a person is getting a Jetta down their rather "out of the way road" and the term road I am using loosely here. My MIL also mentioned that she was telling Abby that she was taking some cucumbers over to her brother, and not to go wandering off (since the lame-mommy is asleep). To which the ever-witty Abby replies, "Well, Grandma, I NEED a cucumber before I have a nervous break down." HA HA.
Upon arrival to Nana's house, we indulged in the much needed morning cup of tea (you will discover this is a ritual for me, a necessity for me, uh, I could really get dramatic about it). We were just going along having a splendid visit when Ethan plants himself in front of Poppie and says, "Watch this, Poppie, I can blink with a different set of eyes." *after this he blinks very hard and then opens his eyes very widely* The overall idea was that when his eyes opened, they were different eyes than when he closed them. I guess it loses a lot in the retelling, but it was downright hilarious.
After much serious discussion which I need to stimulate my brain, I reluctantly left Nanna and Poppie's house back to MIL's house and was surprised to find Brad back from the mountains, un-bear-bitten, un-snake-bitten, all bones in tact, un-hog-attacked, and by all counts, virtually unscathed. WOW. Not even dehydrated!
FFWD: We arrive home; I drove about half the way. Brad really prefers to be the one driving. The time was actually a little after 7 and since I had not done my run yet, I basically dashed into the house, changed clothes, and went for my run. The run was actually pretty good, felt even and fluid which has up until this point not really been the case. I am not after speed at this point, that will come in time. I did actually think as I was just jogging along easily that I had better enjoy it because when all is healed, I know it will be back to work.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thoughts on Wasted Days
I often have grand plans for weekends. It seems like weekends are limitless chunks of time which can be filled with all of the activities that did not get accomplished through the week. When will I ever learn that a weekend is not going to accomplish anything big or fantastic? It should be viewed more accurately as a chunk of "family time" and anything that does not "get done" is just water under the bridge.
My big plan for this weekend was to shampoo Abby's bedroom carpet and paint the kids' bathroom (red). Did this happen? No. It did not. The one factor that I always fail to include in my plans is the status of other people's desires and needs. Couple that with a good side of "Ginny distractions" and you get nothing done.
So I arose quite late - 8:00 and to my good fortune, it was still cool enough to run, so I got that out of the way and was definitely dreading the 40:00 bike ride, but it seemed only natural to get it out of the way as well. Well the run went good, I ran on the soccer fields as the soft surfaces seem to be more conducive to healing than the pavement. My little maladies did bug me a little, but nothing noteworthy. There were about 5,000 kids on the soccer/football/softball complex, all participating in their sports. I AM putting Abby and Ethan in soccer in the spring, kicking and screaming, ha. On the bike, I did feel strong, but kept thinking I was tired and wanting it to be done. It wasn't a bad workout on the fuel of one banana and some PB.
Puppy has not received much training today. We are still working on "spin" and she is doing it quite well with the lure, but will not do it strictly on cue. I am waiting for her to offer it to me and at that point I plan to shower her with treats which are tiny bits of hot dogs.
We did hit another obstacle. I had taken her out of her crate to go outside, and she did pee, but then when I brought her back in, she pooped on the rug. Well, we had discussed just shampooing the rugs, rolling them up and putting them away until the pup is trained. So you got it, I spent the evening shampooing the rugs and they are now drying on the trampoline. There ya go - I count that as an hour wasted.
Brad wants to go see his parents tomorrow. Their plan is to hike into the mountains and scout for a hunting trip. It's great that he can have this kind of time with his dad right now.
The painting and shampooing project has now been moved to a week project for next week between Grandparent's Day at school, and carpooling.
My big plan for this weekend was to shampoo Abby's bedroom carpet and paint the kids' bathroom (red). Did this happen? No. It did not. The one factor that I always fail to include in my plans is the status of other people's desires and needs. Couple that with a good side of "Ginny distractions" and you get nothing done.
So I arose quite late - 8:00 and to my good fortune, it was still cool enough to run, so I got that out of the way and was definitely dreading the 40:00 bike ride, but it seemed only natural to get it out of the way as well. Well the run went good, I ran on the soccer fields as the soft surfaces seem to be more conducive to healing than the pavement. My little maladies did bug me a little, but nothing noteworthy. There were about 5,000 kids on the soccer/football/softball complex, all participating in their sports. I AM putting Abby and Ethan in soccer in the spring, kicking and screaming, ha. On the bike, I did feel strong, but kept thinking I was tired and wanting it to be done. It wasn't a bad workout on the fuel of one banana and some PB.
Puppy has not received much training today. We are still working on "spin" and she is doing it quite well with the lure, but will not do it strictly on cue. I am waiting for her to offer it to me and at that point I plan to shower her with treats which are tiny bits of hot dogs.
We did hit another obstacle. I had taken her out of her crate to go outside, and she did pee, but then when I brought her back in, she pooped on the rug. Well, we had discussed just shampooing the rugs, rolling them up and putting them away until the pup is trained. So you got it, I spent the evening shampooing the rugs and they are now drying on the trampoline. There ya go - I count that as an hour wasted.
Brad wants to go see his parents tomorrow. Their plan is to hike into the mountains and scout for a hunting trip. It's great that he can have this kind of time with his dad right now.
The painting and shampooing project has now been moved to a week project for next week between Grandparent's Day at school, and carpooling.
Friday, September 28, 2007
A Supposed Dog Trainer
Ok, so I'll write something. I'm currently laid up from running, only getting in about 20-25 miles per week if I'm lucky. It all started with the darn hip injury which has lasted about 3 months now, and then continued with a foot injury which has lasted about 2 weeks, give or take. I have my ups and downs about it, but when it really boils down to it, I'd rather be a runner and always getting hurt than out of shape and always getting hurt. That's my choice. We all make our choices, and I think we are all eventually gonna get hurt doing this or that, and I choose to get hurt running. How lame is that?
So this year is a totally different turn of my life. My youngest kiddo has started kindergarten, leaving me free during the day to do things like clean the oven, or hopefully at some point in the future, train really hard. Of course another option is that I can potentially train harder than I ever have, and of course potentially get hurt again, but as I've already stated I don't care. Before I was a runner, I once hurt my hip just jumping across a ditch. This kind of stuff happens.
At first, I found myself kind of wandering around wondering what to do - but it wasn't long before I found myself doing things like cleaning out the oven, quilting, and believe it or not - puppy training. Now I will freely admit that I can train the fun stuff like sit, come, stay, etc., but when it comes to potty training, I am clueless. I try to do it by the book, take her out at certain times, crate her at certain times, blah blah blah, but I am just not being successful in this endeavour. Granted, it is not that big of a deal, but for some reason excrement really makes me anxious.
For the most part, I have her figured out, how long she can hold it etc., but there have been one or two times that I have taken her out at the expected time to pee, and found myself in the yard a frustrating hour later waiting.... drumming my fingers... sighing... rolling my eyes... yelling... as the pup just tipped her head to one side at me as if to say - "Are you OK, you look really upset?"
The reason this is particularly frustrating to me is that I know she is the smartest dog in the world. She knows come, stay, sit, down, stand, and is working on spin. If she can have this much learned in 2 short weeks, why does she not know, "do it." WHY? The only plausible reason is that I am not as smart as she is. There absolutely has to be something I don't know or haven't figured out, or something that she knows that I don't. There can be no other logical explanation.
Along these lines, I am sure that my children are geniuses. I cannot fathom how or why this happened, as they surely did not get their genes from me. My 3rd grade daughter can read so fast, I have to tell her to slow down so I can understand what she is saying and my kindergarten son is practically ready for Algebra. Again - my dog, my son, and my daughter are smarter than I am. I'm 30.
Bottom line, I want to be running good again, I am getting to the point that I am longing for a long run, a good medium effort 14 miler would do me a world of good. Maybe I'd feel smarter after depriving my brain cells of oxygen for an hour and a half. Yeah, that's what I need.
So this year is a totally different turn of my life. My youngest kiddo has started kindergarten, leaving me free during the day to do things like clean the oven, or hopefully at some point in the future, train really hard. Of course another option is that I can potentially train harder than I ever have, and of course potentially get hurt again, but as I've already stated I don't care. Before I was a runner, I once hurt my hip just jumping across a ditch. This kind of stuff happens.
At first, I found myself kind of wandering around wondering what to do - but it wasn't long before I found myself doing things like cleaning out the oven, quilting, and believe it or not - puppy training. Now I will freely admit that I can train the fun stuff like sit, come, stay, etc., but when it comes to potty training, I am clueless. I try to do it by the book, take her out at certain times, crate her at certain times, blah blah blah, but I am just not being successful in this endeavour. Granted, it is not that big of a deal, but for some reason excrement really makes me anxious.
For the most part, I have her figured out, how long she can hold it etc., but there have been one or two times that I have taken her out at the expected time to pee, and found myself in the yard a frustrating hour later waiting.... drumming my fingers... sighing... rolling my eyes... yelling... as the pup just tipped her head to one side at me as if to say - "Are you OK, you look really upset?"
The reason this is particularly frustrating to me is that I know she is the smartest dog in the world. She knows come, stay, sit, down, stand, and is working on spin. If she can have this much learned in 2 short weeks, why does she not know, "do it." WHY? The only plausible reason is that I am not as smart as she is. There absolutely has to be something I don't know or haven't figured out, or something that she knows that I don't. There can be no other logical explanation.
Along these lines, I am sure that my children are geniuses. I cannot fathom how or why this happened, as they surely did not get their genes from me. My 3rd grade daughter can read so fast, I have to tell her to slow down so I can understand what she is saying and my kindergarten son is practically ready for Algebra. Again - my dog, my son, and my daughter are smarter than I am. I'm 30.
Bottom line, I want to be running good again, I am getting to the point that I am longing for a long run, a good medium effort 14 miler would do me a world of good. Maybe I'd feel smarter after depriving my brain cells of oxygen for an hour and a half. Yeah, that's what I need.
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