kathi

My car talked to me!

January 5, 2010 by kathi

I’m back home now and wistfully recalling younger days when a six-hour drive was a piece of cake.

So! My car talked to me this morning as I was leaving the motel. Well, not exactly, but it did communicate. I’ve had this particular vehicle, a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan, for almost a year now. Understand that even though I am pretty high-tech in many ways, when it comes to my vehicles I have been decidedly low-tech. The last vehicle I had before this had manual windows. This is the first vehicle I’ve had with ABS (and may I say it scared me the first time the brakes pulsed in that weird way). I don’t have GPS, although I’m sure many of you think that’s a huge mistake (I do use BlackBerry Maps and MapQuest for BlackBerry when traveling).

Anyway, back to this morning. I have never even seen most of the warning lights on the dashboard. Imagine my horror to see a horseshoe-shaped thing with an exclamation point in the middle of it. I had to look it up in the manual: it was a low tire indicator. It’s not quite high tech enough to tell me which tire, though. None of the tires looked particularly low, but who am I to ignore my car?

This turned into a mini-fiasco as the first two gas stations I went to did not have functioning air pumps. The third one did, and my car was right. The driver’s side front tire was about 5 pounds low, and the others were fine. Aside from the single-digit temperatures and the fact air costs $1.00, all was well. You are probably wondering to yourself how I could not know that air costs $1.00. We have compressors at home and I truly can’t remember the last time my low tire needs were not noticed within reach of our personal compressors.

It is very quiet here without Axel. Freya is somewhat stressed out but she’ll be fine in a day or two once she remembers that when Axel is away, she also gets his share of attention and treats.

Back to work and a normal routine tomorrow. Oh, joy.

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 5 of 31)

Internet everywhere!

January 4, 2010 by kathi

I love that even budget-priced motels now almost all have free or low-cost in-room high-speed wireless internet access. So why am I at a motel tonight, and why am I posting this from my BlackBerry, you ask?

It’s about six hours from my home to Julia’s, and I drove down with Axel and a nice German Shepherd needing a ride today. Now in my younger days, I would have made the return drive right away. In my younger days, I also thought a full day on a motorcycle was a reasonable drive. But with age eroding my night vision, I decided driving back in the morning made more sense.

I made full use of the free internet access by spending a couple of hours working on the magazine. Unfortunately, my VAIO is one of those needing a warranty fan replacement and without my laptop cooler pad, it is getting molten hot.

Thus, tonight’s NaBloPoMo entry via BlackBerry!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 4 of 31)

Almost forgot to show the proof!

January 3, 2010 by kathi

Freya finished her UKC Rally Obedience 1 title back in November, but I never did finish discussing our performance at those two trials. I should still do that before I’ve blocked a less-than-stellar performance from my memory.

But enough about the missing play-by-play. I forgot something really important: visual proof that we got the title!

Here’s the official certificate:

Here’s our bit of the New Titleholders section of UKC’s website:

I will get to the details of the trials, but probably not until later this week. Axel’s heading back to the shows tomorrow, so we all need to spend some quality time together tonight!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 3 of 31)

Saturday Freya: still on break

January 2, 2010 by kathi

I normally attend a group obedience class with Freya on Saturday mornings. We are still on break for the holidays, though. Since we skipped the last class of the previous session so I could watch Axel from afar as he competed in Rally Obedience at the Christmas Cluster, we have been off for three weeks.

Class starts up again next Saturday and it’s not a moment too soon! Three weeks off in winter is just a little too much downtime, since we don’t have as many opportunities to play or train outdoors. Rottweilers don’t seem to mind the cold, or at least my Rottweilers don’t mind it. This week’s single-digit temperatures don’t seem to faze them at all, except that they can’t pick up frozen Jolly Balls. I’m fearing frostbite and hypothermia because they don’t want to come in, and I’m the only one that seems to be suffering any ill effects from the extreme cold!

I’m still hoping that we will be ready for an APDT Rally Obedience trial on January 23-24. Freya’s attitude and performance in our first class back from break will give me some idea of whether we should shoot for that trial, or for one on February 6-7 instead. Both are at locations where we’ve trialed and/or trained before so at least the grounds won’t be unfamiliar to either Freya or me.

I haven’t been doing any training to speak of during the break. We have done some quick reviews of stationary rally exercises in the kitchen before meals, but not every day. On the days that weren’t too frigid, we did some heeling practice on the back walk before and after potty breaks. I should have done a little more with Axel since he will be trialing again next weekend, and I will do a “real” training session with him tomorrow. On Monday, we’ll go on a brief road trip to get him back to Julia, and then he’s off to shows in Texas and Florida. It is nice that at least one family member will get a vacation in some hopefully warmer spots of the country!

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 2 of 31)

New year, new decade, what else is new?

January 1, 2010 by kathi

So a shiny new year and a shiny new decade is upon us. I don’t feel too shiny and new myself, and it’s been a long time since I’ve tried to trick myself into thinking that January 1 and a clean slate are in any way synonymous. And despite this month’s NaBloPoMo theme, BEST, I’m not quite ready to say “Let’s have the BEST year EVER in 2010!”

That sounds a bit pessimistic, but I actually am planning for good things to happen in the coming year.

We’re enjoying a few more days of Axel’s company as he spends his winter vacation here at home. As you may already know, he’s just one major away from his AKC championship. There will be no majors at his first stop in Texas, but he is entered in Rally Obedience trials both days, and may be able to finish his Rally Novice title there. Next stop will be the Winter Classic clusters in Brooksville, Florida. The breakdowns are posted for the first cluster, and four of the five days are majors for Rottweilers. So think good, winning thoughts for Axel this month, please!

Freya will also be working on her Rally Obedience titles. She earned her UKC URO1 in November, but I don’t feel that she is ready to compete off-leash for her URO2 yet. So we’ll be working on the novice level titles in other registries: APDT and AKC.

So, you say, those are the dogs’ goals! Yes, sadly my dogs are more motivated than I am, or I am more motivated for them than for myself. Or something.

It’s true that my own goals are not as well-defined as my goals for the dogs. Professionally, 2009 was a year of just trying to stay alive, and thankfully, we did. I admire those who can still formulate long-term goals in the midst of treading water, because it’s not something I found myself able to do. Along with everyone else in the country, I’m hoping that as the economy recovers, so will our business and our ability to plan for the long term and the big picture. Even more so as I get closer to retirement age!

Personally, I want to do more with my blog and website. Hold me to it, will you?

So. What are you hoping to get done in 2010?

(NaBloPoMo | January ’10: 1 of 31)