I don’t know if this April has been more or less rainy than normal, but I do know that right at this moment, there is thunder and lightning close by, and the rain is coming down quite hard. It’s been raining on and off since about an hour after I got home from work. So there better be a huge load of happy shiny May flowers on the way!

I’m guessing that the yard will be too soggy tomorrow morning to do our usual pre-trial warmup, so it’s good we got in a little practice tonight before the rain. Unfortunately, it was pretty windy, so that meant leaving out the jump and cones since ours are lightweight practice stuff that would have definitely gotten blown around.

Hoping the rain will stop soon for long enough to get the dogs out and in, and let us all get some sleep already!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 30 of 30)

I’ve decided not to renew a couple of my older semi-dormant domains. So I need to move my public photo gallery sometime in the next five days.

EDITED TO ADD: I did move the gallery and the link has been updated.

Freya and I also need to get our acts together on a few Level 2 rally obedience exercises which are looking less like perfection and more like major point deductions before Sunday.

I also have a couple of web pages to set up for someone’s new canine family member before her arrival which is scheduled for tomorrow.

Yikes! Where did the time go?

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 27 of 30)

My own day was fine, thanks for asking. It didn’t start out too well for a few other people, though. The corner just east of my house has more than its share of accidents. I’m really not sure why as it doesn’t seem to have any special obstructions or blind spots. You’d think that when the traffic light went in two blocks west that things would have improved, but there have been more accidents since then, or at least it seems that way.

This one resulted in injury to one of the drivers (the one that appeared to be at fault), one car up on a neighbor’s lawn (unfortunately not one of the jagoff neighbors that would deserve tire tracks on their lawn), and a number of gangbanger-looking family members of the involved drivers milling about the block. Police, fire, EMS, and tow truck all arrived quickly and this was a pretty typical accident for our corner.

The day got less exciting from there, and that was just fine with me.

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 16 of 30)

I’m having a little trouble focusing on dog training topics tonight, so I’ll need another day of semi-randomness, I think.

Even after a few warm spring days, I’m always hesitant to store away winter clothing until April is completely over. Tonight, though, it was rain, and large quantities of it, that put outdoor activities to an abrupt end.

We don’t leave the grill out year-round, so the first grilled food of the year is always a bit of a special treat, even if it’s something pretty basic like tonight’s bratwurst. As an aside, I really love our current grill, a Weber Performer. It is a charcoal grill with a propane starter, and I like it much better than either a gas grill or a regular charcoal grill.

Anyway, timing was almost perfect. The food was ready but the wind was starting to come up, so we went inside to eat. Just a little bit later, lightning was seen and thunder was heard and massive amounts of rain came pouring down, along with some hail for a short time. I say almost perfect, since the grill didn’t get put away before the rain hit.

The dogs went out for a quick potty trip during a break in the rain, and when I see their ears flapping in the wind, my mind always flashes for a moment to the Rottweiler who took a tornado ride a couple of summers ago. It didn’t get quite that bad tonight.

Still, the predicted weather means I’ll have to get creative with indoor training. This is supposed to be a serious training month for Freya. She seems to be laughing at me as I type that, though, so she might have other plans.

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 5 of 30)