Mindlessness Matters

This time of year, everything slows down, including, sadly, my dog training. Between the heat, lack of rain, and the fire ants overrunning my tracking fields, my priorities change, there is no beating the summer in late July/August in North Carolina. So Mojo and I do short spurts of obedience with the reward being a floatie toy tossed into the pond, lather, rinse, repeat.

My goal becomes keeping him fit, happy, and keeping both of us sane.
This entire year, I’ve been struggling with insomnia. Headed into the 8th month of the year, with little improvement, despite over the counter remedies, prescription remedies ‘have a glass f wine before you go to bed’, work out before you go to bed, turn off the TV ½ hour before you go to bed, etc., and still no change, I’m resigned to getting comfortable being uncomfortably tired most of the time.

This morning, up far too early (again) I did something I’ve been doing a few times a week for the last 4 years. I got up, and went out to sit on the deck stairs with my first cup of coffee, and play a game of 2-ball fetch with Mojo. Not too long ago I read a discussion thread about how useless this game is. The speakers described the game as “mindless” and the human participant as no better than “a ball machine”. I remember feeling a little bad about doing it when I read the discussion. It’s one of the things I do all summer for sure, but honestly all the time for him. As I watched Mojo light up with joy when I came out the back door with two balls this morning, I decided (again and finally) that I really don’t care what those people think of this game. Dog training pros they might be, and many more may agree., but I know that 2 dozen tosses of a ball before 5 am on a day predicted to hit 100 degrees is Mojo’s equivalent to me sitting down and watching Survivor. It IS mindless. So what of it? I ask a lot of him. I ask him to track well, be quick and correct in obedience, be strong and convincing, and very under control in bite work. I ask him not to bite the neighbors, or my old dog, and overall, Mojo complies. Not always joyfully (okay, rarely joyfully), but he complies.

When I started running I used to go between 4 and 5 am. I started running in July of 2005, I told myself it was because of the heat, really, I just wanted the cover of darkness. Running is hard, and if I needed to stop and suck wind, I wanted as few witnesses as possible. Somewhere along the way I got over that. Maybe just as the running got harder, and I had to focus on it more, I stopped realizing anyone else existed during those “I’m sucking wind” moments. Entirely possible, running hurts.

Whatever the truth, when I watch Mojo racing across the lawn in the pre-dawn hours during our ‘mindless game’ what comes to mind is what his breeder told me when I pushed her about the fact that I hadn’t signed a contract. She said she wasn’t worried about it because she knew I would take care of him. That, in the end is what matters. Of course he needs a job, and mental stimulation, and he has that. But he also needs a bowl of popcorn and a sofa to cheer on idiots left in a jungle with a bag of rice 2 months.

This all may seem simplistic, and maybe it is. I’m not really sure what else someone who hasn’t slept more than 5 hours at a time for the last 8 months is capable of. I just know that the events of the last 8 months of made me re-evaluate a whole host of things in my life., not just dog training bits, some much more personal and hard to hear.

I’m not dumb enough to think I have it all figured out, I've made that mistake too often, but I do know that Mojo is out back, laying in his baby pool, drinking some of the same water, happy. That, coupled with leaning into being okay with the decisions I am making these days, get me a whole lot closer to happy as well.

The BEST day

Oh, if only you people could see me now, you'd see a tragically white girl doing something that could easily be mistaken for a seizure.

It's actually just me.. doing a happy dance.

Earlier today, I finished three of four stages of intensive dental work.. it's been ongoing for almost 14 months, but I'm almost done. The very last stage is scheduled for March 6th - when I can promptly go back to a normal person who sees a dentist just twice a year. I can't wait to find out what that feels like.

Can I get a hell yeah?

Also, I got my own wireless-internet-hook-up-thing, and have as of right now stopped stealing wireless signal from my neighbors. AND it didn't cost me the $85 they quoted me 'cause the handy-wireless-internet guy discovered I had a connection that I didn't know about.

Can I get another hell yeah?

AND for the icing, (you know, the very best part) - I signed on the dotted line of a long piece of yellow paper, in triplicate no less, tonight to get MY SUNROOM!!! (This is where the happy dance really gets scary). I've had visions of this room for the last two years, overlooking my back yard, me working, writing, reading, napping, and if I actually learn, maybe knitting in there. I scheduled the estimate thinking they would come out and quote me something so outlandish it would be impossible for me to afford effectively putting an end to my sunroom-longing. But no, apparently Ra (he was the sun god, right?) has smiled upon me, and the Nice-Sunroom-estimate-man tells me I have the easiest house/deck combo to transform into the sunroom of my dreams, complete with sliding glass door onto my deck and dog door for my four legged friends. Affordable, you betcha.

For the sprinkles on the icing, it'll be done by the first week in April, second at worst. At any rate, weeks before I bring home my new puppy.

I haven't had a day this good in a very long time. I'm going to enjoy it, perhaps even revel in it.

The word on the work-street is the next several months could be ugly..the words "overtime" and "weekend-work" have been used with abandon. The blow of that happening during the lovely North Carolina spring is considerably softened by the fact that I could do all that "weekend-overtime-work" in my brand new sunroom with my dogs in the sunny spot at my feet.

Sangria slushies in the sunroom - mid April - Who's in?