Thursday January 14th (aka Snowblow Before Or After Chiro?)
 

Morning! |snowman2

We got about a foot of snow, which is a lot less than they predicted. Driveway's been plowed, so now I'm waiting to hear back from my chiro for advice as to if I should snowblow before or after my appt this afternoon.

The Bitch had to go to the doctor this morning because she got a small wire sliver in her finger over the weekend from the dog's outdoor leash & it's now infected |scared| I told her to just cut if off :D

Aside from working & running around in the snow this afternoon...

No snow here and none is expected. It was chilly enough last night that I got to wear the winter coat that I bought some months ago.

Work, get my room ready for tomorrow's Air BnB guest, and tennis tonight are my plans for the day so far.

Morning

Was feeling pretty and was planning to do more work on the house, I did some yesterday after all, and then the back went out. So it's going to be pain killers, ice and heat wraps for the next day or two as my grandson is staying over tomorrow night and I need to be in decent shape so we can build hot wheel tracks.

Watched The Ridiculous 6 yesterday (while eating lunch/working) and once I let the stupidity settle in I found it quite funny.

Need to pick a new series to start watching from the list in my queue. Then again I'm considering re-watching House Of Cards since a new season is coming soon. FU2016

Got a great thank you letter from my nephew today:

You may remember (but probably don't) that before Christmas I was moaning that the toy gun I got him cost nearly the equivalent of $50. Not that I minded paying that for his present (it was about my target price) but it seemed excessive for a toy gun.

Well the gun was called a "Retaliator" and the Retaliator tried really hard to live up to it's price. It was big, looked like a cross between a machine gun and a gun out of a sci-fi movie. It actually fired (similar method to a BB gun), but instead of ball bearings it fired three inch long foam rubber missiles, and had a rapid fire action. It was this "Retaliator" that my nephew was thanking me for. His thank you letter was short, just two lines, and said:

Dear Uncle Paul
Thank you very much for the Retaliator.
There are now no more squirrels in the garden.


|bigfuckin

(Although since my sister, his mother, is a vegetarian - I doubt if she is all that happy with the use he put to my present!)




The puppy has at last learnt the "tree command".

The tree command is for when he is on a lead and goes round one side of a tree and I go round the other. The idea is I yell "Tree" and he backs up and goes round the other side (my side) of the tree.

Normally I can teach this to a dog within a week. It took the puppy nearly a year to learn it!

The first problem was his cowardice and fear of everything. To start the training I yell "Tree" and pull on the lead, so that the dog is pulled back round my side of the tree. It usually only takes a few goes before they realise what is happening and walk round the tree themselves.

But the puppy saw me pulling on the lead and expected to be pulled towards me. Of course he wasn't, he was pulled backwards and away from me. He panicked - this was against the laws of nature, so he dug his claws into the grass and refused to move.

A ridgeback is a big strong dog and hard to move when he does not want to be moved. So it took me months to get him to let me pull him back around the tree, and longer to get him to think to try walking round himself.

Then came the second problem. He always went the wrong way round the tree, tyeing himself to it with the lead. I don't mean he made this mistake 50% of the time (which the law of averages dictates he should do if he was just guessing at which way to go), he literally went the wrong way every single time. He had to have thought about it and decided that was the right way to go, and would not try the other way until I grabbed his collar and guided him round.

But today he managed it all on his own. I said "tree", gave a slight tug on the lead, and he backed up and went the correct way round it!

And he was so pleased with himself when he realised he had got it. He spent ages jumping up and down like a spring lamb, to celebrate, then jumped up at me and licked my face.

Boy was he one happy puppy, all because he had worked out how to walk round a tree!!!!!!


|party

I watched the video because I loved Dogma. Didn't realise why you had posted it. Just got an email from my film school with the sad news. Seem like we are loosing all the good ones this week.

RIP Alan Rickman