Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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Just overwhelmed

Here it’s only Tuesday and I’m already overwhelmed.  I had an hour between work and community band rehearsal tonight and I sat in the car and watched people coming and going from the grocery store wishing I just had grocery shopping to do.    Sometimes getting to rehearsal seems so hard, but once I’m there I’m usually glad I went.  But not tonight.  Tonight we got all new music for our last concert which is in 6 weeks.  I didn’t like any of it, and it all looks like a lot of work.  And I’m too tired to think about it.

Last night Katie and I went to school.  The instructor is getting more accepting of us, and occasionally we get a “good job with the Sheltie.”  But we also still get “the Sheltie is lagging!”  Which of course she is.  I think it has more to do with where my shoulder is than a problem with Katie.  It’s hardly ever the dog’s fault you know.    She did great on her sits and downs this week; last week she kept lying down on the sits.  But her recalls were really horrible.  She’d come when I called, but she’d run past me and hide behind my legs.  She was worried about the shadows from the overhead lights, though they are the same as they’ve always been.  She didn’t like the conformation class in the next ring because one of the little hairless something or others kept squealing.  I didn’t like that noise either.  The highlight of my whole week so far is that Katie allowed the instructor to touch her on the stand for exam! 🙂

So that’s my week in a nutshell so far…on day two.  Tomorrow night I have book club and I haven’t finished the book yet.  Guess that’s not going to happen.  But dinner and conversation that doesn’t revolve around work or the dog will be good!

Hope everyone else is having a great week!  I’m with Carol…no more talk about snow!


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Mashup

Did you know that’s a word?  Mashup.  I had to get a graduate degree in information to find that out.  And I’m still only vaguely sure what it means.  So for the purposes of today’s post, class, we will define it as a bunch of unrelated topics mashed into one post.

First up are technological problems.  There was the blog issue where it suddenly one evening stopped behaving in the way I’ve become accustomed.  Even with the graduate degree in information I have a phobia about technology.  And when things don’t work the same way they’ve worked before I get a little weirded out.

I’m trying to be better.  I really am.  And braver about clicking away at different things in an attempt to fix stuff without making other stuff worse.  But it’s still uncomfortable for me to do that.  And during the past two weeks we’ve been having cable issues here at the house as well.  Intermittent outages, little blackouts, for a few seconds, or hours.  So the odds of having internet work when I needed it were low.  The combination of blog problems, work problems and internet connection problems was, at times, overwhelming.

So I did what any good person does when technology lets her down.  I made soup.

I haven’t made this recipe before.  It’s the Weight Watcher version of potato soup.  I make another potato soup full of Velvetta cheese and bacon that is purely heaven but hardly healthy.  This one is full of onions and leeks, and though I’ve only tasted a bit of it as I cleaned up the pan, I think it just might be a different version of heaven.

And after the soup was made and put away Katie and I went for our weekly adventure. I’ve been wanting to take her on longer car rides.   I’m hoping to get her used to trips of greater and greater lengths so that we can explore further afield on weekends this summer.

So with high hopes, and virtually no planning, I loaded her up and off we went.  I got approximately 1/2 a mile down the road when she started complaining.  Loudly.  Seems I forgot to do the potty break prior to the loading of the sheltie.

So we stopped at her favorite local park.  I figured she’d do her thing like she always does, as soon as she’s out of the car, then we’d continue on our way.  But no.  We had to EXPLORE first.  Did I tell you it was cold yesterday?  We had blue skies and sunshine, but the temperature was in the high teens.

Yes it was very very cold.

Eventually she got her jobs done and I started back to the car.  She was like “WHAT?!  We haven’t done much of anything and this is MY FAVORITE PARK MOM!!!!”

But we headed off to MY favorite park, about 40 minutes away anyway.  Because I had the car keys and she doesn’t even have her learners permit to drive yet.

Once at my favorite park we headed out to the end of a point of land that extends into a big inland lake.  It’s a picnic area when times are warmer, but during winter it’s just a part of the park with no cars going by and no runners and nobody on bikes.  And it’s down a long hill so it’s sort of out of the wind.  Did I mention it was COLD out?

There are some big old hickory trees out there with the most beautiful bark.

There are lots of beautiful places to look at the lake and enjoy the sunshine.  It was almost totally frozen over with a smooth sheet of ice that reflected the blue sky.

We saw a pair of swans who were doing synchronized swimming just for us.

We had fun walking around and pretending it was summer.  Which it clearly wasn’t.

Then I had to go to the bathroom, so I loaded up the sheltie again and off we drove in search of an open restroom.   Once I got to one I debated leaving Katie in the car.  But I never do that..so she and I walked across a playground to the bathroom building.  Katie didn’t want to go in the big scary building.  But she did.  And she certainly didn’t want to go into the stall, even though I used the handicapped stall so she’s have more space to freak out in.  But she did.  And she was not OK with the fact that the toilet paper holder thingy squeaked.  A lot.  But she held her own and only tried to get under the wall to the other stall once.  But the flushing thing?  In a big empty concrete building with all it’s echos?  Oh boy.  That’s why she was on a leash.  Picture it, crazed sheltie, all four feet going, head down, pulling wildly on the leash and Mama just trying to get her coat back on.  Good thing we were alone.

So after the bathroom adventure we came home.  She was pretty quiet on the 40 minute trip home.  I guess she figured if she stayed quiet she wouldn’t have to go into any more scary places.

And for our third and final mashed up topic, husband and I went to see “The King’s Speech” last night because the TV and internet were down again, and we’d read all the hard copy magazines and newspapers we had in the house.  Technology let us down, so we had an old fashioned date night.  Not such a bad thing.  The movie is wonderful and deserves all the praise and awards that it has received.

When I got home the internet was back up, so I looked up more information about King George VI, his brother, Lionel his speech therapist and Wallace Simpson.  I guess I have a love/hate relationship with the internet.

Class dismissed.

 


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My day

I was thinking that having a blog that wouldn’t upload pictures might be, in a strange way, a good thing.  That it would force me to concentrate on words rather than relying on photos to tell my story.  And I even had a couple of thoughts I wanted to write about.

But another busy day at work has me whipped.  So I’m falling back on the photos to tell you all about it.

It started with the usual commute into the sun.  But it’s always good to have sunshine so I didn’t mind.  After a crazy  9 hours I left work to find it was snowing!

What’s with that?  Is this not the end of March?  Didn’t that Groundhog Phil guy predict that this year we were NOT going to have 6 more weeks of winter?  Wasn’t that sometime at the beginning of February?  I just don’t get it.

Once home we were sitting around eating some homemade Tuscan soup when Katie alerted us to events outside.

“There are deer out in my yard Mama!  Come see!  Come see!”

We’ve had four or five deer hanging around for a couple of weeks.  Tonight there were at least a dozen.

And most of them were eating bird seed under our bird feeder and drinking out of the birdbath.

These aren’t great photos because they’re taken from inside through the window with all sorts of reflections…but you get the idea.

It’s been an exciting evening here at the old King homestead.  We’re all still on guard, no rest for the Sheltie!

 


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In need of a chuckle?

I’m desperately in need of a chuckle.  Work has been difficult lately…to put it nicely.  And my Wordless Wednesday was going to be pictures of Katie frolicking in our sleet and snow.  (Yes we got sleet and snow last night and today.  I know.  It’s the end of March.  It’s not fair.  But it is what it is.)   I couldn’t do my Wordless Wednesday because my blog has suddenly decided it doesn’t want to allow photos to be uploaded. And a Wordless Wednesday without photos is just a big blank.  Tonight I’m too tired to try to figure out what changed.   Plus it’s just annoying and I have way too much annoying stuff going on already.

So anyway. You probably don’t know how excited I’ve been this winter to be able to put my car in the garage.  Many of the past winters I’ve had to scrape snow off the car every morning before work because we’ve had construction stuff in the garage during our multi-year remodel projects.  So this year, as part of my agreement to go back to work I negotiated that I’d get a spot in the garage for my car!  It’s been wonderful.

It started snowing and sleeting and raining ice last night and apparently continued most of the day though I was too busy to notice.  As I was leaving work this evening I heard the noise of people scraping the ice off their car windows.  I smiled and actually said to myself…”I’m so glad I don’t have to do that because I have a garage.”

And then the smile faded as I realized that while I was at work the car hadn’t been in the garage…and yes indeed I did too have to scrape ice off my windshield.  And just as the disgusting truth sunk in  I began to laugh.

Cause if you can’t laugh while you’re standing in a puddle of ice water scraping your windshield in March what can you do?


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Weekend extra extra…by Katie the Sheltie

Hi everyone, Katie here.  My Mama says I can write this blog about my weekend adventure because she’s too tired after spending the weekend grocery shopping and doing laundry and cooking and stuff.

See, yesterday after she spent the whole afternoon with Daddy’s Aunt Vi, shopping for clothes and food and such she got home ready to put her feet up.  She said they hurt.  But Daddy said I had been a very good dog all day (that’s mostly cuz I napped all afternoon while waiting for my Mama to come home)  and Mama should take me to the park! The PARK?! Yes Mama..that’s a VERY GOOD IDEA.  I got all excited and I don’t know why Mama was glaring at Daddy and telling him to shush up!

Well you know us sheltie-girls….once an idea about going to the park is in our pretty little heads…well…we’re pretty persuasive.   And you also know what a pushover Mama is.  So guess what?  We went exploring..just Mama and me.  Daddy stayed home.  I think he had his feet up but I’m not going to tell Mama that.

And you know what else?  My favorite park in the whole world was open!  It closes for the winter, but the gates were open yesterday so we went there!  And we had it all to ourselves!  There was still ice on the pond…but we heard red winged blackbirds calling..and even more special…we heard FROGS PEEPING!!!!  How cool is that!

Everything is still brown, but that’s ok.

Lots of good sniffings anyway, no matter what color the fields are.

We walked around the whole thing.  I don’t know how far that is, but I’m sure it’s over a mile.  Maybe lots more.  Hard to measure when you’re busy checking everything out.

I was pretty good.  I even did some heeling for Mom.  The only way she could get that picture was of our shadow.  Don’t we look good!?  OK…so maybe my butt was out too far and stuff…but I was paying attention to Mama and that’s what counts?  Right?  Right?

Anyways…we had a whole lot of fun and Mama even forgot her feet hurt.  She’s glad she went to the park with me, and I’m awfully glad we got to spend some time together when she wasn’t grumpy.  (You know she’s been sort of grumpy mad for awhile now, right?)

Mama’s cooking in the kitchen now, and humming along with the show tunes playing on the TV.  She said it’s fun to guess what show the song is from before she looks to see if she’s right.  I think that walk in the park did a lot for her spirits.

Glad to be of assistance.

-Your gal Katie…


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Moon over Michigan

Did you go outside to see the moon last night?  In my part of the world we had a “super moon” which is when the moon’s orbital path is as close to the earth as possible at a time that coincides with it being full.  That makes it appears to us earthlings as being bigger than normal.

Well of course Katie and I had to see that!  The TV weather guy said it would be up at 8:07.  We went out at 8:10…nothing…and it wasn’t till after 9:30 that we finally saw the moon hanging in the trees across the street.

Sure it looked pretty.  And maybe bigger.  But I remember a time in the early 80’s, when I lived in Houghton in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, when the full moon rose over the mountain and was so big that I ran back inside the house, grabbed my camera, and drove a mile up the mountain to an overlook in order to see it better.  That moon was HUGE; it filled the sky just like in the movies.   It was incredible.   And of course it didn’t look like anything special in the photos I got back from the film processor later in the week.

I guess sometimes special things just can’t be kept anywhere but in our own memories.


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Pictures that didn't happen

Just in the past 14 hours I’ve seen at least three cool things that I wish I could photograph to share with you.  I bet you’ve all seen similar things that just weren’t photographically possible.  So come along and I’ll share anyway.  You can use your imagination to fill in the image.

Yesterday after supper I was cleaning up and looking out the kitchen window.  Up from the far reaches of the yard marched a deer, then another, then another…until there were four.  Two of them came right up to the deck, stood under the birdfeeder looking for something to eat, then tried with their long tongues to get some birdfood out of the feeder itself.  Did I have my camera nearby?  Of course not.  Would I have been able to get a good photo even if I had it?  No, the window, screen and deck railing were all between me and the deer.  But it was still very cool.

This morning, very early, Katie and I were outside on our daily morning search for the perfect spot.  I turned around at the end of our drive and saw the big full moon hanging low over the house.  Did I have my camera?  Of course not.  Would I have been able to get a good photo even if I had it?  No, not with my point and shoot.  But it was still very cool.

And just now I’m emptying the dishwasher and watching the birds and I see a flash of blue go into an old bluebird house that I haven’t emptied in years.  Then I see the mama bluebird sitting on top, then SHE squeezes herself in.  I think the birdhouse is full of sticks from a wren that built a nest in there a couple of years ago, so I can’t image how both birds fit.  Then the two bluebirds are on top of the house when a red winged blackbird swoops in to sit on the roof.  I haven’t even heard them yet this spring and didn’t know they were back.  The blue birds chased the red winged bird off the roof of the house several times before all three flew away.  Did I have my camera?  No.  Could I have gotten a good shot of the beautiful birds sitting on the roof in the morning sun?  Not from the kitchen with my point and shoot, no.

But it sure was cool.


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Too busy to know

I’m feeling  disconnected.   I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to post or even read very much.   Katie and I had school Monday night, I played in a concert Tuesday night and I worked late last night.  I still haven’t caught up with that lost hour of last weekend’s daylight savings time adjustment.  Here it is after 8 and I’ve just sat down for the evening.  Where is the time going?

So.  A little bit of this, a little bit of that.  Let’s start with Katie and school.  This week was our second week in the correct, ‘Novice Motivation’ class.   In last week’s class I felt like we were a bother for the instructor who clearly didn’t remember we used to come all the time.  Because Katie wasn’t up to the instructor’s expectations with heeling we were pretty much ignored.  A lot of eye rolling went with the ignoring.  About the only thing she said to me was “you’re a nice Mom.”  And she didn’t mean it as a compliment.  Even though Katie did a perfect recall and was perfect at her sits and downs she would hide behind me every time the instructor with her loud voice came near.  I felt terrible.

This week Katie and I practiced during the week, her Dad didn’t feed her just before class, and she was less afraid of the big noisy building.  And I was more diligent with my corrections when she wandered.  So Katie gave me a bit more attention, though not much more than the week before.  And on her long sit she laid down.  Twice.  So when we did the long down I made her sit.  She was not happy with me.  “All the other dogs get to lay down MOM!!!”   Her recall is still good.  I felt a bit better by the end of the class.  We haven’t practiced heeling this week at all.  I have too much going on and I need to make time for practice this weekend or I’ll be miserable at school again on Monday night.  It’s so hard to get there by 6:30 when I work an hour south of here and class is 30 minutes north of here and I have to swing by and pick up the dog.  OK enough whining.

Tuesday night we played a concert with the 7th graders again.  I didn’t have time to practice since our last concert, but it went OK.  Personally I think we played too long for those 200 7th graders to sit still.  But we DID have a captive full house audience!

Tuesday and Wednesday were really terrible at work.  I can’t talk about it but suffice it to say that if I could retire right now I’d be gone.  Again.  I hope it’s just a bad string of days and not the way it’s going to be into the future.  I’m very very tired.  OK.  Enough whining now.

So maybe it’s just as well I’ve been too busy to hang out here.  Because I don’t feel like I’m very good company.  Katie’s barking.  Again.  She barked for an hour last night at 2:00 a.m.  We finally put her in her crate.  It was heaven to sleep without her. Could be I’m a slow learner and she should be there every night.  We’ll see.

OH!  And I forgot the whole point of this post was supposed to be that I’m too busy to notice stuff.  It took me almost all day to realize why so many people were wearing green today.   I guess I’ve been too busy to realize the month of March was…well..(forgive me!)… marching on.  Here we are at St. Patty’s and I didn’t even know it.

I don’t suppose wearing green tomorrow would be the same.


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When music fills the night

Last night my husband and I were privileged to spend another evening with the Ann Arbor Symphony.  The program, titled Russian Romance,  included three pieces all energetic, rich with imagery, full bodied and lush.

They opened with the Overture to Rusland and Ludmila, from an Opera about a princess and her betrothed warrior, composed by Mikhail Glinka in the mid 1800’s.   The strings raced up and down long runs of notes as if they were a single instrument, the clarinet showcased in the middle captured my heart and the sound of the orchestra swelled and filled the hall with such a robust sound it was clear this piece was meant to be a fanfare for the rest of the evening.

Also on the program was Symphony No. 5 composed by Prokofiev in 1944.  Each of the four movements brought such imagery to my mind.  The first movement reminded me of a massive Russian army marching across a cold barren landscape.  The second movement was more “Peter and the Wolf ” -ish, only bigger, with animals running and frolicking in a deep Russian woods.  I’m pretty sure I heard an elephant or two in there as well.  I think this movement was my favorite.    The third movement started off reminding me of a dream scape, soft, floating, somewhat sad.  But it quickly turns into a nightmare with shrieking woodwinds and ranting strings moving closer and closer to some horrifying climatic event that we didn’t even want to imagine.  The fourth movement combined bits of all three, the playfulness of movement two intertwined with the marching army of movement one and the dreams in movement three.  And it all came to a crazy, frenetic, crashing conclusion that left us all gasping for air even as we began to applaud our appreciation.

But the highlight of the evening?  The twenty-five year old Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich playing the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninoff.  Prior to the concert he gave a little talk, and when asked what we as audience members should listen for during his performance he paused…thought a moment…then said: “There are a lot of notes.  And you should listen to every one of them.”  We all laughed.  Later he said we “shouldn’t think too much…just let the music take you.”  Good advice.

It started out lush and full as if someone was falling in love, then moved into a playful period, as if the two lovers were enjoying their new relationship.  But soon ominous tones began to infiltrate; trouble in paradise?  The music became more frantic and it became clear (to me anyway) that this was the story of an overly dramatic teenager.  Then came slower, and more plaintive music, almost contemplative music that moved toward angst and confusion.  Then the flutes calmed the senses and the oboe has a conversation with the rest of the orchestra as well as the piano.   The music become plaintive again and then the piano takes over, reminding me of an older couple walking hand in hand through the landscape, remembering their history together, the memories portrayed in different parts of the movement lively and full of life, including the dancing of a waltz together near the end of the lives.

Then the music chages again and it is as if we are on horses galloping through hills and woods, perhaps on a hunt.  We’re soaring over fields and I followed the pianist’s advice…I let go and flowed with the music for the rest of the piece.  I can’t tell you the details from this point on…it was as if we were flying and this talented young man was the horse with wings.   As the piece came to an end with a lush, fully orchestrated swell I knew the young lovers, the older couple and everyone in the audience lived happily ever after.

And as the last note slipped into the heavens the audience erupted.  Rabinovich played three encores; it was as if we couldn’t let him go.  Such talent.

What a gift all the musicians gave to us last night.  I wish you all could have been there.