Uncategorized | Change Is Hard

March 4, 2011
by dawnkinster 11 Comments

Heartbreaking

This morning we woke to ice covered roads. Freeways everywhere were being closed because of crashes involving multiple cars and trucks. I crept slowly all the way to work wondering why this winter has been so brutal; so many horrible commutes this year.

While driving I was listening to talk radio which was listing closed roads and crash sights. I saw lots of cars in the ditch, but mostly just hung on to the wheel and kept moving slowly behind the car in front of me.

Thankfully I made it to work just fine, but lots of other people weren’t so lucky – including the driver of a pickup truck that slid into and under the back of a semi. Ironically just this week there has been national news about the rear guards of semis not being strong enough to deflect a vehicle; that they are giving way and people in cars are continuing to slide beneath the trucks. It’s another thing we need to work on, along with side under ride deflectors.

Here’s the video about our roads and the truck crash.

While I was posting the information of today’s crash to the truck safety website I came across this story, which is even more heartbreaking because it involves two young boys who were in a car last August that was hit from behind by a trucker who fell asleep. Their Mom was killed, both boys were seriously injured and of the boys has brain damage. The father who was not in the car at the time of the crash is writing almost every day about how life is different now, about his new reality. I could only read a few entries, some from the beginning last August, some from recently.

These events have steeled my resolve to keep working. Sometimes I get mad, sometimes I’m just overwhelmed by it all. Sometimes I’m confused about how to feel. And sometimes I get tired and want to rest, to give up. But these families remind me once again that we can’t rest yet.

Sorry to bring up the truck issue again, it just seems like the more I know the more I notice.

Be safe out there.

March 1, 2011
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

Wordless Wednesday

February 28, 2011
by dawnkinster 13 Comments

Wrong class

I decided Katie and I needed to go back to school, in order to get that last leg of Rally that she needs to earn her Novice Rally title. But it’s so hard to find a class I can get to while working full time almost an hour away. So tonight I decided to take her to a drop in class of novice obedience. I figured we could work on our heeling and get ourselves ready to try for that last Rally leg.

Except I read the schedule wrong. And got myself registered for Open Obedience..which is a drop in class, but they are doing stuff we’ve never done. Like dropping on our recalls…and jumping over stuff to get a dumbell that we don’t even own…

The class started out with the long sits and downs…the very first thing was a 5 minute down with the owners out of the room. Poor Katie. She went into her down and then watched me leave with sad brown eyes. I told the instructor we had never done this without me being in the room, so he let me go back out after a couple of minutes. She was much less stressed. This was my first indication I was no longer in a novice class.

Regardless, she did the five minute down and the 3 minute sit without moving. Good girl!

But heeling? Well, that’s the reason we need to be back in school for sure! The instructor honed right in on us and gave me quite a few tips. Katie didn’t like him and tried to hide behind me every time he was near. Which didn’t help our figure eights either.

And when I turned around after crossing the ring for our first recall I couldn’t even SEE Katie because a big German Shepard was playing with his Mom, his rear end in front of her and his tail slapping Katie in the face. And she was sitting there stoically waiting for me to call her! As soon as I opened my mouth, before I even called her she was on her way to me. And she didn’t stop and sit in front of me like she was supposed to; she ran around behind me to hide. Poor puppy.

After that it was pretty much downhill. The instructor politely suggested that perhaps we weren’t ready for Open. No kidding. I thought I was in Novice! Next week I need to try to get there at 6:30 when the Novice class is running…rather than 7:30 when I THOUGHT novice was happening!

Katie say…”GEE MOM! What did you get me into anyway?!” She’s sleeping now. Probably having nightmares!

February 27, 2011
by dawnkinster 18 Comments

The art of writing letters

Writing letters… is that something that disappeared in my mother’s time? Have twitter, facebook, bloging and emails eliminated the time worn tradition of touching base through paper and a stamp? Does instant automatically equal better?

I’ve been considering these issues because I used to love to write letters. And I grew up in a letter writing household. Though we lived only a hour away from my Grandmother, my Mom wrote a postcard to her every week. Mom’s writing was tiny and got tinier as the space in the postcard began to fill up. I remember her finishing the last sentence by running it up the edge of the postcard, and I used to wonder if my Grandma used a magnifying glass to read them.

In turn, many years later when my Mom lived in Alabama and I was still here in Michigan I restarted the tradition. Bonnie the sheltie-girl and I would get up every Saturday and write Mom a letter, using a computer and regularly sized paper, which we hurried out to the mailbox so that the mailman would pick it up that morning and she’d have it by Wednesday.

We did this every week for years…until email happened along. When we found the almost instant connection the letters dwindled. Yet after her death I found all those letters I had sent bound together, safe in her desk. Through my tears I recognized the value of a letter, the way you can touch them over and over, knowing they were touched by the person who took the time to send them to you. They are tangible evidence of thoughtfulness and care and love.

So I was intrigued by a challenge presented by PJ on her blog Books in Northport. She challenged all of us to slow down a bit and commit to mailing one letter a week to someone between now and Memorial Day in May. It doesn’t have to be the same someone. You can choose to mail a letter to someone different each week. You can delight many people.

Like I was delighted this week when in the mail arrived a card from Bree, Reilly’s Mom. She makes handmade cards which are lovely, and she sent one to me because she knew I would be a bit depressed by all the snow here after my wonderful week in sunny New Mexico. Now that’s what I’m talking about. The unexpected, the smile that comes in the mail, the realization that someone thought about you and took some time to send you something to tell you so.

Reilly’s Mom just had a contest to give away some of her artwork. I’m hoping those that won the cards will use them to brighten someone’s day…one card at a time, one note at a time, one stamp at a time.

I’ve accepted PJ’s challenge and mailed my first letter to a friend I’ve been out of touch with last week. This week I have someone else in mind. When I think about it, there are a whole lot of people that I’d like to touch base with more often than the Christmas letter.

I bet if you think about it you have a whole list of people that would enjoy hearing from you too. Why not join me in the challenge. If you have time to spend 30 minutes watching TV during the week you have time to touch someone’s life, to bring a smile to a face, to let someone know they were thought of.

Pretty cool. And thanks Bree!

(All cards photographed here are Bree’s artwork.)

February 26, 2011
by dawnkinster 8 Comments

Mountains

It’s hard to go from these mountains….

…to these mountains.

But I’m trying to keep New Mexico in my heart.

Trying.

February 21, 2011
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

Sleepy puppy…and Reilly's game

Over at Reilly the CowSpot Dog’s blog there’s a contest brewing. It’s especially designed for those of us with “zoomie” dogs. You know the kind….they never slow down and it’s rare to catch them snoozing. We have one such dog…and most of you have met her. But getting a photo of her sleeping is not so easy.

Just when you think you’ve got that perfect shot…

…she opens those eyes.

You try again…

…but she always hears the camera as I turn it on.

Sometimes she sleeps upside down, like she did the first night she was with us…which is when I got the first photo above. And even now she sleeps that way when she’s really comfortable.

But sometimes she’s more shy.

Once in awhile she falls asleep outside, even in the winter.

You might have noticed by now that she’s quite the pillow hog. Which is why we call her a princess…as in the princess and the pea.

But mostly she’s just our silly girl.

February 20, 2011
by dawnkinster 11 Comments

Most of us are home again

We made it home last night. Really late. We are very tired.

Katie, however, is still at camp, and they are closed today…so her Dad will go pick her up Monday morning while I’m at work.

I think we’ve all missed Katie…right?

So here’s a reminder of the princess herself.

“Can I come home now Mom? Please?”

February 19, 2011
by dawnkinster 11 Comments

Santa Fe style

We spent a day in Santa Fe which in some ways reminded me of Italy; the town centered on a square, and the narrow streets lined with galleries.

And of course the churches. St Francis of Assisi, where a statue of the first Native American Indian to become a saint stands out front….

…to the Loretto Chapel which houses the mysterious unsupported circular staircase up to the choir loft…

…to San Miguel the oldest church, whose refurbished architecture reminded me of everything New Mexico.

We walked among the galleries and parks under the brilliant blue sky I’ve begun to expect here. I drank in the color and the light…

…appreciating the old…

…and the new.

And when we could walk no more we drove up the mountain into the snow and watched the sun set.

We’ll be home soon, far away from the endless sun, turquoise skies, exquisite light and colorful buildings that are New Mexico. And winter hasn’t released Michigan. I’m told there is snow in Sunday’s forecast. But winter can’t get me down now.

Because I’ll have the colors and sights of New Mexico in my heart.

February 16, 2011
by dawnkinster 13 Comments

Cliff dwellers share their homes with us

Yesterday and today we visited the ancient homes of cliff dwellers.

Today we visited Bandelier National Monument, the home of cliff dwellers who built homes on the valley floor and up in the red cliffs along the walls of the mesas.

We had a wonderful afternoon of walking under New Mexico blue skies, imagining what life was like back in the days when these homes were built.

We were so far back into the mountains that the only sounds were our feet on the path, the wind in the trees, the call of birds and the chatter of long eared Abert squirrels.

Yesterday we had a guided tour of the Puye cliff dweller homes, built both on top of the mesa…

…and within the cliffs.

Our guide was a young man not yet 21 whose family traces back hundreds of years on the lands he showed us.

We learned about the way his people felt about the land we were standing on. He said that the cliff dwellers left the area when their source of water dried up.

What caused the stream to dry up we asked? He said his elders felt it was because there had been fighting among the people so God had dried up the water and forced them to leave.