Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


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A river, more peonies and…Shakespere?

My Friday afternoon began with a bit of canoeing in Ann Arbor on the Huron River with my Aunt B.  We canoed from the canoe livery in town to just below the Barton Pond dam.  They said it was two miles of river up to the dam, but it was really more like canoeing on a  beautiful lake.

It’s been a fair number of years since I’ve been in a canoe for any length of time, and today my behind is letting me know that I sat for a good long time on a hard aluminum seat!  I’m surprised my arms aren’t expressing their displeasure at the amount of work I forced out of them yesterday as well.  Of course they may be waiting until I’m less suspecting.   Like tomorrow.


The pond and river were wide and smooth most of our way up to the dam.  On the way back a storm was coming in, the winds picked up and we had little white caps to maneuver.  There was no stopping to rest aching arms, as the  head wind would blow us  further back up  the river whenever we stopped paddling!  It was a challenge that we won!


Later in the day we had a lovely picnic lunch at Nichols Arboretum in preparation for watching Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Nights Dreams” which is being done Thursdays through Sundays through the month of June.  Here’s a link to the Ann Arbor Newspaper’s review which will also tell you a bit about how the play is done in this beautiful outdoor setting.  For those of you in or near Ann Arbor, you really should go enjoy this event.  It’s unique and wonderful and set in a place so beautiful you can hardly believe you’re lucky enough to be there.

We had a marvelous time.  The play began in the peony garden, so I got to take more pictures of the beautiful flowers.  They still look good, though some are not as beautiful as they were last weekend.

The audience gathered in chairs and on blankets along the hillside to watch the opening act; the setting the stage, as it were, of the love between Hermia and Lysander, and the arranged marriage Hermia’s father has made between her and Demetrius, and of Helena whose overwhelming  love for Demetrius has been scorned.

After each scene the audience picks up and moves to a new “set” within the Arboretum.  This makes the production fun, even for people who don’t love Shakespeare.   Each setting seems perfect for the action that takes place there; the hapless couples become more and more confused wandering through the forest on that dream filled night.

The audience gets to see it up close and personal.  The actors are so close  that you can see facial expression, hear most of the words and watch the prat falls as they race up and down the hills of the Arb. 

We enjoyed the fairies dance among the trees in the woods, listened to the magical music played by nymphs on the hillside, and laughed at the antics of  the band of Pucks causing trouble on this midsummer evening.

And then it began to rain.

During the last minutes of the play the thunder rolled and the skies opened up.  Rain poured down in buckets, the production was called for rain and we all ran for our cars.  I haven’t been out in rain like this since I was a little girl.  We got soaked.

But we laughed all the way back to the car.


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Update

Thought you’d enjoy laughing with me.  This morning Katie asked to go out and I figured she needed to “go.”  So out we went, and she ran straight over to her mini teeter, jumped on it, ran to the other end, stood 2o2o and looked at me with expectant eyes.  Lucky for me I had a few pieces of kibble in my pocket.  Then she jumped off, turned and ran across it the other way and wouldn’t get off to go do her job.  In fact I had to bribe her to come back inside!  She was going to stand on that teeter till she got what she wanted!

She’s kinda stubborn.


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Shut down

Katie and I had two classes today, the Rally class at 11:30 this morning and the Agility class at 6 tonight.  In both classes she pretty much shut down after about 30 minutes.  It was a bit warm, but nothing like how hot it was last week.

In the Rally class she started out sort of OK, but her heeling is all over the place, and when she sits she still sits far away from me.  Just to taunt me I guess.

In agility we started with teeter, not her favorite, though you can see she’s progressing nicely with her teeter in the driveway.  We have advanced from a 2 inch pipe to a 3 inch pipe no problem.  After teeter we were doing  jumps and weaves and she did the sequence twice then refused to do anything more.      At all.  Not happening.  Nope.  No jumps.  No chute.  Nadda.

After her refusal on the jumps I took her outside to pee.  On our way back to class she didn’t want to go into the building.  And she refused to do anything more, actually trotting out of the ring when it was our turn.  So we went home early. Poor baby.  Maybe two classes in one day is too much.  Next week I think I’ll skip the rally class and just try to do the fun stuff in agility.

She dozed all 25 minutes home tonight.  But when she got home and we were telling her Dad about our less then successful day she was all perky and wanted the rest of her chicken!  HA!  Not going to happen kiddo, no worky, no chickeny!  I had thought that cheese I”ve been using, and that I used this morning in Rally was no longer a high enough value food, so I went to the store after the Rally class and bought chicken and cooked it before the agility class!  Can’t say I didn’t try!  But that’s obviously not the problem.

Meanwhile this week if the weather dries up we’ll do our jumping and tunnels and such in our own backyard where things are always fun and not so much work!


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Our peony adventure

I’ve been wanting to take husband’s Aunt to the peony gardens in Ann Arbor for years.  It’s the kind of place I knew she’d enjoy.  And I knew I’d enjoy sharing it with her too.

Each year it just didn’t happen.  Stuff got in the way and I usually forgot until my own peony plants were  in bloom, and by then down in Ann Arbor the show was past it’s prime or over completely.  This weekend everything came together,  and husband and I, along with husband’s aunt and uncle, drove down to see what we might find.  It was kind of spur of the moment and I wasn’t sure if we had timed it right.

It was PERFECT!

Husband’s aunt is 94 and has been through quite a spell of ill health in the past couple of months.   That made me realize that we don’t have infinite time with her, and reminded me of how much I wanted her to enjoy herself out in this beautiful pink and white garden.  Pink is her color, so this trip was extra special.

Once we arrived we found a bench in the shade and let her sit there, while the rest of us went off to explore.

Here are some of my favorites.

Aunt V. said that everyone that walked by stopped and exclaimed over a dark red peony near her.  It was breathtaking, and so unusual.


So much to see, such a beautiful place.  You just can’t help but smile.

Even now, just thinking about it I’m smiling, and I’m sure Aunt V is smiling too!

So…if you live near Ann Arbor, and you haven’t been to the peony garden over by the UM hospital…go there now!

We had a wonderful time.  Family and flowers – just perfect for a Memorial Day adventure!


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Dreams

So do you dream?  Do you remember them after you wake up?  Are they in color?  Some of my dreams stay with me through the day, some of them have stayed in my memory for years.  I had one of those this morning that I’ll share, just because it was so odd.

Our family’s truck crash attorney J was driving me and all my siblings  from NYC to Chicago in a van to attend some sort of conference.    Before we left the city we were in a parking lot in a part of the city that was … well… let’s just say photogenic in a grubby and gritty kind of way. J is outside the van on the driver’s side talking to Jo the director of our nonprofit.  My three siblings are scrunched into the back seat.   I’m sitting in the front passenger seat, the door open, and trying to get my camera to turn on to take a picture of a building and the debris around it that actually are in some really beautiful colors, when a big and old cadillac convertible shows up, stuffed full of really big guys and they are mumbling about some white bxxxx taking pictures, and suddenly I’m feeling really threatened and I tell J to stop talking to Jo  and lets get going.

“Good idea” says J and he gets in the van and we are pulling away, but now he’s talking on his cell phone, ordering something…and then we’re in a parking garage and there are all these groups of Broadway dancers practicing their routines, all in their spangly costumes, bright colors, lots of sequins, lots of high kicks etc and we’re trying to drive through and around several of these groups and I still can’t get my camera to work..  then we get near a stairwell and someone is waiting there.  It’s a waitress with the lunch that J had ordered!  There’s a hot dog wrapped up in a white paper napkin, and a styrofoam plate of chicken, just a drumstick and a breast, bone in, and something else on another paper plate, and a manhattan (drink) in a real glass!  And it all gets handed to me along with a knife and fork also rolled in a white paper napkin.

I’m holding all this and Jeff is driving (we’re out on a road somewhere now) and I’m considering what to do with all this food, and especially the manhattan (which is a drink from WAY back in my college days!) and I tell J that he can’t have the drink because he’s driving and he said it was for ME because I seemed “a  little stressed and needed to relax” so I had all the food back to my three siblings to split up, along with the one knife and fork and settle in for the trip sipping my drink.

Then we’re in a very crowded conference room and I’m glad there are so many people there.  J says he’s going to start things off by playing a video that “insurance companies use to get you convinced of their side of the story.”  And he starts this video and everyone (but me and my siblings) is on their feet yelling that “yea, that’s what they told me but that’s not what happened” and stuff like that.  It’s very noisy and the four of us are just sitting at the tables watching.

I’m sitting next to P, one of my brothers, and my sister B comes up to our table and crouches on the other side and says, very earnestly, “Here’s an idea, what if for EVERY PENNY you have you pay 10 cents in taxes?  Wouldn’t that help with the problem?”  And P and I look at each other and I ask B, well where would you get the 10 cents if you only had a penny?  And she gets very consternated  and says that after the meeting she’ll explain it better, and goes back to her table.  I look at P and wonder aloud if maybe she said it backward?  That for every 10 cents we pay 1 cent?  But that would just be a flat tax and that had already been discussed.  Meanwhile the participants are still yelling at the video of insurance companies.

I’m pondering B’s tax solution, trying to figure out what she was talking about when Katie the dog shakes her dog tags, a sign that it’s morning, and time to get up and go outside.

So….what did you dream about last night?


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Things I learned while riding my bike

On this Memorial Day weekend, as part of my new focus on fitness I took the bike out for an hour and a half ride over the back roads nearby.  I wasn’t out to find anything particular; just to see what I might see and enjoy the morning.  Here’s what I learned:

  • That it’s hard to see the potholes when you’re tearing down a hill wearing sunglasses.
  • That for every long uphill you can hope for an equidistant downhill.
  • That if you continue forward, even when you don’t know where you are, you’ll find your way.
  • That these bits of wisdom apply to more than an adventure on a bicycle.

You think?


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Katie and her Mom reboot

Well I probably over reacted to Katie’s shutdown last night.  Today she seems pretty normal.  We went on a walk in the subdivision, something we hardly ever do, as I prefer taking her to a park where I don’t have to worry about cars.  But this morning I wanted to do something fun and quick and easy; something with which she had no associated fears.

She was happy happy happy to go for a walk!  We moved along and I said a lot of “Leave it! Let’s go!” which worked fine, just like in school.  Once in awhile, maybe a total of three times I brought her in closer to me and we did a one step heel and sit, which she did with only a tiny bit of hesitation.  She didn’t want the treats I brought with me –  not a high enough quality for the princess you know.  Treat refusal is also a sign she’s a bit anxious, but she did what I asked and I gave her lots of praise, and more importantly let her go sniff a mailbox post or two as a reward.  Then we’d be off again.

After her walk I went out for a 3 mile run/walk.  It was hot.  But it went well. This is the longest distance I’ve gone since I fractured my foot in October of 2008!!!  Once I was back home Katie licked the salt off my knees, and now she’s curled up in a happy nap.

Obviously she doesn’t hate me anymore.


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Katie's scared of me now. :(

Katie and I went to our Rally class this afternoon.  It’s 1/2 an hour of obedience and 1/2 an hour of working through a rally course the instructor has set up.  Generally not too stressful.

We got there a bit early, and I put Katie in the honor spot on the course (the spot where in Advanced your dog sits or lays down while another dog does the course.)  I told her to stay and I walked the course a couple of times.  Then we did some figure 8’s with the instructor before class because that’s our hardest thing.  We even did some heeling for her, and Katie was, as the instructor said, “GORGEOUS!”

So I had high hopes for the class today.  Katie was so focused.  We were about 15 minutes into the group class when the instructor called for us to do a 90 degree pivot to the right.  Apparently Katie’s tail was lying behind me big feet, and as I stepped back I stepped on it.  She screamed, I screamed and jumped, next thing I know she’s trying to jump into my arms.

I got her sort of calmed down and we continued in our heeling patterns with the group.  Katie was “heeling” at the far end of her leash even with me encouraging her back to my side.  When we stopped and she is supposed to sit..well…she sits at a 90 degree angle, looking up at me as if to say, “SEE?  I’m keeping my tail as far away from your big fat feet as possible!”  It was sort of amusing…but not really.

THEN we got over to the Rally ring and she basically wouldn’t get near me at all and refused to do most of the stuff.  Stuff she knows and normally would do no problem.  SIGH SIGH SIGH SIGH.  Part of it was that it was HOT and by the time we got to the rally ring she was totally stressed out and so was I.  We probably should have just gone home…but I tried to do the course.

Anyone with advice on how to get her over her fear, let me know.    We have a lot of work to do now!  Luckily (I guess) there’s no agility this week because they are doing an agility trial at another location and have to move all the equipment over there.  I’m hoping to go see some of that…without Katie! LOL!