Where the He!! Did Spring Go?

I'm thinking that everyone across the country is asking where spring went this weekend. This blast of cold air really blows (pun intended) for anyone hoping to enjoy some time outside on a long holiday weekend. The poor wildflowers pictured in my last post are freezing their bums off today, and the weather man says tomorrow will be even worse, with possible wintry mix in the morning! Thank goodness the weather was nice yesterday and I was able to get two very enjoyable walks on the bayou with the kids or the entire weekend would have been a disappointment. I had been planning to go to the nursery this weekend and then spending most of the weekend outside with dirt under my fingernails. Guess that will just have to wait until next weekend.

As it is, I am planing on getting some chores done around here, such as finishing taxes. I know, I know, tax is a four letter word! I usually get a little something back each year, but unfortunately this year I will be paying.

Really bad timing since I have the huge (to the tune of 4K) bill for dental work looming. I haven't set the appointment yet for my three - yes three! root canals yet. Oh well. There's not a darn thing most of us can do about big, unexpected expenses like this; and it's not like buying a new tv, there isn't much choice when it comes to your health.

The good news is that I will find a way to pay of the dental bill and neither I nor the dogs will starve, and we will keep a roof over our heads. For a lot of people and a lot of families with no medical/dental insurance and less income, this kind of bill would mean complete financial devastation. For me it will just mean a year or so of penny pinching and doing without a few things while paying off the credit card company. There is definitely something wrong with the medical/dental system though. Going into debt or worse should not be the price we pay for simply trying to stay or get healthy!

Enough ranting, what about the cardi kids? Well, this was Mikey's week for agility class. It was exercise week using, as J calls it, the 'circle of death'. This involves a circle of about six jumps and, handling from inside the circle you send the dog around the circle in either or serpentine or 'threadle' (threadle is sending the dog out of the circle over the jump, then back in the circle between jumps, then back out of the circle over the next jump, and so on). Mikey and I had a little trouble at first because I wasn't working close enough to him, but we did better once I started handling him from a little bit closer. Before I got it together though, I got one very frustrated bark from Mikey directed right at me! From Mikey! Lord only knows what kind of back talk I would have gotten if I had been working with Holly!

Next week we will run courses in class, and next week is Holly's turn. Which I have suddenly realized is a problem. Because every other week in class we do courses, and the week in between we do exercises. And I alternate dogs every other week; so Holly only gets to do courses, and Mikey only gets to do exercise work. One solution is to take Mikey for two weeks in a row, and then take Holly for two weeks in a row. A better solution, if I can talk to J into it, is to work with both dogs in every class. I'm thinking I can take our soft crate and set it up in the corner of the agility field to hold which ever dog I am not working with. The potential problem is that J likes to keep her classes from getting too big, and by working both dogs I will essentially be adding a dog to the class.

So what do Cardigans do on a cold rainy day? Well, if they're my cardi kids, and they had a good hard run on the bayou this morning before the rain started, they sack out on the couch all day. Which is really quite nice since I have spent the day so far curled up on the couch too, either reading or on the computer, and nothing is nicer on a cold day than a couple warm dogs curled up with you. A relaxing way to spend the day, to be sure.

But I really should get up and get moving. There are always things that have to get done, if you're a human, that is.

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Here I tried to recapture a picture I took of Mikey when he was tiny.

Not quite the same, but cute anyway.