Poodle games are good for people, too.

Today Nancy brought over the agility tunnel she had bought for the dogs to use during their play dates.  At first no one was interested in going through, even Jasper, who has been doing agilility for awhile.  With liver treat enticements thrown in, Roxy and Canon soon followed.  Roxy earned the speed record for going through, especially when she developed the zoomies near the end of our time.  Canon  quickly learned to U-turn, and then claimed the tunnel as his cave, a better place to hide from Jasper than between someone's legs.

Caprice, as usual, was the cautious one.  I had to start slowly- giving her a treat in front of the tunnel, then placing it near the entrance.  Throwing it in the tunnel invited the other three dogs to dive for the treat, so I did the only thing possible.  I crawled into the tunnel.  Mind you remember that this is the middle of winter.  We had a snow last week, and the snow was still melting and the ground was wet.  Slightly colder and muddier than I was before, I crawled midway into the tunnel offering a treat.  Do you think having a big human in there deterred the other dogs?  Before I knew it, Canon and Roxy were all over me, looking for a goodie.  They had no inhibitions about getting on me, over me, and past me.  It paid off.  Caprice came for me, got her treat, and moved along to the exit, again, right past me.  Slowly, as my 60-year-old body took me, I backed out.  As I got to the end, again, dogs swarmed me, looking for liver. I think I was yelling and laughing at the time.  It had been awhile (perhaps a long time) since I got silly and enjoyed a genuine laugh.  Nancy took her turn in the tunnel.  More agile than I, but still greeted by poodles and laughter.  That's her in the picture.

Nancy was kind enough to leave the tunnel so I could practice with Caprice with less distractions.  Later in the afternoon, Michael and I achieved success, and it only involved crawling halfway in once.  Two times through, and that was enough for the day.  A day of poodle games for the dogs, and Nancy and me.

So what have I been doing lately?

• Watching grey skies and wondering if anything is going to come down
• Sniffling
• Thinking about what to write
• Reading mysteries
• Moving two objects on my desk and then putting off cleaning it
• Loving my dogs
• Playing Facebook games (maybe I'll make another promise to quit)
• Cooking- I made some edible gluten-free French bread (I said edible, not wonderful)
• Thinking about friends having a hard time
• Watching too much TV (but I'm glad American Idol is back)
• Looking for a chiar for the living room (but at least I bought some new pillows for the couch)
• Avoiding laundry
• Taking naps
• Drinking tea
• Wondering what I could do/say to make me seem more vibrant
• Reading and writing e-mail
• Enjoying cozy days at home
• Making lists

Childhood Memories

Not my memories this time.

Coincidentally, and usual for me (nonfiction is not my first reading choice!),  I finished reading two memoirs last night.   The first was Nonno's Monkey by my book group friend, Isabel Bearman Bucher.  The second was Stitches  by children's book illustrator David Small.  Isabel's is about her childhood with her Italian-born family's life in this country.  Small's is in graphic novel form, telling of his upbringing by a radiologist father who unknowingly  caused his son's cancer and an unbalanced, unloving mother.  Very different families, but similarities exist.

Isabel writes about her family with love, yet also with childhood resentment.  She's resolved her issues with her mother, who didn't know how to act like a mother, yet shows how she felt about this as a child. She writes about how her family directed her, pushed her, embarrassed her--all childhood feelings.  It was foreign to me, her life living in the country with extended family, but familiar as well.

Small's family life was, perhaps, more like mine-- urban, middle class, but more foreign emotionally.  As a child his father treated his asthma with radiation, which eventually caused cancer.  He had surgery, which damaged his vocal cords, without even being told about the cancer.  His mother was always angry, distant.  He eventually discovered she was a lesbian.  His father was always working.

Both resented their families.  The wisdom of age has mellowed and resolved this resentment, but the childhood anger clearly shows.  I supposed I feel like this too.  I regret not having close relationships with my parents, and know I resented my mother's treatment of me.  (Nothing bizarre, we just didn't get along.)  I'm wondering know how common this thread is; how many people do have some anger or resentment towards their treatment as a child or relationship with their parents.  For a long time I thought that others all had ideal family relationships and I was odd.  So many women are good friends with their mothers, while I never had that.

When did a book review turn into being about me?  A bit heavy for my blog comeback.

Why I haven't posted in a long time...

• I'm lazy.
• I have nothing to say.
• I have so much to say I don't know where to start.
• I'm unorganized.
• I'm spending too much time playing computer games.
• I don't have any good pictures to go with what I write.
• I just haven't!