Last Updated on: 6th August 2017, 09:19 am
Hey there. God, I’ve been labeling posts so long that my brain felt it had to write blog posts for nourishment! So here’s one. It’ll probably suck, but oh well.
This labeling job is a bitch and it’s harder than it seems. You’d think categorizing our splattered thoughts would be easy, but sometimes I have to ask myself…does this belong under news and thoughts, or just news? Is that one truly bizarre enough to be tagged with why? Should I make a new label for this type of post? Ug. And we’ve written a lot of goddamn posts, over 3700 of ’em.
At first, the job was kind of addictive. I would watch the categories grow, creating them as I went. Now I just hope and pray that I will see the end of the work soon. And here I thought last year’s project of putting titles on posts up to mid January of 07 was a long one. Oh no no no no no, not even close to this one…and this project is only the first phase. Thankfully when we do change our template, bunches of that work will happen automatically…or at least that’s what we think will be the case.
But there is hope. I’ve made it up to part of the way through January of 08, so this will be done soon.
During my travels down memory lane to put up signs, I found this post about people who don’t listen to what you say when you pick up the phone and just forge ahead with whatever they were going to say. This made me think of something else that used to happen to me all the time when I had a different phone number. It was really close to the number for a Holiday Inn in town, so close that in some places on their website, they’d accidentally listed my number as theirs. People would call me, get my answering machine, and instead of realizing that they had the wrong number, they’d try to make a reservation. They’d all but leave their credit card number on my machine! Hello, did I ever say that I was the Holiday Inn? If I didn’t, I’m probably not it.
I made it back from Niagara Falls in one piece, and Trixie survived the Maid of the Mist perfectly fine. That was a fun yet stressful trip, mostly fun.
I was lucky, Trixie’s raisers were waiting for me right as I got off the bus. there was no nightmarish mowing down of hapless folk in the station. As soon as I got off the bus, Trixie looked to the left and to the right as if to say “Holy crap! Do my eyes deceive me? My raisers are here!” Quickly I slipped the harness off and let the reunion pounce, lick and nuzzle begin. They were happy to see her, and commented on her grey chin. They couldn’t think of her as a puppy anymore, she had a grey chin after all!
I put the harness back on, but she was going too nuts to guide. I had to heel her and take an arm. I was sad, but I understood. We got back to the hotel and Trixie spent a good amount of time running from one raiser to the other, puffing and just being a goof.
We talked for a while about stuff. It was so cute to learn about more puppy things that Trixie would do, and watch them look at her and hopefully approve of what they saw.
We talked about whether or not we should hit the Maid of the Mist. After they told me she’d been on lots of boats, I gave it more serious thought. Plus they suggested that we walk near the falls and see if she didn’t like the noise and that could gauge our decision on whether or not we should take the ride. So we walked and walked and walked while one raiser took oodles of pictures.
Trixie was not the best she could have been. Man alive she was easily distracted, and she was walking like a speed demon. Lordy Lou. But she did stop at all the steps and she never lost sight of her raisers, so it was all good. I just apologized and said this wasn’t her usual guiding demeaner.
After we had some food and went up to the room, Trixie did not want to sleep where I put her bed. I put it by the window because she always was watching out the window. but no no no, that wouldn’t do. she had to sleep right between the bed where I slept and the bed where her raisers slept. I thought it was too cute.
the next morning, we hit the Maid of the Mist early because we thought it wouldn’t be as crowded. I put Trixie’s raincoat on after we’d managed to put on our plastic bag-esque paunchos and we went and founda little bench to sit on on the boat. Trix did fine. The only time she got a bit unsettled was when the mist really really started to come in. She thought she could get out of the way of the spray. Nope, not a chance. When we got off, everything that was covered by the raincoat was dry. Just her head and paws were wet.
After we changed and checked out of the hotel, we went and got some food, and then drove to this pretty little area called Niagara on the Lake that has lots of souvenir shops and cute little houses and walked around. Again, Trixie was uber distracted and I don’t know how much she impressed them. I know she did manage to impress them with her stopping for steps and narrowly avoiding wizzing bikes and remembering where the hotel room was. I just wish she hadn’t been so distractable. But I’ve heard from everybody I’ve spoken to that this is normal when the raisers are around.
Then we just had some food and they took me back to the bus. It was hard watching them say goodbye to Trix again. I felt like I was ripping open a wound that had healed by letting them see her and then taking her away again. I’m sure they’re fine, but still. I felt bad for them. I could tell she really took a piece of their hearts.
When we got home, she bounded around and couldn’t stop running over to Steve and saying hi. I guess we’ve wormed our way into her heart too.
For the first day after we got home, I was beating myself up pretty furiously about how Trixie had behaved, wondering if it reflected poorly on me, wondering what I’d done wrong, wondering if Trixie’s raisers thought all their hard work had been wasted because she acted like a small fool. But after talking to others, they tell me it’s to be expected, so I don’t feel so bad.
One thing happened when I was at Niagara Falls that cracked me up. I guess my cell phone signal bounced over to an American tower. This prompted Rogers to send me a text to let me know that I was roming. That’s fine. But the way it was worded killed me, It said “Rogers welcomes you abroad! roming rates apply.” That’s like saying “Hope you enjoy your trip to Mexico! Get ready to get mugged.” It was the most hilarious switch between cheerful and stern I’d ever seen. Let’s just say I never called anyone while I was there.
And I think that’s about it. I should get back to labelling more posts.