Vomit Comet

It’s another Wednesday. Man where is time going? I hope we start picking up poop soon, I’d like to get it down. She’s back on the regular food, at least I hope she’s supposed to be, because I gave her the regular food this morning.

I got an email saying that someone was looking for a person to teach blind clients assistive technology, so I phoned about it and got this bitchy secretary that said the person I was looking for was away. She told me to email her. I hope I didn’t just blow that opportunity. It’s hard to make a business call before 7 in the morning your time, But I did it.

Arg they still haven’t changed the schedule! I rely on that thing! All I know is I’m supposed to bring the gental leader this morning and we’re going to a residential route, and this afternoon we’re booking the outing and ordering pictures. How big is a 4X6? Is that like picture frame size or what? And what’s a 5×7? I’m terrible at sizes. Oh well I’ll ask the instructors this morning what we’re doing.

This morning was a nice route. We were in this old neighbourhood where the sidewalk was all chewed up. A dog off leash just wouldn’t leave us alone. I think he wanted to play. It took a lot of scaring from Audrey to get him to leave. I guess Audrey and Jessica are apprentices. I didn’t realize that. Oh, and Tamara came back today! Yea!

Apparently we start picking up their…presents either tomorrow or Friday. Good. Lots of time to get it down. Apparently some of us get to take our puppies for a free run in the grass paddock.

I still have to email the technology lady. Ug. I’d like to do that now, but we’re supposed to hang tight here.

This afternoon, the vet will talk to us. Yea! And we do the basic route again. I have to remember to do obedience because I forgot to do it this morning.

Man I couldn’t decide what to eat for lunch. There was either a taco salad or wings and things. The blue cheese dip made me decide to have the taco salad. Mmm. Taco salad!

Salad was good, Frank and Craig were goofy. Then we did the basic route and I even did the longer block. Did obedience on it and everything and she did fine. I was approached by some freaky guy yelling “Hey dog, wanna have a crack at my stick?” Ug! Tamara’s like is that a comfortable pace for you? I said no, I’m trying to run from that man. Then, at an intersection of all places, this guy’s like “can I pet your dog a minute?” I’m like no. Yeah, pet my dog, I.E. distract her, right before I’m supposed to cross the street. That shows intelligence.

We had the vet talk this afternoon and talked about fleas and all that stuff. That vet doesn’t sound like a vet. He sounds like a farmer or something. Oh, Craig told us there was a competition on graduation day and I thought he was full of crap, but I found out he was not. Then we got back at a more reasonable time and did all the regular jazz.

Dinner was good, this weird tortilla that you have to roll this stuff up in.

Then I went and started printing stuff for this song. Carmen’s wonderful, but oy yoy yoy. This is a song, a joke, some fun. It does not need to be polished and perfect. She won’t stop playing the piano even though Al’s going to play the guitar. I can’t get the braille printer to work, so I’m going to have to manually braille them out. Thank god it’s only 3 copies. Fall down go boom. Have to do email and braille and one print over again cause she wants it in bold.

Not much has happened this morning. The usual. Hopefully I’ll have more to say later.

Tired. Tired. Went for morning route, but before route happened, got upset, couldn’t focus on route so didn’t go on route. Sat at lounge and felt guilty, but knew it wasn’t a good idea to go out on route.

Came back at lunch, lunch was good, grilled chicken sandwich, salad, and a really good cheesecake.

Came back from lunch, groomed her, and found out picture day was Thursday and I was worried about my dark pants blending in with my puppy, but they told me that the photographer was really good, so to not worry about it.

Had two lectures this afternoon and then relieved and went out to lounge again. Went on route, and she kept blowing down-curbs! I was furious! She got one hell of a correction. She did it a whole bunch of times, but after the correction, she got better. Then we were uber late getting back, at almost 6. Why the hell do they schedule a last feed/water,relieve at 4:45 if we’re never back? I could barely get her to stand still long enough to get the harness off. I could barely get her fed and watered and then we had to get down to supper and I was crazy late. Somehow, Meredeth managed to finish before I started! Finish! And she was on my bus! She’s a fiend!

So much to do, and I still wanted to brush her teeth, play with her, wash her dish, and somehow a bunch of us were
coordinating the outing for easter Sunday. We have to decide by tomorrow where we all want to go Easter Sunday. The consensus seems to be Fisherman’s Warf. That doesn’t really tickle my fancy, but maybe it’ll surprise me. Whatever, I don’t care. Tired.

Came back from dinner and brushed her teeth and tried to play with the cong. The devil doesn’t like fetch. She’d rather eat leaves! What toy will you like? You’re breaking my heart.

And Carmen thinks we’re going to rehearse? Is she high? We’re tired. If we have to, we’ll read the words off braille. We do not need to goddamn rehearse. I love Carmen, but I do not have the energy to deal with her perfectionism. I didn’t even make it to yoga because I didn’t have the brains left to deal with it. I just needed time to settle my thoughts, and that drill sergeant of a yoga instructor just wasn’t going to make me relax. I love yoga, but I didn’t have the energy to deal with her pushing our legs around. The nurse was like you could sit on the couch and breathe. I’m like na.

I really hate this time difference. When I want to phone home, I can’t because it’s too late, and when people want to call me, sometimes it’s too early. It’s amazing how much of a difference 3 hours can make. It doesn’t seem like much, but when your day’s so tightly packed, it does.

I think it’s almost time to relieve. Then I’m going to hit the pillow. No rehearsals, no screwing around, nothing.

It’s Monday again. Drag drag drag. I’m so tired. And another week is beginning. I’m still worried about that missing key cap. It would make me happy if someone found it, and not in some dog’s poop either.

Poor Amy. Dynamo puked this morning. What’s with all the sick dogs? I guess if they all came from the kennels that’s a fine place to pick up bugs, so as long as they’re just little bugs it’s ok. Some other dog hurled in the relieving circle. Poor puppy.

Breakfast sounds weird. Vegetable something. Lunch is grilled steak of some kind with a bunch of veggies and dinner is Chicken Parmesan.

Today is a busy day. Oy yoy yoy. Two lectures in the morning, then we have to do obedience on route! What the hell? Then pooping and watering and lunch, and this afternoon, it’s a lecture on advanced corrections? Huh? More corrections? Then tonight it’s dinner, and a workshop on ear cleaning and heelling practice with a gental leader. Gimme gimme gimme a gental leader! That helped to reduce the sniffitude with the Babsy pup. Then it’s relieve and fall down.

Alright, time to eat this mystery breakfast. I’m sure it will be good.

It was a long day, but a good day. First off, I found that key cap, safely on my bed. Yea, no dog ate it! Breakfast was good, a little weird, but good. The lectures were short, one about orientation and learning routes, and one about leaving puppy unattended. Then we went to town, and I finally got the basic route straight! Now if only I could master the damn turns from dorm to bus! I think I’ve got them now, but now it’s just a matter of getting them down.

One of the retrains, Deborah, is staying in our hall. She’s only here for a week, can you believe it? So she’s in our training, for some reason I’m not sure of.

They took Dynamo to the vet, brought him back, and for some reason his tests will take a couple of days! So my poop test took an hour, but this stuff takes a couple days? What? Meanwhile, Amy has to restle Dynamo into the relieving circle because of his need to pee. The poor woman’s frustrated.

So lunch was good, and then we found out about the advanced stuff. What it was was showing us the collars we can use if the regular collar just doesn’t work. There was an evil-looking prong collar, a nylon collar that just sits higher on their neck, and the good old gental leader. Autumn hated the look of it and I was just like gimme gimme gimme! They fitted it to my woofer. Let’s see if we need it. But I’m glad I have it. So it was relieve and head for the bus and do the basic route again. Holy crap she felt faster this time. I had Brenda the O and M because they were short-staffed today, and she said she didn’t look any faster than this morning, it was my stamina. But she didn’t blow a single curb. She blew a couple curbs this morning, mostly up curbs, but there was no curb-blowage this afternoon. I had to tell her to be careful once because she made my right foot go off the curb and once I thought she was going to take me into traffic, but it was all good in the end. It was raining this morning, but this afternoon the sun came out and it got nice, but not before some people got soaked. Then I fed her and did the usual ritual.

I ran into Becky the counsellor. She can make you melt before you even know you’re having trouble. She’s like how are things going? I’m like good, she’s good. She goes how are you? She does that and it can just turn you to mush!

So then I went to the room here and took food past some retrains trying to get their dogs to heel. Oo I’m providing food distraction. Well I’d better run. Chimes are about to ring.

Well, the chimes didn’t ring. Oh well, supper was good. When it was over I brushed her teeth, and then we learned how to clean ears! It’s so easy! You put this stuff on some cotton, you shove it in their ear and you take it out. Repeat for other ear. Beauty. How come Ottawa doesn’t do ears?

I helped Carmen print a letter she has to send to her landlord, then we sat on her patio and had a long talk. I really like her. She just knows people.

Man the dogs were nuts tonight because all the retrains got their dogs today. Holy crap. Trixie likes Belamie a lot. She licked his ear, the goofy head. Oh, and we also did heeling practice with the gental leader, and I’m still not sure how to do corrections because she didn’t do a single thing wrong. She heeled perfectly. She may end up wearing it.

We practiced the song again. Carmen’s hillarious, just the way she directs things.

That’s about it. I’m crashing now.

It’s Sunday. Ug. Am I ever happy it’s Sunday. I mean I still had to get up for 6:15 or so for the 6:30 relieve, but after that and breakfast, it was back to bed with me. Trixie seemed cool with that too. The poor beast is tired. I thought she’d hate tiedown, but as soon as we get near it, she just flops over. Man tiedown seems short. If that’s two feet, I’d be shocked. It seems so short!

Some things I haven’t had a chance to mention. They got me a shorter handle because with the regular handle, my arm was way, way back. I love how many things they have so they can accommodate all kinds of needs. Other people, like the 6-foot giant that is Meredeth needed a longer handle. She’s so quiet. She hums to herself all the time.

My little rascal doesn’t seem to want to wait until I say the magic words “do your business” before she’s circling, which can be a super pain because sometimes I don’t have the leash made into long leash yet. I’ll have it out of the short hook, but I won’t have it hooked into the other one.

Today, we do doggy massage, I need to do laundry, and of course I need to groom my puppers. I don’t know what else I’ll be up to. I have to send a couple emails.

I’m so happy David’s gone. He kept sneaking around. last night, Autumn and I watched the movie Erin Brockovich and he walked in and paced around a while. That was awkward.

I have to try the cong with my puppy and see if she likes it better than the ring. She just doesn’t seem to be into the tug thing.

Carmen’s diligently working on this song. I should be down there. But I’m tired and I’m waiting for a call.

Lunch is a taco and supper is…what? Um…beef strogonoff.

I’m excited because tonight the retrains come in. Apparently someone else from good old Canada will be here. I probably won’t know him, but cool. More people to meet.

Ooo! 45 minutes until massage time. I think I’m gonna grab some more z’s.

Well, doggy massage was fun. It’s all about the circular motions. At the end, she just started licking me like mad and wagging her tail. Then she turned and started licking Amy to death. Amy? Amy didn’t give her a massage! What? It was funny. Then she almost plopped her butt on my lap. That would have hurt. Then we went out to relieve and I found out my poor beast has Giardia. Now, I don’t know about dogs, but I know when humans get giardia, they’re pretty sick. So now she has to take medicine for 3 nights to cure her.

Then we decided to do laundry, and we left our beasts in our room. We shut the door,, but we didn’t tie them down. We gave them bones and took off for the laundry. When we came back, they were as good as gold…until we came into the room. Then Trixie got up, ran around and grabbed Beauty’s bone! When I came at her, she dropped it, and Then we couldn’t figure out whose bone was who’s. Autumn found one, and then I discovered that Trixie will point her little nose at what you dropped. Cool! She doesn’t nibble it, she just points. How awesome.

I know she loves me, because whenever I leave her and come back, she jumps up and wags her tail. what a doll.

Got the laundry done, and got the puppy groomed. I even brushed her teeth and everything. Yeah yeah yeah! And I met Carmen’s friends. They’re cool. I need to hang out with Carmen for a bit. She wants me to write down the words to her dog song, she says she has them all written down. what will rhyme with Sedgwick?

I need to go bug the staff for Trixie’s Giardia medicine. She’s so smart. she gets off the rug when she knows it’s feeding time. Smart puppy. We get to meet the retrains soon!

Well we met them. I can’t even hope to get all of their names right. There’s Henry whose dog got sick with some kind of cancer, there’s Craig from Toronto whose dog blew its knee out playing on some snow and ice and had to be retired, ouch! There’s Angela who can’t hear very well, there’s Kristy, there’s Lee who’s Frank’s neighbour, there’s Phil and Deborah, and I’m forgetting a couple. I’ll get them. They all seem cool. Henry and Craig sit at our table.

If I could sleep right now, I would. But we have to relieve. After that, I think I’m going to hit the snoozer.

Look at Trixie-poo chomping on her bone. Chomp chomp gobble gobble chew.

Amy is really upset. She thinks Dynamo has a bladder infection because he really really has to go and his guide work gets sloppy close to relieving times and she can’t seem to get that message across. I told her to not mince her words and ask if she and Dynamo can go down to the vets and get it fixed up. Don’t ask, don’t say maybe. Just say I would like to see the vets. If I’d done that in Ottawa, maybe I wouldn’t have gone through that saga.

Now my F key cap has fallen off my Elba. The big question is…where is it? Where did it fall off and will a dog find it…and eat it? I’ll never be able to live with myself if one of them does. I hope I find it so I can put it away.

Oh god. We finished the song, and Al’s going to play the guitar. Al, who never says anything, was whooping up a storm. It was awesome. I sang beside him so he could hear the words and he loved them. He said it was the best fun he’d had the whole time. He’s such a sweet guy, and his hearing loss really keeps him out of the loop. We turned into such idiots, barking and howling in one part of the song.

And finally here’s a mesage to those ditwads who set off fireworks directly across the street when we went to relieve…if you ever do it again…There will be at least 10 angry blind people after you. The fireworks made our dogs spazz out to varying degrees. Trusty ran inside and snorted, which sent Trixie into being spooked. We were mad. I know they didn’t know, but jesus lord. Fireworks? On a random Sunday? Ok then.

That’s it. It was a quiet day.