The last time Setanta went home, I had a bit of a bad time with the dogs. Cleo howled and hiccuped for a long time in the car, and Bailey moped and moped. I told Setanta we needed to try something different this time when I dropped him off at the airport.
This time, instead of stopping in the departures lane, and just letting Setanta open the door, grab his stuff and run in as I had to zoom away before the guards caught up to me, I decided to splurge for the parking lot at the terminal. I knew that I'd have to pay the 'up to 1/2 hour' rate, even for 1 minute, but I couldn't take the howling again.
Soooo, went in, Setanta took his stuff out of the car, and then leaned back in to say good-bye to the dogs, rub their heads a bit, and then he left. I talked to both of them for a couple of minutes, and then we drove to the cashier of the parking garage.
I gave the nice man my card and $20. He ran it through his machine - 4 minutes ... "you didn't really park, did you? I feel you didn't really park." - he handed me back my $20 and waved at the dogs.
I smiled.
Both of the dogs fell asleep and had a quiet ride home. No howling or hiccuping.
But what about you, ehBeth? No howling at all?
Not in the car, Eva, not in the car. :wink:
A lady came into my store today with a dog on a leash. No problem. Well-behaved dogs are much more welcome vs ill-behaved children. A lab of some kind.
The dog had a vest on that read "I'm in training to be a helper." Something like that.
It turns out that we had met this dog eight or ten months ago when it was starting to be trained. It went through basic training and in the past few months was in advanced individual training to assist
a specific wheelchair-bound person. She will move in with that person in May. Sweet, I hope the dog helps him/her remain active.
I asked the lady, the trainer, how she felt about giving up a dog that she had devoted so much love and energy to. "I'll cry" she said, "but then I'll start over with a new one."
Oh, that's great, realjohnboy. People who train assistance dogs - wow - I have so much respect for them. Definitely smile-worthy.
It was warm and sunny today after a horrible winter in Rochester NY!
My brand new broad band connection.
Smiling to see someone from Rochester here. There will be ferry service between Toronto and Rochester starting sometime this year. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.
The movie "American Splendor" gave me quite a few belly laughs.
On the topic of smiling and movies...School of Rock made me smile...and laugh...
Two things:
Being a total spaz at a very surprising surprise party. I had no idea, was like blushing and not getting sentences out coherently.
Then, coming home to see my daughter sitting on the steps, hands folded in her lap, bare feet tapping. (In 32 degree weather!!) She and my husband have ever-more elaborate tricks they play on me when I come home; hiding, sozlet wandering up to me and saying that E.G. is at the coffee shop, etc. So this one was that he had just left her outside to fend for herself. She played it up to the hilt, looking sad and resigned. Then he opened the door and they both cracked up. (She had in fact been put outside milliseconds before I came out of the garage door.)
And now that after 4 hours, three smiles within one minute...
Managed to beat the **** out of someone at work and agree him to do what I was proposing (and he was resisting)
Emerging victorious always makes me smile
Three days till my left coast vacation.
Making plans to meet in Montreal this May with friends from college.
The small company I work for held an off-site meeting yesterday, (only 10 people) at a nice hotel opposite the beach at Coogee - a suburb of Sydney.
Another function room was occupied by a sales management and marketing group from my previous (much larger) company. Their morning and lunch breaks were held on the pool deck, outside the room we were in. Our breaks coincided.
Just wonderful to see my old mates, from all over the country, again. Much laughter and finger pointing! I was amazed at how many people remembered me - and came looking for me (and none of them were armed!)
Walked down this hip skater/retro/whatsit store. They have this Emily poster in the window. It has her and the text "have you seen her?". I remember that one. I wanted to get it for A.
It was a while ago - December? November? Winter. A little while before either Christmas, or her birthday. I was getting myself a lamp. (I might even have written about that here, then). In the end I bought one, only to immediately thereupon find another one, even cuter, in this here store. After a few days I came back to get it, having doubted for a while and finally given myself permission - and to get the poster, for A. Cause it had struck me. Just days before, she had whispered, disconsolately, about how she felt "invisible". She really did feel that way, it was an issue and had been before, too - like noone saw her, noone could see her, she wasn't really there. She liked Emily, Emily's just dark enough. So I decided to get it for her as a kind of reflection, something that would even be comforting. (When later I told her about it, she immediately went: "oh, I want that!"). Thing was, I couldnt - they wouldnt let me. Promo material, not for sale. They only had the one.
So today I walked past it again, and I realised how long ago it was she was telling me that, about how she felt. Now she's asking me along to go to movies when she's going with a friend. And yet how shortly ago it was - just November, no more than a couple of months. How quickly things can change, or seem to change - without us even stopping to realise it. And in this case, how nice that is.
(Actually, I'm cheating, that wasn't really today ... but it had to be approved first ;-))
Ok, this was all today:
- walked past a cafe in Wijk C, saw these men, fifty, sixty-ish, inside, smoking, playing cards. When's the last time I saw white men in a cafe playing cards? Heh - the old world still exists.
- in the big shopping mall, the shops were just closing down, lowering the shutters - inside one watches store, the black guy and his colleague had already immediately turned off the bland shopping mall-pop & turned on some loud, ruffneck dancehall <grins>
- in the department store, when I get on the escalator, I hear two Russian women ask each other something in a funny mix of Russian and Dutch - "mozhno zonnebank?" - the Dutch word (zonnebank, solarium) articulated with the odd Russian accent on the last vowel - heh - had they not known the Russian word before coming here?
- outside, a blond teen girl of some size jumps on the back of her mother's scooter (also a blond woman of some size), and they yell at each other over something, "ég niet!!" (="no way!") - "ég wel!!" (="oh yeah!")
