Random thoughts

I skimmed the flist. If I didn't comment on an entry you think I should have commented on, nudge me.

Sorry about not being a very good reader at the moment, but it seems that right now I am always tired, no matte how much I sleep, and the more I sleep the more tired I'll be.

The staff sergeant allowed me to leave at noon on Thursday (captain is sick so couldn't say anything to that). I have the extra hours to use up for that, but it still is their decision to let me go or not, so that was cool.
Means I got home at a decent time and with not too many stupid gits on the road.

Friday Mom and I went to the funeral of our friend. It sucks that you see people only at funerals, really. I mean my godfather was there whom I last met at my confirmation, and that's what, ten years ago? And my godfather's father, the husband of the deceased friend, whom I ran into when I was shopping a few weeks back when he told me his wife was in a coma and they didn't know how things would go.
We used to live in the same house and I'd spend time at their place, and then when everybody moved out of that house, the contact totally broke off.
Life sucks.

And the service was in a effing cold church. And there was no coffin, just an urn, and personally I do not want to be burned because it sucks being carried out by a single funeral guy on something that looks a lot like a tea tray, and put into a hole in the ground that looks more like the start of an outhouse than a grave. It's just not what I want my relatives and friends to have as the last memory of me.

Saturday started with Mom and me driving to the dog training ground to the puppy play hour. Was okay, but again disgustingly cold.
After lunch, we two went to last minute choir rehersal at 3:30. Of course, the majority of the singers didn't show up until like four. Just great.
The concert started at 5, in yet another cold church. How I loove it that I know the songs better after two rehearsals than the other singers after ten at least. And how none of the so-called sopranos manages to sing a decent g.
After the concert we rushed home, changed into a few more layers of clothing and went back to the dog training ground. Set up everything for the nightly training. It's something they do every year on the last weekend of January. In the dark, dogs are very unsure and during the training, they are faced with - for them - weird things to see how they react, find out if they are aggressive or total whimnps (or both) or if they trust their owners enough to folow them to whatever scary thing there is.
So we started out with the dog being checked out like they are for shows and tests - measured, check teeth, that sort of thing. Then my Mom would hold the dog while the owner would hide behind a wall about twenty metres away, then call the dog. Some dogs apparently have much difficulties finding their owners if they don't see them. Then walk between two lines of candles. One dog blew out a candle, some were quite unsure about what this was. The go through a curtain we had put up, and towards a vacuum cleaner. That was really interesting. Most dogs were really afraid of the sound. Not so much of the "ghost" - a sheet in a tree, lit by a lamp. Then we had me - the drunk / disabled / generally weirdo. I was hiding in a bush with a weird, witchy hat and an umbrella, and would come out limping like Dracula'S servant. Then I would have to adapt to the reactions of the dog. If the dog was really scared, I'd walk normal, get rid of the umbrella (most dogs seem to be afraid of umbrellas), take of the hat, talk to them, call them and give them a treat.
After me, there was a tunnel, a wall to climb over for the older dogs and a plank to walk on for the puppies, then they had to get a toy out of a box of plastic bottles and the last was three different sorts of dog treats and the owner had to guess which one the dog would go to first.
Mom and I had planned that out since a week ago. Originally, another person was supposed to help, but she had told Mom on Tuesday she wouldn't be there, so we had to rearrange everything.

My job was it also to straighten things up after each dog, make sure the candles are still burning, switch on the vacuum cleaner again if necessary, that sort of thing.

Plus it's a lot of fun to be faces with fifteen different dogs from small mix to pure-breed Great Dane. Also, if I call a dog, talking in a soothing way, and the owner tells me he doesn't think she'll bite "once she finds out you're not wearing the training arm*" - that's really great. Also, if dogs are scared, they might attack even if they usually are the friendliest creatures on earth. So it's fun, yeah.

And it meant standing around in the cold from six until nine or so, then sit in an unheated office to figure out who has the best results. It also meant nothing to eat between lunch and nine.

When we came home, I was frozen. I took a boiling hot bath to just be able to feel my toes again.

Originally, my Mom had a meeting today, but she called in sick so at least today I can have some sort of weekend. Saturday in between everything, I had to do five loads of laundry to get my own and my brother's clothes washed and at least half-way dry - it sucks that so much can't go in the dryer, it doesn't really dry up on the attic in this sort of weather. It just freezes, it seems.

I am still totally tired. I had a strange dream that might be a fairy tale if I could just remember enough of it to write it down.
The door to my room doesn't close right. That sucks but I don't feel like asking my dad to do something about it because he anoys me just by existing, I couldn't stand communicating with him right now.

I'm done with 1994 in the school history thing. I'm getting there. I will get this done.

And here are some quizzes I got from ... people.

( I am a red Slytherin )


* the training arm is like a sleeve thing made out of a mesh fabric. It's heavily padded and for those training disciplines that involve training the dog to attack an intrudor, the helper will wear it while walking up menacingly to the dog, hitting his equally padded leather pants with a whip. The dog then has to jump at him, bite into the arm and hold on even if the helper lifts him off the ground. Means that some dogs will jump and bite at everyone with a cast...
See picture here: a helper in full gear with arm over his left arm. Pictures of that sort of training in action here.