Roxy training diary month 41
October 2006

Oct 31.  Poor Dylan.

Yesterday morning, we found a torn nail that had been bothering him, and was probably the source of his poopy agility runs.  So, yesterday afternoon, it was off to Dr. Nebeker, who took a hemostat to the broken nail and made it into an exposed nail.  While that heals, it still hurts Dyllie a bit, so he tends to lick at it.

Rosemary got him a new-style Elizabethan collar which is actually inflatable, and which Dylan may tolerate better.  I told Rosemary we need to figure out a way to make that into a costume; maybe petals to make him into a sunflower.  Feel free to make suggestions.

We're not the only ones who torture our dogs by dressing them up for Halloween.

Oct 30.  Roxy and Annie returned to the scene of Roxy's crime, the North Ogden Aquatic Center where she gave the term "Canine Kerplunk" a new and disgusting meaning. 

This time, the event was a Halloween "Trunk or Treat" for the dogs in the aquatic center parking lot.  (The aquatic center itself has remained closed since Roxy's oops.  Coincidence?  I'll let you be the judge.)

The photographer actually appeared at our door tonight (Nov. 6) with apologies for the "poor quality" of the photos.  I think they're fantastic.

Oct 29.  Regular readers of the RoxyLog have been nagging me for some time to post some updates.  I finally got around to a bunch of accumulated stuff last night and tonight, and I post it here asking for your forbearance.  Those who know me well know I have a very good excuse for not posting.

The big news today was Roxy's sixth Novice Agility leg.  We took advantage of the change to standard time and got an early start on the road to Rigby, Idaho, waking at 5 am and in the van headed north by 5:30 am. 

Her Jumpers run was pretty awful, and I had to pull her off the course.  Dylan knocked a bar in Jumpers, so for the morning, we had one E and one F.

In Standard, Dylan ran first and messed up the weaves, so that was another E for the family.  Roxy, on the other hand, had some difficulty with the weaves, spending a good 10-15 seconds there, but finally got her act together and posted a really fabulous run.  The other dog in our class E'd, so we got a green (qualifying) ribbon, blue ribbon for first place, and a toy that looks like a space alien.  (Or perhaps like James Carville after a very bad meal.  You be the judge.) 

As a result, Roxy got to ride in the Crate of Honor next to the seats in the front of the van, where she could have her ears rubbed while I drove.  That's Annie's usual place, and Annie was indignant. 

After getting her title (third leg) in February, and a fourth leg at the next trial, Roxy went on an extended tailspin.  She improved some over Labor Day weekend and this was the best we've seen since then.

Roxy's Sixth Novice Agility Leg

Castle Valley, view from near mile 8 of race

Jim is finished.

Red rock canyons of the Colorado River near Moab

They had portapotties at each even-numbered milepost.  I had to make a couple of comfort stops; at mile 6, I waited in line for a while but someone was having serious trouble and didn't seem to want to give up his seat.  At mile 8, I still had to wait in line but at least I got in.  I probably wasted 5 minutes that way.

After all was said and done, I posted a time of 2:24:23 (11:01 minutes/mile), which put me 581 out of 763 overall and 57/60 among males 40-49.  Not one of my best efforts, but I got it done and I was relatively happy and uninjured at the end. 

The first big hill, happy feet still

Take that, Steve Hart!

Rivet Says Hi

Yiddish in Action

“He handed me his card and said I should call him.  Now it was summertime, I’m a shvitzer not a schmoozer, and I wasn’t emotionally prepared to talk to the mayor of Emerald City."

— Dan Fogler, character actor,

on meeting his agent for the first time

Oct 8.  Regular readers of the RoxyLog (of which there are five, but I often jokingly say "three") will have noticed a lack of updates since Sept 10.

Why is that, you ask?  Well, mostly because I've been busy, but also because I got caught up in computer issues with my new Dell XPS 400 desktop, which I started up on Sept 6.

It began crashing randomly.  I spent hours and hours in a chat room with random Indian technicians, trying to fix the problem.

Finally, the decision was made (well, not by me) to completely reformat the hard drive.  Oh.

After having done that, I was pretty sure that it had been a software issue in the first place, since all the diagnostics pointed away from a hardware issue.  So, that slowed things down, as I started to load on programs one per day.

That approach bore fruit, however, when the darn computer started crashing again.

I backtracked, and lo and behold, the software which seems to be causing the problem: WS_FTP.  Well, you can maintain websites without an FTP program, but it ain't easy.

“I took that role because I thought it made me sound like a porn star.”

— Fogler on his role as a crime-busting table tennis champ in the upcoming movie Balls of Fury

Jim and Roxy

Rosemary and Dylan