me and the neighbors and spring on my little street

Sunday, June 8, 2003

Okay. I know I've been away for a while now. So long, I honestly don't know how to start this entry. Spring is upon us and I've spend so many hours outdoors that being indoors typing entries in not a priority. Which makes it ironic that I'm always writing entries in my head. They just make never make their way to the screen.

Like Tryna. She graduated on Wednesday from Beginners I obedience school. So many stories could have been written from this. In my typical competitive fashion, I tore myself up over *my* performance on her final test night. It took her four trys for the "wait at the door" to succeed. And, secretly, I feel to blame for her poor response. Maybe if I would have instructed better, she wouldn't have gotten the "pass minus" in that category.

Still, she graduated. And I'm happy to say that I think she's really improved over the time that we've had her in class. The gentle leader has worked wonders. And she's not jumping so crazily upon people when they arrive at our home. That said, we still have *much* work to do. She barks annoyingly when anyone approaches our home and we're using a spray bottle to work on that. I don't want to be the annoying people on the block with the loud dogs.

Obedience class was a funny experience. I feel like I was the only person there with a normal dog. Granted, she is older. But, c'mon. Some of the dogs (and their owners) were just crazy. Like Toby, the Boston Terrier and his master who was so correction-phobic that the instructor had to force him into telling his dog "wrong" and "no." This dog was out of control and the master didn't seem to really care.

Then there was the dachshund Jack's owner who could only speak in high pitches of, "Jack! Su-UUU-PER!" which completely drove me batty.

Or Louis the yellow lab who had such severe ADHD that a prong collar was needed towards the end of the session.

Of course, there was perfect Sadie, the boxer who was owned by a cop. She did everything right and made us all jealous. Not to mention paranoid that her owner would pull us over.

There were other dogs, too. Many funny stories to boot. I've just waited too long to recount them. My bad. In the end, though, Tryna graduated. Hopefully she'll start beginner II in a month or so. As good a dog as she is, there still is a lot of work to do.

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Speaking of dogs, had I mentioned that we boarded a mixed-mut for some friends while they were on vacation for a week? He is a 2 year old mix with cattle dog, Beagle and Shepard in him. And he tore out the screen in our upstairs bedroom one Wednesday while we were at work.

Yeah. That was nice.

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As much as James and I have wanted to, we haven't had the time nor money to garden this Spring. James has been busy racing. I've been training for the Triathlon while attending races and cycling on my own. Time spent home in the yard is usually reduced to picking up dog poop and pulling weeds.

A couple of weeks ago, however, some friends of ours convinced us to go to the farmer's market on a Saturday morning. And because we had a planter in the back of our house that looked like it once used to house flowers, I figured this would be a perfect chance to purchase some flowers and start our hand at being green thumbs.

But once we got to the farmers market and started looking at flowers, I got totally overwhelmed. I didn't know what to buy.

Luckily, a sweet woman with Urban Greenhouses spotted us.

"How is it you kids are empty handed? There are so many things to buy.." she questioned.

I confessed that everything seemed just too scary. I didn't know where to start. I didn't know anything about plants or our yard. I just wanted some flowers for an outdoor planter and even that, at the moment, seemed like too much.

"Calm down," she said. "It's really not that hard."

And the next thing I knew, she was walking us through a planter. How to select for color, height and texture. And $20 later, we had some beautiful flowers which James planted in a pot and I was ever so thankful.

I don't know why. But the whole gardening thing has scared me. A month or so ago, James and I actually took a day off of work to start landscaping our yard. But the weather turned out rainy and we ended up just plotting our yard and visiting nurseries. In the end, I decided that we should wait until fall for major stuff. Between James' racing and my time spent training, the whole yard thing is just too much to take on now.

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Ironically, even though we haven't spent much time at all gardening, we've been spending a record amount of time outdoors. Even though our deck isn't that attractive, we've still covered it in flower planters and, along with our glider chairs, spend so many evenings outside eating dinner, playing with the dogs, etc.

There is a girl across the alley. She's about 8 years old. And she rides her bike back and forth around our driveway. She is usually alone and she often stops to pet our dogs when they are close to the fence. Her name is Renee and she reminds me of myself as a child. Tonight, she stopped her bike to pet our dogs. I was talking to my neighbor Kristen next to the fence. And as I watched Renee struggle to reach Tryna over the fence, I invited her inside to pet the dog.

"Do you want to come inside the fence to pet her?"

"I'd better go home and ask my dad," she responded.

Smart kid, I thought. Minutes later, she came back. "My dad said no. I have to pet her over the fence."

"Okay," I answered. I tried to force Tryna in her direction. And as much as I think I can understand her father for his decision, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Renee. She was bending over the fence barely touching Tyrna's fur. And it's not like I'm a total stranger. Renee rides her bike in my driveway almost every single day. Why can't she come into my yard to pet the dog?

Of course, I should be surprised. I've had one and only one interaction with her parents prior to tonight. A month ago, James was lax. He left our fence gate open and Tryna got out. She wandered a bit about our neighborhood. Renee's mother discovered her. And she came over to James, who was working on his car outside.

"Do you have two dogs?" she asked looking at Sienna who was still in our yard. [This seemed a loaded question since there are always too Keeshonds in our yard, not one.]

"Yeah," James answered. "Why?"

"Well, I think one of our dogs is loose. I think she's in Gloria's yard. And I don't think Gloria would like it if she knew your dog was in her yard."

Now I don't know if she was insinuating that she herself didn't mind my dog running loose, but her use of Gloria, who was absent at the time annoyed me. Especially since we know Gloria. Gloria loves our dogs. And as much as I'm sure we all don't want our dogs running loose in Gloria's yard, I also doubt she'd have a problem with it.

More so, it bothered me that this woman didn't even bother to introduce herself. We live across an alley for God's sake. And not even after we got a hold of our dog, did she tell us her name or say anything about herself or us or whatever. She just used Gloria, our neighbor who wasn't even home, as an excuse as to why our dog shouldn't be roaming free (which, I will say, is the one and only time this has happened) and she addressed us in a very passive-aggressive manner.

I don't know. Call me naive. But we live in a small neighborhood. On a small street. Wouldn't it be easier if we could all just get along and share space? Dogs and children included.

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I have more to write. But it is almost 10:30pm. I need to get to bed. Monday morning is approaching way too quickly. And I've had a sore throat all day long which worries me. I'm not sure why it is here. Perhaps I should get to bed and get some rest.

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