My Week

Seems like this has been an expensive week.  Air conditioning, long term care insurance due, tree removal, garage door got stuck, air conditioner service call,  and I chipped a tooth.  A lot of flies in the house from early morning use of the whole house fan and door open.

Monday was my day for volunteering.

   This is the quote on the plaque regarding the Lincoln Douglas  debate on Popular Sovereignty

Tuesday my tree came down.  No more raking, twerlly gigs, mating squirrels, or fallen storm branches.  

Tuesday afternoon I took Sophie to the nursing home for a much needed petting by all parties involved.  Here she meets a new resident.  One of Sophie's Therapy Dog International Inc's (TDI) visits (taken by staff that know whose photos are shareable). This is a sample of many that I usually cannot share. The visits are mutual for all involved. Sophie loves being petted and getting attention. She is so sweet with her "super power" and I'm blessed to be her driver.

 Then I changed into my period dress for the Flag Lowering ceremony at the Lincoln  Tomb.  It was toasty. 

Wednesday I went to our Veterans Assistance Commission meeting for which I am secretary.  We had a scheduling  conflict at the VFW post where we met  and the  parking lot was crowded.  

Thursday I had my hearing aid appointment. I told him about bluetooth problems and that there used to be a warning when the battery was low. Also intermittent on and off connections. Also problems with the phone app. He said that he could send them in to the factory but it would be about 2 weeks to get them back. Hmm. I’m trying my old hearing aids out today. Well I played a voice message in my car and it seemed clear. If I play it just from my phone, I can’t hear it. Sean called me to test and it worked if I switched to speaker phone. 

Friday I took Amber to perform tricks at the Villas of Southpark.  About 4 ladies and a staff member showed up.   I had them move from the hot sun room to the front where it's a little cooler and Amber won't shut down on me.  In the evening I went to open practice at the dog club.  Once again, it happened, Amber ignored me on the recall and  just sat there.

Saturday morning I met with some other DAR members to carpool to a luncheon in Bloomington.  It was a "white glove" event.  Here are the ladies from my  area and the 2 on the left were in my carpool.

At first I thought my hat would be too much but I got many compliments.  New members were asked to stand and only 2 of us stood up.

 

In the evening I went to the Old State Capitol for dancing with the 33rd Infantry Band.  It sure was hot so I did not put on my period dress.  The rest in my dance group were already there but they were in period attire. I did get 3 dances in wearing my simple smock dress because it was so hot.  Turned out there was a nice breeze.  I had washed my pink dress and hung it out to dry but thanks to a warning from my son, there was a storm coming and not to leave it outside to dry overnight.

Sunday I went  to a birthday party for Anne in my exercise group held at the legion  hall.  She turned 90.

Then we had a group photo of those from Powerworks. Two of our instructors are in this photo.  We sure look different from our work out clothes.

And another group taken separately.

Sean and I watched a movie called "Air Strike".  The reviews were not good but I thought it was okay. Here's the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GadUnZ_brLU

In the evening I met up with Rose Hutches about Amber's obedience.  We are trying some more serious approach to fine tuning her performance like sniffing and sitting straight.  

My Week

 Monday I was a volunteer  at the Abraham  Presidential Museum and stationed at the entrance to the White House.

Sojourner Truth and
Frederick Douglass

In the  evening I went to a meeting at the VFW.  

Tuesday  afternoon, Sophie had a trip to the nursing home.   In the evening I got all dressed up for the flag lowering ceremony at the Lincoln Tomb only  to back out of the dress because I wasn't feeling well.  I think the heat is getting to me.  I slept a lot.

Wednesday morning I took Amber to agility practice in Mechanicsburg.  We are trying to beat the heat by getting and early practice in.  As it was, she hid in the shade of the A frame.

Sean and I watched "The Patriot" for Independence Day.  As a result, I found the original Disney  version of Francis Marion whom my husband was named after. Video of the week is: 

Swamp Fox - The Birth of the Swamp Fox pt 1

 Here is a video that Sean took while Amber and I ran a CPE standard level 3 course.

 

here is the course map.

Sean exclaimed that seeing the event really added a new dimension of why we worked so hard practicing. He seemed impressed and I'm glad I could share it with him.
 

Here are the weekend's trial results for Amber. Friday 7/9/2021:
Snooker L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
No Time

Wildcard L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 83 yards  SCT: 47 seconds
No Time

Jackpot L3 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 36 (NQ)  Time: 64.53 seconds  1st Place

Saturday 7/10/2021:
FullHouse L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Absent

Standard L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 144 yards  SCT: 77 seconds
Score: 0 (Q)  Time: 40.00 seconds  1st Place

Colors L3 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 97 yards  SCT: 49 seconds
Score: 5 (NQ)  Time: 32.30 seconds  1st Place

Snooker L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 44 (Q)  Time: 38.64 seconds  1st Place

Jumpers L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 92 yards  SCT: 42 seconds
Score: 5 (Q)  Time: 24.93 seconds  1st Place

Sunday 7/11/2021:
Jackpot L3 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 65 (Q)  Time: 39.45 seconds  1st Place

Standard L3 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 0 (Q)  Time: 38.40 seconds  1st Place

FullHouse L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 24 (NQ)  Time: 21.68 seconds  1st Place

Wildcard L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 84 yards  SCT: 47 seconds
Absent

Jumpers L2 -  8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 105 yards  SCT: 47 seconds
Absent
It was a tough call to leave early Sunday knowing how much this trial meant.  I left the fairgrounds early so I could go to bed.  It was air conditioned in the livestock center and then going out to humidity gave me hot and cold spells of weakness. It was probably a good decision but not an easy one. In fact I left in such a hurry that I left my sweater there but my fellow club members saved it for me and I can pick it up at the club.

My Week

I really tried to keep myself busy and accomplish something.  Tuesday I took Amber to the nursing home to do tricks.  I always try to add something new so this time I brought her little garbage bin.  She steps on the foot pad to open it.  Now if I could only get her to put something in.  She can put something in if I open it but not both.   

 Here I am demonstrating Amber's ability to hold a bottle cap on her nose for one minute.

Here Amber is putting coins in a jar. Sometimes she misses.

Tuesday evening I checked the weather 2 hours before the flag lowering ceremony.  It appeared that the storms would by pass us.  In fact the clouds came and the even was only called off about 10 minutes before 7PM. 

Rain also canceled my Wednesday morning agility practice in Mechanicsburg. So I returned to the exercise class.  I did attend an online WEBEX seminar for volunteers at the ALPLM.  Lincoln liked minstrel songs.

Nobody Loves Like An Irishman Lyrics

Then in the evening I went to the Interveterans Council.

Thursday I had got an estimate to remove the big tree in front of my house.  He came just before my final class in Agility 104.  So the first quote was $2,300 then down to $2K.   I'll take that because it is big.  It's also a liability.  It should be down in 7-10 days.

I replaced 2 rows of yellow trim on my gown and now it looks a lot better than it was. I didn't want any cheap nylon pleating as you can understand. All I have to do to alter is those darn sleeves.  

Saturday I went to St Louis to participate in their 4th of July bicentenial under the arch.  The traffic was horrible because of a parade.  I couldn't make it to the free, sponsored parking garage because of the street closures so rather than leave I went to a paid garage ($10).  Then I couldn't figure out how to get my card to pay because it kept repeating "invalid".  So I tried to back out and got in a sticky spot where I'd have to back through a triangle curb.  I was totally frustrated.  A staff member came to help me out and he backed me out and got me into the garage.  Turns out that there was a blue start button I couldn't see.  

I proceeded over to the Arch museum where I had danced 2 years prior.  This year there were only 4 couples demonstrating and no public interactive dances.  I was to help visitors to the election judge and point out the 1820 Missouri constitution and laws but today for one day only, the rules didn't matter.  The election judge had to ask 3 questions, 1) are you over 21? 2) have you been a resident for over 6 months and 3) 

This is the original election box that the Park Service found in an antique store in TN.  When they bought it, they noticed a noise inside.  It was the seal of Missouri!   So you can't get more original than that.

These are the 2 candidates.  Now some read the information like an informed voter.  The trick here is that McNair won the governor election.  Clark's name is more popular because of the Lewis and Clark expedition.  He lost by a lot because he was not here to campaign and really wasn't liked because he was friendly with the Indians too much.

When I got home, my crate cover arrived from Chewy.  It will do better than the tablecloth and will be used next weekend for CPE Agility.

Well with the Fourth of July being on a Sunday, the neighbors have a long weekend with fireworks that scare Amber to death.  We had a nice introduction to our new pastor, Father Joe Malloy, at mass.  He gave a nice introduction of himself at 59:34 on the below YouTube video.

https://youtu.be/Fic5rq9_qDw

 Then I was put my flags up on the Chatham Square for the reading of the constitution at noon.  There was a family there and I recruited their kids to place the flags on the stakes that I drove in the ground.  They liked helping and I saw their parents taking a picture of them doing this great deed.   I took them down around 5pm.  At 7PM I spoke with Rose Hutches about Amber and her failures.  She wants to teach me how to correct those behaviors.  We had a long discussion.  She talked mostly about her experiences.  She knew I was disappointed in the obedience trial and we all know that Amber can do it but just messes up at trial.  Rose knew that I had taken a lot of classes and practices and feels there's a new group of trainers that are almost too nice.  We are forbidden to tell our dog "no"and only work with the positive like we have to wait it out.  She said if she was on a job and her boss never told her how to improve, she'd keep on doing what she was doing thinking it was right.  I agree and then she started to name people in the club that did it right and those that were doing it wrong and I can see what she is saying.

Well Rose likes to talk and I didn't get to say much of my side of the story. 

Here are the flags in front of my house and also to show the tree that I will have removed.  My sons argue that mature trees add value but I say liability.  Would you want to buy a house knowing it will cost $3k  to remove a tree in the near future?  Besides, the leaves to rake and it really provides little shade on the north side of the house.

Prayer for Independence Day in my church bulletin