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