Updates

Exercise - My walking program is going great.  Have missed the odd morning, but usually I walk at speed, 2 to 4 miles.  Even the four miles is seeming much easier now.  I usually throw a little bit of running in there, but it's mostly walking as fast as I can go.  I look forward to going, and so do Jake and Luna.  Bonus, I've lost a pound or two, even though my eating habits right now are pretty bad.

My mum - Unfortunately she is not showing much sign of improvement.  On Wednesday she was transferred to a different hospital wing where they really concentrate on the physiotherapy aspect.  Right now they are mostly working on her good side, trying to bring that back up to strength.  Laying in bed for two weeks, especially for the elderly, doesn't do much to keep up your muscle tone.  I'm hoping that the physio will also bring some strength and movement back to her left side.  It would be nice if she had enough control of that left side to at least get around with the use of a walker.  The visiting is hard.  It's a 1 1/2 hour round trip from here to her room and back.  A couple of hours visit and then a quick stop at her house,  and four hours have passed.  I've been going Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, and Sun.  I'm not going out Wed. and Meredith has gone the last couple of Saturdays.  Just a really busy time of the year right now.  My sister is coming out next Wed for a week.  I'll let her take over most of the visiting for that week.  Maybe I can get a bit caught up with the planting and weeding.

Nationals - A few people wondered why I wasn't going to the Agility Nationals, considering Jake's top placing in his division.  Mostly because it isn't important enough to me, and I don't take it seriously enough.  I really love doing agility, but when it comes down to it, I don't love it enough to travel all that way.  I wouldn't fly with Jake.  He'd find that extremely traumatic.  I'd want to make a holiday of it.  That would mean taking the truck and trailer and all three dogs and Larry too:)  That would mean missing three weekends of farmers markets.  That loss of income, plus the cost of gas and other expenses, I figure it would cost us about $5000.  Sorry, there are a lot nicer places than Ontario that I'd chose to go for that amount of money:)  Three weeks away from here, and the flowers and vegetables would be in one heck of a mess, and that would be more money lost.  I'll just settle for taking one weekend off and running both dogs in our club's regular trial.
Next year though, Nationals are apparently on Vancouver Island.  That's just a hop, skip and a jump across the Salish Sea from here (and a healthy dose of ferry fares).  Lets hope the dogs qualify next year!