2020 Life Logs, Day 124: A Very Little Gardening and a Shadow Problem
Date: Monday, May 4, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warm; High 70 degrees, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
For whatever reason, I had trouble getting motivated to do much of anything today. It was mostly sunny and the warmest day we have had this spring, so I am not sure why I wasn’t biting at the chomp to get outside and work in my raised bed gardens. But I wasn’t So I didn’t . . . until later in the afternoon when it got cloudy. When I think about it, the probable cause for my reluctance to go out and do gardening was my back. I had another appointment with my chiropractor this morning after a weekend with a lot of pain. Once he got things back in alignment this morning, the pain went away and I just wanted to keep it that way. When I did go out, I realized that there was no way I could lift the heavy bags of garden soil that need to go into each bed without stressing my back. Instead of doing that, I did a little clean out of leaves and am hoping to employ the Goldstones to help me at some point this week. Later in the evening, on a walk with Shadow, I thought of one solution if I can’t get the boys to come help. I can open the bags where they are and roll them onto a tarp where I can empty all the soil. Then I can transfer it to the raised beds, one shovel at a time. A little labor intensive, but it will get the job done. It is not going to be as warm as today for the next few days, but it should be warm enough to enjoy being outside.
When I was having a late lunch, I saw my neighbor and landlady, 94 year-old Shirley, outside walking around. I put Shadow on his leash and took him out to say hello from a distance. The distance drove Shadow crazy. I really had to pull hard to restrain him and in doing so, he got tangled in his leash. When I went to untangle him, he nipped at my hands. Not hard enough to break the skin, but still unacceptable. And stern as I was, he didn’t stop. This was not the first time this has happened, so I spent a great deal of the afternoon thinking about what to do. My “people training” was halted by the coronavirus shutdown. Training or no training, I have just not been able to keep him from jumping all over the Goldpebbles and nipping at them. They have started calling him a crazy dog. This afternoon, I wrote to Melissa Berryman, the trainer, and explained my situation. She asked me to drop him off at her kennel tomorrow morning and leave him for the day so she can assess the situation. I am going to do that. Then on Saturday or Sunday, wearing a mask and gloves and practicing social distancing, she will have a one-one-one outdoor class with me and my adorable, but much too feisty seven-month-old puppy. When it is just Shadow and me, we have no issues. But he loves other people and just wants to be all over them. Wish me luck on this one. It would break my heart to have to find him a new home, but I know I can’t have a dog who nips at anyone ever for any reason, especially around children. And the jumping on people has to stop. Melissa assures me we can get this under control. I sure hope she is right.
