2021 Life Logs, Day 262: ‘Fun Guys’ Popping Up All Over
Date: Sunday, September 19, 2021
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High Temp 70, Low Temp 53 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I love to refer to fungi as ‘fun guys’. The plural of fungus is fungi or funguses ‘Fun guys’ sure sounds better than funguses to me and it is just more fun to say it that way. I suppose due to the recent amount of rainfall, ‘fun guys’ are popping up all over the place in my yard and in the woods and along the road in my neighborhood where I walk with Shadow. It is a bit like watching spring flowers bloom. But are fungi plants? Well, no. Are they animals? Definitely not. They are in a Kingdom all to themselves . . . plants, animals, protists, monera, and fungi. Some of the ‘fun guys’ that have popped up cause me to do a little step around dance while taking Shadow out for a potty break in the woods. 
Some look like wooden flowers. Some look like pancakes. Others look like little troll hats. Some hide in the leaves and others grow boldly in the open like the little red ones that seem to be everywhere right now. So just as I appreciate the flowers that appear in the woods around the time of the spring equinox, I am learning to appreciate the ‘fun guys’ that are coming with the fall equinox this year.
I am once again writing this log while listening to the jiggling of the pressure regulator on the canner. I finished turning the second 60 pounds of tomatoes into marinara sauce today and am now in the process of canning. I won’t have time to complete canning it all tonight, but the remaining sauce can wait in the refrigerator until tomorrow night.
Tomorrow is a busy one for me. I take Shadow to the groomer which is up by the Bourne Bridge early tomorrow morning. I am then going to continue driving toward Boston. I plan to stop to have tea with the Kanegsberg’s before having lunch with my niece Candi. If time allows, I will do a quick Whole Foods and Costco run before returning to the Cape to pick up Shadow in the afternoon.
Speaking of Shadow, we had our second e-collar class today. These collars used to be called shock collars, but technology and positive training methods have improved and now most people refer to the remotely controlled collars as e-collars. When I attended the first training, I came home and followed the directions for training Shadow. On the first correction, he fell to the floor and yelped. The setting was exactly the same as it had been two hours earlier in the class where he had reacted positively for me and for the trainer. But it was such a strong reaction that I decided to hold off and wait until the second class to try it again. Today in class with Ian, the trainer, he responded beautifully, no falling in the floor and yelping. But when Ian returned him to me, Shadow hung his head and looked totally dejected for the remainder of the class. Ian thinks he is smart enough to be doing these things to ‘train’ me. But Ian also said in his work with Shadow he has come to realize that Shadow is much more emotionally sensitive than most other dogs. I might only need to wear the collar on Shadow and not even turn it on to get the results needed after some initial training. I will work with Ian to continue to learn to use the e-collar to keep Shadow from running into the street and from jumping on people and hope that with enough positive reinforcement I can keep him from dragging his head on the floor to make me feel guilty!
