I didn’t make any resolutions this year, at least not formal ones, instead I thought more about goals… the first of which is to put a bit more effort into writing. Part of that will be to spend more time reading, with extra attention paid to sentence structure, vocabulary, and the art of telling a story. I always find my writing improves if I spend a bit of time with Alice Munroe and others of her ilk.
I’ve signed Adia up for some obedience classes starting next week with the goal of having her trained enough to test with Ottawa Therapy Dogs, hopefully by the end of this year. She’s a bit of a nut and pretty excitable so this might be a challenge, but if I could train Spike to be a service dog and accompany me to work, it should be easy to get Adia to therapy dog level. I’ll have to get cracking… her training has been stalled since before we went to Europe.
It goes without saying that my most important goal is to keep myself well. Last year I worked hard to keep my mood stable: lots of candlelight suppers with guests (a’la Keeping Up Appearances), and getting myself out of the house. I tried to pay attention to my thoughts and where they might be leading me astray. I’m pleased to say that 2019 was my best year in decades and I anticipate that 2020 will be even better! I don’t think I even had one day in bed with the covers pulled over my head :-)
Speaking of milestones, we passed the anniversary of our 9th year of retirement at the end of December. I had a dream/nightmare about work a few weeks ago, but that’s the closest I’ve been to the office in ages. Even when Jo Ellen visits we rarely even broach the subject, except to maybe say that we got out in the nick of time!
On our little road trip today we stopped at PetValu to look at dog toys for Adia. She’s a heavy duty chewer so her rope toys are just about ready for the garbage… but we don’t think they are the safest toy for her. But she does love cloth things, hence her collection of towels and facecloths by the bed this morning… all my clothes were safely stowed in the closet with the door firmly shut… so I wanted something fabric. There was one toy that I thought looked like it might do, but Carm didn’t think so. Nothing else spoke to us so we left empty handed. I’d put a pineapple chew toy on our Amazon wish list so ordered that on our way home. I can smear peanut butter or tripe in the groves to keep her occupied.
Yesterday we took another road trip: a loop that started at liquidation and ended at Costco. So many stops! The best stop of all was at our little Pho place that is tucked in a grungy strip mall. So good!
“Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.”
~Hal Borland
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