Bandit's Story

From time to time, I post things about my dog, Bandit. He's a pretty special dog. Today, it was proven again. Bandit is now a graduate of Dog Ears and is a certified service dog. He's been in training since October, 2012. Bandit's purpose is to accompany me and be my "ears". He alerts to cars or people that I might not otherwise hear when we out. Other jobs for hearing dogs are to alert to doorbells, oven timers, fire alarms, etc. I am not totally deaf, so many of his chores are not necessary for me. He has discovered the joy of travel and expects to go in the car all the time. The great thing is, HE CAN GO! Being a service dog allows him many privileges. By law, he can go anywhere I go. He goes shopping, to restaurants, doctor appointments, hotels, wherever. Another plus, an establishment cannot charge a fee. If there is a pet deposit required, it is waived for a service dogs. He can even travel on the airlines, sit next to me, not in a kennel, all at no additional charge. Being the dog lover I am, there's nothing greater than being able to take my dog everywhere.

Last week during training, I went to the mall. I was nervous about the escalator. I kept thinking, how am I going to get this dog to go up an escalator? God knew my concerns before I did, and when we got there, the UP escalator was broken. We walked up just like stairs. Now how do we get back down? The DOWN was working. I remembered there was an elevator. Bandit had never been on an elevator, so I knew this could also turn out to be interesting. We go in, the door closes and then I notice, its a glass elevator. Bandit looked out and watched the trip down to the first floor. When the door opened, he acted like he wanted to go again. Silly dog!

Oklahoma's Devastion

It has been quite a week in Oklahoma. The world has watched the devastation via the news outlets. We have watched and communicated via email, text and Facebook. Friends have lost everything and friends of friends have even lost family members. I cannot imagine the hurt that people are experiencing and thank God many times each day that my family, home, and town was spared. Now, the cleanup process has started. Oklahomans are coming out in true form with cash, supplies, time and sweat. On a positive note, God's grace has been shown. The death count had escalated to 91and later it was found to be a terrible error. The death count is in the 20's. Pretty amazing considering the strength of the storm. Kudos to the weathermen in this state. They can't predict a snow to save their necks, but they can tell you what time and what side of the street a tornado is about to hit. Prayers are still needed. Thousands are hurting, but Oklahoma will rise again!

Balancing Writing and Daily Life

I think one of the major challenges for writers is balancing daily activities. Most everything you read will tell you, if you want to be a good writer, you have to write daily. Being a wife, mother, housekeeper, cook, accountant, gardener and everything else I do, often makes writing fall to the bottom of the list. Part of my problem, is the type of personality I have. I took a personality assessment once, and according to that assessment, I don't feel worthy to do fun things (writing, sewing, etc.) until my work is finished. Unfortunately, a woman's work is never done. I sit down to write, and the dryer buzzer goes off and then, oh yeah, I forgot to put those dishes in the dishwasher. The dog wants out and his water bowl is empty.  One cat wants in and one cat wants out. Oh my, look at the time! Time to start dinner. By the end of the day, I am frazzled and my best intentions for getting that story started, were never achieved. Tomorrow it will happen.  Tomorrow comes and its the same vicious cycle! I met one writer that told me she had to leave her house to write. She actually rented an office space downtown and treated her writing like a job. She had no phone in the office and she went to "work" at 8 am and stayed until 5pm. That's great, but I'd never be able to justify spending that money for rent. My personal goal is to set an appointment time each day to mentally zone out of my home and zone into my writing. Maybe I'll go into the closet where the animals won't disturb me and I'll turn off the telephone! Well, its a good thought anyway.