Dog walking thoughts

I've managed to overcome inertia and break out of my computer's gravity well to take the dog on walks downtown again. I hadn't done this in a while.

Observation: In Chico, at 11:30pm in July, it's still pretty freaking warm out.

Yesterday in our walk downtown we encountered another person who had their dog with them. I tend to avoid letting my dog get to close to other dogs when I'm out and about. I don't know how those other dogs will react (and really, I'm not positive about Tattoo. He seems kinda grouchy to other dogs. Not mean, just kinda growls cause he doesn't like a nose in his crotch.) So, as I'm walking down the sidewalk in front of Tower Records, I see a lady up ahead with a pitbull on a leash. I tighten up Tattoo's leash and hold him right next to me with no slack. Tight. I also step off the curb so we have lots of room between the dogs. What does the other lady do? Lets her dog pull her over to Tattoo. Ugh. It was so obvious I was trying to keep them apart. What is wrong with these people? Tattoo growled and sorta did an air snap at the pit when it stuck it's nose at him and she realized that maybe she should control her dog a bit.

No harm done, just sort of annoys me when people are so clueless.

My dvd burner took a shit this morning. I'm bummed. It no longer recognizes dvds. It sees cds just fine. I'm checking into it's warranty situation (I flashed it with a hacked firmware, so that might have voided it's warranty. Doh.)

I've been thinking of moms lately. Moms are good. Props to the moms out there. I wish I could buy you all dinner and flowers and stuff. I guess I'll just have to buy my own some dinner and flowers.

These mom thoughts were brought about by reading several people's LJs and listening to a lady I work with. Several of you are moms with little kids and you post your frustrations and trials in your journals. This lady I work with, we walk during one of our breaks and chat. She is 24 and has two little girls, the oldest is ... 5 I think. The other is a few years younger. She works 10-11 hours a day and 4-5 on Saturday. She get all the OT they will let her have. I've mentioned that she should spend more time with her kids and it made her pretty upset, so I dropped it. She says she has thought about the situation a lot and she knows that one day her girls will understand that the reason their mom was away so much was for their benefit. I personally think she should be a little more balanced, but I could be wrong.

You moms sacrifice a bunch for your kids. My mom did too. She used to read a lot when she was younger. She wrote too. She won some sort of writing contest when she was younger. When she had my sister and me though she just didn't have time anymore. My dad was in the army and gone often (including two years in Vietnam when I was a weeeee lad). On top of that, for a year, the first time he was in Vietnam, my mother lived in Indiana, in the small town my dad was from. A very small town. The plan was that my grandmother could help out and stuff. That didn't work out well. On top of having two little kids to take care of and a husband in a war to worry about, my mother had the added bonus of being German and living in this hick town in Indiana. She spoke very little English. I can't actually imagine how tough she had it then. Luckily I was a little angel and no trouble at all. My little sister, on the other hand....

So again, Yay to the Mommies! You guys rock harder than Ozzy.

Dog walking thoughts

I've managed to overcome inertia and break out of my computer's gravity well to take the dog on walks downtown again. I hadn't done this in a while.

Observation: In Chico, at 11:30pm in July, it's still pretty freaking warm out.

Yesterday in our walk downtown we encountered another person who had their dog with them. I tend to avoid letting my dog get to close to other dogs when I'm out and about. I don't know how those other dogs will react (and really, I'm not positive about Tattoo. He seems kinda grouchy to other dogs. Not mean, just kinda growls cause he doesn't like a nose in his crotch.) So, as I'm walking down the sidewalk in front of Tower Records, I see a lady up ahead with a pitbull on a leash. I tighten up Tattoo's leash and hold him right next to me with no slack. Tight. I also step off the curb so we have lots of room between the dogs. What does the other lady do? Lets her dog pull her over to Tattoo. Ugh. It was so obvious I was trying to keep them apart. What is wrong with these people? Tattoo growled and sorta did an air snap at the pit when it stuck it's nose at him and she realized that maybe she should control her dog a bit.

No harm done, just sort of annoys me when people are so clueless.

My dvd burner took a shit this morning. I'm bummed. It no longer recognizes dvds. It sees cds just fine. I'm checking into it's warranty situation (I flashed it with a hacked firmware, so that might have voided it's warranty. Doh.)

I've been thinking of moms lately. Moms are good. Props to the moms out there. I wish I could buy you all dinner and flowers and stuff. I guess I'll just have to buy my own some dinner and flowers.

These mom thoughts were brought about by reading several people's LJs and listening to a lady I work with. Several of you are moms with little kids and you post your frustrations and trials in your journals. This lady I work with, we walk during one of our breaks and chat. She is 24 and has two little girls, the oldest is ... 5 I think. The other is a few years younger. She works 10-11 hours a day and 4-5 on Saturday. She get all the OT they will let her have. I've mentioned that she should spend more time with her kids and it made her pretty upset, so I dropped it. She says she has thought about the situation a lot and she knows that one day her girls will understand that the reason their mom was away so much was for their benefit. I personally think she should be a little more balanced, but I could be wrong.

You moms sacrifice a bunch for your kids. My mom did too. She used to read a lot when she was younger. She wrote too. She won some sort of writing contest when she was younger. When she had my sister and me though she just didn't have time anymore. My dad was in the army and gone often (including two years in Vietnam when I was a weeeee lad). On top of that, for a year, the first time he was in Vietnam, my mother lived in Indiana, in the small town my dad was from. A very small town. The plan was that my grandmother could help out and stuff. That didn't work out well. On top of having two little kids to take care of and a husband in a war to worry about, my mother had the added bonus of being German and living in this hick town in Indiana. She spoke very little English. I can't actually imagine how tough she had it then. Luckily I was a little angel and no trouble at all. My little sister, on the other hand....

So again, Yay to the Mommies! You guys rock harder than Ozzy.