Training Log Archive: vmeyer

Event: Southwest Spring Week
 

Event: QOC Clopper Lake
 

QOC - Seneca Creek - Clopper Lake area

Chest still congested, and with a rainy, yucky day, I only planned to deliver the maps, stay while Amy went out on a course, and then come home.

Pepper would have wanted more, so she had to stay home. Luckily, a substitute beagle was on hand...Barney got a little chilly, so I warmed him up on my lap, and vice versa.



In the meantime, Inara was running around in the rain, sliding through the leaves, sitting in the mud, and just having a great time. So, much fun to see. Then she picked up the Clear control and started carrying it around.

Did you Clear?



Then it was on to the epunch lesson for the day - always Check!

C • Love it! 3

Dog park with Pepper this morning, before it rained, but this afternoon I didn't relish going back there in the rain. Did that last weekend...It really is quite sad/pathetic to be at the dog park, in the rain, coaxing your dog along, with almost no chance of another dog being there, or, if there, actually engaging. Case in point, when Roger and drove by on the way to the store later, there was a lone soul sitting on the ground under a tree, while his dog looked forlornly on.

So, despite being newly showered, after first looking like this after the second nap of the day,



[My daughter wanted to know what went on just before that. I told her that I sent her the picture so if I went missing, they would have something current to go from.]

I took Pepper out to explore her woods...sicker than I want to admit with my lungs not being very happy, so I planned to just sort of be a presence out there, so I could claim I was looking for an escaped pet, the one I let loose on purpose. (OK, yes, I worry too much!!)

I suited up into the rain gear



and put the tracker on Pepper and off we went.



I hoped that she would come in eventually, like before dark, but she actually kept close by, and we were home within the half hour.

Self diagnosis is bronchitis - not a reach with the cold coupled with my asthma. Deep breath hurts. :(

Bonus time on my feet last night because my casualness of having Pepper off leash finally came back to bite me. It happened about 6:15pm, and it was a dark and rainy night. I took Pepper out twice, very close together, but the second time she wasn’t really interested in #2, as I speculated. Instead she ran off into Beagle Woods, and despite me trying to corral her over the 2.5 hours, she only returned after I stayed inside for an extended amount of time. I think me being out there was her permission to keep sniffing, howling, and getting as dirty as possible. She must have ventured quite a bit into the small, black bog (Barney Bog?) below the house. Of course, all of the rain didn’t help matters. She was black from head to toe. A bath and then bedtime. Another fine Pepper day in the books, though hopefully not repeated anytime soon. What a fretter I am!

Feel worn out, but this is when committing to a pet (especially one who is backyard adverse) overrides crawling back into bed. Have to go to work tomorrow, since I have a 10 am appointment with someone who I failed to get the name for. Ooops. That's OK. Sucking it up is good.

Still very sore. Also liquids gushing out of my nose and eyes. Ugh!!

So sore from yesterday. Supposed to rain most of the afternoon, so drove Pepper to the dog park. Stayed about an 75 minutes.

We Were getting ready to leave when good friend Zak arrived.



Do you want to play with me, Zak?!



Wolfie arrives to supervise...

Event: QOC Patapsco
 

No Pepper today because we had a nice warm building instead, with no dogs allowed. No complaints.

The advanced courses looked brutal, so with the other options being White or Orange, I did Orange. Peppering must be doing something, because I felt pretty strong, though I wished I had brought a GU or something along, since I was fading at the end. Fastest to the first control - WooHoo! Second overall, but 21 minutes behind a high schooler. Good for him.

Brain fart from 3-4 - how hard can it be?! Hard enough that paying attenrion would have been good.

Sidehilling 6-7 was not the best option. Going back to the trail or going higher would have been better, but I was concerned about the OOB.

Not the best route choice from 7-8 perhaps, but the alternative didn't look like it would be any fun.

Distracted near the end of 8-9 when I chatted with Mike N about his missing compass and then missed seeing that I had crossed the power lines.

Despite all of that :), it was so nice to be out in the woods, on a crisp winter day. It reminds me that I want to do more of this.



RouteGadget...
http://qocweb.org/routes/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map...

To start and back x 3

Orange - Splits

Groundhog Day - very windy.

Pepper sees her shadow...



...she doesn't look too happy about it.

Lots of excitement at the dog park today...



I actually was civic minded and reported it, and got a couple of emails in reply:
I apologize for the concern that our training caused you the other day. The green substance you saw in Four Mile Run Creek is a harmless and environmentally safe dye usually used to find leaks in pipes. The Fire Department Training Division made notifications to our Emergency Communications Center and the Department of Environmental Services prior to the training in the event someone called. They also had a sign indicating that there was Fire Department Training in the area. However, they overlooked the need to post signs in the dog park and along the trail. Thank you for your concern and for making the suggestion that we put more signs out. I stopped by the Training Academy today and passed along your recommendation. They admitted the oversight and will do better next time. Thank you for your involvement in our community. “If you see something, say something.”