The Milpitas Dog Park, and My Weekend

Monday, June 29, 2009

It's been a bit of a struggle to find places where I can write undisturbed. I have to have:

• a bit of background noise - I always studied best in the student union, where there was a nice level of white noise from students talking or eating
• a comfortable table, preferably a booth
• a power outlet for my laptop
• a source of food and drink
• a bathroom

And these last two are gravy, really...

• the ability to see my table if I have to get up to get something in the way of food and drink
• wireless connectivity

There's a Starbuck's near my house that I've used a few times. It's not a bad place - there's 2 hours of free wireless if you've loaded one of their gift/drink cards in the last 30 days - except they do that restaurant thing where they jack the cooling up a bit too high, so you start to freeze if you stay there long enough. One would think, wouldn't one, that the pricey drinks and food would allow them to relax a bit about the length of stay their patrons indulge in...

There's also a McDonald's in Milpitas - okay, certainly not the best choice in terms of healthy eating, but it's better, in a lot of ways. The temperature is more securely within the range required for human survival, the food is a LOT cheaper, it's open later, and there's a play-place, the door of which is directly adjacent to my favorite booth. This is where I take the kids most Saturdays - well, by KIDS, I mean Elise and her friend Wynter. It's harder to write with the kids popping out of the play-place every few minutes to tell me something, but still, if i HAVE to bring them, I can get a few things done. They have wireless here as well, but you do have to pay for it. It's something like $2.50 for two hours.

This latter is where I am right now., 06/29/2009. I have a job search workshop on Mondays from 10am-12pm, and I come here after that, get some lunch and spend some time writing. Today it was the blog, and finally working on the video I took at the dog park in Milpitas a week ago:



We've had Charlotte for a week now, and it's been wonderful - she seems to adapt so fast, and she's already fitting in to our lifestyle. Last night, Jeff played with Elise for about half an hour - I could hear her squealing happily from the bedroom - and then he played with Sophie for about 15 minutes, and THEN he played with Charlotte for 15 minutes. With Elise, it's the "rolling around on the bed getting tickled" game. With Sophie, it's the "Papa rolls around on the bed while Sophie tries to give him kisses on his face" game. With Charlotte, it's the "Mine!" game.

Eden left us a huge bag of toys for Charlotte which have, in the course of the last week, become scattered around the house. Charlotte will appear with a randomly selected toy clutched in her gaping jaws, and wave it at someone in the hopes they'll play "tug-of-war", or what Jeff calls the "Mine!" game. Last night it was her teddy bear.

(And yes, there's something rather disturbing about a dog with jaws like a Dire wolf, biting down on a cheery teddy bear as hard as she can. It's even worse when she tugs on it. That poor teddy bear is not long for this world.)

Other Charlotte happenings: I spent the weekend at my in-laws' place in Morgan Hill. On Friday night, I left Charlotte with the in-laws', John and Doris, and my niece Katie, while I went grocery shopping. While I was gone, John found out the hard way that:

#1) Charlotte has a really strong prey drive, and she REALLY wants to play with the cat
#2) The cat does NOT want to play with Charlotte. At all.

When I got back from grocery shopping, I walked into the living room of their house, to find John sitting on the sofa, holding Charlotte's leash, his arm covered in random brightly-colored band-aids. Used to seeing such band-aids adorning my husband's arms - Jeff has a very problematic relationship with Elise's cat Snowshoes - I didn't even bother to ask what happened, but started right in with the apologies. As it happens, John and Doris are experienced animal people. Doris was blaming John for what happened... What a bunch of goofies! I told John I owed him a chore or two to make up for it.

Charlotte did very well in the trailer. Holly the huge Rottweiler puppy was scared to death of her at first, but after an hour or two, they warmed up to each other and were playing in the yard like old buds. When Peggy, Holly's mom, called them, they both came running, only Charlotte took a side trip to go play in the fish pond. Peggy found her standing knee-deep in the water, staring at the fish swimming past with a bemused look on her face. Peggy had to go grab her collar and pull her out, at which point she came willingly enough, but I can just see the look on that dog's face as she stood there staring down at the koi swimming past.

It was way too hot this weekend. My trailer has no insulation whatsoever, so being in it when the temperature is anywhere over 80 degrees, is like sitting in an oven. I don't care how many fans you turn on - I even bought an older air conditioner from our neighbors and plopped it into a window. It worked fine until midday, and then it did barely any good at all as the temperature climbed towards double digits. It was still cooler than outside, but Charlotte got pretty bored with being inside all day, and after a while, I let her outside and just tried to keep an eye on her, make sure she drank enough water, etc.

I usually stay in Morgan Hill until well past dark, leaving sometime around 9pm to get back to our house around 10pm, but this last Sunday, there just came a point at around 6pm when I threw up my hands and gave up, packed up the truck and the dog and came home. I've got two options: I can either renovate the trailer somehow to improve the insulation, or I can decide never to go there if the temp is going to be anyway over 90 degrees.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I had thought that if I was going to extensively renovate a trailer, I'd rather start with an Airstream body, and have my existing Komfort trailer to use while I do that, but now I'm wondering if there's something simple I can do to make things more livable in the Komfort, since I don't have the money to get an Airstream body to work on.

Dunno. This is going to take some thinking.

Charlette, Dog of Destiny - Day Four

Well, here we are at Wednesday, the fourth day Charlotte's been a part of our family.

Elise started calling her "Shar-Shar" the other day, and it's starting to stick. I've called her "Shar" once or twice, without even meaning to, so it looks like that's going to be the nickname. Of course, when she does something naughty, she's "Charlotte Eugenie Isadora Louise Hiatt". What can I say? She has a very regal bearing, and "Charlotte Eugenie Isadora Louise Hiatt" sounds like the name of an English Regency or Victorian princess.

Right now she's laying down in the living room, chewing on her dinosaur thigh-bone (the biggest size rawhide bone I could find at Petsmart). She's very industriously pulling with her teeth at the knot of the end, and wrapping her big paws around the whole thing to hold it still.

Quite a few people now have commented to me that she looks like she has some Irish Wolfhound in her. I guess there's no way to really know for sure without getting her genetic make-up tested. I've found out that the local Banfield vet office offers this service for about $100. I'm dying to know what breeds she has, so we'll probably do that some day in the distant future, when we're flush again.

We wound up not going for a walk yesterday - it was really hot, so I didn't want to go until the sun went down, and then my daughter and her friend decided they would die if they didn't get some Jamba Juice, so I volunteered to drive them. By the time we got home, it was too late, but Charlotte got to come on the car ride. When we got there, Elise wanted to stay in the truck with Charlotte, so her friend Wynter and I went into the Jamba Juice place. The truck was parked really close, and we could see them the whole time, Elise and Charlotte watching us side-by side, with both their heads sticking out the truck window. Wynter was worried that someone would bother Elise, but I took one look at Charlotte, hanging her head and one paw out the window, right next to Elise, who had her arm over Charlotte's back, and I pointed out to Wynter that Charlotte's head was bigger than Elise's. As she was panting at the time and showing a mouthful of sharp white teeth and a mile-wide doggy grin, I asked Wynter if SHE would want to bother Elise with Charlotte there, and she shook her head no.

Okay, so we like to make up songs in my family, and of course, it was only a matter of time before Charlotte had a song of her own, sung to the tune of "Get Along Little Doggies". Here's the original tune, sung, sadly enough, by Alvin and the Chipmunks, as it was the closest correct version of the tune I could find on Youtube...)



Here's the first stanza, which is as far as I've gotten:

"As I was walking one day in a dog park,
A handsome big doggie I happened to spy.
Her jaws were a' grinnin' and her ears were a' flappin'
and I sang this song as she galloped on by:

Yippie Tay Yai Yay, get along Big Charlotte
Go carpe your diem, there's miles left to run.
Yippie Tay Yai Yay, get along Big Charlotte
You know a big doggie needs lots of big fun!"

That's all I've got so far. I'll keep you posted if I have another flash of brilliance.

I'm working on a second song, sung to the tune of "Mirror in the Bathroom, by the English Beat:



This one is going to be called "Doggie in the Bathtub":

"Doggie in the bathtub, please stay there.
I've got to mop up all your hair."

But that's as far as I've gotten on that one.

My husband Jeff and I keep noticing things about Charlotte that remind us of Jake - another example of how God creates these serendipitous little moments to show you you're going in the right direction. She sighs like Jake did, she has a seriously Jake face, and in fact, Jeff calls her the "Anti-Jake", because she has so many of his wonderful characteristics, only she's dark and he was light-colored. >;}~

She's still adjusting to the new kibble - this morning she had to get up about 6am or thereabouts to have a serious poop that just wouldn't wait - she whined to wake me up, and I was so pleased that she's starting to get the concept of telling us when she needs something. She's cleaning her bowl every time she eats, which makes me wonder if I shouldn't be giving her a snack midday.

I started this in the morning. Now it's 11pm, and we just came back from a late walk. She is such a seriously cool dog! The very first time I tried walking her, in the parking lot going to Petsmart, she just about tore my arm off, and it was all I could do to get her into the store. Tonight, she heeled by my side without pulling on the leash AT ALL, she stopped and sat when I asked, and the last time we stopped, she sat automatically! I started her with a new command - you're going to laugh... It's "sniff". This tells her she can go to the end of the leash and sniff the grass and walk essentially "at ease". She didn't give me any problems coming back to heel afterwards.

So we took a long walk, at least half of it in "sniff" mode, as I figured she'd enjoy the chance to learn something about the neighborhood dogs. We walked to the street corner at First St, which is pretty busy, even at this time of night. I thought she'd be freakier about the dark, and the cars, and people going past, and she was a little tense, but other than having to turn her head to look at things, she didn't show any other signs of nervousness.

Charlotte is easily the sweetest, smartest, calmest dog I've ever encountered, and hats off to Eden, her former mommy, for the work she's obviously put in to socialize and care for Charlotte! Thanks, Eden, because I have the feeling Charlotte is going to be one of the really special dogs in my life, like my Jake, and if it wasn't for you, I'd never have met her, or been given the chance to adopt her into my family. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the brave and tough step to let her go - I think one in a hundred people would have put the welfare of their dog before their own feelings...

Okay, gotta go - tomorrow I'm going to walk down to the neighborhood Starbucks, which has a huge outdoor patio and is very busy, to do some writing. I'm going to take Charlotte with me - I want to see how comfortable she can be with crowds of people going past. If nothing else, she's likely to be very happy, as EVERYONE is going to want to stop and pet her.

;}~

Charlotte's a VERY TIRED DOG!!

Sorry, I HAD meant to take a ton of pictures today, but our camera really sucks, and the battery ran out.

So... Here's what happened to Charolotte today.

She slept like a log all night long, never a peep, never a snore. When I got up, I let her out of her crate, and immediately took all three dogs right outside to go poddy. Charlotte went outside and did her business. I have to say, she's had three pee accidents in the house, but our house was owned by ladies who raised puppies, so the carpet is kind of like written permission. I took her outside every time I thought of it today, and as of 11pm tonight, when I'm writing this, she has actually gone out on her own with the other dogs to do her business unsupervised!! What a smart wonderful girl!

Anyway, Charlotte got to play with Elise for almost an hour when we first woke up this morning. They had the most fun with the squeaky bone pillow - Charlotte keep chewing on it to make it squeak, and then tossing her head against Elise to get Elise to grab it back. They had some fun with the long rope, but the kitty who makes smooching sounds was an early casualty - Charlotte dropped it in the water bowl, where it stayed for a while. I didn't notice it until it gave me a huge scare. I was listening to something I couldn't quite make out - it sounded like a weird, garbled, high-pitched voice repeating something over and over. I got goosebumps, I got images of horror movies in my mind, and after about five minutes of sitting perfectly still trying not to freak out, I realized the sound was coming from the water bowl! It was the talking kitty, saying "smooch, smooch, smooch, I'm wild about you" or something like that. I picked it up by one leg, and the water just ran off it. I busted up laughing and set it on the counter to dry. Much later on that night, I heard this strange crackling noise, and again, it scared the crap out of me. I frantically called my husband into the room, thinking we had a short in the kitchen electrical and the house was going to burn up, until we both finally realized it was the smooching cat, whose talk mechanism was by this time on its very last legs. I finally gave up and threw it out, figuring Charlotte hadn't noticed it yet, so she probably wouldn't care too much. So far, she hasn't really paid too much attention to any of the stuffed animals, except the rope teddy bear, which she played tug-of-war over with Elise. She's been more interested in the animals that make squeaky noises, or the crackly bottle, or the rope toys that she could play tug-of-war with, or her dinosaur-thigh rawhide bone.

So anyway, Elise and Jeff went to lunch with some friends, and Charlotte and I went out to run errands, and go to the in-laws' house in the Saratoga foothills. Charlotte helped me water plants and chop up tree branches, and she got scared by crows (I think the whole concept of "Nature" was a bit trying for her) and she barked at the neighbors. She was noticeably jumpy the whole time we were there, which wasn't surprising - new people, new pack, etc... Her confidence level isn't what it will be as she gets older, and she needs more reassurance.

Okay, so then Charlotte and I came home, and I took a few minutes rest, then Elise and her friend Wynter and I all took Charlotte on a walk. We walked to a nearby playground where the kids played, and Charlotte sat down next to me and fretted a bit more about the wind and the kids running around and the planes going by overhead and the other dog that walked past. She barked at every dog we passed, but by the end of the walk, she was only barking once, and she was stopping when I asked her to.

We got up, left the park, and walked back towards our house, only we stopped in the grass "circle" at the entrance to the park, where we met a couple of different friends who happened to be walking there. Charlotte got to say hello to my best friend's kids again, and got to meet a new dog, Cici, and her owner Sue, and Sue's friend Debbie (whom I know from working with our Renters Association) and got to sniff the grass and edit the doggy newspaper on the bushes there. We were there about 40 minutes - I'd get ready to leave and some other friend would walk up, so we'd have to keep talking. By this time, it was about 8pm, so we walked to take Wynter home, then we walked home ourselves.

Right now, I'm sitting at the kitchen table writing this. Charlotte has had about five cups of kibble and is collapsed under the table, utterly exhausted, poor baby, but she seems pretty happy. She conquered a lot of new experiences today, and I think this is just going to get easier and easier for her. She's still awfully young, no matter how huge she looks, and like any baby, there are a lot of strange new things she'll have to deal with - she'll eventually learn that crows arguing in a nearby tree are nothing to be worried about, or that when something rattles through the dry grass, it's almost certainly way too small and harmless for her to bother about. She'll learn that she shouldn't chew on the kind of dog brush called a "rake" (she jumped about a foot when I first came towards her with it), because the teeth are too sharp and will prick her in the gums, which hurts, but that if she sits still to be groomed, it will feel really nice and will pull all the nasty dead underhairs from her coat. She'll learn that it's really not necessary to jump and start barking at every dog she meets, and that she'll get nice praise and petting for calmly watching the OTHER dog jump and bark.

Okay, one more time out to go poddy and then we're off to bed. She's been following me around the house all day, even waiting outside the bathroom when I go, which is a good thing - it means she now sees me as the pack leader. That means she's ready to trust me, and now all her doggy instincts regarding the pack leader can be used to help smooth her way into our household and build her confidence.

Example: since I'm the pack leader and I go first all the time, she can relax, because she doesn't have to make the decisions - I do. Since I'm the pack leader, when she encounters a scary situation, she can look at me to get clues how to act. I won't be nervous about whatever it is, so she'll do what I do. When she does something wrong, I'll correct her instantly, and praise her just as quickly, so she never has to worry that she's doing something wrong or that she's going to get into trouble. She'll trust me to let her know how to respond.

She's giving me the serious "Come ON, it's time for bed, I want my crate" look, so I'd better sign off.

Just Another Manic Monday

Actually, that's a lie. We're not at all manic. We're whiny, temper-tantrum-ie, head-achy, lethargic, wanna-sit-on-our-butts... but manic? No, not manic.

Ok, there we go, I just had to bust out my mommy-voice. I hate it when I have to do that. It always means tears and recriminations. I told Elise four times, "I know you hate it when I yell. Can you please just go do the thing I've asked you to do?"

Apparently not. All of the whining and the tantrums and the sitting around pretending we didn't hear what Mommy just said (twelve times) is because of the homework situation.

The problem is that we're going to move Eliseto a different school next year, and I'm just about 100% certain that she'll be behind when she gets there.

She's been going to George Mayne school in Alviso. We've tried everything to get her out of there - we've been denied transfer three years in a row. We've been told that the transfer school is full, and then met a parent whose child goes to that school, who told us that the second grade was so empty they had to close one of the classes and redistribute the kids to the remaining classes.

Dunno about you, but I don't appreciate being lied to.

So we're done with this freakin' school district. Anyway, the point of this whole diatribe is that I'm homeschooling Elise this summer to be sure she's going to be up to the standards of another school. Right now, however, Elise is having a tough day. We've already had one temper tantrum, and when she finally DID get some work done on her math homework, most of the problems were wrong, because she was really focused on getting to play in the park.

*sigh*

Part of what I'd like to teach her this summer is how to control herself and control her emotions a bit, because she just gets so out of control, and it takes an outside intervention to get her back on track. I realize that some part of this is just the normal workings of an 8-yr-old, but still, might as well get a head start on the concepts, right?

OMG... She's discovered Hulu, and old episodes of Flipper.




What's worse is that I'm going through Hulu now looking for some of the stuff I like. AAAARRGGGHHHH! Just when I thought we'd gotten rid of cable TV.

Oh well. Today is the first official cleaning day for Charlett's homecoming next Saturday. Better get back to it.

It's Official - Charlett's joining the Hiatt Family

Meet Charlett, Dog of Destiny!









Charlett is 9 months old! That's right, she's going to be a gargantu-puppy! Eden, her current owner, is a wonderful lady; we talked for about an hour on Thursday afternoon, during which time we discovered that we have a lot of the same thoughts about animals in general. Eden loves Charlett very, very much, so much, in fact, that she's decided that her house is not the best environment for Charlett, who, while being a very calm dog, still needs more time and attention than Eden has available. Hats off to Eden for making such a tough, painful decision, while simultaneously allowing us to adopt Charlett into our lives.

Eden posted the ad for Charlett on Craigslist after much soul-searching, and I saw the ad literally about ten minutes later. I emailed her instantly! It was incredibly serendipitous.

I've always known that we were going to get another dog after Jake died, but I loved Jake too much to rush into anything. I spent months researching dogs, to have a better idea who I wanted to bring into the house. At one point I considered a wolf hybrid, which is a kind of dog I've always wanted, but it turns out they have a very bad track record where children are concerned, and are less ready than a dog to accept a human as alpha. Because of this, it's much easier for them to see a child as potential prey, or as a threat to their place in the pack. For a dog, if you know what you're doing, and you know about pack mentality and architecture, you can be sure a dog understands that your children are the offspring of the alpha wolf, and therefore to be protected and deferred to. As I found out, you can't do this with a wolf hybrid, so that was the end of that.

I'd also looked into Aussie Cattle Dogs, until I found out they're really high-energy, high maintenance dogs, so again, that was out. I'd pretty much settled on a Rottie, as I've always loved their temperments and their size, but we have a problem in that we have two cats, two dogs and a kid. If we wanted a rescue dog, we'd have a huge amount of possibly fruitless training ahead of us to be sure we didn't wake up one morning to dead cats, or worse yet, an injured kid. I wasn't going to go to a breeder when there are so many dogs desperate for good homes, and puppies almost never wind up on the rescue adoption list because they're so cute.

Jake was a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix, and I loved his temperament, his loving manner, and his unflappable calm. If I could have found another dog like him, I would have taken him or her in a moment.

Charlett is a German Shepherd/Bull Mastiff mix.

Check Wikipedia's entry on Bull Mastiffs - they're brilliant dogs! Calm, loyal, low energy, fearless, naturally great with and protective of children, but not terribly aggressive, so if they encounter a bad guy, they're much more likely to pin the bad guy or back him into a corner and hold him there, rather than actually hurt him, which is BY FAR what I prefer in a dog. Yes, they're huge - Charlett may well get up to 120 pounds - but they're calm and they can do well in an apartment setting, provided they get a thirty-minute walk every day.

Now, of course we'll be giving Charlett a lot more time outside than that - I'm hoping she'll come with me to Morgan Hill when I go to write, because Holly the Rottweiler Puppy who belongs to my in-laws' tenants, would dearly love to have a play companion, and it would give Charlett someone her size and age to play with. I've also been walking an hour at least most days, in an effort to lose weight, and taking Sophie with me, so hopefully I'll be able to walk Charlett with Sophie.

Anyway, long story short, Charlett sounds like a sweet-natured, wonderful dog, and we're working hard to get ready for her. Eden will be bringing her over next Saturday, and I can't wait to meet both of them!

Okay, so it's way late now and I need to sleep. Ciao!

My letter to Charlette's owner

Hi There - I just tried to write you a big long email re: why we'd make a great new family for Charlette, and the email got returned because craigslist only allows a measly 150 kb. I thought about it, and I decided to just post the email to my blog so you could read it directly.

.....................

Hi there;

I have to admit, your ad was nearly the first one I checked, so maybe this is serendipitous... I took one look at Charlette, and thought, 'OMG! THAT's the dog we've been looking for'.

First, I'm a dog rescuer and fosterer, so it sounds like we have something in common. I've had dogs all my life, I've rescued, fostered and placed twelve dogs in the last 17 years, including the three we kept over the years. I just lost my "old man" Jake in January of this year, so my husband and I had started talking about finding another big dog. Jake was a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix who weighed 80 pounds in his heyday, and the most wonderful guy. I've always loved German Shepherd crosses, as they have so many great traits and they tend to have great, easy-going personalities. Charlette sounds like she's got that same wonderful attitude - and 'gargantuan-bouncy-puppy' does not intimidate anyone in my house. :) Everyone in my family has always owned big dogs, and the two dogs we have now, both under 15 pounds, are something of an oddity for us.

Our other two dogs are also rescues - my "old lady", a very old Chihuahua/Corgi mix named Zazu who's now blind and deaf and maybe a little bit senile :), who's lived with us the entire 15 years of our marriage, and our newest addition, a young spaniel-esque teenager named Sophie who tries to get Zazu to play with her but would REALLY love somebody closer to her age to expend some energy with. I wanted to introduce a new dog to our pack as young as possible, and fairly soon, so that Sophie would have a friend and a pack mate to help her when it's time for Zazu to go to the Rainbow Bridge. I've always tried to have two dogs at a time, as I feel like the dogs are just so much happier with some doggie company. No matter how hard we try, we humans don't speak the same language, and sometimes a girl just needs another girl, ya know?

We own a single-wide mobile home with a decent yard in north San Jose, right next to the Milpitas border, and we have a lot of family nearby that own dogs, so Charlette would get to meet and play with Holly the Gargantuan Rottweiller Puppy on an almost weekly basis in Morgan Hill (and Holly's mom and dad will certainly appreciate Charlette coming to play, as Holly is rather lonely right now - her only companion is another Sophie, Sophie the Rottweiler, who is far too old to play and just grouches at her all the time. Holly is another sweet soul who's too big for her own good, and also 9 months old).

Our dogs have ALWAYS been inside dogs, and we don't even turn the dogs out in the backyard unless they ask. They stay in the house when we have to go anywhere, and we have family that will dog sit if we have to go on vacation and we can't take the dogs, which won't happen often as my favorite type of vacation is camping. Our family also does not believe in leaving dogs outside ever.

Sophie the Spaniel-esque gets a daily walk, but Zazu's been too old for more than a walk around the block for some time now. I'd love to do more hiking, and so would Sophie, but before now, I haven't had much time.

Here's the other thing that makes this a very serendipitous situation - I just got laid off :) Ok, so that doesn't sound quite so good.... But let me explain. I would never dream of bringing a new dog into my pack, let alone a puppy, unless I was going to be there 24 hours a day to help him or her adjust to life in our family. My husband works from home, and I'm going to be present a lot more. I work in web design, so I'm not anticipating finding a job any time before 6 months (not that I'm really looking that hard right now, as I'm enjoying being a mom to our 8-yr-old daughter) and yes, in case you were wondering, we have excellent finances and no bills, no credit cards, no car payments, not even a mortgage, so money is not going to be an issue at all. We've been seeing a nearby vet, but I'm thinking of switching back to the BRILLIANT vet we used to see when we lived in Fremont, at Mission Adobe. Those guys were freakin' wonderful, and I haven't found anybody I like half so much where we live now.

I know it's tough to think of giving up your girl, but it reflects nothing but good on you that you're looking at your situation and recognizing that it may not be the best for Charlette. I'd love to get together and talk about whether our family might be a good fit for her.

I'm sending a second email with some pictures of Jake and Zazu, along with my nieces and nephews - just because I'm a sucker for cute dogs and kids and I operate under the occasionally mistaken belief that others are too...

My name is Ericka Hiatt, my cell phone number is (sorry, edited out for the sake of my personal sanity. Email me at tygrhaus@yahoo.com, and I'll send you my cell#). I can even provide references as to my level of experience and ability to care for and train Charlette, if you'd like to talk to some of my friends and family.

Thanks for considering us!

:) Ericka

Tuesday PM at Starbucks again

Hey Happy Campers;

Tuesday pm, and I'm at the Starbucks in McCarthy Ranch in Milpitas. This one's ok. I've got a nice spot by the window, and an outlet to plug into, and tuneage from Tiny Bob, my laptop (don't ask - I don't even know why he's named Tiny Bob; it's just something Elise came up with, and after all, it IS Elise's world - we just get to trim the grass in it. Oh, and make the mac 'n cheese), and when all's said and done, what more can one ask of life than a good spot by the window and decent tuneage?

Although I admit to being a little disappointed by the tuneage I just purchased from Corvus Corax; well, disappointed SO FAR. I haven't gotten all the way through it yet. It's a bit more mundane than I expected. I've just now gone back and downloaded a few more from some of their more traditional albums: very medieval, very tribal, and very suited to one or two of the works I've got going on right now.



The above video isn't one of their best, but it lets you see their live sound...

What's going on right now in the real world: both Jeff and I are looking for work, but we're both anticipating a hard time of it - Jeff because he doesn't have an actual college degree, which he's always felt to be a point against him, and me because I'm a woman, I'm 45 and I'm overweight, and I work in a very young-male-dominated field (IT and desktop support). It's frustrating to me because I'm actually very good at what I do, but there's no way a hiring manager will consider me... I've told Jeff I honestly believe he has a much better chance of finding something before I do. He doesn't believe it, but I guess the proof will be in the pudding. Luckily, we have no credit cards, no car payments, our rent is only $1500 per month, we already paid insurance for this year, and we can actually survive on my unemployment and what he makes from painting miniatures, at least for a while.

So, that being the case, I've also decided to spend some time this summer home-schooling Elise, and I'll explain why.

As you know, because I've talked about it in the last few posts, I've spent some time volunteering in Elise's classroom the last few weeks. I've come to see that there just is no way a second grade teacher can handle a classroom like Elise's without a teacher's aide, which I've tried to be. There are so many high-needs kids in her classroom, that - sadly - a few kids, through no fault of their own, and no fault of the teacher's, are taking up all the teacher's time and attention. It's just insane!

Elise is likely going to be going to school in Saratoga this coming year, and given the income level and educational level of Saratoga in general, I just KNOW Elise is not prepared for the third grade there. I'm contemplating having her stay back a grade, because honestly, she wouldn't be hurt by an extra year to mature a bit. She'd be starting in a place where no one knows her, and she'd have the chance to catch up, especially physically, without the stigma of "oh, you had to be held back". I'm not completely decided; Jeff and I need to talk it over and maybe have her see a counselor at her new school to be evaluated. In any case, I bought some math books for her, and we're going to do some homeschooling this summer. The one thing she needs the absolute most is help with her penmanship, spelling and reading! There are a couple of girls in her class who have perfect penmanship and spelling, and it was a shock to see the difference between her writing and theirs.

Okay, anyway, enough of that. I need to start on my writing now, so I'm signing off.

Friday in the Second Grade

There's a temptation, I find, to assume that just because one no longer works, one's weeks are suddenly devoid of all purpose and meaning. Ah HAH, I say to such naysayers! The last few weeks (three, I think?) started out a bit lazy, I'll admit, but my days are as much or more full now. I get up at 6:30-7am, get Elise up and ready for school. Some days I go with her, as I'm volunteering in her classroom to teach the kids about internet searching and research, and to get them look up a famous American they may be interested in.

I'm going to shoot off on a tangent here, but it's an important one, I think. The dynamics in Elise's classroom are pretty strange, and worth mentioning. I'm fairly sure these kids are worse behaved than most at the school, just so you don't think that the whole school is full of screaming ADD-heads...

There are three boys who represent the worst of the worst. I'll call them E1, E2 and M1. By no means do I believe these kids are just bad kids and that's all there is to it. Nope, they've all had a very rough time growing up - one boy spent the first five years of his life floating through different foster care settings. His mother's been forbidden to have any contact with him, and he's never had the slightest idea who his father is. M1 (and I have this from his father) has a psycho mother, and the father now has custody. He's raising this boy and his sister by himself, and it's a struggle.

I don't know the situation for E2, but he's like the other two: so desperate for attention that he'll do anything, including really naughty stuff, to get it.

I started out in the classroom a few days after I left my job. I'd promised the teacher, Mrs. A. to help her set up the computers in her classroom, but then I got swamped at work, and she finally got them setup. I then asked what help she could use, and she suggested I teach the kids the module about internet searches, and have them search for information on a famous American, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

I love kids, and I'd been on a field trip with Mrs. A and the class earlier in the Spring. I'd already met all the kids in our group, and every time I'd come to pick up Elise, on the days I could, everybody would say "Hi, Elise's Mom!"

Now everybody gives me a hug when I walk in, and I'm gaining a bit better rapport even with the difficult ones, who are starting to do what I ask without too much argument. They all seem really anxious to get my attention, and I find it really is true that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.

By way of example, E1 started out the day just full of angry rebellion - every single thing anyone asked him for, he did the opposite, and he did it looking us straight in the eye.

At first I used my serious angry mommy-voice, but then I started to think about him the way I used to think of young horses: you can yell when they get something wrong, but the only way they know how to do the right thing is if you immediately praise them as soon as they stop doing the wrong thing. I also remembered that the only way to get a young horse to go the way you want him to go, when he's decided he doesn't want to go where you lead, is to push him sideways, and then as soon as he takes that sideways step, you lead him forward. You can spend your whole life and all your energy trying to push a horse forward, but let me tell you, it just don't work. Ever.

Example: E1 had some word puzzles he was working on. He WAS supposed to be working his journal with everyone else, but he was sitting at the back of the room, doing these puzzles, and ignoring the teacher when she asked him to join in.

So I went back and stood next to him, and watched him doing his word puzzles. Then, when he got all interested in showing me how he was doing them, I sat down in a chair, patted the one next to me, and he sat down so we could work on the puzzles together.

When he'd finished the last puzzle, I made a big fuss out of how well he'd done (and it wasn't hard - he has quite a fine mind for puzzles) and then I patted him on the back and said, "Great work. Now go grab your journal and we'll work on that together."

(Push sideways, step forward, walk ON...)

He grabbed his journal and showed me some things in it, and drew a star for me to show me how well he could draw a star. Then I drew one, and asked him how to make it look like Patrick. (Okay, so you gotta know Spongebob to know who Patrick is). Then I told him I wanted him to write me a journal entry on Spongebob. He wrote out a nice entry and showed it to me. I told him it was wonderful, but could he write a bit more? He came back with an entry about the Bubble Band, and pictures of Sandy, Spongebob and Patrick, colored in and everything.

Okay, so it went on like that. I found that he could do the work, but only if I spent every minute working directly with him. Mrs. A does not have a teacher's aide because no one gets a teacher's aide in these days of thin budgets. E1 will probably wind up in jail someday unless someone intervenes right now, and I do mean right now, while he's still a child and willing to listen. Once he hits puberty, if no one does anything for him, he's doomed. I could just cry.

Anyway, back to the original topic. I got up at 7am, got my shower and got Elise ready, and then we went to school. I worked with the kids until 10:30am, when I had to take off for a meeting with my career counselor. THAT lasted until 12:15pm, at which point I hurried off to get some lunch, and then hurried to Elise's school to pick her up. THEN I sat with her while she played in the play structure with some of her friends who were in the afterschool program. Then we went to the post office to get stamps, and then off to Safeway to get fruit and some snacks. From there we went home, where we had just enough time to get a snack, and for Elise to get changed for gym class. After gym class we came home again, had some dinner, and now it's 7:20pm, and we're off to my best friend's house to talk story (she's a writer too, and I ask her to read all the stuff I'm working on).

Tomorrow, I'm taking Elise and her friend Wynter to McDonalds to play in the play place and get some lunch. Then I'm driving my niece Brianne down to the in-laws in Morgan Hill, where I will then hole myself up in my trailer to get some writing done, and she'll go off with Grandma Doris to pick out yarn for the blanket Grandma is going to crochet for her.

I have an end-of-July deadline for having my portfolio finished and off to the first agent, and that's coming along well, and I have to write up the beginnings of a website and the corrections to my resume that I discussed with my career counselor today, and THAT has to be done in the next two weeks.

Da-YAM...

Unemployment is so much more hectic than I thought.

:)

Not a bad little Monday, all things considered

My weekend, sadly, was not as productive as I had hoped. I got stuck slogging through the rank molasses of writer's block, and instead of getting up and taking a walk or something, I sat there trying to force blood to come out of my eyeballs or something. How annoying.

But I did do one thing that was productive: I discovered part of why the trailer was getting so hot. I've got a tarp over the roof, because it leaks and has needed fixing for at least three years. The tarp does the job just fine, although traveling with it like that is out of the question, unless I go to the desert or someplace equally rain-proof.

So, anyway, I've had the skylights open, thinking that would help to cool down the trailer, but on Sunday, I put my hand up by the open skylight, and felt the air coming in, which was like an oven. I realized, this had to be because the open skylights were creating an airspace under the tarp, which was being heated by the sun. This really hot air was then leaking down into the trailer, and contributing to the outrageous heat problem.

I know this because even the roof didn't feel as hot as that air (and it was barely 80 degrees outside) when I put my hand up to feel it.

I don't think this has solved the problem, but I do hope it's helped. The next step is to get an evaporation cooler that I can run inside the trailer. If I close the windows, and run the fans, that should make the trailer proof against the worst heat (and Morgan Hill has some astoundingly hot days) without costing a million bucks for the cooler, or a million bucks to run the cooler. I'll have to see.

On to today. I took Elise to school this morning, and then went home to get ready for my Monday morning career development meeting. I dyed my roots, which had the happy secondary affect of dying my scalp. For those who don't know, I've been having a problem with my hair going into hibernation mode all over my head. Translation: my hair is falling out. I think a lot of that is about the stress I'd been under at my last job, and the fact that I'd had two surgeries in the last year. Okay, anyway, dyed my hair...

I got ready, climbed in the truck, and headed out to the meeting, but as I was on my way, I just completely lost heart in going.

I turned the truck around and went to the Starbuck's near our house. I got a mocha latte and a breakfast sandwich, and spent the next several hours belting out some good work on my "witch" story. Lesson to be learned here: I've always worked well in college student unions, where I could get something to eat or drink, use the restroom, and have a decent bit of background white noise. I studied well, was able to concentrate better, and was almost always productive.

In all fairness, Jeff has been telling me for months to check out Starbucks as a place to write, but I thought that it would be nearly impossible to get a seat there in the evenings (and I still think I'm right about that). Now that I have time in the day, however, I think it'll work well. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I'm teaching in Elise's classroom again, so I won't be able to go back until Wednesday, but I'm going to plan on spending all the time Elise is at school doing my writing at Starbucks.