2/20/12 DOG TRAINING IS MOSLY BALONEY, AND WE WERE UP THERE WITH HIM

TRAINER AND TRAINEE (CAN YOU TELL WHICH IS WHICH?)

TRAINEE IN DEFIANT POSE

DOG TRAINING IS  A LOT OF BALONEY...

...BUT EVERY MAN (AND DOG) HAS HIS PRICE!

Monday, 8:30 AM.  30 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly overcast with high, thin gray clouds.  The ferry was audibly straining through the pack ice this morning, its protestations echoing up the Bayfield bluffs. The barometer predicts snow.
        As promised, I have started to train Buddy more seriously, reinforcing the basics such as sit, stay, come, and no.  In the process, I am discovering that dog training is mostly baloney. Lots of baloney.
Every dog, like every man, has his price, and Buddy is a tough bargainer.  No doggy treats suffice, not even Beggin’ Strips’ (he knows it’s not bacon).  I have been complaining that baloney doesn’t carry well in a jacket pocket, but Joan has reminded me that wieners are pretty close to baloney and much more transportable.  Got to get some.
        In accordance with the plan, I am giving him (and...groan... me) more exercise.  We took a  longer walk before breakfast this morning, played fetch before lunch, and took a hike in the snowdrifts at the Larsen’s sugar bush. There is still a lot of snow in the woods. It’s a good thing I am “retired.”
        Today we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of John Glen’s orbit of the earth in the Freedom Seven space capsule. Unfortunately we can not at this point do what we did way-back-then…launch a man into space with our own space vehicle.  What a disgrace!  What a national tragedy, to throw it all away, as the Biblical Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge.
        I was earthbound on that day a half century ago, but off the ground a little bit; up on a scaffold carrying bricks and mortar for an addition to a Milwaukee hospital.  From my vantage point I could see far out onto an ice covered Lake Michigan, so I could almost imagine looking down on that vista from space.
         I really remember the day well, because us supposedly “tough guys,” and me the youngest, were listening to that space odyssey live, on a portable radio.  We were proud of our country and our shared heritage as John Glen orbited the earth, and were relieved at his safe return.  We didn’t cheer, or wave flags, or sing the national anthem.  We were just up there with him, all the way, all the time.  I would give almost anything to be up there with him again.