20 December 2011

Adventures in housesitting, Episode: 103

Dont you hate it when you plan on a nice leisurely lunch break and you get to the house, let the dogs out to potty, and realize a few minutes later that the young black labrador you are watching has inadvertantly been chewing on a deer bone, which has splintered, lodged itself inside the dogs mouth on the upper part of the palette. The dog is frantic, which in turn is causing me to become frantic.

Deep breath. This is not an emergency. This is also not my dog. What are my current options?

1. Take to vet. Give owners vet bill which could possibly be avoided.
2. Try to remove bone splinter myself and get arm bitten off.
3. Call for a friend.

Bingo, placed call to said friend, she is on her way. The dog is now calm, with sporatic pawings at his muzzle. I get him to sit down which he responds to extremely well. The gaze in his chocolatey brown eyes seem to plead to me to get it out pleeeeeeeaaaseeee!!

He opens his mouth wide and I can see the bone crossing the span of the roof of his mouth but I cannot tell if it has punctured the gums or not. I tremble at the thought of not being able to remove it myself. This is my job though, to make sure these dogs stay out of harm and are well taken care of. What are you supposed to do with knuckle head labs though?!

I take a few deep breaths to steady myself, then brace him between my knees and tell him to open up. I gently pry my fingers between his teeth, if I get bitten at least I know I am trying to best that I can. I feel for the protrudence, I find it and play with the tension to see if I can get it to move- if even a little. The dog of course can only take so much of this at one time, so I reassure him between probings. He wags his tail and tells me its alright, just get it outta there!

So I bend forward once again, open the jaw and AHA! Got it!!! Wow, this shard looks so much smaller now that it is between my fingers and not wedged in the roof of his mouth. Emergency diverted. Will be looking for soreness and lacerations later. Was I a veternarian in another life?

I hear a car revving up the driveway. Yay, friend has arrived!! I release the dog, who goes over to greet her. Yep, everything is alright now. Time for some well deserved lunch!!!!!

05 December 2011

nano what?

nanowrimo = national november write more month (or something along these lines)

I have not written in my blog for a bit and this is why: Here I sit. I sit here to challenge myself based on an event that occurs every November. An annual event designed to help writers on their agenda to, well- do what they love. And that is to write!

The challenge is to: in a one month period, write 50,000 words. A novel to be precise. The goal is not about the quality of the output. The goal, is quantity. But that is not precisely what I have done. Nope, altogether I have only written a smidge over: 9,200 words. But it IS a beginning!!

Realiostically I knew I would most likely not make the 50,000 words in a 30 day period.

In reality for someone to meet this outline that this website has put out, a person would need to write 1,666.667 words per day to make 50,000 by December 1. Tell me, who has this kind of time? Insane writers- thats who. I work a 40 hour work week, and have a family night once a week that will not stop just for my one of many anti social passion. I don't plan to cut my friends out as they deliver small doses of comedic sanity either... Am I supposed to forgo my minimal (as it currently is) exercise plan? And sleep, who needs it!? Um, this lady needs her sleep....All these reasonings are of course the primary reason(s) I have not yet sat down to write my story which is precariously lodged within my gray matter.

But, I have mapped out a tentative calendar with what I think I can do. This little "journal type entry" is more to draw out what I want to write, because the subject is already in my brain. This is the story of my child hood of living with Diabetes. I just need to force myself to sit. Then write. Then make it into a story I believe others will benefit from, and enjoy during reading.


So while I may not be able to write everyday, I am willing to make a goal:

1. Plan a week ahead of time, of trying to write an average 3 days a week, with about 5,000 words a week. I am not going to punish myself if I do not meet this goal! However, I DO plan on setting up a reward for writing my daily goal (a sauna is a GREAT motivational tool!) as is reading time. Books are my vice, and consume a good deal of my spare time!

2. Set up times that work for me. A Sunday morning I am not going to schedule myself to write at 6am. I will be reasonable, first walk the dog, with plan on writing later (but longer) Or if I feel the need to write more, to plan on getting up that hour earlier before work and just flat out write!

3. Write uninhibited. Write it how I remember it. Just write! Like the website says, its about the quantity- not quality, fine tuning comes later. It has to be typed/written out before your put in all those fancy schmancy words.

4. Look to the great website resource for pep talks. Or if you cannot think of the story at hand do a journal type entry, at least you are writing something!! (specifically like this one).....read through the journal and notes you have that you have already written, it really does work to get inspired about the subject matter!!

5. Do not procrastinate. Do it now. November is coming (quite literally the day after tomorrow.) Do it now, what am I waiting for?

6. Back the work up! Really, you know how upset you get after writing a 100 word email and you accidentally hit delete. Save it on the ipad, save it on blogger, save it in google documents, save it on a flash drive. Save it! Then use the handy word counter they smartly have on the website to see how many words have flowed out of those fingertips! Or, download an application for a word counting and make it EVEN EASIER! Wow, I just sat down and typed 737 words in a little under an hour!

See, thats all it takes, is the goal to sit down and DO IT! So, until tomorrow (or what has turned into the entire December hehehehehee)  I plan to write, goodnight!