"Have you ever thought that perhaps your whole purpose in life was to be kind to others?"  I came across a statement similar to this recently and it got me thinking.   Perhaps this is my life purpose.    I have been soul searching for years and have never thought that a person's sole purpose in life could be to be kind. 

 

Yes, I am a kind person.  I am polite.  I listen to a person with an open mind.   I am not a door mat or pushover which surprises those who push the envelope, so to speak.   I am kind, but not stupid.  I care and I allow a person to solve his or her own problems.  Oh, I have been taken in. 

 

In my 20s, I had a friend who was constantly telling me her troubles and I would listen and give advice.  I would drop whatever I was doing and be there for her.  I recently reconnected with this friend from my college days and I guess I no longer was as sympathetic a listener as she wanted because she stopped calling.  To me, she was still stuck in her 20s.

 

In my late 20s, a person I worked with called me early and woke me asking me to come quickly to her house, something about her husband.  I threw on some clothes and went.  She was calmly fixing breakfast for her children and husband and to this day I have no idea what she wanted from me. 

 

People can be fascinating.  So different from me that they amuse me , perplex me  and confound me.   Friends come and go.  My life has been enriched in some way.

 

Ah, younger son is home with my iced mocha!!

 

I love catching up with friends and people I haven't seen in years.  Received a surprise phone call.  A  guy we knew who rented office space from us when we lived in CA is vacationing with his family in our lovely sparkling little city by the sea.   Last night we met them for dinner. 

 

Little Cody is now taller than Bob!!  Duh, of course, kids do grow.  Learned that Valley Oak School for dyslexia where both Cody and our Don received instruction in the Slingerland method is no more.  It is now a school for emotionally disturbed children.

 

It was fun revisiting old times, learning who is doing what, the changes in our community since we left in 2005.  Scary sad that the state's financial problems affects such necessary services like fire and police depts.  To put the CA state of economy in perspective, they told us that the house we bought back in 1994 and sold in 2004 for twice the purchase price is now worth about 10 thousand less than what we paid for it.

 

I asked if they were enjoying the weather and they enthusiastically said "yes!"  Apparently,  they are having a cold, wet summer which is unheard of for that area, and are happy that it is HOT here.  Thankfully the beach is clean and not full of the ugly red brown seaweed that we get sometimes.

 

Inspite of having their Jeep stolen the first night here, they are enjoying all the area has to offer...  warm Gulf waters, parasailing, kayaking in the ocean and scuba diving to name a few.

Today is younger son's 25th birthday.  Pizza and cake at home and having him entertain us with his chatter.

 

Where was I at 25?  College degree and supporting myself.  Single and enjoying life without being crazy.

Don't know why, but my energy just went out the window, or door.  I feel so tired and just want to crawl back into bed.   I guess younger son's lack of focus and get-up-and-go is getting to both my hubby and I.  It is past time for him to be out of our house.

 

Years back, one of my friends suggested that I do what she did for her daughter:  install him in an apartment on the condition that he enroll in college and work part-time.  What worked with her daughter would not have with this younger son of mine.   He would have continually dropped courses and done so beyond the drop-by date thus not getting any refunds.  He would have not kept a part-time job.  He would have trashed the apartment and been evicted for excessive noise.  In other words, it would have been awfully expensive for us.  A very poor investment in our sanity.

 

Oh, younger son is supposedly enlisting in the Coast Guard.  He supposedly has passed all tests and is eager to ship out.  He has completed a questionnaire for purposes of security clearance.  Yesterday I took him by the recruiter's to drop off the signature sheets.  The office was closed because of heightened whatchamacallit status.  Later that night, I asked my hubbs to stop by.  Now I no the office hours and yes it says "by appointment only" but nothing about being closed because of anything.  It also said that drop-ins were welcome and could talk to an available recruiter.

 

I bet this son will have to work late today.  He finally took a job at the local McDs which  he walks to and from.  He has been there barely a month and was telling hubby that he has been there three months.  He has been back in our home 3 months;  two and a half months too long.  How old is this young man?  25 on the 23rd of this month.

 

*sigh*  better check on the doggies;  Beau is not supposed to be chewing his bones on the sofa anymore.  New rule.  He knows it too...  but, he will test.  

 

will go visit in blogland;  that always improves my state of mind

Thanks for the sweet comments.  Yes, Beau is a mischievous sweetie.  So loveable.  We are continuing with our training without a trainer.  I am working on being more calm-assertive.  I work with Beau's sit-stay and down-stay and short walks and my hubby is taking him on longer walks.  I ordered the Illusion collar and it arrived today.  Interesting contraption.  I put it on Beau and walked him in the backyard where it is cooler.  We won't be going on a longer walk until 7:30 or 8.

 

I also ordered the 4 DVDs set from Cesar Millan's website.  I notice that he offers online training and the 12 month sign-up fees equal what we paid the first trainer for 4 sessions and "life-time" practice sessions at the park.  These practice sessions take place at 7 on Friday evenings unless another dog related event is taking place on the weekend.

 

Gosh allmight...  when will younger son move out!!!!

Last week I took all three dogs for bathing and  play time with the other doggies at Bruno's Bath House.  A customer helped me take Beau, my beloved 45 lb mutt, inside while I carried Chihuahua Princess and walked Pug Buddy on his leash.  Beau was so eager to go inside that the customer asked me, "has he been trained?"   *blush*  I replied sheepishly, "yes".

 

He said he was a trainer, new to the area.  I communicated with him via e-mail and phone.  I decided to have him come and show us his dog training skills. At the end of the session, we decided to have him come and help us.    As I was falling asleep that night, my brain became active remembering the session.   I was awake until 4 AM.  I was going over how not only was Beau leaping and barking at the Boxer's behind a certain fence, but now he was barking and leaping at a couple of jogger's!

 

Even though this trainer was very personable and has four dogs that are beautifully behaved and can stay and play at Bruno's Bath House and Beau was happily licking him after the session ..  I was not totally pleased with his methods.  

 

Not every trainer is Cesar Millan even though they aspire to be and say they, too, are calm and assertive.  The trainer was not as calm and he said it was me whose energy the dog was picking up and acting on.   The trainer also was not a good listener.  We both told him that Beau was indeed used to the prong collar and that I worked him with the collar on and he wore the collar on all our walks.  He kept saying that it was because Beau was not used to the collar.

 

Plus, in our emails, I asked if he would work with Beau without a prong collar and he said he would.  When he came to our house, he told us all the reasons why it was better to use a prong collar on Beau.

 

So, I have decided to work with Beau without another professional dog trainer and help him learn to walk past the "trouble spots" without freaking out. I checked out two books from the library, including one on Pit Bulls, because so many people here tell us that Beau is a Pit Bull or PB mix.  I am also re-reading the ones we have. This morning I took him for a drive with the windows down so he could get a whiff of all the doggies in our 2 mile area.  Once back home,  I took him through his sit-stay, down-stay commands and walked him on the leash up and down our street.  He did really well on the walk, as short as it was.  He didn't freak when two dogs went by with their owners.   Slowly and surely, he will feel confident to walk past the barking Boxers and the barking Daschunds once again as he did before training.

 

.   See,  I am still a small pup!!

 

 

Before dogs, I only had cats and the size of the yard didn't matter. Then, we rescued Buddy about three years ago.  Our first dog.  He is a Pug so the yard we have now is perfect for him.  Our latest rescue is a Chihuahua, so a tiny yard is plenty big for her too.  For Beau, our mutt about the size of a Labrador, the fenced in back yard is way too small. 

 

Beau loves to run and he manages to do so making circle 8's as he runs, but oh it would be so wonderful if the yard were 100 feet long.  Don't know what he cut himself on this morning, but he left blood on my pants when he came up to me and gave me a 'hug'.

 

A friend suggested a fenced in baseball field.  Unfortunately, if caught I would get a hefty fine.  Plus, they have padlocked gates.  The next best thing is to take him on a long leash to one of the bay parks.

While shopping at Sun Harvest this morning, I stopped at a table where a gal had samples of several items like Calcium supplement in liquid form, Reservetol (sp) and a green protein shake.  I sampled a couple of items, chatting briefly and moved on to complete my shopping.

 

While in line at the check out, she came up to me saying, "Is your name Andrea?"  Turns out she worked with me over 27 years ago at a place where I was employed briefly...  about 6 months.  She recognized my voice!! Imagine that! 

 

We both are rounder and have different hair color; mine is highlighted with grey and hers is no longer long and black but short and orange-y.

She asked about my babies.  I told her my babies were now in their mid-twenties. She was surprised

 

I started thinking back as I drove home.  I met her when I was single and childless.  Did I meet her again after I was married and had my two babies?  I must have.  Life for me in the early 80s was full of change. 

 

In May 1981 I moved from my small hometown to Corpus Christi.  I worked at Walton Signs for six months before moving to Fox & Co.  At Fox & Co, I met my future husband.  We married in December 1982.  We had our first son in 1983. We adopted our second son in 1985.  We left Corpus Christi in early 1987.

 

Every now and then we see someone we knew from when we lived here before.  They usually recognize me first.  Guess I have aged well?!