Adventures with dogs – Page 16 – THE WIDOW BADASS BLOG

I hope everyone had a restful, meaningful and thoughtful holiday this year!

Although I tend not to take any additional days off during the “season” due to the nature of my work (cows don’t know it’s Christmas), the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is generally quieter and I can get a fair bit of catching up and tidying done in my office. And thinking about the projects and plans for the next few months while the phone is not ringing.

Outside of work, I use this time to ruminate (cow pun!) on the past year and sharpen up my plans for the new.

On my lunch break, I tried to open up my 10 Year Plan spreadsheet a few days back to review it and add some stuff and IT. WASN’T. THERE. This led to much (inner) screaming and (outer) hair pulling and cursing.

I checked everywhere the damn thing could possibly be instead…every folder in Dropbox, every folder on my laptop…it was nowhere to be found. Fuckity fuckity fuck fuck fuck – to quote a friend.

Then I got home and checked my iMac. Again nothing. I resigned myself to having to create it all over again…from memory (OH SHIT). Then I had a brain wave when I remembered that the last time I opened it up, I was using the for-Mac version of Excel on my home computer. I opened the program and went to Recent…sure enough it was listed! With trembling fingers I called it back up. Success!!!!

Somehow, it had gotten saved to iCloud and, in so doing, the Mac gods removed it from Dropbox instead of making a copy to save (like the PC gods would have done). Hmmmm. I kinda get why this happens…so you don’t have multiple, different versions floating around…but hell-to-the-no…I am not a fan of this enforced document control. I would much rather have multiple versions (backups of backups ad infinitum!) and I WILL MAKE SURE OF THIS FROM NOW ON. Whew.

In happier news, I finally completed my Flower of Life mandala between Christmas and New Years. I am beyond pleased with how it turned out.

I kept going back and forth on how to create this. I wanted to use my new acrylic inks but felt I needed to use my watercolour pencils for the effects I wanted to achieve. In the end I used both – water colour pencils for the actual inner “flower”, and acrylic inks and black fine-point marker for the rest.

New years Eve at Chez Badass was a quiet dinner spent with good friends. New Years Day will be Gourmetten – Part 2, with the family.

About to enjoy a meal with my friends. The kabocha squash got a bit burnt when I reheated in the oven along with the roasting potatoes. Green veg still to come to table. Hey, how did Seashell Jesus manage to photobomb us?!?!

My friends brought me a date for NYE: Sylvester, their grand-doggy. He was the perfect gentleman.

Looking ahead to the new year, I have some plans, natch. I won’t call them resolutions but they are definitely plans.

Such as:

Fitness – The cardiologist recently gave me the go-ahead to resume physical activity, just not to be an idiot about it. OK, not an exact quote but she meant to not go from couch potato to ultra-marathoner overnight. Check! I signed up for more yoga and also added a barre class, both happening down the street from me at the old Town Hall. Very excited to try barre. With yoga and barre, I am hoping to improve my flexibility and gently strengthen my muscles without injury. And to add training with free weights for later on this year. I am having some real problems with my left arm and want to get the full range of motion back. I also ordered a DVD called Essentrics – Toning for Beginners – which is more of the same to do at home. I will incorporate a daily walk back into my life and maybe…just maybe…sign up and train for another half-marathon later this year!
Looking forward to this arriving in the mail next week!
Art/Learning – I’ve signed up for year’s worth of artistic exploration of the mandala via Julie Gibbons’s marvellous Mandala Magic 2017 course. First lesson arrived in my Inbox this morning, as promised. Yay!!
Adventure/Travel – In about a month I will be heading back to Barbados for a week with a good friend, to commemorate 50 years of our friendship. This time, the hotel is fronting a lagoon that is full of reef fish and sea turtles. In the hopes of seeing this ocean life in action, I ordered a snorkelling set to take down with me. I also bought a GoPro camera to take better underwater photos and even videos. Last year’s results underwater with a cheap disposable camera were disappointing, to say the least. I had been dreaming of a GoPro ever since but hesitated to pull the trigger on this purchase because – well – SPENDY! But when I read online about the lagoon last week…what the hell…MERRY CHRISTMAS/BOXING WEEK SALES TO ME, I said. Currently no other definite plans for travel (just some nebulous ones) on the horizon for 2017, but money gets automatically funnelled into my Travel Bucks account every month from my chequing account so I will be ready for whatever the year brings me.
Work – 2017 will be an exciting year with an expansion to the lab and bringing on new types of analysis. I live for and love this stuff!
Renovations – I did about 3 years’ worth of planned renovations on my building in 2016, so this year there will be much less happening by comparison. Some of the projects I had initially roughed in for this year are landscaping, painting the foyer, renovating the second bathroom on the landing (including adding a shower), and FINALLY putting a railing around my rooftop patio. I have some doubts as to whether finances will allow me to complete all of these this year and that will be OK too. The building is looking good; my apartment is finished; there’s always next year.

That’s about it for me. The sun is shining and a walk outdoors is calling! If you want to share your plans for 2017 in the comments, I am ALL EYES.

Rock on,

The WB

When I get a puppy, I spend a lot of time and effort exposing the young dog to every possible alarming (to a dog) situation.

The pup accompanies me in the car on long and short drives. I walk the dog in all types of situations – nature trails, busy city roads, and everything in between. There is lots of time spent around people and other dogs, and other animals if at all possible. The more noise and confusion, the better. I wade into rivers and streams to get the puppy to follow me and lose fear of the water. We go to the groomer and the vet.

The puppy learns it can survive all of these scary situations and gains confidence.

The result of these early months of exposure to new things means this: Congratulations – you have a dog that is afraid of nothing. And…condolences – you have a dog that is afraid of nothing…hehehe. A total badass of a dog.

My favourite breed of dog is the miniature Schnauzer. This is a dog that is already possessed, pound for pound, of more courage than any other breed. Of that I am convinced. I am also 100% certain that when my Lucy looked in a mirror she saw a Rottweiler staring back at her. Miniature Schnauzers are the badasses of the dog world.

The late, great canine badass – Mizz Lucy, in her prime

Elderly and in poor health but still a total badass. Mizz Lucy ruling the street from her carriage.

Women, whether they know it or not, are the badass sex. They are the Miniature Schnauzers of humanity.

The patriarchy knows this too. Which is why women are portrayed as weak, illogical and in need of protection. It is why women are chronically underpaid and their work is undervalued. We are so strong that extreme societal measures have to be taken in order for the patriarchy to continue.

We are dressed in pink and frills from the day we are born. We are put in clothes and shoes that limit our movement and our play. We are punished for expressing traits males are praised for. We are praised when we are gentle and nice; when we are “pretty”. We are ridiculed and put down for being smart and sassy, and for not conforming to society’s expectations of beauty. We are told men’s violence towards us is our fault.

And when we age, we lose our value in this society. But the truth is this: when women age we become even stronger, smarter and sassier.

And this is how we are raised. This is the culture I was raised in.

I’d like to think things have changed, are changing. Recent, revealing events such as those surrounding the US election are making me doubt this.

Men are victims of this misogynistic culture as well, whether they realize it or not. They need to conform to society’s expectations of male behaviour or face ridicule and persecution. People who present as mixed or opposite or fluid gender…well, we all know how cruel this society can be to them. This is why feminism should be important to all people. It is not “just” about the rights of women. Feminism means ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL.

Like my puppy, I have been put through a lot of scary situations and I have survived.

On my journey to becoming a badass widow I have survived:

A long first marriage to a verbally abusive, controlling man who did his best to isolate me from my family and friends. Whose chronic bouts of long-term unemployment meant I had to pull the financial weight a lot of the time, in addition to the bulk of the parenting and household duties.
More than a year of stalking and harassment by the same man when I exited the marriage after 17 years. A restraining order and multiple visits to jail had to happen before this criminal activity finally stopped. I thought nothing could be worse than remaining married. I was wrong.
A second marriage to a man who initially presented as the answer to a prayer. Who wasn’t afraid of my intelligence and work ethic – who praised and complimented me and supported me. Who I thought was a soul mate but instead was a soul-less mate. Who turned out to be mentally ill. Who turned out to be a world-class liar and hypocrite. Who cheated on me. Who put me through OCD hell and severely strained my relationships with family and friends before the cancer finally took him out of our lives.

Somehow I survived these torturous situations and learned and grew.

And now I am fucking fearless. Congratulations Life, you have created a woman who is afraid of nothing. Also condolences, you have created a woman who will no longer be subdued.

And I know I am not alone. Where my dangerous, badass women (and men) at? The world needs us now.

Rock on,

The WB

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