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29 May 2011

The Day From Hell

Yesterday started out alright other than the fact that my skin was in rash mode from the multiple reactions to treatment to heal it. I spent most the day laying on my bed shagging toys to Thane while watching JAG re-runs I had taped in years past.

Thankfully I let Thane go busy around noon though as the new neighbor across the way decided he was once again going to take advantage of our towns stupid policy for open burning. If I had known open burning was allowed here when I moved out of California- it never would have happened! ANYWAY I digressed a bit there. This guy is forever mowing, weed wacking, sawing, go-carting, or yes, burning.

Most people who burn do so for maybe 1-2 hours tops but not this guy. Every weekend he ruins one of the days (which also ruins at a minimum the following day for me) and burns for a minimum of 3 hours. Yesterday however he burned for almost 6 hours! I could not open my doors, I could not get my mail from our unsecure mailbox, I could not take Thane busy or change his potty station. We were literally imprisoned in our apartment while he destroyed the environment, air quality, and drove my irritation at him well beyond a good place.

Thane was busting to go busy at 5PM. I pulled out one of the disposable underpads that goes on patio park under his turf and tried to convince him to pee indoors NOT A CHANCE! I trained my dog too well for that one. When I laid the pad down on the floor, he went to it and laid down as if to say- ahhh a new mat huh mom? giggle

Finally I had no choice but to open the door, as every time the fire started calming down, it erupted again so he had to have kept putting more on it. Thane had to go busy. I could not cause him to have an infection just because the fire would make me sick. I put on my mask and let him out to use the dirt. I hated doing this because giardia is rampant in our area this time of year. He has had it every year which is why I trained him to the potty station in the first place. So far this year he has not had it. This was the last thing I wanted to do but I certainly could not sit with the door open letting all that smoke in here while I uncovered and re-covered his potty station. Thane was so relieved when I sent him out to potty. He peed what seemed like forever. His bladder must have been ready to burst.

When I finally was able to change patio park, I left Thane home. I knew the air would be really bad. I was not going to ask him to work in those conditions. Sometimes a service dog team has to make the right choice based on whats right for the dog even if it means the task will be much more difficult. I grabbed my cane and took out the garbage, collected my junk mail, and hurried back inside as quickly as I could. I could smell the smoke through my gas mask- not a good thing for my lungs at all. I tried to imagine how bad it must be out there if I was smelling it through a gas mask. Shudders!

I did use patio park when I took Thane out the final time around 9. He seemed to pee forever again. The smoke in here was bad but we were going to bed soon so I vinegar sprayed and off we went to the bedroom for our last play session and then bed.

This morning I had forgotten about it until I took off my mask after taking Thane busy- ARG! The clouds had come in and held all the smoke down here- it was nasty. All this to save on a trip to the dump or money to the garbage company I guess. I can't imagine that what was going on was all legal burning. I know people DO burn illegal stuff here- I just recently learned that its not for regular trash and I KNOW people do that anyway.

I hate when people who think only of themselves ruin my ability to breath easily like this. If what he has been doing lately is any idea of what the season is going to be like, I just may have to seriously start considering a move to a city that bans this. I would hate to do that as that requires living in a big city but as bad as chimney smoke is, at least its filtered where this crap is right in my backyard practically!

Anyway- back to more re-runs, play and listening to my skin that is seriously yelling at me after I took a trip to New Seasons today. Boy those smoothies are nice to have back in my diet with all the good nutrients- I was feeling so drained without them.

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