Time for the traditional making of resolutions which will undoubtedly be broken. We take this annual opportunity to look at our lives and notice everything that causes dissatisfaction in our lives, and resolve to change ourselves. It seems arbitrary to pick this one particular date on which to review our lives, but like a spinning ice skater, we need a fixed point to focus on, lest the spinning of time make us dizzy. Every time we come back to it, we readjust our sense of where we are, and try to regain balance in our lives.
I always resolve to lose weight, and usually end up heavier the next year instead of lighter. I resolve to cut out carbs, and celebrate the next New Year with a hand full of potato chips.
I still want to lose weight. I NEED to lose weight. But I have decided that I don’t need a New Year resolution as motivation. The mirror gives me all the motivation I need.
Instead, I will make a resolution of something which I really might not otherwise have strived for.
RESOLUTION:
I’m going to write my verbally abusive dog training book. Once finished I can decide whether I want to self-publish and use word of mouth to sell books online, or whether I want to try and find a publisher crazy enough to publish it. But I will at least write the dang thing. Why not?
In other news, I picked up a cold on my last day in Nova Scotia. I am finally starting to recover, now that I have passed the cold on to poor Perfect Husband. Babby has been fighting the cold off for the last three days. It is a show-down between the rampant virus and my breast milk’s antibodies, waging war in my baby’s body. The heat of battle gave him a mild fever for two days, which seems to be abating. He is still whiny, and there’s no way of knowing what hurts where, but I hope the antibodies are winning the battle.
Perfect Husband is doing much more poorly than the tiny baby. I guess he needs some milk antibodies, too?
You know I’m all about the dog-training book, and always have been, so good for you.
Thanks to the advice and tips you gave me when we got Salty-Dog, we were able to leave him in the care of dogless friends for New Year’s Eve and he behaved beautifully. They have three cats, even – he didn’t get wound up about that, either. He walked politely on the leash when they took him out, didn’t chew any of their possessions, and generally now has them convinced that they would like to get a dog.
So when they do, I want to be able to point them at your book so they know how I did it. 🙂
And good luck nursing two men through a head cold. It only gets worse, I’m afraid. Nothing on earth is more pitiful than a man with the sniffles.
I’m glad Salty turned out so well! I’d love to meet him.
And I discovered this evening what was more pitiful than a man with the sniffles – a man whose sinus medication has suddenly taken full effect.
ZONK.
I second the encouragement for the book! I loved reading the few bits that you posted online and they even clarified for me how I could potentially teach my cats to play fetch (I got bogged down with sit and come and stay only works occasionally).
I would like to get a dog sometime in the next couple of years and being able to read your book would be great!!! Otherwise I’ll just bother you for advice 🙂
Happy New Year!!!
Do both!
i resolve to send you my dog, for a day, a week, a month, or a life time… how ever long it takes to get him “OFF THE RUG!!!”
LOL. My dog thinks that Babby’s playmats are new beds for him, and he gets so confused when I scold him. He currently is operating under the assumption that my rage is due to him getting OFF of the mat, so he responds to the scolding by offering me adorable downs and roll-overs ON THE MAT.
Dogs love comfy places to lie. I recommend getting your dog a nice bed and rewarding him with cookies for lying on that, instead.
he has a bed, not even a foot away from said rug! he’s just a dumb dog… and i mean dumb. he runs into the wall, or bangs his head on the highchair on a regular basis…. i’m not sure how to “train” away the stupids:)
Awesome resolution! I hope to put it in my Amazon cart one day… or whatever the self-publishing equivalent might be.