6:00- wake up EARLY! Not making that mistake again. I got up at 5:45 and had my clothes laid out for the day. Because of doing so, I decided o take my clothes to the laundry room and get them started to be done by the time breakfast was over and I could move to the dryer before leaving for Huntington, thus leaving them free for use this afternoon, since several had talked of doing laundry today. I walk in the laundry room, load up my clothes and get it going. I walk back to my room and Ugh! My room is locked and the key is in the room. I go to the nurse and ask Donna if she can help me get back into my room! She does so quickly and we are good to go.
6:45- feed, water, break the pups and AJ went out and quickly did both for me this morning. It’s probably a good thing a fully blind person isn’t getting her, as she doesn’t give hardly any warning that she’s going- she doesn’t circle like most dogs I’ve had do. She is walking along and just immediately squats and lets it loose.
7:20- We come in and breakfast is Pancakes, fruit cup, Greek yogurt, and a couple of slices of bacon. We make finalization as a group for our Superbowl party plans tomorrow night. Ordering pizza from Cristina’s family’s pizzeria, picking up a few items at the store as several are going out today, and some chips and salsa.
8:00- Again with the temps, the trainers come and get us individually to work the van routes and head off to Huntington again. Also we were to work our dogs to and from the dining room in the gentle leaders that had been given to us to have as tools.
We start the morning with working out to the van and have a different surprise for us. The obstacle course is a little more difficult and there is a dog that is playing with a ball instead of a nice quiet dog. We get to the square with the dog playing with the ball and a quick and sharp leash correction put her back on the job and she worked beautifully through the rest of the route and through barrels very close to each other and around the others. We complete our route and Cristina hangs out to make sure AJ is willing to get into the van. So I straddle the seat essentially, giving her room to keep moving and she hesitates a bit at first but climbs in and seems much more relaxed about it when I have my leg to the side of the chair instead of in front.
We get to Huntington and the same volunteer that shared the merchandise with us was there to work the Panera room for the morning. We work into the restaurant and there was a woman with a white dog coming our way and she must have followed us into the store. She had the dog sitting on a chair and was feeding it. For the next few handlers that came in, the dog growled and barked at the teams walking past.
When its our turn, Brad Hibbard joined us on our walk. We did the full route again and coming righ tout of the door there was a mother with her young child. AJ worked past them nearly flawlessly. She left the distractions alone for this round on the route and did a really, really good job throughout the rest of the route. My footwork was good, I was able to handle any distractions there were to keep them minimized and her working, and I was able to keep her speed at a pretty consistent base throughout her work. Brad complimented me that she looked good and asked me how I felt she was doing. Of which I told him I was very happy with her, especially her size and her working drive and being solid too. The route was nice and smooth throughout the whole thing. We get back to Panera and load up into the vans.
During the ride home, we talked about our routes and Cristina told us we’d both done really good jobs today. We then discussed a bit about having a trainer come out and work with us when we get home. I told Cristina that I would feel more comfortable with someone coming out and working us through the starting pistols at a track meet and the bleachers at the HS to make sure I am not compounding or creating a problem in these areas.
11:45- We arrived back at GDF; water and break the dogs and I put AJ on tie down, went and grabbed my laundry out of the dryer and went up front to meet Marie for lunch. Marie and I went to a local pub type place and I got a Monte Cristo sandwich. We chatted for a good while and then we went over to the Pet Supplies Plus pet store to look at some toys. I found a bone, a ring, and a ball which I think both dogs are going to absolutely love. They were all Kong brand and the ball is a King Jumbler. Super cool toy with two handles on it and it has a tennis ball that jumbles around on the inside of it.
After buying dog toys, we went in to the grocery store next door and bought some finger foods for the Super Bowl Party that we are having in the TV lounge tomorrow night.
Marie and I then went back to the foundation and she helped me put the refrigerated stuff in the fridge and then I went back and got AJ and took her out for Marie to meet her and see her. It was very soon time to feed, break, and water the dogs, so I left to go do that and gave Marie a big hug and thanked her for her generosity to help me at the stores and to get together for lunch.
AJ went out and quickly peed again and was not gonna go poo. So we came back in and headed to the dining room for dinner.
5:30pm- Dinner was Fish, brown rice, and some sort of vegetable that I wasn’t a fan of. The fish was pretty good though. I had a piece of red velvet cake for dessert and then came back to the room to chill for a bit and gave AJ her ball. and dental chew/boneShe was THRILLED with it!.
AJ also loved this bone I picked up for her as well. It screws together and you can put these treat disks on it and hopefully it actually clean their geSoon it was 8:30 for the final break and a fellow student had asked me to help her go online and order some GDF merchandise since her vision is very limited. We soon had a couple of other students join us so we were enjoying the conversation. So it got to about 10:30 and the two students went to their rooms and my fellow student finally go started on looking up and ordering the merchandise for this classmate.
We had been there just a few short moments and the fire alarm started blaring and going off. We looked at each other and was like is it the real deal? We’d been warned that someone taking a shower and not closing their door can cause he alarm to go off. Since it stayed on, I told the fellow student we needed to go out to the emergency spots. We got up and actually went to go to our rooms and get at least a coat, but the fire door had shut and we were not able to open it to the residential area.
So we turned around and walked to the lobby and out the doors to the patio. Sight guided a fellow student out to as close to the break area/emergency meet up spot as possible, I knew it was cold but didnt know it was 32 out and felt like 23, especially since I’d removed my sweatshirt and was in a t shirt and jeans. Thankfully my student partner was a gentleman and came over and because he had a sweatshirt and layers on, he gave me his coat to wear as we stood and waited for the fire trucks to arrive and clear the building. It is thought that it was a hair dryer that set the alarm off :P
The fellow student and I had to have be a funny sight to see trying to get past the dark brown picnic table and down the sidewalk in the dark- totally brings new meaning to the blind leading the blind. 😂😅🤣
We received the ok to come back in and gathered up my laptop and stuff and came to bed to get the blog caught up, curled up in my fleece pj’s, long underwear pants, a sweat shirt, a T shirt, and buried under the covers.
Night all from the land of GDF.
