— The weekend went like this:
Friday: Freezing rain. Sleet. Snow. Snow. Snow. SNOW. (We wound up with a foot, which is more than anyone else in the immediate area.)
Friday night: Call Deb and ask if Laura and Shawn made it out of Springfield. Is there still going to be a major at the show outside of St. Louis? Would I be breaking the major if I don’t make it? How is the weather up there? The answers were Yes, Yes, Yes, and Not Bad.
Breaking a major when your friends are showing counts as Letting Down The Team. Deb volunteers to bring her big all-weather SUV out to get me if I can’t get my car out — a four-hour round trip for her.
Saturday predawn: Bathe Honey.
Saturday at dawn: Sweeping 200 square feet of snow away from in front my parents’ garage (I park there in bad weather, which this certainly qualifies as) in the hope that I would be able to get the car backed out and started forward with enough oomph to get all the way out of the driveway, which has a very slight but noticeable upward slope.
Saturday at 7:30 AM: I succeed in getting the car out, impressing my Dad, who didn’t think I could do it. I call Deb and tell her she doesn’t need to come but I am not totally, absolutely sure I can get my car the last little bit out of the driveway, where the snowplow kicked up a noticeable barrier.
Saturday at 8:00 AM: Bathe Kenya. Load car.
Saturday at 9:00 AM: Get the car out of the driveway, after a 40 minute struggle involving shovels, cat litter, and a hefty shove from behind.
Saturday at 9:30 AM: Succeed in creeping down Highway B without skidding off the curvy, steep, shoulder-less road. Succeed in getting down Highway 32, which shows no signs anybody salted it and is a sheet of packed ice, but at least a flatter, straighter, wider sheet of ice than Highway B.
Saturday at 11:00 AM: Arrive at the show site. The rest of the drive was without incident, all the bigger highways being nearly normal.
Saturday at 12:50 PM: Kenya gets second in her class (Laura’s girl wins the class, Deb’s Natalie gets third). Honey wins Winners Bitch, Best of Winners, Best of Opposite Sex. Her second major! Yay!
All of the Cavalier people at this show are friends, so we all go to dinner together. Then out to walk dogs in the eight-degree weather. I go to bed very early. The dogs and I are really tired.
Sunday at 5:00 AM: Going to bed early means we’re up early. Walk dogs. Notice it has snowed again during the night, but not too much.
Sunday at 8:00 AM: Touch up Honey’s ears. Then Kenya’s ears. Mist Kenya’s coat and put the drying coat back on her to flatten her coat. Pack up car.
Sunday at 9:15 AM: At show. It’s way early (Cavaliers go in the ring at 10:20 AM). I watch Akitas, Cardigan Welsh Corgis, Norwich Terriers, Whippets, etc.
Sunday at 10:00 AM: I get the girls ready.
Sunday at 10:35 AM: Kenya gets third in her class (sigh). Laura’s girl gets second, Deb’s Natalie wins the class. Honey then gets Winners Bitch and Best of Opposite Sex. A third major! She now has nine points and is almost caught up to her mother. Yay!
Sunday at 1:00 PM: I arrive home, having found that there’s no sign that anybody ever treated Highway 32, much less Highway B. You have to take Highway B at nearly twenty miles an hour to make it up the hills. Whew! Glad to be home.
Not sure if MAC will be closed tomorrow or not. Even if MAC has classes, I may not go. Risking an embarrassing slide into a ditch or death on the highway is one thing for a dog show, but quite another if it’s just a question of making it to work. Right?
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Congratulations to Honey!
You, I’m not sure if I should congratulate, or berate for not taking Deb up on her (extremely generous) offer. Since from here it sounds like you really should not have been driving. Well, all’s well that ends well, I guess, and you *do* know Highway B a heck of a lot better than Deb would have.
(Chicago just started to get a little snow late this morning, and so far there isn’t much.)
Yeah, yeah, but the worst case would have been her sliding off the road with me and all our dogs. Still, I’m pretty much deciding to skip work today (Monday).
Sacrificing you comfort and sanity almost always results in good dog show Karma. Glad you made it up and back safely. Tell work that snow you can handle but the refrozen melt and freezing drizzle is just impossible. I went to work yesterday and I am taking at least a two hour delay for the driveway ice to come to heel.
Oh & congratulations!
Hi, Diana — I can’t even imagine how impossible YOUR driveway must be, with ice. Yes, I definitely felt that I earned those majors!