Weekend Roundup

This long weekend past afforded several opportunities to learn and try new things.  Here are two of them.  Tra la.

First, we broke and had to clean up our third (3rd) compact fluorescent light bulb, commonly abbreviated to "that goddam thing."  Three mercury spills is at least two too many, and we've had enough-- we're jumping ship.  One of the two table lamps received one of our precious stock of incandescents (cunningly stored in plain sight, a la The Purloined Letter, in a different lamp that doesn't get used much), and the other?  Ah, the other.  The other received a shiny new LED light bulb, rated at something like 800 lumens.  It cost 12 bucks, and I'm a little nervous, as reviews of other such bulbs suggest that their reliability... well, isn't.  But even if we end up having to replace it in 6 months (rather than the 20 years some have claimed), I think the piece of mind of not having to clean up mercury is probably worth it.

Secondly, on Sunday we took the dog and joined a (semi)local dog walking group for a roughly 4-5 mile hike.  Ok, not so much "hike" as "meander", but it was still nice-- especially for a couple of learning experiences.  We were on an isolated farm trail, away from roads and traffic, so we (somewhat nervously) let our slightly less than a year-old puppy Jet off of his leash for the first time in public.  Whereupon we learned the first thing-- he may not, in fact, have been named Jet because of his ebon hue.  He was likely named Jet because that's how goddam fast he was.  Holy CRAP fast.  30 mph?  Possibly more at full tilt?  (Greyhounds can go over 40, but I'm not sure he was quite that fast).  I'm pretty sure it'd take an Olympic sprinter to have a hope of keeping up with him in the full stretch.  This, amid our astonishment, also gave us a touch of concern, obviously, whereupon we learned the second thing-- when we called, he came right back.  Immediately.  This was astonishingly reassuring, and he spent most of the next hour or so off leash, running back and forth around the group, making friends and getting valuable experience interacting with other dogs.  Much love to Martha, the 9 year old lab who was willing to smack him around verbally and physically until he behaved.  (Side note-- we're beginning to suspect, based on some of his reactions, that his dam was a lab, and his father the shepherd).  He learned a lot about good behavior, and we learned that we could trust him off leash, at least in some circumstances.