19 March 2008

Here is a yoga thing for you to do.



Because you'll have to turn your head sideways and be able to scroll at the same time. I went to yoga this week. I think the teacher called this pose sideways facing noose right around your neck til you choke. Usually it is a good idea to have a beer after yoga. You can do this. You're sitting in a chair. Well, yeah have a beer or just turn your head when you scroll in a second. I know you came in for screen spitting and today I just will hurt your neck and you don't even get to laugh. Because that's the kind of dog agility lady I really am. Squinty eyed and mean and just wondering how do I make their necks ache today?

I know. I just go on and on about this field. One person's field is another person's Marfa is another person's craw sticking potsticker. It's just a big, flat 33 acre parcel with some willows and cypress trees perched next door to the sea, near my house. Was saved from becoming a giant hotel in the '70's. There are a lot of paths and all I do there is walk around every single morning. The dogs run. Sometimes I run. Sometimes I shuffle when Timmy comes and lift him up and over the big log. When Timmy was springy he rode there in a milk crate on the back of my bike and I let him out there and he would chase my bike everywhere.

Everyone shares it. Hippies. Drug dealers. Homeless people. Kids. Tourists. Surfers. Ladies. Men. Guys with parrots on their shoulders. People on stilts. Film makers. Drunk teenagers. Dog trainers. Landscape painters. UCSC students in butterfly costumes. Actual endangered butterflies. Models in bikinis in photo shoots. Brides. The crazy guy that puts raw chicken out for the animals. Bongo drummers. We all tolerate each other.

OK. Maybe I let my dogs run on top of sleeping homeless people in their wet sleeping bags and bark at them. And maybe it was me that left a note for the mom of the crazy guy that left the raw chicken offerings asking her to tie him up or something to keep him from leaving so much raw meat out there. And usually I am anti social when I walk out there and if you see me I might not even talk to you and I scowl unless I remember my New Years resolution. I get mad when you feed my dogs and teach them to run up to you and jump on you, and you don't get it when I say stuff like, "Hey thanks for rewarding them to jump on you!" Or I might just roll my eyes when you ask me, gesturing at Timmy, "Oh, is that the mommy dog and you kept all her babies?" I think people have mean names for me behind my back. Mean Dog Lady of All the Little Black Dogs. That Bitch. But you get the picture. We're still sharing, even if we the Way I Share is weird and not like the Way You Share.

But the Rangers with the firearms are enforcing the law that it is not to be shared with dogs anymore unless they are tied on to you.





9 comments:

team small dog said...

For you Lighthouse Field readers, I walked out there Wed. am from 7:30-almost 8ish and no rangers. It is cool to start the morning out in full battle mode, with camera, stomping and skalking and ready to jump into it with a armed cop. What a way to start the day! I think it feels familiar. Like when I was an art director, back in the dotcom. Chug the coffee and start a fight. Super healthy recreation! Totally beats the yoga any day. Look at all my new gray hairs!

Elayne said...

Can you figure out when the rangers go on duty and just avoid those times? Or is it the kind of place that isn't safe during early/late hours? It's illegal to have dogs off leash in all of Boulder's city parks but we try to go at unsociable hours when animal control is not on duty.

As for the photos, you can save your neck by tilting your laptop sideways if you have a laptop. Harder to scroll though, that would be extreme yoga and maybe you will drop your laptop.

team small dog said...

yes that's what we're just starting to do-keep tabs on when the rangers go out. although the rangers watch a variety of parks in the county and will be coming by randomly. so we all have to keep track and see if there's a pattern then adjust our lives around that. just to walk our dogs on the beach and field where we have our WHOLE LIVES because of this Situation. so you have to walk around and be paranoid instead of walking around and being happy. i go out a lot really early. it's safe enough if you have dogs, homeless people are asleep and they're not really a danger. wouldn't go out there at night, dangerous stuff out there at night.

team small dog said...

So again, no rangers for a 7:30am walk. Although it wasn't a nice walk. It was creepy out there. NO ONE is out there anymore. All the familiar faces have bailed. Just like that. A few homeless people, one of them super creepy, stressed out dogs-Otterpop freaky, Gustavo running out into bushes with no apparent recall, Ruby glued to my side and Timmy wanting out of there. Likely from a stressed out me. Between scoping out for armed rangers, homeless people in bushes and just wondering, what's up out here. Come back, everyone.

team small dog said...

Saturday morning, 7:30 am-Ranger driving through field. To his credit, he drove up to me, as I was calling in 3 dogs to me. Casually leashed, he didn't even get out as I pulled out camera and took some shots, as camera froze up and seems really dead this time, so just as well we couldn't take homeless camp tour. I think I need a new tiny camera that is way more sturdy and reliable.

Ranger drove out, I unleashed. Ranger stopped right in roadon West Cliff (please note-No One Else is out Here!! Come on dog walkers, come back!) and I called everyone in again and leashed. He drove off again.

I unleashed, he didn't come back in. Pretty crappy walk. Interesting too that all the cars parked along Pelton this morning, by the apartments, were broken into and smashed windows and glass everywhere.

Thanks armed Rangers for going after us big criminals! Thanks dogs for being well behaved and running to me instead of ranger truck. I think they are learning the difference between armed, ticketing rangers, and the guys that empty the trash cans.

team small dog said...

saturday evening-3/22

No rangers from 6:15 on. No one out there walking until almost dark. A lot of kids out there smoking pot, but no dogs.

Come back dogs and your walkers!

team small dog said...

Monday morning 3/24

Didn't even try the field. Went down to Mitchell's instead. Mitchell's is sometimes a beach, sometimes not. It's other name is Shit Beach. Drainpipes converge there, seaweed beds the sand. Was just fine today, and just one other dog down there enough beach at highish tide to throw sticks long enough to get everyone wet and tired.

When I got there, a city officer was coming up the stairs, I guess after managing some homeless guys that were still sleeping on the stairway landing. I asked if it was all ok down on the beach, and he said yeah. That's the other thing with Mitchell's. You gotta check who else is down there before you let your dogs loose. It's sort of a "you never know" beach.

team small dog said...

3/24 Evening-

Report of a ranger about 6pm out there. I never saw anyone from 6:45 on, felt a-ok about being at the beach until almost dark.

Did hear from a lady who saw a ranger at 7am this morning-there goes that theory that we're safe until 8am...

team small dog said...

Tuesday evening 3/25-

Felt pretty safe at the beach and field. No rangers been spotted before sunset at all. A few more people coming back.