I remember, as a child, going to the Shrine Circus and being awed by all the acts going on at the same time in the three rings. I didn’t know what to watch, and so I just kept going from one to the next. But repeatedly, my attention was drawn to the juggler who was tossing multiple flaming sticks up in the air. I thought for sure that he’d burn his hands and fingers. Then a vendor ran by and tripped over a dog, spilling multiple bags of popcorn. Later that day, I talked with some other kids who at a later show had seen the same vendor trip over the same dog. I was disappointed because I then realized that the accident was contrived.

Playing with fire. This analogy came to me last week when I had my accident, and it has stayed in mind since. As I told Pete, we were playing with fire in my continuing to drive the Suzuki Swift. Friends and family (my sister Eleanor) had been telling me for years to get another vehicle, that the Swift wasn’t safe. I heard them, but I wasn’t sure what to do about the situation. And I knew that we were playing with fire in not crate training Shadow. Pete wasn’t overly concerned. After all, we’d had four other dogs and they did just fine being loose in the car.

Shadow and her crate

The wakeup call came with the accident. I was lucky in that I wasn’t hurt. And we were lucky in that Ryder found Shadow. However, I don’t want to continue to push my luck.

What to do? The answer was to get Pete to see that getting a new car and crate training Shadow were immediate priorities. He prioritizes really well, so reversing roles felt to me like I was using my right instead of my left hand.

Today we went and visited our neighbor Andre who usually has a few auction cars for sale. He had told us he had a 1998 Subaru Outback with 200,000 miles for sale. Oh oh I thought. And oh oh I was right. It had tires that needed to be replaced, a cracked windshield, a missing panel on the rear hatch (water was leaking into the rear portion of the vehicle) And as Pete said, a good engine. I Dubbed it Son of Suzuki, and I told Pete uh uh we were not going down this road again. Instead we went to the car dealer and now are in the throes of purchasing a 2018 Subaru Outback with 29,000 miles. Pete and I both feel good about this. It’s sort of out of our price range but you can’t put a price on safety.

I will learn to drive the Toyota Tundra. I have already named it Tank Grrrrl.

And the crate. We have been training Shadow to go into a crate on the porch, one that she is going to outgrow fairly soon. We had a larger crate under the house. Today Pete brought it up into the yard and I cleaned it up. We’ll put it in the living room tomorrow and continue to work with Shadow on hanging out in it.

Playing with fire. I think we have finally extinguished the flames.

Next: 235. 8/26/20: A Long Awaited Ideas Day