pro. cras. tin. a. ti. on.

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It could be called a "phase," except that it isn't.  Not in my life...at least not so far. 

Procrastination: n. the act of putting off or delaying or defering an action to a later time.

So it's about doing the chores later, yes?  Or the income tax returns.  Very understandable.

Procrastinate:  v. intr. To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.

Procrastinate: v. tr. To postpone or delay needlessly.

Hmmmm.   Those last two definitions aren't nearly as friendly as the first. 

Perhaps we can think of procrastinating as - not getting caught up in the "would've, should've, could'ves."  It's about living in the moment!!  (Isn't that everyone's goal, these days?)  Yeah!  Actors LOVE that phrase! 
And real-life people do, too.  We need to enjoy where we are, when we're there.

Okay, so.  Today I should take Riff out to sheep again.  K said we could get out there "any time, between showers"....and that the more Riff sees sheep, the better off he'll be.  K is being really nice, and she obviously knows what she'd talking about. 

But I'm letting the instability of the sky talk me out of it.  Sure, the sun is peeking out in a beautiful way.  The sky is turning a deep blue, here and there.  The dogs and I had a nice walk around the neighborhood this morning.  But...um....I'm sure that - after all the rain last night - the sheep pasture will be mucky, if not downright boggy. 

And some gnarly clouds are still hanging onto the fringes of the sky. 

Not wild about working in slippery muck, or in a possible drizzle.  It's not like I'm a "princess" or anything.  (Excuse me, while I adjust my tiara...)   But really.  I spent years in muck, back in the horse-barn / stall-cleaning / moving-cattle-around days.  Yuck.

Soooooo, I tell myself that Riff is very likely to pick up on my "yucky" mood (and my fear of slipping and falling down on my ass), which would not be good.  The Rifflet needs a positive joyful attitude (and good weather?) on his quest to turn into a sheepdog.  We might have only a few "testing for sheepdogginess" outings left, before K turns to me and says...."Well, I'm sorry, but this dog just doesn't have it...." 

Am I procrastinating?  Putting off the inevitable?  Being a chicken? 

Part of me really really wants Riff to be a sheepdog, because - boy oh boy does that look like fun! 

But does HE want to be a sheepdog?  Honestly, I'm still not sure.   

And - let's face it - there's a part of me that doesn't want to let go of agility.  Of course I like to think we can afford to do both, and that we're talented enough to do both....but...um...I'm not entirely certain...

At any rate, (shaking it off), I do have a bit of an announcement:

We entered the SMART USDAA agility trial, April 28-29!  We entered at the last possible moment.  We weren't even thinking about going to a trial, but a wonderful travel opportunity came up, so here we go...! 

Riff will be in all Starters classes.  We actually need just one more Starters Standard Q to be eligible to move up to Advanced.  But it's been a year since we've shown in USDAA...and we've run in only one trial class in the entire last year (that abortively wild AKC effort)....so we'll ease back into it via the Starters ring.  He is on the "older" side, for a Starters dog, but he's definitely still green. 

Of course we absolutely should practice a few times, between now and then....

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