Malaholic's Adventures/Misadventures

Rookie of The Year

2008-10-22T14:24:00.003-05:00

OK, the results have been looked over and the error has been corrected. Awesome Dawson has been named top rookie of PNP '08! WOOHOO!!!! I couldn't be any prouder of my dogs!! And now I"ve got bookend rookie awards to prove it!!

Way to go Dawson.... great job!!

PNP 08... We May Have Gotten Robbed This Year

2008-10-07T11:29:00.009-05:00

With another excellent weekend at Pak N Pull in the books it's time to let everyone know what happened. Lucy was her usual awesome self and is still in basking in the limelight of another silver medal in the weight pull. She was in tough this year and in the end was no competition for Aurora. Lucy's top pull was an incredible 810 lbs!! That's 810 LBS!!!!! That's pretty impressive considering she weighted in at a mere 78 lbs.

She worked her butt off to go past her previous personal best and I couldn't be prouder of her. Just wait until next year when we show up with a proper weight pulling harness. She'll be over the 1000 lb. mark for sure!

Dawson also made his first appearance in the weight pull chute. I wasn't at all sure what to expect from him. I have seen his lazy side while out sledding and I was hoping it wouldn't show too much during his debut.

Well I got lucky. For a rookie he performed as well as I could have hoped. When all was said and done his last full pull was 490 lbs, good enough to take 4th place in his weight class. This is where I think we got robbed.

The dog that took top rookie honors finished 5th in the same weight class. I don't know how that happened... a lower finisher taking a higher honor, but I hope it was just a correctable oversight by whoever was checking the finishing order. I have asked someone to look into this and I can only hope the decision is corrected.

Here's some more pics from the weekend:

A YEAR AGO.. this is going to be a long post!

2008-08-06T19:53:00.004-05:00

I know there are going to be people reading this post who have little if any knowledge of my personal history. They will know all about my dogs and the stuff we do together, all the little accomplishments we pull off together, and all the mistakes we have made along the way. These readers are in for what might be a bit of a surprise.

There are also friends and family who I know check in on this blog, usually only when they've had enough of me begging them to read it. They already know exactly what it is they're about to hear about yet again!

If you're hear looking for another funny dog post I'm sorry, but not today. The dog posts will return very shortly but this one is mine. I'm going to be selfish.. because today I'm allowed to be.

Now that I've said all that I already know that most readers of this post aren't here by accident. I have sent out reminders and requests to pretty much everyone I know hoping to generate enough curiosity that people would stop in. Glad you could make it!

August 11

This date didn't mean anything to me up until last year. It was a Saturday, and it fairly hot day. There wasn't much on the agenda other than attending a memorial service for a former coworker. I felt the need to pay my respects to someone who died far too young. I was looking forward to seeing some of the other people I used to work with as well. It had been over a year since I had seen most of them. A very somber situation made for a nice reunion with a lot of people.

The hour following the service was like nothing I've ever experienced before. I wasn't feeling great and asked a friend to follow me home just to be safe. Good thing I did as it turned out I was going to end up feeling even worse. I stopped on the highway once to throw up... all along thinking that I was having really bad indigestion. After that pit stop and once back on the highway something told me that to continue heading home was a bad idea. That was the second good decision in a row... and at a perfect time as I was less than 2 minutes from one of the best hospitals I know of. When I got to the hospital I had my friend carry on home and asked him to let my wife know where I was. I walked into the emergency room only to find out that the long waiting times don't apply to you when you could be dying! I was ushered straight into a room and had the undivided attention of 2 nurses and a doctor.

It took less than 5 minutes from the time I walked into emergency to get hooked up to a ton of monitors and have multiple needles just for the doctor to inform me that I was having a heart attack. I didn't see that coming at all. I thought I was just suffering through some very bad indigestion. I guess getting plugged into the heart monitor as soon as I hit the bed should have been a tip off, but apparently my brain wasn't working right then.

I must have gotten to the hospital at just he right time because within 15 minutes of being wheeled into the room and getting wired to all the monitors I was as good as new. They have some really amazing new drugs available now and when they can be used they work like magic.

I ended up having to have angioplasty a couple of days later and had a stent inserted. I'm stuck with that little piece of stainless in my chest forever now.

Now, this post isn't about me looking for sympathy from anyone. I'm over that.. life goes on. I wouldn't be upset if there were a few " glad you're still hanging around" comments left though!

Was this event life changing? Kinda. Was I scared while it was all happening? Oddly enough no, for whatever reason I wasn't worried about checking out at all. I knew it wasn't my time. I've had lots of time to think about it since... and I've had way more than my share of worries about what the outcome could have been.. about how things will turn out if there's a next time... about why I feel like crap so often and how I can get in better shape so I can try to ensure there isn't a "next time".

I don't know that this has been a life altering experience. If it was I sure haven't noticed yet. I'm still waiting on the "Live Like You Were Dying" mindset to kick in. I can't see that I'm ever going to go skydiving, but the rest of it sounds like it could be a lot of fun. There is no "Bucket List" yet either. There is a lot of stuff that I would like to do while I'm still able, but I plan on being able to for quite a while yet.

It hasn't been a picture perfect year either. There have been some setbacks. Getting all the various medications working in the proper doses has been quite an adventure. There have also been some other unrelated medical problems that have really thrown a wrench into the works, but they're starting to come around as well.

Tonight I'm celebrating my official "Beat The Reaper" anniversary. I've been looking after my diet fairly well over the past year. I haven't had a cigarette since I walked into the hospital a year ago either. I must be learning a little something along the way too... dinner is chicken and ribs. Not perfect, but healthier than the steak and shrimp I was initially planning on.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this post. I hope my thoughts were coherent enough to follow. If you have left a comment I will be in touch very shortly.

Take Care

Dawson at 180 MPH

2008-07-16T18:43:00.004-05:00

Finally I get to see what Dawson looks like from the front while he's running. The view I usually get is the south end of dogs running north!

Here he is at approx. 180 mph or so.. looks pretty cool eh?

They were loving the leaf blower!

It's been so damn hot here lately the dogs are hibernating. It seems they're sleeping about 22 hours a day. I can't blame them.. I'd like to be doing the same.

And here's Lucy getting in for her cool off as well.

The Stuff Left Behind

2008-06-29T21:01:00.004-05:00

How many of us are going to leave an indelible mark on the world when all is said and done? Who among us has the lasting power of a John Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, or even Elvis? Not many. That is a very elite group of personalities who will be remembered throughout history.

But what becomes of all the regular Joe's who don't have that star power? Are they any less important? I don't think so. They are every bit as important but just to a smaller audience. Their passing is mourned with as heavy a heart as is that of a more globally famous person.

How shall they be remembered? The memory of everyday events will soon fade away, only to occasionally returned in a blurred vision of the past. There is the potential for some form of monetary inheritance from those lucky enough to have something left to give, but that is more often than not squandered away on frivolity and half baked ideas. The only lasting thing will be those little items that will mean absolutely nothing to anyone else other than the holder of the memory.

The treasures will vary from something as simple as a tiny trinket to a favorite piece of furniture, from items worth mere pennies to expensive jewelery. But to the recipient it is priceless. It is a lasting connection to the past.

Handcrafted heirlooms hold the highest emotional value. They came from the heart and hands of the craftsman solely for the owner. Those are the things remind us that the builder thought as much of us as we thought of them.

Hold on to the stuff left behind. Whatever it is it's priceless in ways only the keeper of the memories will ever know.

How Do They Always Know

2008-06-25T20:24:00.003-05:00

They know. They always know. I'm not sure how, but they do. I do my very best not to give them the slightest hint, but they figure it out just the same.

I'm back to talking about my dogs. Somehow they have me completely figured out before I even open the kennel door. Good, bad, or indifferent they have the situation all sorted and know exactly how to act and what to do in the 10 steps it takes me to get to the gate.

For those of you who don't know, I've been laid up for the past 3 months with a blown out knee. Since it happened neither dog has come anywhere close my injured leg. They do everything else that they always do, but have avoided any parts of me that were hurting.

This isn't the first time I've seen this. Any time that I've been under the weather at all they act completely different. If I'm not really into going for a walk they sense it. During those walks they never misbehave. It's just a casual walk with no excitement.. regardless of what else is going on around us.

I'm not sure if it's a case of rescue dogs being more in tune with the people who give them their forever home, or if it's just me being way too into my dogs, but either way it's a really amazing thing to witness. Even when sledding they can tell when it's going to be a boring old training run or when we've got company coming along. They get all hopped up when there's someone new along for a ride.

Mood dogs.. you've gotta check them out!

Post Surgery

2008-06-19T10:35:00.002-05:00

For those of you used to seeing pictures of my dogs butts as they pull the sled this post may not amuse you as much as usual. No pics this time, just a little rant from me because I need to.

I'm in a shitload of freakin' pain!!! I had knee surgery yesterday (June 18th) and now I'm in agony! I haven't felt anything like this since my heart attack last year. I only slept for about 3 hours last night because every time I moved the pain woke me up. I had 2 T3's for breakfast and 2 more as a morning snack. I really hope the pain is gone before they run out, otherwise I'm screwed!

I know I had to have the operation done... I've been limping around not able to do much for over 2 months. I'm of no use to anyone in that kind of shape, and sooner than I think it will be time to start training again for sledding season. My dogs are starting to get a little pissed off with me as well because we haven't been doing much fun stuff as usual.

I need to thank my fellow musher friend who's coming over to feed my team until I'm a bit better able to look after them.

I'd like to thank all those who sent get well soon messages. Please hold the messages and send cash or drugs instead!

Tons of Snow!!

2007-12-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

Well, we got dumped on last night. The grass has dissapeared under a blanket of white fun. The dogs are happy, but there was just a little too much powder and I had to leave the sled in the garage all day. Nobody has set foot on our trail this year and I didn't think taking the pups out just to break trail was the way to enjoy our first run of the season.

While we were out playing in the yard Lucy stole what was left of Dawson's last deer leg.

She sure does love chewing on what's left of playful little woodland creatures!

And poor little Dawson has finally learned not to mess with her while she's eating...

So what else is there to do while she's curing her case of the munchies??

COKE BOTTLE SNOW SOCCER

Now I've got to figure out how to get him to hustle his ass like that when he's out in front of my sled!!

Summer sled dog posts are boring

2007-06-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

Well the crappy weather has arrived. It's too damn hot for me and even worse for the pups. Dawson is shedding like crazy and I can hardly keep up. Lucy is whining almost non-stop and driving everyone crazy.

Anyway, here's what I really wanted to post.

I finally managed to get my camera back from the kids long enough to snap a couple of kennel pics. This is probably only going to be funny to fellow mushers, but here it goes anyway.

If you are going to run Malamutes..

Especially my kind of Malamutes...

You had better get used to seeing a lot of these...

And just because I haven't posted any nice bum pictures in a while.. here you go.. enjoy!!

Full Frontal Picture... Look Cautiously

2007-02-26T11:54:00.000-05:00

It's not very often that I have someone to take a head on picture while we're out. Yesterday there was just such an opportunity and although there's only 1 shot it was well worth posting. Here's a shot from our fun run up at Spiritrun Alaskan Malamute Kennel in Honey Harbour. We ran the 4k loop twice along with a little warmup run up and down the road while waiting our tur non the trail. Once again everyone had a great time. Thanks to Jen and Edmund for hosting and letting us run on a very nicely groomed trail.

Finally A New Post

2007-02-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

OK, enough complaining already. I've finally got some new material to post so everyone can stop asking what happened to the dogs.

Click on the picture above so you can read the sign attached to the kennel.

We got dumped on this morning. 4" of heavy wet snow which made for some really tough going becuase we had to break trail yet again. Here's a couple of pics and another video. They arent' moving too quick, but in hindsight it was way too hot to be out running anyway. +3C isn't really mushing weather.

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Still Waiting

2007-01-14T08:27:00.000-05:00

It's now the middle of January and we haven't so much as looked at the sled yet. There has been no snow at all in our neck of the woods and the dogs are getting bored. Here's a video from last winter that I took while out on a run. Looks to me like my driving could use a little help.

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Friends

2006-12-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

My best friend was down to visit relatives last week and we managed to sneak out for a while without anyone else tagging along. No easy task, he has 2 kids and I have 5! We hadn't seen each other face to face in a year and a half. All together we were hanging out for 7 hours and we did a grand total of nothing. You know you've got a good friend when you can do nothing and have a pretty good time doing it!

Merry Christmas

Lucy With Her Awards

2006-12-10T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here's the newest pic of Lucy showing off her hard earned awards from P&P. If she was leaning into me any harder she would knock me over!

Rememberance Day

2006-11-11T10:13:00.000-05:00

It's rememberance day. Please take 2 minutes at 11 o'clock to remember those who gave all so we could enjoy the freedom we enjoy today. There is nothing short of a life and death situation that should stop anyone from pausing for just 2 short minutes of respect. In the words of Terry Kelly, "it's a pittance of time".

Lucy's Day In The Spotlight

2006-10-02T15:05:00.000-05:00

We were at the AMHL Pac N Pull event over the weekend and had a great time. We made a lot of new friends there and the dogs enjoyed themselves. Dawson spent most of his time being.. well.. Dawson, so there were lots of "time outs" for him to chill out in the car.

I entered Lucy in the weight pull event just to see if she would actually move the sled. To my surprise she was pulling like a seasoned vetran, not the first timer that she really is. We hung in for quite a while, but once the sled got over the 800 lb. make we were done. We weren't properly equipped to be pulling that kind of load anyway. She did make a full pull at 735 lbs in her regular X-back sled harness.

When all was said and done we finished in 4th place overall. She took 2nd in her weight class as well as best rookie honours. She weighed in at 68 lbs. and pulled 10.8 times her own body weight.

Newest Pics

2006-06-15T17:24:00.000-05:00

Just got some new pics from our last run back in early March. Man I miss the snow and cold weather. This summer is supposed to be just like last year,which isn't good for northern dogs.

2006-05-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

This pic is from Dec.05.

Nothing Since November... wow, I'm late

2006-05-08T09:12:00.000-05:00

This was probably the worst winter for snow I've ever seen. The sled was parked for all but about 3 weeks. That makes for some very lazy dogs. As soon as I finally gave up and put it away it was time to try out a new way to get injured.... scootering!

I have had Dawson out pulling a scooter before, but taking both dogs out at the same time was a little intimidating. I know they were pretty quick hauling the sled, but snow offers a little padding when you wipe out. The thought of all that concrete and asphalt had me pretty worried.

The first run was pretty wild. They were literally flying down the road. There is no resistance pulling the scooter compared to the sled so they took full advantage of that. Full out run for at least the first 2 miles. I have found out that when people told me to stock up on brake pads they weren't just joking. We eat up all 4 pads on each and every run. I ride the brakes pretty hard to keep the tension on and to get them working.

There was one night when we were out on our usual run and almost had a "trip to emerg" accident. We were on the sidewalk heading for a busy road. This was a downhill run and right at the bottom of the hill we have to go hard gee or head right out into traffic. The usual drill is ot call for the turn, nail the brakes, and go around the corner slowly and in control. Well as soon as I hit the brakes the back cable snapped right of at the handle. Nothing can get you heart racing like a loss of stopping power right when you need it the most.

We did manage to make the turn using the old tried and true Flinstone braking system. The rest of the run was uneventful and BOTH cables were replaced the next morning.

We're still having fun, running almost every night, but summers is coming fast. It's going to be back to boring old walks for a while until things cool off again.

Old Man Winter Better Show Up Soon

2005-11-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

We had some pretty good flurries on Thursday, but that was it, just flurries. Nothing lasted, and the last I heard it was suposed to be up in the teens again this weekend. Dawson and Lucy are raring to go. It's been cool at night and their winter coats are coming in pretty good now. The warm days are just pissing everyone off now. I've had enough and so have they. Lets get some cold snowy days so we can get out for a run.

The race schedule for this winter took a beating this week. I inquired about the quad crown series only to find out that it had been cancelled for this winter. That took some of the wind out of our sails. It was only really fun runs anyway, but I was looking forward to getting in some actual race miles and training with a goal at the end, not just logging miles for fun. Oh well, there's always next year.

A friend of mine is now a sled owner. He's got 2 dogs as well and hopefully we'll manage to get out and have some good runs together this winter.

Today is Remembrance Day.

To all our veterans, who gave everything they had so guys like me can still get out and enjoy all these crazy pursuits... saying THANK YOU doesn't seem to be enough, but it's all I've got.

Long Time No Post

2005-07-15T19:39:00.000-05:00

OK, so it's been quite a while since I posted anything new here.. Sometimes things just get busy and something's gotta get missed.

So what has been happening?? Spent 3 horrifying hours in a little tiny airplane so I could spend a week in Thunder Bay and visit. Maybe I should move up there.. at least it's cooler than the oven we've been living in down here in southern Ontario.

Dawson's been pretty good in the heat, up until last night. All of a sudden he's blowing his coat like crazy and he's got one huge matt right in the middle of his back. Hope this isn't a hotspot. I spent 2 hrs trying to get it out today and I'll be right back at after tonight's walk. Got some good advice from other Mal owners that should help.

Gonna get out fishin soon.. middle of July and the boat hasn't even been wet yet. Something is VERY wrong with that!

Update soon..

April Showers

2005-04-20T15:49:00.000-05:00

I hate rain!! Dawson hates rain! Together nobody wants anything to do with either one of us when it's raining. I know we needed it.. everything was drier than a fart in the desert, but it doesn't mean we have to like it.

Got the news about Shirkon yesterday... life is WAY too short. I've got to talk to Vanessa & Andrea about starting something official and kicking it off (no pun intended) at P&P this fall.

The gazebo is up over the kennel and Dawson is loving it I will be posting a pic with the adopters group tomorrow.

Still thinking about Grampa.. hope everything goes well with the pacemaker.

OK... now let's get serious. There's someone who keeps telling me that I should move to Thunder Bay and stop complaining about the lack of snow. The only problem I have with that suggestion is that I will be unemployed once I get there. My dog and I ahve this terrible unbreakable habit called EATING!!!

No job = no money = no food!

The math just doesn't work out on that. Although, the T. Bay food bank may be full of moose in the fall so if I time it right we could be eating good for a while...

No new stories to tell yet. Everything had been relatively quiet, but that could change this weekend. Sounds like Nik is coming out on the walk. Dawson WILL be anchored!! Halti/harness/choker should slow him down.

OH, I almost forgot... Dawson and I are becoming international stars! Bob, a friend in Anchorage, has printed and framed the pic of us sledding last March. WOW.. a southern Ontario musher with a picture hanging in Alaska.. something is totally bass ackwards here...

more soon

Damn weatherman

2005-04-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

I should be out tracking down whoever issued the winter storm warning for this weekend. I've never seen that much rain fall during a winter storm. Enviroment Canada got my hopes up for no apparent reason. There is nothing exciting about rain!!

Dawson got to spend most of the weekend either sleeping in his dog house or in his crate in the house, and he wasn't too impresed with either. Oh, well, guess that one last run just wasn't meant to be.. but than agian, I could go for a drive up north.. we'll see next weekend.

Forecast

2005-04-01T17:15:00.000-05:00

Looks like Mother Nature is going to be nice to us tonight. Tha last forecast I heard said that we should get between 15-25 cm of snow overnight so it sounds like some bonus time on the runners.

I guess it doesn't take too much to amuse me.. just a little snow and a great dog (or 16).

More later

Welcome to my new hangout

2005-03-31T19:02:00.000-05:00

OK, now I've got somewhere to get all my stories out without driving everyone crazy by making them listen. Posting will officially start on Apr1/05.