Friday, March 29, 2013

Extra, Extra Sensory Perception


Perfect Moments:

Oh joy! I’ve just had a wonderful, delightful and perfect moment of fairly large proportions!

Prelude To A Perfect Moment: We share fence, in our back yard, with four different neighbors.  Two of these neighbors have dogs and one of the neighbors has two small yappy dogs that fence fight with all the dogs around them.  Jeb has, alas, picked up this nasty habit, though only with the two dogs that taught it to him.  As you can imagine, I DO NOT APPROVE!  The neighboring terrors are encouraged to behave in this fashion, but Jeb is not.  The trouble is, teaching a dog to stop fence fighting and come on command isn’t something I’ve ever done before (never lived with a fence before! J) and I’ve been finding it difficult.  Prevention is the most effective tactic but it’s hard to predict when the neighbors might let their dogs outside.  Once the disturbance starts, I attempt a voice recall then leap from the back porch in my bare or stocking clad feet (I always think about putting on shoes when the dog is in the back yard but never do it) and high tail it across snow and puddles to the scene of the canine crime.  Then, using my deepest and most resonant tone (and an occasional smack on the haunch), I escort Jeb back to the porch and inside the house.

Perfect Moment: Now, here’s the part that’s wonderful and delightful; are you ready?  Just now, a few minutes before I began writing this, a fence fighting ruckus broke out and my brilliant boy Jeb responded to my voice (after only about 10 seconds of me roaring in my faux deep voice), broke away from the encounter and CAME PRANCING BACK TO THE PORCH!!!

Well!  As you can imagine, the instant Jeb started towards me I dropped my roar and shifted to enthusiastic praise in my normal girlish tones, so by the time he arrived at the porch, Jeb was wagging and shimmying.  There was a hop in his gait & we greeted each other with unabashed joy!  And that, ladies, gentlemen and pups, was a thrill and undeniably perfect.

I’ve had several perfect moments in the last 24 hours, but there’s one other that I’m bursting to share with you.  Yesterday, a friend who’s been reading my blog (Hi, Babs!) called me to share her perfect moment.  I listened as Babs told me about her moment and I giggled, grinned and tried to hug her right through the phone!  I was, and still am, tickled pink!                                                           
If you have a perfect moment that you’d like to share, I welcome your comments and/or tweets!

 

Amazing Factoids:

You have a sixth sense, an extra sensory perception!  Not only that, you have a seventh sense, too!  Extra, extra sensory perception!  Yes, you really do.  No, I’m not yanking your chain and no, I’m not talking about the way that you always know when to show up at a friend’s house when there’s birthday cake. 

Vestibular Sense: Your vestibular system is in your ears.  I know; you thought those funny looking fleshy attachments to the sides of your head were just for hearing and fashion, but noooooo.  Actually, the vestibular system is in the inner ear, so it’s not really all that fashionable but there would be a lot more accidents on the Paris and New York catwalks without it.  Here’s what it does: your vestibular system allows you to perceive gravity, motion and your physical orientation.  Need a second to get your equilibrium?  You’re using your vestibular system!

Sense of Proprioception:  Say it five times, fast.  No, that doesn’t have anything to do with proprioception, I just think it’s a fun word that’s a bit tricky to say.  If you’ve ever had a basic neurological test, you’ve had your sense of proprioception tested.  Stand with your arms raised out from your sides so that they are parallel to the floor, close your eyes, point with both your index fingers and, bending your elbows, bring your index fingers together in front of you.  Did they touch?  Did they come close?  That is proprioception; it’s your sense of where each bit of your body is, that bit’s relative location to other bits and the speed and force with which that bit is (or isn’t) moving.    

 

Have a happy day!

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