September 11, 2011

The Mom's Coming Kennel Inspection Plan

I think it is in our DNA.  No matter how neat we keep our homes, we spruce things up for visits from our mothers.  Actually for most of us, we spruce things up for any guests coming over.  And it’s not just our homes, it’s our kennels too.  If “Mom’s coming,” things get better.  This is the premise behind the “Mom’s Coming Kennel Inspection plan.” 

The gist of the program is to have guests, particularly non-mushers, over a few times a year to visit the kennel.  No matter how well we keep it, we’ll up it a notch for mom.  This coming weekend, I’m due for the mother of all mother’s visits.  I’m hosting the Yom Chi Taekwon-Do National Instructor’s course. 

The good news is that while I’m doing some standard fall work in the kennel, it’s pretty easy. I keep the kennel in a condition where with 30 minutes notice to do a final scoop and fill water bowls, I’m proud of it.  And without any warning, it’s still fine. 

The bad news is that’s not how I keep my house.  I come from a long line of lousy house keepers.    And the truck is worse.   Or was.  I just cleaned it out thoroughly for the first time since I drove up to Iditarod in February of 2009.  The windshield that has had cracks in it since 2008 was just replaced as well.  It ends up that I’ll be driving a Master and Grandmaster around.  Like I said, the mother of all “mom’s coming,” inspections. 

The only reprieve regarding the house is I did do a pretty good job of cleaning it in June for visit from my sister’s best friend’s son.  The late spring cleaning does help, but its effect has been tempered by my extraordinary ability to create a mess.  It’s a talent.  I can drop a pair of socks and a sheet of paper in the living room and have it look like the Seeley Lake Pre-School joined my dogs there for the afternoon.  We don’t want to examine in detail what I was able to do in the two and half months between Ryan’s visit and now. 

Still, I should be able to get through everything I have to before people show up, but that will also probably mean doing only a very superficial job of cleaning my office.  I don’t have the option my dad used of clearing off his desk by throwing everything into a couple of suitcases, one being for the items he’d put back on the desk and the other being the items that would remain in the basement for decades.  I only have one suitcase, it’s too small, and I use it too often. 

With all the work done and to do, I am excited to show folks what this lifestyle is like.  I’ve known some of these people years longer than I’ve been running dogs.  Given that everybody in this group either owns now or is between dogs, the kennel and its denizens should be very popular. 

And the kennel and dogs are great.  I do expect people to be pretty impressed, so the “Mom’s coming kennel inspection plan” is working fine.  It’s just the “Mom’s coming house inspection plan” that is a bit behind.  But here’s a thought crossing my two active brain cells:  I do recall that in addition to being at best a mediocre housekeeper, my mom had a set of priorities that had her bringing cookies for me but steak for my dog.  So perhaps I am true to my mother visiting after all.