PT Land

Life has been filled with physical therapy sessions since February, 6 months after surgery. As soon as walking wasn't painful anymore, I joined my gym again to build back my tendon and wimpy leg. It's quite a lot of work. I am doing 2/3 sessions of 1.5 hrs a week. In fact, I need to leave for one now.

You wouldn't believe how slow it is to build back muscle tone after not walking properly for 4-5 months. There is also the concern that the tendon itself is quite healed but weak, too, so I am dedicating a lot of time to re-energizing its every aspect and move...and neural brain-muscle connections. "If you don't lose it, you lose it." This applies even to a tendon's response to brain impulses, supposedly. And I lost those impulses for several months.

Then my dog started in his own round of physical therapy for an arthritic leg last month. That has been another 5 hrs a week hauling him to sessions 20 miles outside of town. That progress is slow, too.

I've been learning tons about PT, to say the very least: laser, ultrasound, exercises, balance issues, heat packs, massages, exercises with household objects as well as strange instruments, etc.

I'll let you know more soon . But for now, I've got to go and stimulate my tendon tonight at the gym. I just started to get my first signs of a solid calf muscle last week. It still has a long way to go, but I am so excited. It's a physical and tangible sign of progress.

If only I could blog from the gym bikes.....

Project Rugs: How to Make a Dog Happy

Work on decorating the 1-year old house acquisition continues.

The latest projects have included photos, curtains and rugs. There was printing and framing a favorite picture of the mountains to hang on the walls. It was one of the chance opportunities where the light was just fantastic: slightly overcast with sunrays peeking out to light up just Mount Pelmo in all its massive glory. Now we can look at that scene everyday from our dining room wall.

Then the new bathroom curtain was installed with a handmade lace insert crafted by my mother-in-law. We took the bathroom tile pattern and turned it into a lace motif for a custom curtain.

However the most important money went into buying rugs. We waited a full year to get one for the living room so it's just perfect. After it was rolled out, it took the dog exactly 30 seconds to plop down on the new woolly floor feature. He treats it like his own personal extended bed area. It's the plushest rug in the house so he obviously spends the most time there. And now that the spring sun is out? We also have the dog camping out on the other new rug on the terrace. It was officially bought to add some color to the outdoor section of the house and cover some awful tiling. But the dog thinks every rug is for his canine comfort. He dedicates at least 20 minutes a day soaking up the sun on the terrace carpet's bright orange design.

Two more things to cross off the list of house 2011 projects.

Oh, and one very happy and comfortable dog.

#!!?**!%! Dog Owner

The Italians get bent out of shape when it comes to dog poop removal because so many owners just don't bother to pick up the stuff. As a dog owner myself, I understand both ends of the stick.

On one hand, you are the owner walking your dog and have virtually no public trash cans to deposit your "baggie" for your entire walk, sometimes. That can last upward of 30 minutes in my case. (It's not fun carrying around a smelly bag that long!) The comune has only installed any sort of trash bin in the most downtown section of town: along the main street. If you don't walk your dog there, tough luck. And who does when that's the area with the most car traffic, confusion and air pollution? You might just decide to leave the droppings in the frustration of not having any comfortable solution to taking it away. Or you might forget your plastic baggy one day and find yourself leaving a poop in a bad place, too far from home to come back and retrieve easily.

On the other hand, the people living in the houses with the droppings found outside their property are right in feeling frustrated when they step in brown stuff with their new boots. They can be upset even by seeing the dirty mounds.

The Italian home owner's retaliation comes in the form of elaborate messages hung near the critical areas. This one is recent from my area: angry and rather funny. Translation below.

Italiano:

Gentile signore...sì proprio tu che continui a far defecare proprio davanti al cancello di questa abitazione il tuo cane, mi chiedo se nella tua testa ci sia un briciolo di cervello....evidentamente no, perchè se sono ne avessi un po' capiresti che questo non è un posto idoneo per i bisogni del tuo cane. Sicuramente l'unica presenza di materia all'interno della tua testa non è la stessa di tutte le persone educate e civili, ma è uguale a quella lasciata dal tuo cane.

Se solo un
ignorante, maleducato, incivile..........Il vero animale sei tu.............Impara l'educazione, me mai te l'hanno mai insegnata!!!

English translation:

Dear Sir or Madam ...yes you, the person who continues to have her* dog defecate right in front of the fence of this housing. I ask myself if you have a brain... obviously not, because if you did, you would realize this is not the place for the needs of your dog. So surely the only brains you have are not the kind that most normal and civil people have. It is the same consistency as what your dog leaves.

You are simply
ignorant, unpolite, incivil..............the real animal is you.................learn your manners if anyone ever taught you them!!!

* Note from translator: I used "her" to indicate singular third person on this blog with many links to women's websites, although it could also translate as a "his".



Number 4 of these message adorn the fence in question.

Mysterious Identity

It was another walk around the neighborhood, but this time, there was a mystery animal to meet. My dog got instantly curious when he happened to see this curious robot, which is about the size of a medium dog but quite silent as it rolls around the lawn and cuts grass.

Automation is the new frontier in Noventa's lawn grooming. You don't have to push or even sit on a machine to do it. Just set the robot on the grass and let it do all the work. These were pictures taken at dinner time. I could hear the plates clanking in the background while the black robot was at work.

The dog has since remembered the strange being at this house and jumps up to look for it every time we pass by. His doggie brain can't get around this human invention. He was expecting it to bark but it never did. It just rolled on.

A Job Offer

I have been teaching Italian teens for years. Some of them complain that they cannot find work, even when they are of legal age, 18 in this country. It often comes up in a conversation about how industrious American adolescents are and how they work throughout high school and college.

Usually the problem stems from age and contracts; there isn't enough work to go around in Italy even for the adults, so teens don't get included in the mix.

I was caught off-guard this week in my new neighborhood by a girl, who I think is about 14 years old. As soon as she saw me walking my dog, she came to her house's gate, pet my dog for exactly 5 seconds and then offered her services as a dog-sitter, should I ever be interested. Honestly, I barely knew how to react. I wasn't used to this kind of entrepeneurship by such a young girl in this country. I had never met her before. She didn't know my dog, unless she had met him on a walk with my husband. It did explain why I had seen some older ladies in the same house eying me from the terrace as I passed by the house at other times. Maybe they had been scouting me as potential new customer for the adolescent/family side business.

In the end I said, "Grazie e buona sapersi (good to know)."

A Rainy Sunday with Nothing to Do

Could this be the best part about Italy? When it rains as hard as it is doing today in Padua, on a Sunday, you revel in nothingness. You don't want to get out of bed. You have no reason to get out of bed. Everything is closed anyway. (But actually that is not true the closer we get to Christmas.)

I started to appreciate this aspect of life when first living in Rome in 1992: the zen of doing nothing. It still continues almost unchanged in 2009, although a few more northerners try to be productive on Sunday by shopping when they can, since shops can sometimes have open hours on the Sabbath day.

In the US, Sunday became a fairly regular day when I was about 8 years old. All the shops were allowed by law to be open every day of the week that year. By the age of 16, I was even working on Sundays in the shops.

Upon arrival in the bel paese, that was distinctly not the reality here. Sunday was for church, relaxation, family lunches and/or walks in the city square or along the riverbanks. Maybe an ice cream cone could be eaten in the afternoon, but work or hard-core shopping was not part of the possibilities for that particular day of the week.

Now I follow my dog's cue and don't even want to step foot outside of the house. It's a glorious time to do nulla--

A Beach for Dogs

When a dog owner living in Italy, you quickly realize the beauty of spending a day at the beach can be a difficult task to accomplish since it usually means leaving your pet at home for a long day without bathroom privileges--and so that means you can't do it. But alas, Italians have found a way to resolve the problem. Beach facilities have opened that cater to dog owners! My husband and I took our pooch to go swimming in the sea for the first time this weekend. We had to drive 130 km (80 miles) to get from Padua to Bibione, but no matter. It was worth the ride because we were duly impressed with the set-up at Spiaggia di Pluto, a facility at the Eastern end of Bibione's sandy beaches which only allows dog owners as guests.

You are required to rent an "ombrellone" for the day which includes a beach umbrella with table, lounge chair, beach chair, beach bed for your dog, a leash to attach to the umbrella when your dog is not in the water and a water bowl. The umbrellas are distributed at a good distance from one to the other so that the dogs don't get overly territorial with each other. Spiaggia di Pluto also offers doggy shower areas for pooch wash-offs that are separate from the human versions. You can also fill up the dogs' water bowl at those showers. The rules require that you keep your dog on a leash at all times until you reach the water. You clean up after your dog if it leaves any business around. Sea water needs to be tossed over liquid business.

We loved the relaxed atmosphere with lots of families and lazy dogs lounging around. Kids were running around meeting new dogs. Owners were alternating dog walks with swims. They were also meeting each other through the curiosity of asking information about other people's dogs. Some owners were so organized they had doggy life jackets and doggy tents for their beloved animals to use. Several languages were being spoken including German.

We even saw an area reserved for dog agility but it wasn't being used the day we went.

A day at the beach costs between Euro 15 and 20, depending on the season. The facility is open from May to the end of September. Book in advanced during high season, especially on the weekend.

As you pay for your beach space, you can scan over dozens of photos of former dog guests that cover the main desk cabin like wallpaper.

Initiatives like Spiaggia di Pluto are an excellent resource to protect Italy's dog population. Why? Because Italians notoriously abandon their dogs when summer comes since they find their pets a nuisance due to the fact that they are usually not allowed to partake in much of summer's vacation resort system. Along Italy's highways, hundreds of dogs are commonly left at rest stops. By organizing beach facilities designed for canine companions, Italy can combat this bad habit which has led to even the death of a few people. Last year in Calabria a band of semi-wild abandoned dogs had formed an aggressive pack which bit and killed some children. The news really shook up the country. Finally solid actions can be seen to prevent the loss of doggy homes which can lead to such situations.

Spiaggia di Pluto's website also has links for hotels that accept doggy visitors in Bibione in case you would like to be a villaggiatore (tourist) with your furry friend.

La Spiaggia di Pluto
via Procione
Bibione (Ve)
Phone: +39.348.3848970
E-mail: franca.igor@libero.it
Website in English:
http://www.laspiaggiadipluto.com/page.php?7