It takes Two to Tango

Recently Sweetie and I started taking dance lessons. We are now a month into learning how to do the Argentina Tango. When you get a moment, do a search on the dance, the videos are amazing! I have seen some videos where the dance is very emotional, and others where it is almost fluid!

The Argentine Tango is danced in an embrace that can vary from very open, in which leader and follower connect at arms length, to very closed, in which the connection is chest-to-chest, or anywhere in between.

Tango dance is essentially walking with a partner and the music. The more I see and experience of the dance, it has the capability of being emotional and can vary in speed. I am learning to take cues from Sweeties frame as to which way I step and how I step. We are learning a new way to communicate!
Let's take a side step together here! Sweetie is very in tune with the beat, and has fun improvising. Me? Ha! I am so determined that I do it exactly right that I tend to not live in the moment, but am anxious over the step at the time, and the upcoming steps that I don't experience the joy he does. I'm working on this. Some nights are better than others! I know in my mind that it takes awhile to learn to dance, and with lots of practice and time, it will give me the experience to do well. But my heart wants to do it perfectly the first time! 
Okay, back to it!  I looked up the etiquette of the dance and this is what I found thanks to our awesome dance teacher, and some help from Wikipedia!
"Argentine tango is danced counterclockwise around the outside of the dance floor (the "line of dance") and dance "traffic" often segregates into a number of "lanes"; cutting across the middle of the floor is frowned upon. In general, the middle of the floor is where one finds either beginners who lack floor navigation skills or people who are performing "showy" figures or patterns that take up more dance floor space. It is acceptable to stop briefly in the line of dance to perform stationary figures, as long as the other dancers are not unduly impeded. The school of thought about this is, if there is open space in front, there are likely people waiting behind. Dancers are expected to respect the other couples on the floor; colliding or even crowding another couple, or stepping on others' feet is to be avoided strenuously. It is considered rude; in addition to possible physical harm rendered, it can be disruptive to a couple's musicality."
This is very true as our class is a mix of beginners and experienced dancers. When we change partners a whole new line of communication begins! Do any of you dance? What is your favorite style?

Sweetie and I are not amazing- yet! But one day hope to grace the dance floor with style!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

I work part time with a local electrical company. Part of my job is to answer the phone and set customers appointments. Today our temperatures in TN were high of 99 with heat index of 105, and low of 79. Needless to say in this humidity there is moisture popping up all over. Meaning that small bursts of pop up storms are scattered everywhere; so on a stretch of road there might be pouring rain in one area, and further down it will be dry. Crazy! With all that energy in the air, it has to go somewhere. That somewhere was into many fuse boxes across town. Breakers in our boxes are connecting the circuits in our homes which are wired to different outlets which in turn power our appliances. With no electricity, in time reduces us all down to the basics.

Back to the current situation! With the storm and electric out, folks started to worry when some of their lights would come back on and some other things didn’t have power. After going to the box and flipping switches this way and that, and pressing the GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) buttons to reset their plugs, if things weren’t working as they should, they called their local electric company or their electrician.

Here is where I come in. Several calls in, I get another call that I just must share with you. This precious lady was very confused with the situation at hand and didn’t understand why if you stick a butter knife or steak knife pointy side into a plug your arm tingles. She was trying to push her little reset button and thought that it would work quicker if she poked at it with a sharp object. Folks: Side note here..Please don’t stick anything into your wall plugs. If it is live, you will receive a shock (or severe tingle down the arm of the hand that is poking around electricity).

This lady was on the phone with me explaining which rooms in her home she had power in and I could hear her when she started clicking breakers back and forth in the panel in her garage. When she wasn’t getting the results she wanted by “showing” me how when she flipped a breaker that it still wasn’t working, she moved on to poking at this plug. Now remember, I can’t see her, but she seems to think I can. Bless her heart. She was so precious. She is telling me that she gets a sharp tingle in her arm when she touches her plug. She kept saying, “See? Ouch! Like that! Ouch! Ooohhh Ouch!” Not wanting to be disrespectful I asked her what she was doing. When she gave me a visual description, I begged her to stop. To top it off she then tells me that there are black marks coming out of her plug. Shaking my head, I ask her to please put down the knife and leave the plug alone. I get her address and phone number and assure her that since I have a technician in the area he will be at her house within the next 15 minutes. She then tells me that, “she hopes he comes soon, because her husband will be home in an hour and 45 minutes and while he thinks he can fix things, (then she whispers) …he really can’t.” I assure her he will be there soon, and she hangs up with me.

Later in the afternoon I asked the technician about this customer. He smiles and tells me that the plug had sparked for sure as there were burn marks all around it. (she even showed him the black tip on the end of the knife). He properly labeled her fuse box, replaced her plug which had been fried pretty good, and gave her a quick safety do and don’t list all before her helpful hubby came home. All in a days work!

Memorializing Crunch

For two weeks and a couple of days now, I've had the privilege of taking care of these dogs while a friend of mine is out of town. Nestle is the name of the dark haired dog and the brown one is named Crunch. There is another brown dog that is a twin to this one whose name is Hershey.  Everyday I go out either early morning or after work to play with these dogs, water plants and to pick up her mail. My friend called me to let me know that Crunch had an infection in his paw, a few vet visits later he was on medicine and they also found some problems on his insides. On this trip out of town to greet her first grandbaby she took Crunch with her since he was at the point of having to get a shot twice a day, leaving me with two dogs. She called me a couple days ago and told me he had died. I am so sad. He was buried up at her son's house.

I wonder if the other two dogs will miss Crunch. I am sure they do, as I have wittnessed other dogs look for the one that has died, or wait for them in a certain place that they used to meet. It is amazing how much pets affect our lives. Often they are silent creatures that love us unconditionally. I've known these three dogs for several years, and so I feel a tinge of sadness when just two come running to meet me.

I'm so thankful for the pets in my life as they fill a spot in my heart that I didn't know needed filling and when they aren't there...they are missed.