Tulip Fest

There are two things I miss about my old apartment in Albany. One was the fact that there was a bus stop right at the corner of the building and it was to a main line route. The other was living across the street from Washington Park. When the weather permitted, Yara and I took a walk through the park nearly every single day. Because of this, I got to see the tulips and other flowers blooming well before the annual Tulip Festival, though I generally walked down both days regardless just to get a gyro or something. Interestingly enough, I still managed to get to the park both days of the festival this year because I went with Dad and Keith on Saturday and Mom and Paul on Sunday.

Uschi was overjoyed when Keith walked through the front door, thinking perhaps that we were off to visit her new friend. Dad and Keith did bring Yara with them and I was very pleased with how well Uschi did with ignoring her through the park. Actually, since she didn’t have Yara to focus on, she was incredibly distracted by everything when we went on Sunday. Anyway, the girls were quite well behaved, though Yara certainly took advantage of the fact she wasn’t working and pretty much dragged my father around to sniff everything. I got a sharp reminder of how much more attention I received when I wasn’t working a shepherd because we got stopped a lot from people wanting to pet the dogs. For the most part I didn’t let anyone pet Uschi, though she was quite calm the entire day. This was one of the more crowded events I’ve brought Uschi to and she managed the exceptional feat of following my father around while keeping me from bumping into anyone.

One thing I’ve noticed over the last several years is that they’ve converged the planting areas for the flowers, mostly keeping it just around the area near the Moses statue with some flowers planted by the various entrances to the park. Whereas years ago they had much more of the park blanketed in flowers. As we walked along the lake I noticed a lot of the flowers on the banks have been taken out, too. Though, perhaps they’ll replace them when they take out the tulip bulbs next year for the annual bag sale as they’ll fill all those beds with new and different flowers. There were, however, a lot more beds planted this year with specific designs in mind like a bell and peace sign. Anyway, while we basically just strolled around the flower beds and the lake, I rather enjoyed myself and I know the dogs had a grand time even if they didn’t get to play with one another this time.

Yesterday with Mom was a bit more chaotic because it was at least three times more crowded. Given that the initial forecast was for rain Saturday and the better weather to be Sunday this didn’t really surprise me, but it didn’t make walking through it easier. Even the flower bed area was jammed with people such that I couldn’t get any photos of the beds in their entirety because they were so swarmed with people around them. As it was to get any photos at all I had to practically squeeze myself through the crush of people.

Still for as crowded as the flower beds were that was nothing to the lines for food and the mass of people checking out the various vendors. I wandered with Mom as she shopped around for a bit, but eventually it was just too congested to bother; I lost count of how many people slammed Uschi in the face with a bag or ran into her with a baby carriage. So, we all ended up splitting up for a bit and I went back to the flowers where I took the majority of these photos.

As with the day before, Uschi was a big draw and I ended up dividing my time between trying to get some pictures and educating little children about guide dogs. I usually start my little kid schpeel asking them if they know what a guide dog is and not surprisingly they often don’t, but one little boy who couldn’t have been more than four happily told me he did and proceeded to tell me all about them. It was the most adorable thing and his mother looked almost as stunned as me by the whole thing!

My only real source of irritation came from the various dogs in the park. There were dogs around on Saturday, too, though not as many and they were all pretty well handled. While the park itself allows dogs so long as they are leashed, during TulipFest they are not prohibited unless they are service dogs. Part of this is because the area the vendors set up is part of the dog park area and the other, I’m sure, is because pet owners are morons and can’t control their dogs. (The rule for bringing a dog into the park in general is that they must be leashed and there are far more people who ignore that rule than follow it.) I forget how long the “no dogs allowed” thing has been going on but I don’t ever recall going to the festival without seeing dogs, so it’s definitely not well enforced even though every year I’ve brought my guide dogs with me I’ve been stopped at least once by a police officer working security about her. As it was several dogs came at Uschi over the course of Sunday; one little black terrier mix actually got right up in her face! Uschi was pretty good for most of the day about ignoring them and by the time her distraction tolerance started to wane Mom was ready to go.

As for me, I have some spectacularly nasty blisters on my left hand. Actually, pretty much my entire left side is feeling a bit sore as well as my lower back. I don’t think people realize how much effort goes into working a guide dog, especially one with a strong pull. I can definitely say I feel those additional seven pounds that Uschi has on Yara!