Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
So my dad calls me on my cell phone this morning, soon after I arrived at work. He called to wish me well on the last day of my 50th year.
How Sweet!
(Can you hear the sarcasm dripping from my lips?)
In other news, welcome to October!
Three years ago today, Terry and I rescued Lexy from a shelter in Parsons, Kansas.
She’s ready for her closeup now:
She’s a little greyer on her muzzle, but she still bullies Porthos (who outweights her by almost 20 pounds) and keeps him in line.
We’re so happy she’s still with us and had a clean bill of health from the vet just last week.
Yesterday marked the four-month anniversary of our adoption of Porthos. We survived the winter with a rambunctious adolescent Rottweiler. Our house and specifically the trash can fared slightly worse. He’s gradually adapting to confinement in the backyard when we leave to watch a movie or go grocery shopping, but he does not like to be crated when the weather is bad. It’s sad that Terry and I, empty nesters, have to ‘babysit’ our dog and can’t trust him to behave himself when we leave the house.
We took him to the dog park for the first time on Sunday the 22nd. For this first visit, I kept him close to me with the leash at the ready. If Porthos decides to take off after another dog or person, there’s no way I could catch him. He’s very agile and very fast, with powerful almost instant acceleration. I got him to run through the tube at the park a couple of times and pose for a photo:
Once Spring arrived, I started walking each dog every other evening. Porthos is a joy to walk and I get good exercise trying to keep up with him. Lexy takes her time and needs to be coaxed to walk farther than a couple of blocks from home. I haven’t been brave enough to walk both of them at the same time. Maybe in a month or so.
First, go read this article about Three Ways Rottweilers Say “I love you” at RottweilerLife.
Porthos (shown above using one of his toys as a pillow) leaned into both Terry and I from the first day we met over Thanksgiving weekend. He still exhibits this behavior and we give him as much affection as he can stand.
Lexy purr-growled at us as soon as she figured out we were her new home. She also loves to lick us.
This past weekend wasn’t quite as rough as the previous one. Porthos has fully recovered from his upper respiratory infection and is now eating like the Rottweiler I knew he was (i.e., if there’s a bowl of dog food handy, he will snarf it or inhale it, whichever is faster). Terry is still recovering from his viral mishap, so we didn’t do much besides sleep and watch television.
I did manage to get Porthos and Lexy out for walks on Sunday afternoon. Saturday was too miserable (cold and damp and sometimes drizzly) to walk or even let them in the backyard. Sunday was still overcast but at least not wet.
I walked Lexy first so she wouldn’t feel slighted. She did her usual amble around the neighborhood. She really doesn’t like walking back among the houses, where I feel ‘safer’ or less worried about traffic. Lexy likes to walk along the main thoroughfare into our neighborhood, which involves a slight uphill climb to where the Community Library and City Hall are (about a block away). When we turned around and headed back north, I regretted not grabbing my ears muffs. My ears were stinging by the time we got back to the house.
My Thanksgiving break was supposed to be less stressful and more relaxing this year because Terry and I decided to 1) not travel to Texas and 2) not host relatives for dinner. While my Thanksgiving day cooking was somewhat less stressful and not on any kind of set schedule (see last week’s blog post), my feet and back hurt quite a bit before we finished dinner and enjoyed pumpkin pie for dessert. My only consolation was I didn’t do eight hours of driving AND cook for eight.
For the first time in years, Terry and I were not hosting Thanksgiving nor were we dashing 500 plus miles south to North Texas to join our children for the holiday. Our daughter has moved to the northwest and is no longer within easy driving distance. Our son and daughter-in-law had hoped to drive up north from Texas to join us, but the weather was uncertain so they spent yesterday with close friends near them. I phoned my dad on Wednesday night and told him Terry and I were going to take it easy on Thanksgiving day and not have any set schedule. I did promise him one of the two pumpkin pies I planned to make (the recipe makes two pies and Terry and I will not need to eat both of them). The sticky buns, on the other hand, would not survive to be shared. I urged him to spend Thanksgiving with his step-daughter’s family.
This year for Mother’s Day my kids bought me a Fitbit Flex. I got it setup late last week and have gradually increased my walking, both at home during the evenings and at work over part of my lunch hour.
Monday I headed out of my building and eventually ended up along the banks of Brush Creek (sometimes referred to as Flush Creek), which flows east along the south side of the Country Club Plaza. As you can see from the photo above, I will most likely NOT be retracing my steps on this route in the near future.
Continue reading “Places to Avoid Walking During My Lunch Break”
Apollo and I watching the snow fall from the warmth of our house. So grateful I am not driving in this.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
