Solar Power

OK, it’s no surprise that I burn like California during the dry season.  A David-sunburn may be the eighth wonder of the world.  They’re great for the electricity bill – instead of turning on the lights; I simply roll up my sleeve.

If this sunburn could talk, it would tell of the couple of hours that I spent at the concrete beach today.  There were four other folks in attendance at the pool.  No one talked to each other and it was great!  I finished a chapter in my finance book (The Role of Working Capital) and listened to a Darius Rucker album.  Sitting at the pool conjured memories of the Damascus pool: swim meets, pulling on the lane rope to make backstroke more fun, no breath 25’s, the high dive, cow tails from the store, the kiddy pool, the honey suckle, the frustrations of adult swim, and Speedos.  Ugh, Speedo-fitting-day was the official low point of the whole season.    And how could I forget the welcome to our OOL sign.  No matter how many times I try to explain the humor behind this sign, no one ever reciprocates.

  

After the pool, I headed over to the driving range for a bucket of balls.  Ain’t life grand?  The range is definitely the place to be this week – I imagine it has something to do with the Deutsche Bank Championship.  The guy that was hitting next to me had several dozen drivers all lined up on the fence behind us.  I had no idea what was doing or if it worth it.  My instinct told me to hurry up and place the face.  After all, what average golfer would bring a spread like that to a public range?  My imagination ran wild until I heard him take a step back onto the concrete behind us; the dummy was wearing metal spikes.  Obviously not a pro…right?

As a side note, the Celtics training facility is just down the road from here and has turned town into a hot spot for pro athletes.  

On the way home, I saw a car accident happen.  I was one lane over and two cars behind the car that got hit.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.  In fact, there was only minor damage done.  The car in front of me took off and, suddenly, it was my move.  So, what do you do?

a)       You’re a witness to a car accident.  Park your car and give your contact information to both parties involved.

b)       You’ve got things to do.  Check one more time to make sure everyone’s OK and then head on down the road.

I started pulling away.  Through the intersection.  Past the Papa Gino’s.  And that’s as far as I could go.  I couldn’t drive another hundred feet.  I felt this overwhelming responsibility to go back to the scene o’ the crime.  So I did and probably made my sunburn a lot worse.

Moral of the story: apply sun screen before taking an active role in society.

One Must Ease Into a StayCation

I’m easing into this staycation.  The challenge: Can dingo and I get through this week without wishing the other would go back to the office?

It was a slow day and rightfully so. 

I carved out some time to take a 6k run around town and get the pup to park for about an hour and half.  By the way, Jake is THE most spoiled animal on the face of this planet.  An animal couldn’t get better care at the Smithsonian.  On a related note, we’re VERY happy that we left Wags for Walks when Katrina left…’cause dang…those folks just don’t have a clue: an over burdened and under qualified dog walker is a bad combination.

I got the opportunity to return a few e-mails that ‘ve been stacking up.  There’s something humbling about being happy to find 30 minutes to run a 6k…only to find out that Troy ran a half marathon this weekend past.  It makes me think twice about including my race distance and time in my blog posts…oh well, next time.

It was a lot quieter tonight when I took dingo for a walk; see, there’s no need for air conditioning in MA any more.  We had our 7 days of 90 degree weather, and now I think fall is here.  It’ll get down into the 50’s tonight in Boston.  Believe it or not, there’s a frost warning for parts of NH and Maine.  Oh well, the CMA Music Festival is on tonight – I am satisfied.

I gave Kytalia a call yesterday to get a baby update and learned something new!  I always thought that “any day now” was the last stage before labor.  Oh no.  As it turns out, there’s another whole stage.  It’s called the “later today” stage.  This stage is characterized by frequent labor walks, foot massages, and cleaning (because there won’t be time for that later).  The real kicker is that even this stage can last for several days.

Ouch, Was That the Wall?

We all knew it would happen eventually, and today, it finally did.  Dingo and I have gone over the edge.  He's bored of me and I'm looking for things to help pass the time.

We spent about 1.5 hrs at the park today tossing the ball...Jake is usually interested in me enough to go get each ball that I toss.  But not today.  Today, we hit the wall.  We've played catch/toss for so many days in a row, that Jake doesn't feel like playing any more.  So today, we played toss...with a twist.  Here's the new process:

1. MO/PO toss the ball
2. Jake does not go get the ball
3. If we're lucky, another dog goes to get the ball
4. If we're not so lucky, MO/PO go get the ball 

Fortunately, Jake and I didn't get cabin fever earlier in the week.  KaNina will be back tomorrow to take dingo out for some much needed Jake/CoCo interaction...not a moment too soon.

Happy Force of July!

...the title of this post only makes sense if you, like I, have put in LOTS of Spike-TV-time this week.  I'm sorry.

What an awesome day!  This is the kind of day that dogs live for.  The sun was shining, temps were in the mid 70's, and there was a light breeze coming from the northwest.  The cloudcover tumbled across their shepherds gentle coax like monarchs in late summer.  ...I have clearly missed my calling!

Since its been extra soggy for the recall-able past, going to the park is a bit of an adventure.  Be sure to dress properly!

Dingo got a lot of exercise today.  I'm happy to report that MO& PO's confidence among large numbers of unknown dingos and dingets is growing by the day.  There were quite a few pups at the dog spa today - but nothinglike the carnage that found us on 7/3; unlike that day, there was a much more favorable owner:dog ratio.  I think that this tends to keep the dogs in-check.  Even after an hour of catch in the lake and fields, Jake was still read to go.  Ah, to be young.

To boot or to swell, that is the question

Buzzz…..Buzzzz….SWAT! That began our memorable journey today at the ROCK (aka malaria central).

Our adventures took place on a somewhat sunny morning.  Wait …. What?!?!? Did I just mention the word sunshine? I did indeedy! The three of us (yes, MO FINALLY had a vacation day) were in high spirits as we took off for the park.

But wait!  I’m getting a little ahead of myself.  As MO tends to “throw on” errands to otherwise seemingly fun trips, we had to make a stop before the park.  “But it’s in Weston too!” MO said.  So off we went.

WELL…..40 minutes after the “oh-so-easy errand” …. We finally arrived at the Park amidst whimpers and cries from the Dingo (my interpretation of those were “GUYS, it’s just AROUND the corner! Can we get there ALREADY!!).  Anywhoo …. PO and MO (and their trusty GPS device) continued to run into the same sign every time – ROAD CLOSED.   After much frustration (and realizing that we are just MADE to be on the show The Amazing Race)….the Park was in sight.

Ahem …. PO decides to go down a new trail today.  So harmless and inviting...at first glance:

Okay, fine….all is well and good….MO and Dingo love adventure and new things.  Well….new things we found.  I would call them Larry, Mo and Curly … although there were more than three so …. Let’s add Ringo, John, George….the list can go on (enter your favorite name here).  MOSQUITOS unite!  There must have been a political rally or something for “Mosquitos attack everyone who takes a step into their area”.   To save the gory details (and I mean gory), we trotted out of that area as soon as we could (noting “oh look …. Still swamp water….SUPER!”).

So, that adventure being over (somewhat for the moment with a few battle wounds to show for it)….we soon saw THE LAKE.  Ah, dog’s love at first sight. 

Young Jacob showed his appreciation by running up to the Lake, and then deciding to boot up his entire breakfast onto the rocky shore. OH Jacob.

Then, out of the corner of her eye (or maybe it was the galloping sound of feet), MO saw a blur of fur and next thing we know, there’s what seems like 50 dogs.  OK, slight exaggeration … but STILL.  It was ridiculous. 

Young Dingo couldn’t hold onto his tennis ball because there were ball stealers ALL over the place, PO had to fend off hungry dogs from eating Young Jacob's thrown-up leftovers (at the same time as he was trying to clean it up) and MO was trying to keep an eye on Dingo and the madhouse scene.  Here ... we pause for a moment and give PO a LOT of credit for this scene.  His task was far from pretty. SIGH.  Young Jacob started to look fed up (I mean, all the poor dog wanted was to go swimming after his tennis ball) and MO agreed.  It was time to move on.

ON TO THE trails and field!  Happy days are here again! Tennis balls were thrown, dogs were met, everything was hunky dory.

Alas, even though MO was covered from head to toe – a skeeter decided that since her hand was uncovered, he was going to have some fun.  Needless to say, MO’s hand started swelling, PO kept swatting his back and young Jacob had the biggest smile on his face.  It was time to head back home to the Center of the Universe.

Dingo decided (similar to the day before) to take off one LAST time …. This time after a pack of running dogs through the woods.  SIGH.  Again, our attempts at getting his attention were on deaf puppy ears.  He was having too much fun. Finally he decided he had enough and we could NOW go home.  Thanks Dingo!   A happy and tired puppy at the end of the day.  Really, what more can you ask for in life?  Simple things are often the best things in life. 

Em-You-Dee-Dee-Why

The weather sucks again today.  Here's what I was greeted by when I stepped outside this morning.  Another beautiful day!  However, Jake and I refuse to be defeated...ok, more Jake than I.  We took a look at the weather map and spotted our window of opportunity.  By weather.com's calculation, we could arrive at The Rock as early as 11a and be mostly in the clear.  Onward we trekked. 

The park was rather quiet, so Jake and I nearly had the whole place to ourselves.  There was this one random, seemingly owner-less, dog that was thumping about.  J-Dog avoided him altogether.

I threw the ball in the lake for Jake a bunch of times, then we mudded through the fields, and finally headed over to the ol' bunny slope.  Along the way we heard a Baskin-Robbins Pack, you know...31 different dogs.  Sure enough, one of the younger dogs came darting towards us.  Jake was cool and so was the other dog...until...they saw a bird hopping around on the forest floor about 15' away.  They both took-off toward the defenseless chew toy.  Fortunately, when I called to Jake, he stopped.  But not Cameron!  Camoron chased after the bird, caught it, and then played keep away from the dog walker.  The DW didn't really stand a chance, his knees were buckling under the weight of the 31 dog leashes wrapped around his neck.  The whole pack ended up chasing Camoron through the muddy forest.  Jake and I lost sight of him after about 1 minute of watching.  Finally, we spent about 10 minutes on the bunny slope.  Could you imagine running up this thing for exercise?

 On our way back to the car, another bird (or maybe it was a chipmunk) caught dingo's eye.  This time, there was no holding him back with a single verbal command.  Jake darted and ignored me but didn't catch his prey.  Eventually he came over to me but it wasn't before some other guy with a dog (on a leash) said to me, "that's why I keep this one on a leash...he's unpredictable."  I don't think he was trying to make a point, but being less interesting to Jake than the phantom bird was a bit of shot to my pride.  Now, Jake is asleep.  What a life!?

Thunder Dog

Growing up, we had dogs.  First was Sheena, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever who was affectionately named after Sheena Easton. Next came Cookie, the German Shepherd.  To the best of my knowledge, both Sheena and Cookie were terrified of thunder.  Surprisingly, young Jacob doesn't seem to care mind it at all.  We had t-storms roll through here for a solid portion of the day and he slept right through them!

Today was the official midway point of my vacation.  Unfortunately for both me and dingo, it also signified MID-TERM day.  ahhh!  The mid-term is over, but the damage has been done...Jake and I have lost precious bonding hours that can never be recaptured.  He has a habit of huffing and puffing when he's trying to be noticed which provided me with just the right amount of comic relief to get through the take-home exam (glorious).  Please direct all sympathy to me...Jake got to go out on an extended playgroup with his gf's.  While he was here, he spent most of his time on his gigantic Nantucket dog bed: