Posts Tagged ‘dog’
What Odds
What are the odds of receiving a book as a gift from a friend and discovering it was written by someone you know? For me, it is 100%. Our friends, Pam and John found a book they thought I would appreciate, “Nutshells: Diversions in a Time of Pandemic” by Doug Wilhide. I do appreciate it. Doug was a regular participant in the annual June biking and camping week back when I started riding what is now the Tour of Minnesota.
Our joint participation overlapped for a lot of years. Doug shares my interest in several passions, including writing. There is also singing and, of course, riding bikes. I just saw Doug again last June at the social/reunion held in Waconia on the rest day of our 50th anniversary ride. That was a special treat.
What are the odds of finding a fancy-colored maple leaf on the driveway before the leaves on our trees show obvious signs of changing?
Pretty good, I’d say, especially after a big storm wind that could carry leaves great distances has recently blown.
There were 2” of rain in the gauge yesterday morning after two rounds of lightning, thunder, and heavy rain pounded us overnight.
There was also standing water on our trails in the woods and the tall grass that is overdue for mowing stayed wet all day since the dew point remained high.
What are the odds that the whole body itching that Asher is dealing with is from some environmental cause? He’s going to visit the vet later this morning to see if they can come up with a diagnosis. It’s been bothering him for days and it seems to be getting worse instead of better.
He seemed feverish yesterday which triggered our request to get him seen between previously scheduled appointments. Poor guy can’t get comfortable and frequently stops on walks to scratch.
Since the grass was too wet to mow yesterday, I resorted to using the power trimmer to clean up beneath the wires of the electric fence.
Looking back at the distance I covered is rewarding.
Looking ahead at the amount still to do is not as rewarding.
What are the odds I can get the rest of that distance done on one tank of gas? I’d say about 50/50 if I don’t get distracted and start cutting more than just the fence line. Sometimes tall weeds grab my attention or I follow a side rut that’s been dug to encourage water to flow to the main drainage ditch along our south border. Those other areas deserve to be trimmed, too, but it just means I don’t get as far down the fence on a tank of gas.
Like so many projects on our property, I think I benefit from not trying to finish the entire fence line all at once. The odds are better for my body if I mix a variety of activities in a day.
This morning I will be starting with a visit to Physical Therapy for my shoulder and aching leg to improve the odds I’ll get over the pesky pains I’ve been living with this month. We are down to 8 days until departing for Iceland to become tourists on that scenic island country.
What are the odds I’ll be able to hike pain-free after trying to sleep sitting upright on a plane for long hours? This would be a good time for me to dwell in [positive] possibilities.
.
.
Asher Observes
It was day two of entertaining our dog, Asher yesterday while trying to complete my mowing goals before departing for the lake today. By the time it started to sprinkle on us with some light rain, I just had the back hill left to cut. Weather radar indicated significant rain was not an immediate threat, so I mowed despite the dampness.
That meant Asher needed to entertain himself in the house. He seemed satisfied with that after hanging out with me earlier in the day while I trimmed along the north loop trail. Asher nestled in the tall grass so that it looked like he was hiding.
He was very patient while I toiled away so I let him choose the route for a long walk after I finished trimming. When we reached a vantage point where Asher could see all the horses grazing in the hay field, he sat down to watch them. While he was happy being stationary, I waited with him and finished my daily word games on my phone.
During our last walk of the day, after he had waited inside while I finished mowing, Asher again sat down and observed the horses.
This is such a satisfying behavior for us. Maybe someday we can allow him to sit and observe the world without being leashed. Last week, Cyndie was working on training Asher to be off-leash and respect our property boundaries and twice she ended up needing to retrieve him from the neighbor’s yard. I’ve kept him tethered full-time this week during my days of solo supervision.
At least he’s grown out of the urge to constantly chew through any leash constraining his freedom.
I’m looking forward to some freedom from dog duty for a few days. Our friends, Pam and John will be here to care for our animals again over the weekend.
Asher will be observing their cat –from a safe distance. Their little princess, Pumba, stays behind a closed door since Asher is not reliably friendly with visiting pets, especially not ones of the feline variety.
Off to the lake, I go once more!
.
.
Feel-Good Moments
It’s been a long time since there’s been much to hope for in the US political scene. Yesterday, Kamala Harris announced her choice for running mate was Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz. It’s given fresh hope to all the people exhausted with the negative energy that has dominated the scene for far too long.
The thrilling crowd response to the appearance of the pair at their rally in Philadelphia could be felt through my TV. The ovation was robust and sustained.
It was a definite feel-good moment. I hope the good energy survives the attacks that will get hurled at them by opponents throughout the rest of the campaign.
I don’t know if they will be able to convince skeptics that the Earth is not flat, but there should be no reason for reasonable people to misunderstand the message of hope for the future expressed in their campaign speeches.
Asher and I cooperated in accomplishing some feel-good moments of our own yesterday. I brought him along to cut down a leaning tree across one of our trails and leashed him to the barn so he could watch me do some mowing. The rest of the day he patiently lounged around in the house until I returned. When I stopped for lunch, I was able to catch the end of the US Women’s Soccer win over Germany and later, I got back to the house in time to see Kamala Harris introduce Tim Walz at the rally.
It’s not easy accomplishing such a range of desires in a limited time when I’m home alone. I’ve still got a lot of mowing to do and there’s always exciting Olympic competition to see on TV at the same time as needing to entertain Asher and tend to the horses. Our trails need more trimming, too, but I won’t get to everything before it’s time to join Cyndie at the lake again tomorrow.
Getting the essential tasks done is a little less dreary after this burst of positive energy on the US political scene. Here’s hoping it just continues to build for the next three months and then carries on for years beyond that. You betcha.
.
.
Sleep Deprivation
All day long the rain came down. Every so often there were rumbles of thunder. Periodically, downpours would roar or big winds blew. If I didn’t speak, those were the predominant sounds beyond the energized reporting of Olympic sports commentators droning from the TV. I’m home alone with the animals for a few days.
If I didn’t have the Olympic broadcasts keeping me company, I’d probably do a lot more talking to myself. Asher isn’t much of a conversationalist.
I’m feeling rather short of words lately. Hanging out with Asher and the horses doesn’t require me to talk much. One might think that would result in more mental resources for writing but I’m not finding that to be the case right now.
It would be nice if that mental blankness would allow me to sleep soundly but Sunday night’s dream saga of me striving to achieve something that continuously eluded success and appeared to consume way more time than was available was unsettling. I would slide toward consciousness from the dream and lament that it felt like I was mentally working so hard, then fall back to sleep and into more of the same type of dream. It became exhausting when I was supposed to be resting.
One thing that the annoying overnight dream-disturbed sleep made easier was falling into naps all day yesterday, even when I didn’t intend to. Since Asher wasn’t feeling at all like napping, his whining was able to disrupt any serious sleep recovery a reasonable nap would have provided. With nothing but falling rain happening outside, it would have been a great day to nap.
Instead, I found myself getting soaked while giving Asher chances to stop whining on walks in the rain.
I sure am glad the horses don’t need me to take them for walks.
Let’s hear it for the rejuvinating benefits of a sound night’s sleep with nothing but sweet dreams throughout.
.
.
Storm Repellent
I don’t know how it works but our location has enjoyed the good fortune of appearing storm-resistant this year. Too many times to count during this spring and summer, I have checked the radar with storms looming and found a seam over our house between blocks of the most intense weather. Last night, it was even more surprising because there was no separation in the storm blob approaching us, but then it just stopped.
We could hear the thunder for almost an hour but when the storm finally began to make progress moving east, the lightning bolts all passed to our south.
The news reported hail up to the size of baseballs from some of these storms so we were very happy to have the worst of it miss us once again. Keeping our fingers crossed that this severe weather dodging luck stays with us for as long as possible.
We are also extremely happy to have a dog who is not bothered by lightning and thunder.
Asher shows no concern about wild weather which contributes greatly to our ability to maintain calm indoors while the sky is rumbling outside.
Maybe the credit for the storm-repellent we’ve been blessed with this year should go to Asher.
.
.
Surprise Addition
At the end of the day yesterday, I made a last-minute decision to mow the labyrinth. I had skipped it the week before so I didn’t want to miss it before heading out of town this weekend. The grass was thick and a bit intimidating. I put my head down and got to work pushing the mower, oblivious to the new feature someone had secretly added.
When I reached the Red Barberry shrub, I discovered a beautiful sculpture of a small momma deer with a fawn. I double-checked with Cyndie when I got back to the house and learned she hadn’t recently added any sculptures. I didn’t tell her what I’d found so she could experience a surprise similar to mine upon seeing it for the first time.
We both quickly suspected our friends, Pam and John who were staying at our house while we were out of town over the two previous weekends.
Pam said she didn’t know anything about it and would need to check with John when he got home. Sure enough, John had snuck it into that spot after a trip to an Ellsworth garage sale two weekends ago. None of us had noticed it until yesterday.
The little deer is a timely addition after a recent incident Cyndie survived on a walk with Asher. They had entered the tall growth in our North Loop field and Asher broke loose from her grip in pursuit of a young deer. Cyndie suddenly needed to leap out of the way of the sprinting deer that was racing right toward her.
There’s no telling when a deer might reverse direction when it’s employing evasive maneuvers during a chase, much to Cyndie’s surprise!
.
.
Animals Again
We are headed home this morning after a long stay at the lake that included the holiday weekend. It’s been wonderful despite a rather scattered weather pattern that limited the number of warm, sunny days. I have thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of lying around in the mornings without jumping into clothes to walk the dog the moment we wake up.
At the same time, we do miss Asher and the horses. Our home and animal sitters have been sweet about providing frequent anecdotes about the activities at Wintervale. 
Apparently, Mix has developed some connection with one of the pigeons that has taken to perching on the post closest to where Mix’s feed bucket is hung. That’s something we’ve never seen before. That doesn’t really surprise me at this point, since we’d never seen the horses mangle one of the gates before, either.
I’m mentally prepared to need a little time to readjust to home life and the latest activities of our animals. Based on past experience, it won’t take long to get back into the swing of things. Before we came up to the lake, I’d only been home a few days from my week of biking and camping with friends on the Tour of Minnesota. I’d hardly recovered from the euphoria of that trip before diving into the power-lounging and lake swimming of the last ten days up at Wildwood. Settling in for real at home is something I’m looking forward to.
Well… settling in for 10 days or so before we return again to the lake for another 4-day weekend.
At least our animals will have had plenty of opportunities to get used to us occasionally disappearing on them for days or a week at a time with increasing regularity. I hope they sense how often we talk about them with people who ask about our lives in the country. Even when we are away, we bring the spirits of our animals with us to share far and wide with everyone who shows interest.
They really do mean an awful lot to us.
.
.
Always Interesting
There is always something interesting happening around here. I wrote yesterday about Mia’s allergic reaction. Here is a photo:
When Cyndie checked on the horses last night, she found Mia standing with her head in the corner looking as forlorn as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Mia hadn’t even finished her oats and corn in the bucket. Cyndie checked under the fly sheet and found all the welts had disappeared. As soon as she pulled that sheet off, Mia’s countenance changed dramatically.
She picked up her head, moved out of the corner, and headed over to finish eating the rest of her grains. I don’t think Mia liked wearing that fly sheet one bit.
The different coloring of those two images is a result of direct sunlight in the morning and Mia standing under the shade of the overhang around sunset.
I stepped inside the air-conditioned house during a break from mowing in the heat and didn’t hear a peep from Asher. I wandered from room to room in search of him and found him like this:
I think Asher is rather fond of air conditioning.
Cyndie disappeared for a while and I got a text from her.
“Lots of strawberries. Going back to pick more. Will u feed dog?”
This time of year, when I can’t find Cyndie, she is usually outside picking berries of one kind or another.
Jam season won’t be far behind. And based on past experience, if it’s not canning jams, it’ll be something else interesting. It always is.
.
.
He’s Home
Of all the issues clouding our activities of late, this one feels like the most tangible: Asher is home with us again.
He seems pretty pleased to be back in the comforts of his previous territory and free from the constant distractions of other canines needing to be assessed. One clear thing the trainers noted was his constant need to determine the potential threat of the various other dogs coming and going at the kennel. That is not an unusual behavior in a dog but it did clarify that inviting visits with other dogs at our place may be a challenge.
Progressing from the assessment time with the professional trainers, we plan to now work on helping Asher to more consistently respect commands outdoors and learn that the boundaries of our property are non-negotiable. There may be a series of 3 to 5 on-site visits from one of the trainers to supervise the process.
Basically, that means she will be here to teach us more than to teach Asher. I’m sure he already knows what is expected of him. He’s just waiting for us to figure out who the bosses are in our relationship.
An unexpected outcome from two fresh COVID test kits yesterday morning indicated Cyndie’s previous positive result probably wasn’t a fluke. She still looks to be infected and intends to remain isolated from contact with others as much as possible. Thankfully, she is not feeling much worse than any other normal spring day with her allergies to practically everything in our environment, especially hay and molds, in addition to the pollens from every growing plant.
My test came out almost perfectly clean.
The instructions say to look VERY closely because even the faintest hint of a line should be considered a positive result. There is a faint hint but compared to my other test results that were clearly positive, we take this to indicate the virus is losing its command over me.
I’m left with a residual cough that has been my reality for most of my life after an illness. Based on past experience, it will linger for longer than seems reasonable but I’ll eventually get over it.
The tropical rainforest conditions we have been experiencing have the air around here filled with spores from molds, mushrooms, and every manner of flying insects.
Areas of our lawn grass that aren’t beneath standing water will get mowed with brand-new blades that I installed yesterday.
This afternoon we will install flags to mimic the installation of an invisible fence along one of our borders to use in training Asher. In hindsight, it seems so simple after we met with impressive success fencing off our landscape pond and the composting manure piles to train him that those were off-limits.
He has respected that training ever since. (knock on wood)
We are optimistic about the likelihood that Asher will respond equally well to instructions about our property borders once Cyndie and I master the art of being consistent and clear with our leadership.
.
.
Double Punch
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. I have done what I could to put the COVID infection behind me and resume normal activity but putting it behind me wasn’t supposed to be literal. I now find myself about as far away from normal activity as I have been in years.
There is something terribly wrong happening in my lower back that feels in every way as if one of my discs is bulging against the nerve that generates incapacitating waves of pain. My poor brain automatically leaps to a conclusion that the timing of these two latest physical maladies are entirely related, but I have no knowledge that this might be true.
All I know is that I am now one week away from the day my health insurance ends with the company that covered me for the first five months of the year and starts with my new choice under Medicare. I was hoping to get through the transition with a clean break from activity on either account.
Today, it is shockingly difficult to avoid stabbing pain when I cough at a time when my asthmatically reactive lungs are teetering on the backside of a virus notorious for negatively impacting breathing.
I am not a pretty sight.
If I could walk without fear of losing my footing, I’d wander down among the horses and bask in their late spring serenity.
We are fast approaching the end of Asher’s on-site training session at a kennel up north. The trainer has scheduled a call this afternoon during which we expect to learn how Asher has been faring during the previous week and what the plan is for picking him up to continue the training at home.
It would really mean a lot to me to be able to walk without pain by the time of Asher’s return.
Walking is once again the exercise that will become my primary focus.
.
.
Relative Something 