So goes another week burning PTO.
I really didn’t have a honey-do list. Herself rarely has a list for me, depending on me to keep things in order. While at lunch today, she asked what all I got done. Other than the gate, I couldn’t think of one thing. What I didn’t do is get new tires. But that’s OK, I don’t need time off for that. I can take the hotrod up the street and either walk or uber back.
This morning, I walked out into the garage and didn’t see any piles of parts or bags that I leave around meaning to get back to them. And, the skies opened up. So I’m sitting here, having knocked out another project that I procrastinated until today. I installed another AP for my wireless, and hadn’t lit it up yet. Yeah. Took all of 15 minutes. Fired it up, upgraded it, and “adopted” it into the family, so to speak. So now I’ll have MOAR POW’R! in the garage and sunroom.
Things are in order around here. Got a pot roast in the crockpot. Herself says she’ll be home earlier than 10 tonight.
Had a great walk this morning with the fellas. Once they get the initial exploring and sniffing in, they behave well, until Jasper starts seeing squirrels or other dogs. He was remarkably restrained today. Probably because yesterday when he was going bonkers over another dog, I’d had enough and kicked him in the ribs with the top of my foot. Not hard, but enough that he stopped and stared at me with a classic WTF DUDE! look. I told him “NO. SIT”. He sat, and was rewarded with a treat. Seemed to have made an impression. He was practically a gentleman today. I hate to do stuff like that, but the Cesar Milan thing doesn’t work. He’s at DefCon 3 simply walking out the door.
And it was a nice morning. It had rained last night, so there was lots to sniff. And I let them, for the most part. It’s their walk, not mine. It’s a two mile circuit I take, and I got a clean mile into it before even a squirrel was an issue.
I vary my routes every day. I like the variety, and I’m sure they do too. Also, the two male dogs are creatures of habit, and if I let them, they’ll drop trou (drop their trousers) in the same yard every morning. And I don’t want to be “that guy” to my neighbors, even though I clean up after them.
Not everyone does.
Matter of fact, the cross street we went down today had piles every other house or so. Man, I hate to see that. This is a nice neighborhood. The average home price in it is slightly over $500K. These are well off people that live here. Yet some of them are utterly classless and leave their mess wherever. Someone will clean it up. The worst are those that bag it and leave the bag. Another dumb thing they do is drop it on a brushpile that’s out for trash pickup. Thing is, you do that and the city will take a hard pass on pickup. I don’t care if it’s your empty bottle of MD20/20 or your dogs dook, clean it up.
But I digress.
It was sunny, damp, the temperature perfect. The neighborhood is gearing up for Halloween.
Very cool. Had to have your drain replaced? Why not put some bones on the dirt?
We turned up a street towards the park. A stretch I call “Squirrel Alley”. Each house will have 3-6 running around. They stopped to check out a tree with a squirrel in it, and I stopped to admire an Airstream.
If I got a trailer RV, this would be it. Don’t know if he’s visiting or the dude bought it.
As we started back, Dude with a chocolate lab and earbuds walked right in front of us, again.
He’s done it before.
You run into all sorts in the mornings here. Mothers walking the kids in strollers, with or without a dog. Old people walking, younger people walking, old-timers biking. You generally see the same people every day. Most have situational awareness. Generally, like at sea, those with the least maneuverability are allowed the right-of-way. Usually, other dog walkers will see me, or I them, long in advance and will cross the street. If I see a woman with a stroller, I’ll cross.
Some don’t, like earbud dude. He just walks right in front of us, practically cutting us off, not realizing that if I let go, his dog will have a real problem. That’s what happened the other day to get Jasper worked up. A knuckleheaded woman with a dog decided not to cross, and walked in the street to pass us, too close, and Jasper paid for it. In this case I had to ‘heel’ them and wait until he got some real estate between us before going.
We hit the park, first stop to drop dook if I have to. The dogs love this. If the exercise club isn’t there, and the playground not too full, I’ll walk them along the tree line, a huge treat. Otherwise, we’ll traverse a field to one of three return streets home.
We had a nice walk back, passing the chicken lady’s house. You are allowed to keep chickens in the city where I live. This woman has at least a dozen fat ones that, every now and then, are moseying around her block denuding it of bugs. A public service for sure. The dogs don’t know what to think about them. When they see them they sit and stare. When I was chatting with her one day, they were more interested in the black cat at her ankles than the chickens.
We turned down our street, on the way home. Usually this is where we usually run into more dogs. But not today. Today, it was quiet and nice. Only an old couple tooled by on their bikes. Cool couple, I see them nearly every day.
We got back and as I hit the door I considered my Coleus.
I bought one plant two years ago. When fall came I took cuttings and cared for them over the winter. Recut, root, and plant. They are prettier now than when I bought them. Soon, It’ll be time to take cuttings in for the winter. My sunroom will be a greenhouse this winter.
All in all, a good week, a great day.
Inspected By Pat 