April 30th. Thursday.
9:15 am
I showed up deliberately late, as I always do on Groomer day (even tho this was a groomerless groomer day). I had connected with Bobbie the day before, confirmed the appointment, and expected her between 10:15 and 10:30, so probably a bit early. I had not prepped for Bobbie’s visit the day before, so I needed to move my guitar and my work/study stuff on the coffee table.
Bubba was awake, Buddy was on the back of the couch, still very much in his sleep. It was close to midnight when I got home on Wednesday. Even though they sleep with me there, it’s not deep sleep, and when I move around it disturbs them – or at least Buddy. It was no surprise that they’d still be tired in the morning. Bubba and Buddy had both pooped on the deck – no big deal – but Bubba had also had small “offerings” in the dining room, the bedroom and the bathroom. I quickly cleaned those up, so Bobbie and her team didn’t have to deal with it.
I moved my stuff next door, and then I heard the guys suddenly going crazy. Bobbie had arrived, and it was just 9:30. I rushed back over to get the guys dressed quickly and get out of Bobbie’s way. It takes them a few minutes to unload the van, so I thought I’d be fine. But when I got back, Bubba had pooped in the bathroom again, and Buddy had peed on the corner of the pad, and 30% of it was running into the hallway outside the bathroom, so I had more cleaning to do.
When I got done cleaning up, Bobbie’s team was already on the way in. Bubba and Buddy were barking up a storm, but the ladies all seemed happy to see the guys, and the guys were happy to have visitors. It was noisy, but it was happy noise. The guys were greeted, and both spent a lot of time visiting with Bobbie. Bobbie said it was fine, and they could work around the guys with no problem, but we were heading out.
My mother joined us, and we walked to JC Beans instead of driving down to the harbor. It was a nice leisurely walk – which the people encouraged since we were killing time as much as walking the guys. It was nice and cool out for such a sunny day, and the sit at the coffee house was relaxing. Bubba didn’t want any croissant, so Buddy ate the one I got for them all by himself.
We walked back along PCH on the east side of the road, taking the long way around. Buddy got in some jogging. Bubba got carried a lot. We walked down to PCH and Selva, where we had to hit 3 crosswalks to get around – why they can’t have a crosswalk on the south side of the intersection, I’ll never understand. We walked along Selva to get home. It was too sunny on the west side of PCH, and equally exposed on the boardwalk. But walls and buildings provided a lot of morning shade walking outside the neighborhood.
We got back just before noon, after Bobbie had finished.