Jan 27th. Tuesday.
4 pm
We went out for a pre-dinner walk. We walked the entire length of the park. The guys both did a lot of exploring. Bubba almost wandered over to the railing, but then got spooked and ran back to the grass. He seems to be a little better, and was walking in the middle of the path a lot of the walk. Not related to his skittishness, he was walking the full width of the grass area, really exploring horizontally during the walk.
We walked 50 minutes. Nobody pooped.
12:45 pm
We’re back. I hate airport runs.
We went to take the guys for a walk. My mother had been sitting on a flight from Helinski to Dallas, then in the Dallas airport for two days, followed by a flight to OC. She asked if she could join us, because she really needed to walk.
Neither guy wanted to go, until Buddy heard my mom calling, and then he wanted to get the leash on, and he sprinted down the stairs to see her. Bubba did not pick up on Buddy’s energy, and even with a bit of nose prodding, stayed in bed. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.
We went up towards PCH, but then turned sharply and headed over to the dog park to sniff all of the evidence of half a dozen different dogs playing hundreds of times. Nobody was there, but it was still a buffet of things to smell. It was also time for Buddy’s second poop of the day. Buddy stopped to eat fome crabgrass from the planter on the way out of the park – so he may still be having some stomach issues.
We walked to over by the pool, out to PCH and home. It was a very relaxed walk, which took about 40 minutes.
8:20 am – continued
We went over to Strand Vista park. Buddy pooped at the memorial, and it was just good-ole-normal poop. Whatever was causing his stomach all that distressed seemed to have passed. We got all the way past the mid-point seating area of the park before Bubba pooped. But both guys did. I was watching the time, because I needed to get back so I could make an airport run, but the guys wanted to go on a long walk. That was the priority.
We ran into Greg and Marli, and that changed things. The guys wanted to walk with Marli again, so we turned around and walked with company. When we walk with other people and dogs, the pace is always quicker. The guys don’t stop for sniffing and marking when we walk with a dog that just walks. Mostly when we walk, we walk with girl dogs, and they don’t make as many stops by default. The guys really like going for a walk with a lady dog.
After the walk, I dropped off the guys, checked the water dishes, declumped the food and made a too-long airport run.
8:20 am
This is going to be a trying day.
I am having McDonald’s for breakfast at the harbor. After being stuck at the airport in Dallas for the last two days, she finally caught a plane. She had 6 cancelled before that. I got her text at 4am, misread it somehow, as arriving at 6:30pm, which was frustrating – that’s makes dinner and evening walk time pretty tight, since I’d be driving in commute traffic.
I re-read the text on the first walk with the guys and saw her plane was arriving at 10:04am. That is a much better time, but it was 8:45 and the guys were in a long walk mood.
I picked up drive-thru to eat-n-drive, and googled the flight number while waiting for my food. Flight delayed. Arriving 10:54. Then before I put the phone down, it updates, 10:55. Now I’m early, and the delay is growing in real time right in front of me.
So now, I’m at the harbor, killing a few minutes and decompressing – I stress too easily on small problems – and logging on my phone.
– – –
The guys were awake when I showed up. Bubba was lying in bed, but awake. Buddy met me at the door. I expected accidents; there were none, and everyone looked healthy.
I put out the breakfast to marinade, and when putting the broth back in the fridge, noticed there was no chicken, so opened the freezer to put chicken in to defrost. I found no chicken in the freezer, and realized I had forgotten the chicken in my freezer at home.
So I ran home to get the chicken, and by the time I got back, the kids were rough housing. I heard Bubba yelp, the sound he makes when Buddy plays too rough an nips a sensitive spot, or is just irritating and in Bubba’s face.
When I got upstairs, both guys were playing. Bubba was running back and forth from the bedroom to the livingroom. He was full of energy and playing chase without a chaser.
…I hate logging on my phone. I killed all that time, and didn’t even get to the walk. I have to get on the freeway.
To Be Continued.