I realized that it has been a little while since the three of us (Dexter, Comet and me) have gone to the Mission Trails park on Saturday, when I took the long way ’round. Both of my furry companions were clueless where we were going. (Was I expecting them to give me a jabbing paw to take the proper highway exit?)
Getting back into a routine on Saturday was the easy part. I asked Amazon’s Alexa to set an alarm for 6 AM this morning, but woke at 5:45 and was up and out of bed. Both of the dogs have not been going out for a walk in recent weeks till 8 AM or so. They were sprawled asleep on the bedroom floor. Putting my shoes on without “help” from Comet or Dexter was a new experience. (Is 14 hours a day napping a health requirement in the canine world?)
I have to report (drum roll, please!) that I made it -fairly easily- up a quarter-mile grade during the hike at the park. My healing abdominals are apparently not too horribly spent. The four others I was with only slowed briefly (they forgot I was “still recovering”) to put me in the lead after the major part of the grade was completed.
But today I also was motivated by a somewhat busy day. My father-in-law is back in town, and my wife and I invited him to have breakfast with us at home. It is a highlight of his visits. There’s a certain lack of “drama” in our home, that, unfortunately, comes with my wife’s other siblings living in town.
Strange as it seems, the best part of the day were chores-related. I got out my new high-power battery-driven hedge trimmer to tackle some overgrown bushes. My neighbor always cuts them down flush to the ground between our houses if he gets to them first. I try to cut them to an pleasing size before he does that. However, I enjoyed channeling my impression of Tim Allen’s (Home Improvement) -style passion for power tools. And then I took first my car and then my wife’s SUV to the car wash. I never understood why my sons were not meticulous about cleaning their vehicles. It was a weekend ritual with all the guys I served with in the Navy. Sometimes we would not even allow food or drink to enter the vehicle. I was happy to see that younger people at the car wash were equally as meticulously washing their vehicles today.
And now I am getting ready to go to dinner down by the beach. Though I live in San Diego, I am one of those people who rarely goes to the beach-bum and tourist-y part of town. My wife’s cousin and her family are vacationing in San Diego, and Dad was all fired up to get everybody together tonight. Dexter and Comet are not going so they will expect an evening walk when I get home. Routines. Gotta love ’em.
It's a Dog's Life 
HoHoHO the married life. There is so much good stuff underlying this that I can feel your pain. I’m going to smile at walking the dogs in the park and leave all the rest where it is. Also, I’m going to start believing in God and pray to Him, thanking Him that nobody EVER DARES VISIT ME FOR BREAKFAST. How can you entertain people for breakfast? It’s a TV family you have. You have patience, stamina, and the ability to do things in the real world I either avoid or don’t do. Of course, if the spend the night at my house and wake up in my house, they are free to have breakfast, they just have to look for it in the kitchen somewhere. If I get up first, there’s coffee made, and I talk a lot about how I have things to do and how they must have things to do, so you know. out out the door we all go. You thrive on breakfast as an important event. I do not. We have things to learn from each other. We must engage in deep mutual blogging of the third kind. LOL.
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Absolutely, my friend! Count on our continued learning. Breakfast and blogging, or Brunch and blogging, LOL -. Have a great rest of your weekend!!!
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Tony, you and I have a lot in common! I can’t even imagine having people over for breakfast. I’m not even awake for breakfast. These morning people have strange ideas, but I still love them! 😉
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I hear you! It is indeed nice to see what the breakfast people do!
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it is the curse of the military – up at o-dark hundred, get bfast, clean, do whatever, and have most done, before lunch. I have slowed down tho – Dexter and Comet have taught me everything goes well with a nap in-between
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You have very wise dogs. Don’t forget to get a treat in there somewhere, too. I’m sure they would suggest that, as well!
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This was a great read! Sounds like you had a nice Saturday. As a person who thrives on routine, I saw the beauty of the underlying message of your post.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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Thanks, Biff! I had a good day. I think after my routine Sunday morning at services, tomorrow is going to feature a nice nap….
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Glad you had a good day. 🙂 And naps are the best! Hopefully you got to enjoy one.
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I know how much you’ve missed your Saturday dog/prayer walks. I hope you didn’t overdo. Oh gosh, here I am being the voice of concern when I’m usually the voice of “hey have fun!” I’ll compromise. “Hey, have fun, but don’t overdo!” 😉
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As of Monday morning, I am feeling quite good. I need to kick off the side of the pool and get back into the deep end. Oy! The doc will let me know Weds — until then, I will have fun this week, but go easy. Promise!!
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Fun! Seems your dogs are human-level in friendliness
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while I don’t subscribe to the anthropomorphic -ization(?) of animals – that sort of goes against my blog’s general principle, doesn’t it? – I do get lots of comfort and amusement from behaviors that do seem very “human”. I’ll blame this on my mother – she ‘talked” with animals and they ‘talked’ back to her.
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You’re quite right. Perhaps I should have said these dogs show wisdom.
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