JUST ORDINARY DAYS

Ornamental cherry tree

Sometimes the muse just disappears for days at a time. Actually, it doesn’t take much to make the muse disappear. Sometimes the issues of life just seem stressful, and the muse is not inspired. In fact, I don’t really have anything to say right now.

After a week of cool temps, yesterday (Wednesday, March 30) was sunny and warm. In fact, it was such a lovely day that I traded my dark sweatshirt for a white one and went to town. About every third or fourth day I have to get out – not just out of the house but out of the neighborhood – and the little shopping area in Clarkston meets my need. I even went to Costco. I don’t buy much at Costco, but I was out of vanilla, and Costco is the ONLY place to buy vanilla.

In the afternoon, Mike and Ken took Bess and hiked into the Joseph Creek area (wherever that is). Nellie no longer goes on such outings and Pepper injured her hip and has orders to stay quiet, so Bess was the only canine to enjoy the hike. She was tired when she got home, but not too tired to get up and lick the proffered bowls.

Nellie after today's walk

Nellie has good days and bad. Of course, she and I went for the afternoon stroll since Mike and Bess were gone. You might think that walking Nellie would be easy, but it’s not. She wants to walk in the middle of the street, or she climbs a hill and disappears over the top, leaving me to wonder if I’ll ever see her again. Instead of walking beside us, she will often walk in front and then slow up or stop. Maddening! She also dawdles over whatever takes her fancy, and next she'll speed walk past me and I’m pressed to keep up. She doesn’t hear – or if she does, she pretends she doesn’t. And worst of all, she balks when we try to control her, often a matter of safety. I leash her frequently these days. She doesn’t seem to mind; in fact, we notice that she sometimes she prefers it. 

Bess

Addendum: Today I took both dogs for a walk and for the first time, Nellie truly didn’t want to go. She was so frisky two days ago, but today she balked to the point that we had to turn around and come home at the halfway point. Part of it is her arthritis and sore feet. The other part is the heat. We will have to walk earlier in the day.