Sunday

 It was 80 degrees when we headed to Weaver Park this morning around 10:00. We had planned to take a longer ride to Wall Springs Park, but we took a nap after our early morning causeway walk and ran out of time. A nap at 8:30, you ask? Well, Toby woke us up at 3:30 this morning. Taking him on shorter walks means that his recovery time is shorter. He was ready to play.

 

Skies were overcast.

 

 

 

 We ran into a bagpipe player on the Pinellas Trail. Toby wasn't sure what to make of that high pitched music. He was alternately spooked and intrigued. The photo at the top of this page shows his wariness.

 

 

 

 

 

We set our timer for 15 minutes so that we would know when to turn around. We are learning to walk him less and allow him to sniff and relax more.

Brain development at work. 

Toby continues to learn to play with other dogs. So far, he's done really well with all of his dog encounters.

We drove out to the Dunedin Causeway before dawn for a short, early morning walk. It was breezy and 73 degrees.

 

 

We made sure to keep the walk short and the rests long. Toby was happy to take a break and view the passers-by.

 

 

It was nice to watch the sun come up--a new day, indeed.

We've filled our car up with gas and are getting ready to hunker down for Tropical Storm Eta. We expect to get about an inch of rain. The cone of uncertainty is currently quite broad, ranging from the panhandle down to the southwest Florida. That puts Tampa about in the center, but the storm still appears to be several days (Thursday or Friday) away from hitting the peninsula. The joke in Florida is the safest place to be in a hurricane forecast is the dead center of the tracking map several days away from landfall, because the storm track always changes.

Miles walked: 4
Miles biked: 5.23

Election Processing

Both of us talked about how we felt a burden had been lifted as a result of the election. It's like being a condemned prisoner who learns he's won a reprieve. I feel like I can breathe again. For more than four years, I have lived with a feeling of dread and grief. I am under no illusion that all our problems will disappear, but I also no longer live in a constant state of fear and outrage.

 

We have both been especially short-tempered, critical of each other, sarcastic, and snippy. We knew it was mostly due to election trauma, so we tried not to take it personally. Now, it's amazing how much more patient we both are. My tolerance level for annoying things is so much higher, some things not even registering with anything more than a smile. The president has caused so much pain in people's lives, here and around the world.

 

When the networks made the call for Biden, our neighbors all around us started shouting and banging on pots, releasing four years of their own pent-up rage and fear. Our county, Pinellas, is considered a swing county, anchoring one end of the voter rich I-4 corridor in Florida. The county went for Obama twice, but swung to Trump narrowly in 2016. For this election, it swung back to the Democrats.

 

Here's a fun fact: Joe Biden's dog, Major, is set to become the White House's first shelter dog. Biden adopted Major, a German Shepherd, two years ago from the Delaware🐾 Human Society.