Tuesday

After walking Toby around the neighborhood this morning, we drove to the causeway to walk. As we arrived at the drawbridge, we saw this spectacular house boat go through. Here’s the story of the boat house.

We took the car so we could go to the Garden Room before lunch. We got one more of the large bush with purple flowers and one more of the little ground cover plants with tiny red flowers. You can see them in the picture above, on this end of the bed.

It fills things in a bit.

We got this little blue-flowered plant to go in front of the stump (it’s called “Blue My Mind”). This one may have to be moved in favor of something orange or yellow. The blue is the same color as the blue in the bird of paradise.

This bed beside the garage now has mulch and the transplanted hydrangeas. The monkey grass is gone.

After lunch we did training, fetching, and walking. We drove downtown to give Toby a fresh place to walk. He got to meet a couple of dogs and sniff and play a bit.

And roll around in the grass.

He got his dinner in both of his brain games simultaneously. I noticed that it was much harder for him this way. The strategies are different and he would forget how they worked going back and forth. He got a little frustrated, but he eventually uncovered all his kibble. It’s hard to multi-task, right?

Tired doggie, mentally and physically 

I finally got around to fixing my boo boo when we put the entry hall fixture in. I didn’t think we needed a dimmer, so I got non-dimmable LED bulbs. It turned out that the light was as bright as the sun. We seldom turned it on, except during delicate operations—such as splinter removals or threading a needle.

I installed a dimmer switch and ordered new lights that are dimmable. 

It was a costly mistake, but I read it would take 33 years for the old bulbs to burn out if they were on 4 hours a day! 

Life’s too short to live with annoying mistakes like that.

Entrance light from the outside.

Miles walked: 9.8

Miles biked: 0

Monday

 

We took Toby to the causeway for a sunrise walk. Another thing from my vision of retirement was to enjoy sunrises. There’s something exciting about starting a new day at the very beginning.

It was so quiet you could hear the waves lapping on the shore. Normally, the traffic is too loud. It was about 75 degrees with a light breeze.

We were going to go back to the Garden Room to get more plants, but they were closed, so we hopped on our bikes and rode south on the Pinellas Trail without a destination. Before we knew it, we were in downtown Clearwater headed to the causeway that leads to Clearwater Beach.

John picked up a t-shirt at the Bait House Cafe.

The cafe would be a nice place to eat sometime. It’s a bit pricey, but the atmosphere looks charming perched on the water on the backside of the island.

The causeway bridge is always a challenge. It’s tall enough to not require a drawbridge. 

The bridge in the distance is the bridge from Clearwater Beach to Sand Key. We’ve learned from one of our Pinellas Trail/Dunedin Causeway buddies that a good ride is to go to Clearwater Beach, cross the Sand Key bridge and ride down the island to the Belleair Beach Causeway, then back to the Pinellas Trail, heading back north to Dunedin.

This is the view from the Clearwater Causeway bridge down into the island. This is what Honeymoon Island would look like if the city of Dunedin had not had the wisdom to buy the island from developers and give it to the state park system to manage.

The road takes you to Pier 60 and the famous beach. We saw the tractors raking the beach. I read recently about the huge volume of trash they collect daily from this beach to keep it looking like this.

After lunch, I rode to Weaver Park and the outdoor gym to exercise. On the way back I cut through Hammock Park. It was nice to have some alone time.

To show my appreciation to John for watching Toby solo, I practiced brain games for an hour. We played hide and seek, we practiced commands, and then John joined me to feed Toby his dinner by practicing his “come” command. John was at one end of the house and I was at the other. We kept moving and hiding to make Toby use his brain to find us. When he did, he got some kibble. Brain games + fetching + walks = a very tired dog.

Zonked and too tired to join me on the sofa!

Over an hour later and he’s hardly moved! The key insight from pet training this week: “Exercise their brains, not just their bodies, if you want a well-behaved dog. If you don’t exercise their brains, they will come up with their own games to stimulate their brains and you won’t like the games they come up with.”

Today’s bike routes to Clearwater Beach and then later Weaver Park.

Miles walked: 5.6

Miles biked: 25.68

Sunday

After Toby solved his store-bought brain game, I made one from a cereal box and paper towel roll. Look at that eye contact!

I put treats in both, taped the ends and put one inside the other.

He shredded both.

And with some thinking. . .

. . . got all his treats.

Then he was chill while he watched a thunderstorm move through.

We had another beautiful sunrise walk on the causeway with Toby.

Pitch black morning.

Miles walked 4

Miles biked: 0

Saturday

We took Toby on a sunrise walk on the causeway before his training class this morning. It was cool, quiet, and refreshing.

On the causeway you get to see the sun rise and set over the water. Do you see the eye in the clouds on the right?

Toby enjoyed being back on the causeway. He was banned after eating parts of a petrified snake on three consecutive days!

Toby starting learning combination commands, wait, and “come” command. We got told to get more firm again. She says we’re too nice.

She told a story about a dog getting loose in the parking lot and taking off towards highway 19 and almost getting killed. That’s when you need a strong “come” command. John whispered “sshhsh. Don’t say anything,” thinking I might volunteer our loose dog experience last week. I told him later: “Are you kidding? She already thinks we’re push overs. I’m not going to give her more reasons to doubt us.”

Week 4 and Toby finally laid down on the floor. His classmates were all chillin’ the first week!

One of our classmates asked us if this was our first dog after the trainer again said we were being too nice to Toby. We answered, “No, it’s our third . . . and they’ve all been bad.”  We both said, “I think it’s us.” The woman replied, “I think so, too,” with just enough ambiguity that she could have been talking about her and her wife and their loud hound, but the context made it sound like she could have been throwing us some shade.

Our trainer felt bad about being so tough on us, but we told her that our last trainer told us the same thing. 

We learned that Toby was bad yesterday because he didn’t get enough brain stimulation. She said people exercise their dogs and think that’s it. She said if you don’t give them mental stimulation, they will invent their own games and you will not like what they come up with. It’s true. We exercised him yesterday, but we didn’t use his brain games. She reminded us: “what is your dog like after class?”

The picture above is Toby one minute after getting home from class. Fast asleep with Mr. Turtle in his mouth.

Yesterday, John moved the hydrangea on the left to match the one on the right. He removed several peace lilies that were always getting burnt by the sun. The ADT sign is going bye bye.

The new plants are looking good.

The low plants make it possible to see the architectural interest of the house.

Fruit and veggie bowl for lunch

Turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch

 

John gave Toby a bath using some medicated shampoo for his skin rash. Toby’s liking his dog bed more.

I vacuumed and washed the car and cleaned up our filthy garage floor.

Then it was back to pursuing my Moby Dick—the big ass stump! I was able to saw off another four inches.

That’s enough to get it to ground level and hide it. The hydrangeas to the right will need to be moved because there’s no longer enough shade for them here. John will get something.

John picked us up a Publix sub for dinner.

Miles walked: 6

Miles biked: 0