Sunday

We got up to take Toby on a sunrise walk on the causeway, but the causeway was closed for an event, likely an Octoberfest running or biking event similar to the one yesterday on the Pinellas Trail.

So instead of the causeway, we headed downtown and parked at the marina. We intended to walk down Edgewater Drive along the sound, but Toby got spooked and turned around and headed downtown. It was dark and unfamiliar to him. Part of building trust with a dog is respecting his fears so he will always feel safe with us. We ended up wandering around the artisan district on Broadway, a place he had been before, and by this time, the sun had risen.

Woodwright Brewery where Pam and Jeff had lunch this summer

We still haven’t eaten there, but it’s on our list.

We arrived at Tukro coffee house just as they opened at 7:00 a.m. It’s located on Wood Street, near the downtown Methodist church.

I’ve been wanting to come here for a long time, so I found us comfy chairs on the dog-friendly patio while John fetched us some freshly brewed coffee.

We got to practice some real-world commands with Toby. (Thank goodness cameras only capture a moment in time. He looks very obedient here.)

He is better than before training, but this whole scene was new to him and he was excited. (Sit, Stay)

Down, stay

Whatev’s 

They have water bowls for dogs scattered around the patio.

Last night just before bedtime, John announced we had a leak under the sink. We’ve been smelling a funky odor for some time, but we blamed it on Toby. (That brown gunk under the tank is dirty water from the sink, marinating for some time. It kind of smelled like wet dog.)

The previous owners installed a reverse osmosis water filtration system. We have not used it and have been ignoring it, waiting for our kitchen renovation project to remove it. I assumed it was leaking.

Upon closer examination, the system was not leaking, but I took advantage of the opportunity to shut off the water supply to the system and drain the tank just in case.

The leak was actually caused by the loose ring that attaches the sink drain pipe to the sink. How that got loose, I’ll never know.

Anyway, it was a simple fix, but time consuming to clean up.

After clean up 

After clean up 

Rules of home repair:

1) It’s going to make a big mess.

2) It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

3) It’s going to require far more tools than you can imagine.

4) It’s going to take longer than it should, and

5) It’s going to creep into another project.

On this project, we managed to do it for free without any trips to Ace—usually that’s where we begin.

We ended up cleaning all of the cabinet doors, counter tops, and backsplash. We also culled unusable cleaning supplies and other bric-a-brac. The previous owner tied rope, ribbons, wires, bread ties, zip ties, string to everything he touched, inside and outside of the house! Bonus points for readers who can find the red ribbon, rope, and plastic zip tie—all useless—in the before photos above.

Next up: John found another leak in our automatic sprinkler system. (He’s good at finding leaks.) This one is similar to the last sprinkler leak in that it’s nowhere near a sprinkler head, which means it’s in the line somewhere underground and will have to be traced with my caddy shack routine.

My preferred approach to water leaks is to ignore them, especially the ones in the sprinkler system. After all, isn’t a sprinkler head just a more controlled leak? I know they must be fixed, but I don’t have to like it!

Toby was content to nap while we worked in the kitchen.

I was beginning to think the advanced puzzle (on the left) was too hard and Toby would never figure it out because heretofore I had to show him how to uncover his kibble on almost every square. I decided to place his beginner puzzle (on the right) next to it because they use the same basic strategy.

I think it helped because he was able to slide almost half of the tiles on the advanced puzzle by himself. I stepped in when he got trapped in a corner. He didn’t seem to get as frustrated. He was using his paw instead of his teeth, which means he was thinking.

Miles walked: 7.5

Miles biked: 0