Saturday

Not bad, a week before Christmas, right?

John met a friend for lunch downtown, so I rode my bike with him and then headed to Honeymoon Island for a walk.

There were lots of people out, but it wasn’t overly crowded. The water was cold! The wind was about 7 mph, just enough to get that kite aloft.

But the air temperature was 79 degrees, just about perfect.

I walked in the sand and along the water’s edge. I don’t know why, but it’s hard to be stressed or anxious when you’re walking on the beach.

Happy to be here.

I heard that an adjunct in my former English department quit at the end of the semester, leaving several sets of papers from several classes ungraded. My former colleagues got assigned to grade them, on top of their own students’ papers. That’s terrible!

I took an afternoon stroll around the neighborhood and Lake Saundra this afternoon.

I liked the whimsy of this all-native-plants yard. No turf and drought tolerant.

My stroll took me out of the neighborhood to Highlander Park and the Community Center.

Toby got bit by a little dog this morning on our walk. The dog was on leash, but the leash slipped out of the owner’s hand. The next thing I knew, his little dog was charging at Toby, barking and nipping. Thankfully, Toby did not retaliate or bark. He just sort of tried to evade the little runt. There were a couple of puncture wounds. The owner was very apologetic and offered to pay for any vet bills. I felt bad for him. We put Bactine on it and will keep an eye on it. I think we were more traumatized than Toby. 

Ironically, just this morning we stopped walking Toby on his pre-dawn walk because that’s when people with aggressive dogs walk their dogs. Either that or dogs get spooked easily when they pass other dogs in the dark. We decided it wasn’t worth the risk of exposing him to barking (snarling) dogs. We reasoned that in the daylight we could better see what’s coming and distract Toby so that he doesn’t learn to bark back.

So much for reasoning. Stuff happens.

I am so glad he gets to play with other good tempered dogs at K9 Adventures on a regular basis. Otherwise, I fear events like today could scar him terribly.

Today’s bike route downtown and to Honeymoon Island 

Miles walked: 10.6

Miles biked: 16.04