Monday

Toby’s ready and waiting to go to daycare. I coaxed him out around 7:30 to do his business. It was 40 degrees. He has a big day ahead: daycare this morning and advanced training this afternoon. We hope to squeeze in a nap for him in between while we take advantage of the temperature warm up to walk the causeway. The low temperature last night was 36; the high today will be 65. On a day like this, we get to wear full winter gear followed by shorts and long sleeves. So this is an improvement from the last several days.

We got to enjoy that 65 degree weather while walking on the causeway after we picked Toby up. He had a good time playing with Barkley, and he kept his pee in his body or outside where it belongs.

We came upon a family of dolphins playing under the tidal bridge.

I counted five.

It was nice to get outside in the sun again.

I ordered a compression sleeve for my arm. About eight weeks ago, we went kayaking in the mangrove trails on Caladesi Island. Apparently, I paddled too hard and sprained my arm. It’s about 95% healed, and I think the sleeve will help to finish up the healing. When I first injured it, I couldn’t lift a plate or turn my electric toothbrush on without pain or even bend my arm to eat or floss. Opening jars was the worst. The last two days I haven’t felt any pain. Soon I will start rehabilitation.

John said we were of the age that we could proudly wear our medical accessories. 

It was lovely to see blue skies and puffy clouds again.

Training this afternoon was rough. Our trainer said she could tell we took the month off, which is not completely true but it was impossible to explain otherwise while Toby was being an unfocused dog.

There are six dogs in his advanced class, all of them new to us and Toby. I’m afraid Toby is at the bottom of his class—again. We had to go around and introduce ourselves and tell what Toby was good at and what he needed to work on. We had to go first. I said he was good with “sit.” They all laughed (because it’s the most basic command), but I was serious. We said he needed to work on everything. Our trainer was not pleased.

Toby did a nice loose leash walk with John and then me, so we redeemed ourselves a bit.

Our trainer did say that most dogs take advanced several times, even her dog took it three times. John heard that the other dogs are on their second or third time. That made me feel a little better.

Our last walk of the day around Lake Saundra.

Toby’s under that blanket, exhausted. The only nap he got was while we were walking on the causeway.

Miles walked: 10.4

Miles biked: 0

Sunday (7th winter day)

On our first walk of the day, it was 34 degrees, the coldest temperature in the last four years, according to the local news. It was odd seeing frost on the grass.

Toby managed better than we thought. There were a few other intrepid dog walkers. Toby passed them all uneventfully, even the ones who barked at him.

Morning reading and snuggle time 

Mid morning, we watched “Versailles” on Netflix.

John took this picture and the next one on our after lunch walk. I managed the walk without my winter coat. The temperature was 50 degrees. The high a couple of hours later was 55.

We watched some more “Versailles” in the afternoon.

Miles walked: 8.4

Miles biked: 0

Saturday (6th winter day)

On our last walk of the day, it was 45 degrees with 10 mph winds. We’ve had our long johns on all day.

Two goofy looking old men.

It takes so much time to bundle up and unbundle. We both agreed that today was a North Carolina winter day; yet here we are.

Toby has been a pretty good sport. He got four long walks, some training, a Kong dispenser dinner, a cereal box treat dessert, and snuggling.

The snowbirds love this weather. I guess by comparison it’s nice, but if you live here year round, it’s really cold. On this morning’s walk it was 43 degrees and not much better after lunch (48). We brought more plants inside. The low tonight will be 34 degrees. The high tomorrow will be 54. But I see a run of four days in the seventies in the weekly forecast.

I got down on the floor to share Toby’s sun bath.

Morning snuggle time 

We fixed our emergency meal tonight: tuna, mac n cheese, and peas. We didn’t feel like leaving the house for takeout food. We did manage to go to the grocery store this morning in lieu of our usual causeway walk. The store was nearly deserted.

We’ve watched “Versailles” off and on all day. We’re in season 2 now. 

Miles walked: 8

Miles biked: 0

Friday

John had his annual physical this morning so we dropped Toby off at daycare and took a quick walk in the neighborhood.

Temps were mild today (64), but the cloud cover made it feel quite chilly. I don’t recall last January being this cold and cloudy. We’re a bit grumpy.

John brought the stag horn fern in to protect it from the cold spell coming this weekend. Lows are predicted just a bit above freezing with highs in the mid 50s.

We cheered ourselves up with a Juan’s burrito.

The report from Toby’s daycare today is that he’s been peeing on everything, even running down the hall. They said they just wanted us to know. They thought it strange because he hasn’t done that before. 

We are perplexed. He’s only had two accidents in our house since we got him. The first time was in the first few days with us and the second when we forgot to take him outside. Other than that, he only pees a warning pee/submissive pee when frightened. We’ve learned to approach carefully and gently and never to force him to do something he doesn’t feel comfortable doing. 

There are a lot of changes going on at K9 Adventures as you might expect with new owners. Maybe he’s picking up on their anxiety?

Or maybe we cut his pre daycare walk short because of the cold and our busy morning?

We are looking forward to Toby’s advanced training class on Monday. I think that will help us to get out of our blues. Some warmer weather would also help. 

We watched “Teachers” on Amazon Prime and skipped “Versailles” thinking a shallow comedy might be a better tonic than heavy drama.

Miles walked: 8

Miles biked: 0

 

Thursday

We finally got a break in the weather and got to see and feel the sun again. The high temperature today was 63 degrees.

Our new ground cover is filling in nicely. The purple flowered bushes appear to be taking the winter off. 

The ground cover continues to bloom.

Some Easter Lillie’s from before are coming back. We might separate them out so they don’t crowd out the ground cover.

Tiny little flowers in front of our dining room window. The forecast for Saturday night is 33 degrees, the coldest temperature in four years, according to the Tampa paper. I wonder what that will do to our flowers and grass? 

We made it to the causeway to walk this morning. The temperature was 59 degrees with a 9 mph breeze. It was chilly but not bitter. I did it in shorts and two shirts—and a fast pace!

The clouds didn’t clear out until later in the day.

Toby got to see Yuki and Stephen on his last walk. We commiserated on the change of ownership at K9 Adventures, but we’re looking forward to the cameras.  Our tour of Precious Pets got canceled last Tuesday because of the rain. We’ve rescheduled for next Tuesday. We may switch daycares, stay at K9, or use both, depending on what we find.

Miles walked: 14.1

Miles biked: 0

Wednesday

 

It finally stopped raining after lunch. There was a small patch of blue sky on our afternoon walk, but by the time we got home, the sky was all gray again. The temperature did get to 61 degrees.

We tried to walk this morning on the causeway. We checked the radar and got the all clear, but when we got there it was raining pretty hard. We saw three people toughing it out.

We drove to the state park and turned around to go home.

I’m using the down time to organize my tax documents. Our ancient printer died last year, and when we got our new Mac, we decided not to buy a printer. That has forced me to go digital with tax documents. H&R Block is already set up for paperless documents. I simply download the document (from email or website, depending) and then upload it to Block’s website. Our tax preparer can access our documents and work on our return any time. When she’s finished, we will review it and sign instead of having to sit and wait while she does it. We should have gone digital a long time ago, but it’s hard to change a custom that you’re used to and that works.

Toby climbed on the sofa this morning and instead of sleeping in my lap, he put his head on my shoulder to nap. I had a devil of a time taking this selfie without waking him up.

Miles walked: 8.2

Miles biked: 0

Tuesday (5th winter day)

 

Rain. Rain. Rain. And 49 degrees. It’s like being in North Carolina! Relentless rain.

The radar image shows our situation.

Nothing to do but stay inside and snuggle. The cashier at Publix says old folks in Florida never go out in the rain. That’s the time to go shopping if you want to avoid crowds. I think we get spoiled by the beautiful weather.

Fortunately, this was a daycare day, so Toby got lots of exercise without us having to walk in the rain. 

When we picked him up his escort said that he was very “humpy” today. We asked him what he meant. He said Toby was humping all the dogs. We’ve never seen that behavior with Toby. We told the escort we were surprised because he’s so passive. He laughed. He said he was real sneaky about it. He humps quickly until someone sees him and then runs off before anyone can intervene. He said he was humping everybody. Teenagers!

Even though he’s been fixed, there’s still some testosterone.

 I had a dental check up and cleaning. Perfect for a rainy day. No dental issues. I didn’t get to ride my bike because of the rain, which bummed me out.

John fixed ginger chicken in the crockpot and added broccoli and rice for our evening meal so that we didn’t have to leave the house in the rain.

We’re watching “Versailles “ on Netflix. We’ll switch to “Teachers” on Amazon Prime before bedtime as we did last night. “Teachers” is light and amusing.

Miles walked: 1.2 (record low)

Miles biked: 0