My dogs, Bernie and Chris, and I exercise in a partially developed housing area. In 2008, construction halted on this huge community project. We enjoy total freedom while we can. The planned village has paved streets, sidewalks, mailboxes, streetlights and street signs. All utilities are underground, including the fire hydrants Click. Click. Click taps the …
Month: July 2018
My Bathroom Obstacle
Bernie, my eighty-five-pound Goldendoodle, enjoys being comfortable. I mean he truly enjoys being comfortable, as if cast in stone. When he positions himself directly in the bathroom doorway, it causes a problem for me. I live in a Park Model, a less than four hundred square foot home. Every room is small, so miniature …
The Therapy Visit
It’s one o’clock Thursday, July 19, and time for our weekly appointment at a nursing facility. Because patients look forward to our visit, we won’t allow the hot weather to keep us away. With the temperature at 117 degrees, Bernie and Chris leap from the car and quickly scramble across the hot asphalt to …
Stormy Saturday Morning
I know when I water the garden at five this Saturday morning; it will be an interesting day. It is a bit before dawn, the wind from the south is very strong... enough to rip the palm front ends from trees and scatter them all over the street. I decide to take the dogs to …
What’s going on?
That's what I ask myself this morning. I start to walk with good intentions... and the dogs are already almost a football field ahead of me. The route is well known; we do it daily. It's a little over a mile. However, within less than a half-mile... I suddenly decide I'd had enough. Instead of …
Dogs will be dogs
Bernie and Chris love it when I take them to the desert for their exercise. Their 5-year routine makes my task easy. Within the first 5 minutes, they both poop. Chris always picks his spot as far from me as he can. In a vacant field, I watch for him to circle a 10-foot area, …
What’s in a name?
Taking advantage of Arizona’s cool Spring weather, before the harsh triple-digit summer temperatures, we drove to New River, Arizona. It was about nine Saturday morning, March 24th. When I travel, timing is critical. I avoided traveling during Arizona’s miserable hot summers of July and August. I’ve decided the total round-trip distance is limited to four …
Surprise, Arizona
Surprise, the fastest-growing city in Maricopa County, is located in the southern part of Arizona. It is adjacent to the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Surprise is about eighty miles from Mexico and 150 miles from California. Flora Statler, the founder of Surprise, Arizona once remarked, “I would be surprised if the town …