Resolutions and Animals on a Cold Night Walk

It was just me,

And Sophie,     (The dog)

And Moe.        (The cat)

This is a Monday evening. December 23rd. It snowed about 3 inches two days ago. It's cold! Very cold. The Weatherbug app on my iPhone said it was 15 degrees (-10 C) outside. 

Didn't stop me,

Or Sophie,

Or Moe!

Moe

Yes, our silly Tomcat loves to go walking with us, believe it or not.

It used to piss me off if Moe went with us on our nightly walk. You see, it's like this:

Walking with Sophie is fun. Like all dogs, she loves to be with us. She'll do our pace, ie that pace determined by the human. Do it gladly, unquestionably. Frequently glancing up at you to see if she is making you happy. She rarely disappoints. That's just her nature.

Moe is totally different. He has his own pace to life. And like most cats, sometimes he doesn't care about your pace, your desires or your happiness, well, you get the idea. 

You sort of have to be a bit patient with Moe when you take him for a walk. He has his own agenda. He'll lag behind a bit, then catch up and "buzz" by you, showing off. He is, sometimes a bit aloof, but he's not ungrateful, he shows his affection frequently, but it's on his own terms.

Sophie likes to stop and smell interesting things. I don't always understand the why or the what of the smells she finds, but I let her indulge.  Moe, interestingly, stops to investigate things also. Maybe not smells, not sure what the heck it is, and he takes a bit longer sometimes. After all, he is a cat. And, well....

It used to infuriate me when Moe would lag behind and make everybody wait on him. It's like, "I'm supposed to be in charge here, you need to follow my direction, do what I want you to do. Quit screwing around and let's make some tracks".

But then, somewhere along the line, I decided that maybe, just maybe, Moe might have a better idea.

Maybe it's a Carpe Diem type of thing. Maybe it is Moe's way of seizing the moment. Stopping to smell the roses? Could that be?

Who knows.

But I was thinking as we walked, that there were 3 very distinct personalities on the trek, this cold and cloudy night. Me, the human, had the leash and a flashlight, supposedly in charge, Sophie with her eager smiling face constantly observing, smelling, sensing, exceedingly happy just to be outside doing something with the rest of us, and then Moe, also very alert and observant, but with a very different goal. Not that I had any kind of clue what Moe's goal was. But then, who am I to judge. I despise people that judge others, for whatever reason. I don't even feel like I should judge animals like Sophie or Moe. I don't know what it's really like to be a cat or a dog or a buffalo or ....

But I don't always end each post of this blog with the phrase "Carpe Diem" for no reason whatsoever. You see, I really feel like each day is a gift of some sort. If you live to be 70 years old then there should be 25,550 daily opportunities for Carpe Diem. I think we ought to seize as many as we can. I bet we've all missed a few.

And to me, Carpe Diem can take various forms. Tonight as we walked, and Moe made us wait up for him for a few minutes, Sophie and I "seized" the opportunity to look around, see the sights, really take the opportunity to observe. We looked at the tire tracks in the snow, saw many Christmas light decorations, smelled aromas from neighborhood fireplaces, heard the sounds of the wind in the trees, etc.

We stopped. We waited. Instead of exerting effort at enforcing our will upon others, we paused and let, in effect, others dictate upcoming events. I'm not necessarily some sort of control freak, but I'm very used to organizing my own life. I'm not always, personally, comfortable with just "going along for the ride".

But I'm convinced that there is something to just letting life happen. You get to experience lots of very interesting sights, sounds, smells, emotions, etc, that you just might otherwise miss if you are constantly busy organizing your own destiny.

So, my resolution for the new year is to let it happen. More and more.

An extra special Happy New Year and Carpe Diem, my good friends.

Yielding to Patriotic Ducks

Sometimes its the little things you see when you are out riding that you remember.

Just this morning I saw a woman walking about 4 small somewhat unruly dogs on leashes encounter a guy on a skateboard. You can imagine what was to happen. The small dogs were ineffective, but attempted to attack the guy on the skateboard while the woman cursed and tried to maintain control of the little varmints. At the time I was thinking SIPDE and decided to give the whole scene a wide berth, which I did. In my rear view mirror I saw the skateboardist escape and move along down the street. I laughed out loud for nobody to hear but myself. Quite a scene!

Yesterday I had to run an errand and, darn it, I had to take the scooter and, darn it, I had to ride along the river here to get where I was going. My route out was along the west side of the "Big" river, my route back was in between the "Big" and "Little" Arkansas rivers which happen to meet each other very near downtown Wichita.  (Remember, the river here is pronounced like the state of Kansas, not Arkansaw.)

As I rode out I spied a cushion from a couch sitting in the grass by the side of the road. Not remarkable, in and of itself, but I spent the next few minutes as I rode wondering why the hell it was there and what were the circumstances to its arrival which I will never know or be able to figure out. Just Guess. A never ending conundrum? Ahhhh, it probably blew off the back of a pickup truck while someone was trying to move. Won't they be pissed when they get to the new location and wonder where the cushion is. Will they go back and look for it? Will it still be there if I go back by there today? Am I the only person who is troubled by these thoughts? Do I need counseling?

I dropped my papers off at the client's office and headed back downtown, but on the way I go by the parking lot that is essentially the spot where drivers license testers give the driving tests to motorcycle riders and commercial truck drivers. I remember this spot from 4 years ago when I was tested to get my motorcycle license. The place wasn't busy at all so I go in and test my skill at one of the tests I remember. It was the one where you had to keep your cycle between two lines for a certain distance, but at a very slow rate of speed, sort of a balance test. I did it again for fun. I think I passed. Later that night I looked at my drivers license and realized it will expire at the end of November. I better get practicing!

Then, closer to downtown I go through Riverside Park (aptly named) and had one of those moments when you wished you had a camera ready at all times. I stopped, but had to take a glove off and dig the i-Phone from my pocket before I could get a shot.

Now, mind you, I have been stopped here before, in the park, by ducks crossing the road. And I really don't mind even though I could sense that other travelers (particularly in cages) were a bit "put out" by the proceedings. I didn't mind and really enjoyed the parade. They crossed the road mostly in single file which made the delay even a little longer to the chagrin of some drivers. The first group was about 12 or so. Then a little break and then another group of 15 or so. Then, still another break with about 10 ducks following a leader who lead them all to a grassy area not far from the river.

And it was sort of like a parade. I could almost imagine each duck carrying a little American flag (July 4th is tomorrow, don't you know) as they paraded across the roadway to their destination.

I do need counseling, don't I?

Seen While Walking To The Bus Stop and Other Trivial 'Stuff'

I am still doing a lot of walking these days, but now with Autumn temperatures descending upon us, the color of the trees has been nice to look at. This tree is on the way to the bus stop fom my home. I just liked the colors.

And these two little scotties are a regular sight for me on the way to the bus stop. A nice man walks them 4 times a day, so he says. I see them about once a week or so. They are extremely friendly and give me a good sniff every time I see them.

We had some freezing temeratures lately so we picked the last of the peppers and pulled up the plants. We'll probably cook them in the smoker and freeze them so we can use them throughout the winter. We did that last year, too. This year's plants really suffered through the heat we had, and when the temperatures dropped a bit, they really started to produce. It was a very short growing season. Maybe better next year.

Our illustrous governor wants to emiminate the state income tax around here. Sounds good, but I don't think there is much of a plan to replace the revenue with anything that makes much sense. It will probably be a higher sales tax or maybe they will pass the obligations to more local taxing districts such as counties and cities.

At any rate, our governor has said that our tax structure should be a lot more like Texas, in fact some say he wants us to be a lot more like Texas in every respect. Well, I am not so sure that is a good idea. In Texas,  large corporations are treated with lots of preferences, maybe with more rights than even people have.

Then again, there are some certainites in life, like Google.

Google is now a verb, dontcha know.

Have you Googled yourself lately?

Motorcycles Not Allowed

IronDad made a request for any kind of 2 wheeled content from this blog even if not motorcycle or scooter related. So here you go Dude!

Saturday Morning Shadow on the mountain bike

Been riding a bit lately, just not on the scooter. During the week I had a yearning to explore an old railroad line that had been converted to a bicycle and jogging trail. The rails are gone and replaced with some gravel. Not exactly fantastic for running or road bicycles, but pretty fun on a mountain bike.

The converted rail trail looking west. This was actually a very small bridge over a creek.



The rail line had not been in use for maybe 15 or 20 years. About 5-7 years ago, they improved it for trail use. The trail only goes for a few miles, but is nice and relatively pretty. There are lots of abandoned rail lines in Kansas. A national organization called the Rails to Trails Conservancy has been active in converting old rail lines to recreational pathways across the country. They have met a lot of resistance in Kansas for some reason. There is now a trail that goes from east to west across the entire state of Missouri. No such luck here in Kansas.

Looking east on the trail. Not much traffic today.

I encountered a couple with a small dog not far from here. I had to laugh as the couple was sort of jogging and walking along and the little guy looked like he was having a great time although he was struggling a bit to keep up with the humans. But you know how dogs are, they'll do anything to make their masters happy.

"Bruiser" at the waterfall

I proceeded eventually through a couple of residential neighborhoods, just sort of leisurely riding along. I got passed by a guy on an expensive road bike that looked like he was in a hurry. My initial thought was thet he was trying to be a jerk and just showing off. Then I decided I really didn't give a hoot. I was having too good of a time.

A very shady sidewalk.

My feeble attempt to make this bike ride look sort of look like "Scooter in the Sticks"

Many years ago when our kids were young, we had a trailer for our bicycles and our kids used to ride in the trailer and go along with us for bicycle rides. This neighborhood was a fun place to ride because of the scenery and lack of traffic. At one time we had a tandem bike and with the trailer hooked up to it, it was like riding a semi down the road.

Sidewalk Twisty"s?

It was a beautiful morning and a great ride. Only about a 10 mile ride, but that's really good for me for right now. Small moves, you know.

Golda, The Amazing Dog

The local animal shelter may only keep animals for 3 days and after that they can be subjected to euthanasia. This particular dog was given a couple of days reprieve from that fate because the people at the shelter liked her so much. Jayna had looked at her one day and took me there the next day to see if I would like her as well. We got to walk her around the yard for a bit and, yes, I was immediately sold on her. We named her Golda. We were never real sure exactly what breed she was. The people at the shelter thought she was at least part Australian Shepherd, but not sure what else. Others thought that there was some Brittany Spaniel in her. It didn't really matter. She turned out to be a great dog. She was about a year old when we got her and she lived to attain the ripe old age of 15 years.

Here's Golda (on the right) with her other two cohorts in crime getting ready for a ride in the famous Canadian Subaru. Madeline, in the background, is a 14 year old german shepherd/husky mix. We found her (or should I say she found us) one very cold winter night many years ago. Sophie, the chow, with a slightly confused look on her face, is on the left. She seems to always look a bit confused and we found her (she found us) on Christmas night almost 2 years ago

The night we got her, we got on the internet and tried to find out more information about Australian Shepherds because neither of us knew much about the breed. We read some interesting "stuff" but one story we read captured our fancy. It seems that one couple that owned an "Aussie" had an outdoor party at their home with food and drinks in their back yard. At one point in time during the evening they noticed that all the people at the party were sort of centrally located in the middle of the yard with the dog walking in a circle around them. The damn dog had gently, but firmly and effectively herded everybody into a circle so that he could keep an eye on everyone.

Golda always seemed to have a grin on her face, especially at snack time after a walk.

I still laugh about reading that story even though Golda didn't always display traits like that. But she was such a friendly and social dog. She always wanted to be near you, at your side. She always wanted to help with whatever you were doing especially if barbecue was being cooked. She would always protect our kids who were aged 11 and 16 when we got her. She would always greet you with a smile and a friendly wag of her tail.

Here she is supervising the barbecue. The coffee can catches drippings from the cooking process and she is always and forever interested in that.

And she loved to run!

And what a runner she was! She never seemed to tire and if she did, she'd never let you know it. Our son at the time was running a lot of cross country and track. Golda loved to run with him. It was not unusual for her to run 2 or 3 miles with him. She even ran with the team a few times and everybody thought that was "pretty cool". It was the members of the cross country team that invented the phrase that became the title of this post. They actually turned it into a little song. She also loved to go for a walk with us in the evenings. We did this almost every night. After dinner, when we maybe had settled down to relax and watch a little television, she would nuzzle up against one of our legs, or look up at us with those smiling eyes of hers, as if to say, "Come on, let's go for a walk". We were hard pressed to resist.

Oh, such a sleepy dog!

It was not unusual for a neighbor to see Jayna or I walking with her and say something like "Who is taking who for a walk?". She always wanted to be in front, leading the way. There were always things she wanted to check out like that little rabbit hole down by the creek or that funny smell next to the fire hydrant. She occasionally caught rabbits and possums and was always proud when she protected us from something that she might have considered a threat to us.

At the same time she always had a sense about her to know what our mood and feelings were. There was one time that I had been suffering from some serious back pain. I wanted to take her for a short walk, thinking that the exercise would be therapeutic. I was a little concerned that she might pull too hard and I would end up hurting myself. But somehow, she sensed my feelings and knew I was hurt. She was incredibly patient with me as I hobbled along at a pace much slower than what she was used to.

As her life progressed she developed many little symptoms of what happens to everybody as they get older. Arthritis and other little problems started to take a toll on her physical capabilities. She became unable to really run like she used to, and we knew that frustrated her. But even with these difficulties, when the evening walk might be ready to start, she would try to be the first dog out the door and ready to go. Eventually even the walks became more and more difficult for her and sometimes were only a short jaunt to the end of the block and back. But it was always special for her, no matter the distance.

Jayna and I like to imagine that she is now running in some kind of afterlife with a lot of her old friends and some cross country runners.

.

We know that is really what she loved to do. .

Golda, We love You! We miss you! .

Go have a good run!

.

We get to meet Cheyenne

In their epic quest across the country by Ford, Michael, Layne and Cheyenne graced our presence last night.

What a Great Dog!

We were honored that their cross country route was through Kansas on a 100 degree day.

A meeting with the infamous Conchscooter of Key West Diary fame is not near complete without a picture of footwear.

More to come...........

Common Sense in Kansas

From a dictionary: Sage One venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom. adj. sag·er, sag·est 1. Having or exhibiting wisdom and calm judgment. 2. Proceeding from or marked by wisdom and calm judgment: sag From a thesaurus: Sage - a mentor in spiritual and philosophical topics who is renowned for profound wisdom Hakham - a Hebrew title of respect for a wise and highly educated man mahatma - (Hinduism) term of respect for a brahmin sage mentor, wise man - a wise and trusted guide and advisor From Conchscooter: dear cpa : Spring in Kansas must mean there will soon be lots of people out protesting aginst common sense. Photos please. One day, quite innocently, I had left a comment on Conchscooter's fine blog, The Key West Diary. In my comment I had merely stated that it was just beginning to feel like spring here on the plains after a cold winter. What you just read above was part of his response. Little did I know how omniscient Conch was. That same day I received this notice. By E-Mail.

Yup! Spring is almost here!

. And Sarah is coming to town!

. Will she have notes on her hand?

Will she bring her rifle with her?

Will she sell out our new arena?

. Will parking be a problem?

. Will she be treated like a Rockstar?

Will she try to answer questions that she is not prepared for?

. Will she say "You Betcha"?

. Will she call for Jihad against all she finds offensive in the world? .

Will she come out swinging?

And finally;

. And the most important question;

. Will the "all knowing" Conchscooter, the Sage of The Key West Diary, suddenly emerge as the Messiah that the civilized world has been waiting for?

. How did Conch know that there would be a total abandonment of common sense in Kansas this spring? Makes me wonder!

. So many questions.

. I may miss the Sarah Palin event.

. I am going to go for a ride on Max!

. Your thoughts?

Introducing a New Friend

Sometimes he appears out of nowhere.

In places you least expect him to be.

Similar to the title of this blog, his motives may be premeditated, but the good news is that there appears to be no malice.

Cute? You decide. Friendly? I guess so, but he doesn't talk much.

He seems sort of enamored with Max. Like he wants to go for a ride. As soon as the weather improves a bit, I promised him we would do just that.

Can you imagine, just like a dog with his head out the window of a car, having him feel the breeze cascade through his vents as we ride together.

He even made it to the office one day. He watched me work as he surveyed the scene from the top of my calculator.

He seems to follow me around a lot. I think he wants to be my friend. I have decided that this is a good thing.

He has earned a place of honor on my key ring along with the keys to Max. This will guarantee that whenever Max and I are on the road, he will get to come along and enjoy the ride with us.

I have named him "Mini Max".

My psychiatrist worries about me!

Decisions Regarding Snow

We don't get a White Christmas very often. When we do, it can be very special. This year we did get some snow on Christmas eve. Just a couple of inches, but it was accompanied by very strong winds and very cold temperatures. There were some drifts of 8 inches or more and places where the snow didn't even cover the ground or streets because it just blew somewhere else. It did however make for a nice scene on Christmas day. As I left for work on Monday I was faced with our street looking like this. Not a good day to ride, no matter how badly I wanted to.

The main streets were relatively clear, but even after a couple of days there were patches of ice and snow on the main streets.

Max was again forced to spend another day (or two) in the garage. He is not happy about it.

So even though the weather conditions do not make it good for riding, there are other alternatives.

.

Mom in her fuzzy Crocs, I in my slippers, curled up in a blanket, fireplace going and watching a movie on the television.

.

Things could be worse.

On Christmas day, this varmint appeared. More to come on this development.

Crocs in Kansas?