Walking the dogs

No, not a yo yo trick, but a real life exercise. Almost every morning I take the dogs for a 30 to 40 minute walk. We've been doing this for about four months now and it has become part of the daily routine. Sometimes I don't want to get up and walk them, but as day breaks they start a pattern of yipping like they are telling me to com'on, get up, lets get the day on the road.

Their behavior has become very interesting to observe as we begin our walk. When I open the kennel door we have to have a celebration of jumping and twisting around my legs as they are happy to begin the day and happy to see me. Then they have to tussle a little, finally they stop and pee. As we begin the walk they walk down the driveway and go potty off to the side, away from the house, away from most everything except they are along the drive. If they have the chance they seem to go off away, our out in the woods to potty. Good for them.

The next turn is by the neighbor's yard where the neighbors have three dogs in a very large enclosure. So up to the fence, touch noses, and greet each other by running back and forth, sitting and looking, and I suppose making sure everyone is accounted for.

The first round is spent mostly snooping, smelling what has come by in the night, lunging into grassy hummocks to investigate a scent or sound. They will run under the trees back into the field where deer typically have bed down at night. So the first lap is checking out the territory.

After that they become somewhat bored on subsequent laps and start wrestling, biting, chasing and otherwise aggravating one another. So the next few laps are spent with dogs blocking your path, rolling into your feet, and otherwise making a smooth easy walk into a hop, skip and jump walk. But we all get our exercise, the dogs are pretty well worked out and the morning begins quietly.

One thing I've noticed is at this time of year our humidity is very high and the dew is heavy on the grass. Needless to say my feet are soaked by the time I get home and the dogs are wet from top to bottom. The dew is so heavy on most days that they lap water from the grass in the lawn areas. Then up on the porch they start to clean, lick and dry themselves. At the same time they pull off any seed capsules they've picked up and are clinging to their coat. They lick my legs, I guess they must get some salty taste from the perspiration. So we all get a bit of a cleaning.

Time for breakfast and then they lay down for a snooze. There begins most days at the Floria home.

A Mother's Love

My wife is not a demonstrative person. You are never sure of how she feels about something until it boils over, then she may say more than she intended to say. Regardless, she is a very loving person and extremely loyal. These are characteristics that not everyone possess. In the late 90's our son Geoff joined the Navy, and after basic left for an assignment in Japan. He was to spend his entire tour in Japan and saw some sea duty on the Carrier Independence and Kitty Hawk. This story isn't about Geoff however, it is about his mother's love.

One day not long after Geoff was stationed in Japan Terry and I were frequenting some flea markets in town. This is one of our hobbies, a little shopping where there may be old stuff that causes us to reminisce about time gone by. As we were walking down an aisle she spotted a small globe of the world. It was a bank. One of those banks from the 50's or 60's with a little slot in the top and a lithograph of the world on the body. It was made of stamped metal. You could pick out countries and some large cities were even named. The globe was perhaps 6" in diameter. I think it was $.50 or some such price. Terry bought it. It still sits on a log shelf under the eaves of our home in our bedroom. In fact, I now look at it every morning when I wake up and it reminds me of this story.

You see, the reason Terry bought the globe was she could look at it, examine it and see where Japan was in relation to the United States. When Geoff's fleet was send to the middle east about the time of the first gulf war Terry could see where Dubai was, or Saudi Arabia. It kept her in touch with where her son was in the world while he was away from home. Terry believes in prayer, and I'm sure when she looked at that globe and found where Geoff was in this old world of ours she also murmured a prayer of safe return. A mother's love has many methods of expression.