Sunday, August 22, 2010

Doc and life

My life has changed a heckuva lot more than I thought it would with the new dog, Doc. He's a handful. Waking up in the wee hours of the morning, the canine can't seem to sleep longer than 5.5 hours. UGH. This only confirms my choice to not have kids.

But he's such a COOL dog. I've been hiking with him every weekend and play incessantly during the week. He's adjusted to our abode quite well and even seems to love me and Mr. Wonderful. He still has bouts of anxiety but is getting less anxious and more confident every day.

Yesterday, Cheryl went on a hike with me to Griffey where we saw a couple with 2 dogs on a leash. I wondered what Doc would do. For the most part, he was pretty good. At one point, the strangers allowed their big golden lab to sniff Doc. They practically touched noses, and Doc snapped. The owner apologized, but I don't know who did what first. Thankfully, that's all that happened as Doc was not on a leash at the point. The couple was friendly; I thought it was super cool of them to allow this interaction with a strange dog whose reaction would be unknown.
(Thanks, Cheryl, for helping with socializing him!)

In other news, I've officially given up racing this year. Last weekend, I missed my first DINO race in 4 or 5 years. Actually, I didn't miss it at all--I skipped it. Having gone way off the training plan and getting burned out, I decided fun would be choice from here on out. I ride when I can and jog at other times. Sometimes---ok, a lot of times---I just take a night off and spend it catching up on Netflix with Mr. Wonderful. I'm no longer stressed about workouts.

I had a terrific season and achieved at least 2 major goals; Even though I'm leaving the DINO series early, I've particpated in just over 10 races in and outside of Indiana this year still making it a solid effort. Now I'm really excited about the Fall events coming up: Hilly Hundred, Brown County Breakdown, some 6-hour races???? We'll see.

Here are some pics from a couple of excursions over the past month:

Belted Kingfisher--I didn't take this pic, though. Saw one on yesterday's road ride.


Morgan Monroe, Rock Creek Trail