And So It Begins

All those photographs we’ve been taking of the beautiful colors on all the trees in our neighborhood are making their way down, down, down. I call them “The Fallen” since the slow, but steady downward spiral begins. It’s sad, in one way, but in another, it’s a reflection of nature’s constancy. Nope, there’s no stopping that mother of all mothers.

Not only are the leaves starting to fall, but the temperatures as well. This weekend, the highs were in the mid-60s and then just like that, the mornings are in the upper 30’s and the thermostat rarely peaks above 55 degrees. And the wind, don’t get me started on the wind. It picked up a lot today — blowing in some kind of front, they say — and so the leaves have moved from the tops of trees, to a blanket of color underneath the soon to be barren trees.

But I don’t mind. Okay, I mind a little because now the back door doesn’t stay open and I can’t go in and out at my leisure. Now I have to ask. Not fun having to ask. People are busy around here and sometimes they don’t think I really need to go out. They might be right, but it’s still kind of bummer not to have that freedom.

And now the threat of that red raincoat looms large. No rain today, but the threat is there. Trust me.

We started our day at school. No kids, though, just me and Gretchen doing work. Well, she works and I watch. Intently. Then she dropped me off at home while she took out Rosie and Tyson.

They headed up over the hill to check out the views and report on how the other side is doing on foliage depletion. It’s amazing, but on our side of the hill, the temperature is always a bit colder, the leaves turn quicker, and the views, well the views are nearly as magnificent. Okay, we get the beautiful trees, but not the wide expanse of the lake or the mountain to the south. Yes, Mt. Rainier was out today and she looked mighty cold.

Rosie and Tyson weren’t. They’d hiked up over the hill and back down and checked out the scenery (I-90) from the viewpoint. Tyson was the first to look. Rosie was a bit nervous about the drop. Tyson convinced her it was okay to look.

Then Gretchen decided to head back home through the tunnel. Oops. Rosie wasn’t into that so much. She got about a quarter of the way into the tunnel and then stopped dead in her tracks. Even treats didn’t work. The only thing that worked was tying Rosie’s leash to Tyson’s. When Tyson moved (confidently) Rosie did too. It usually takes about four minutes to get through the tunnel. It took the three of them about ten minutes. But they did it and that’s a great accomplishment for Ms. Rosie. Way to go, girl!

Next up, Gretchen got me and then we picked up Perrito and Oshi. Perrito is still wearing his lamp shade because of his hernia. Yes, dogs can get hernias. Go figure. Anyway, we went for a frisky walk and then stopped by the pretty leaves spread all around. And guess what happened? I told you they were falling!

Oshi didn’t seem to care, but he wouldn’t look at the camera no matter how much Gretchen called to him. So, maybe he was too embarrassed to look. Hard to tell.

I got to get warm and rest up while Gretchen took Bella out for a romp and a walk. She had intended to do the walk first, but once they past the little field, Bella begged to play fetch. This is her begging face!

Luckily, Gretchen had the long line in her pack so they played lots of fetch before they headed out on their walk. Oh, and the practiced their commands like sit and down and drop.

Bella’s really good at the sit command when Gretchen is holding the ball. Sometimes she’s not the greatest at the sit command, though. She gets easily distracted. So Gretchen ends up waiting.

That’s what happened with this shot. Gretchen put the ball behind her back and asked for Bella to sit. No go. So Gretchen waited. Bella looked around for a bit, sniffed the ground, and did everything she could think of not to sit.

But then she did and gave this most perturbed look as if to say, “Okay, I’m sitting. Where’s the ball?”

She’s lucky Gretchen has a sense of humor!

After Bella went home, Gretchen picked me up again and we went over to Saber’s house. He’s a sleepy little guy when he first comes out of the kennel, but it doesn’t take him long (and a trip to the tennis courts) for him to get silly fast!

Even though we both have a ball to play with, Saber always wants mine. Gretchen says he reminds her of me at that age, but I have no memory of stealing anyone else’s treasured toys. No memory whatsoever.

Saber likes to get me to be interested in his toy by pushing it at me every chance he gets. Good thing I have some fancy dance moves!

While I can stand the colder weather and the falling leaves, the wind, and the coming rain, what I don’t like about this time of year is that it’s getting darker and darker, earlier and earlier. This means that our evening walks with Wilson are going to be harder and harder to document, but luckily Gretchen’s fancy camera comes with a flash. Of course, the only thing the flash could focus on were our glowing balls and so we got some pretty eerie and funny shots! Gretchen kept calling me Rudolph for some reason and Wilson looks like he has a very long, green tongue!

Well, Halloween is on its way!

It’s unavoidable, I guess, this changing of the seasons. All we can do is sigh, watch the leaves fall and say to ourselves yet again, “And so it begins.”

Until tomorrow,

Rubin