Whew!

I’m sitting at the computer letting go of a big sigh of relief. Right now the rain is pouring down, flooding the back porch with gargantuan drops of rain. The windows are smeared in waterfalls just like the kind I’ve experienced when the car goes through the car wash. There’s rhythmic music on the roof and an accompanying melodic song playing in the drain pipes just outside the office window.

And here I sit, dry and warm and perfectly content that I did not have to wear my raincoat. Whew!

The students Gretchen and I work with — the human ones we teach early in the morning (and yes, I consider myself a teacher since they probably learn as much from me as they do from Gretchen) — are studying all the Words of the Day they’ve been studying for the past term. One of the words is “respite” and today felt like the perfect respite from all the rain of late. Of course, it’s raining now, but we’re pretty much done with our walks, which all occurred before the clouds moved in and starting dumping. Whew!

Our dog walking day started with Monty. He’s still here — sleeping on the big bed in the living room — and we’re waiting for a break in the clouds to go out one last time before he goes home. But earlier, we went for a nice walk up on the ridge where we uncomfortably sat on the grated park overlooking the city. And yes, that’s blue sky in the background, far off to the west, but blue sky nonetheless.

We were fed lunch after that, which makes Monty very happy, and then left to digest while Gretchen picked up a spunky Rosie. They too, walked up on the ridge and while I’ll tolerate sitting on the grate (though uncomfortably as you can tell from the previous photo) Rosie refuses to get within three feet of the grate so Gretchen is left to attempt a cityscape photo without much success.

In fact, the only success she really has is getting Rosie to look up when she’s begging for a treat. Rosie is very good at that. But later, on their walk along the ridge, Gretchen did get a photo of the lakeside where off in the distance, under that big bright light, are the sun-reflected clouds covering Mt. Rainier.

So, to the east and to the west, the weather looked hopeful. Of course most of our icky weather comes from the Southwest and all day long, Gretchen watched the gray clouds gather and push toward the city. After she dropped off Rosie, she picked up an equally spunky Gemma and the two of them headed next door to pick up Oshi and Perrito. The clouds were ominous now (another Word of the Day), but Gretchen figured she had about an hour before she’d have to pull out her raincoat.

The three dogs walked with Gretchen over to Judkins Park where Gretchen tried to capture the last of the blue sky while Gemma hung close to Perrito and Oshi gave his sad eyes saying, “Eh, Gretchen…you might want to look behind you. There’s rain a-coming!”

They got their walk in, though and still, no rain. Whew! After Oshi and Perrito went home, Gemma and Gretchen picked Monty and me up so we could stretch our legs before it got too wet outside. Over to the tennis courts we headed where Monty and I played fetch, and Gemma played Pester the Big Dogs — a game she’s really good at!

Her favorite thing to do is get between me and my ball, but I’ve learned to be really, really patient. Eventually, she moves from my path and I’m able to snatch it up again. Whew!

Monty’s favorite thing is, of course, to play on the bench. Gretchen says she finds the back end of Monty’s bench games as much fun as his front end. I just like it best when he plays with me!

We walked Gemma home and just as we headed out on our own walk, the rain started to pitter-patter on the already wet sidewalk. Nothing’s had much of a chance to dry out these days and now the puddles will just keep getting bigger, the mud yuckier, and ground soggier. For now, though, Monty and I are happy to be exercised and dry. I think I’ll go join him for a nap, though I know we’ll most likely go out one more time. I just hope it’s not raining!

Whew!

Until Tomorrow,

Rubin