Flummox

When I go to school with Gretchen, we start each class out with a Word of the Day. Today’s word was flummox. I almost barked when I heard Gretchen say it because I thought she’d sneezed, but then, as we got underway with our dog walking day, I understood how flummox might be used.

Flummox is a verb and it means to bewilder, confuse, perplex.

After teaching this morning, we headed home so I could get my breakfast, but when I arrived I was flummoxed by the presence of Jessica. I was confused and asked, “Why are you here?” She jumped because she’d been vacuuming and hadn’t heard us come in. I guess she was a bit flummoxed herself.

Gretchen headed over to Rosie and Tyson’s house while I helped Jessica clean the house as well as eat my breakfast. Gretchen is still bewildered by Rosie who still won’t take a treat from her hand unless all the right factors are in place — Gretchen’s hand is flat, she’s kneeling next to Rosie, and the treat is in Gretchen’s right hand not left.

Flummoxed indeed.

But they enjoyed their walk up to the gardens where Tyson tried convince Rosie that the treats — no matter hands, kneeling or what have you — taste wonderful!

Gretchen swung back home after she dropped the siblings off and then we went next door to pick up the boys — Oshi and Perrito. There’s no “flummoxing” about these two. Not sure that’s the correct use of the word, but the point is, these boys are creatures of habit. We’d planned on heading to the tennis courts, but since they were in use, we headed over to the other park where we walked and sniffed and too care of all those personal needs (wink, wink!).

But soon, the three of us were perplexed. While we posed for a photo on the bench, about 3 dogs raced and romped in the open field behind us. “Why not us?” Perrito asked me.

“Not sure, Perrito. I’m flummoxed,” was my response.

“Impressive vocabulary,” Oshi commented.

“Thanks. I’m working on building my vocabulary!”

We continued our walk through the park and finally dropped the boys back at home where they raced around the house trying out the new word — flummoxed, flummoxing, unflommoxed, flommoxation.

Our final walk of the day was with Saber. I thought we’d walk right over there, but Gretchen got the car keys and we drove to Saber’s house. Now that was confusing since he lives really close, but then I asked, “Hey, are we driving because we might go somewhere else?” I asked Gretchen.

“Perhaps,” Gretchen smiled.

But when we got out of the car, we ran into Gemma walking with her Dad and all plans changed. First, to the tennis courts so Gemma and Saber could burn off some LOVE ENERGY (since they love each other) and I could play some fetch.

We were going to head to Luther Burbank park, but since Saber and Gemma wanted to play together, we headed over to the dog park where only a few calm dogs were playing. Well, it was calm for awhile. That’s when I flummoxed Gretchen with my wild behavior.

“Why must you dig in the mud puddle?” she asked, bewildered, and I had no response. It’s my nature, I guess. Wild bad boy of the park.

Of course, Saber held his own, too. That’s him right next to me and he had a great time running around after all the dogs while I got super dirty!

Saber and I both got hosed down at the park and then we headed back to the tennis courts for a bit more play time so we could dry off. Of course, I still got a bath when I got home! Darn it! That was very flummoxing. Why take me to the muddy park if you don’t want me to get dirty!

I bet Saber is sound asleep right now. I should be too, but I have responsibilities that I must attend to — mainly this blog.

I’m still not quite certain how to use the word “flummox” every day, but tomorrow they’ll be another Word of the Day so I can spend the day working with that new word, too.

Until tomorrow,

Rubin