Early Morning Blues

The alarm sounded at 5:45 this morning.

Let me say that again…

5:45 A.M.

Last week I didn’t have to go teach with Gretchen. The kids had time off from school.

I got spoiled. I slept in until 7 every morning, curled up in my deluxe bed like a doe in tall grass. This morning, as you can well imagine, came as quite a shock. 5:45 is early. 5:45 is still dark. 5:45 isn’t for wimps.

I am not a wimp.

Well, not today. Today I got up, did my morning stretches, visited the outside to do my business, and then got right to work. I spent the morning with the students who were happy to see me after their nice mid-winter break. I’ll admit, I was happy to see them too, but I had a bit of sleep in my eyes.

They did too!

I got to go home after that and eat a nice warm breakfast and catch a short nap while Gretchen took Rosie and Tyson out into the warm sunshine. As you can see, the siblings turned toward the sun every chance they got and took in the spectacular view of blue skies and cloudless horizons.

Gretchen said that both Rosie and Tyson, while happy to see her, were a bit slow to start out as well. Maybe they had to get up early themselves. Of course, she said they picked up the pace once they realized how beautiful the day was turning out to be. Nothing like a little sunshine to get your bed bones moving!

After Rosie and Tyson headed home, Gretchen picked up Gemma who stretched and yawn right off the bat. But it doesn’t take Gemma long to warm up. She was, however, disappointed that there was no one waiting for her on the porch. Gretchen assured her, though, that she’d not only get to walk with Oshi and Perrito, she’d get to play with me!

As you can see, they sat quietly on the bench not just because they were waiting patiently for a treat, but also because the sun was really heating up the day.

Everyone soaked it up…

By the time Gemma got to our house, the sun was warm on the porch, but the shadows of the yard made for some interesting photography.

When Gemma made it to our house, I’d eaten my breakfast, taken a nap, and was ready for a little play time before we headed out on a walk.

Tug is a perfect game to wake up a sleepy dog…oh, and having Gemma to play with always keeps me on my toes!

She’s such a funny girl. I’ll admit I was slow to warm up this morning, but that doesn’t stop Gemma. She just kept slamming her body into mine, threatening to steal my tennis ball, and barking at me to “play, play, play” with her until finally, I had to submit and play.

Sometimes, though, we get a little carried away. Luckily, Gretchen always has treats in her pockets and over the past few weeks has been working on Gemma’s recall command. Gemma’s getting pretty good at racing right to Gretchen’s side when she hears the word “Come.” It’s pretty impressive. Gretchen says she’s almost better than I am at it, but I beg to differ!

We went for a walk after our romp and then I took Gemma back to her house where she curled up on her bed for an afternoon nap.

My day was just warming up, though. Saber was next and in order to play with Saber, I have to be wide awake. Why? Because he ALWAYS steals my ball! And he ALWAYS taunts me with it!

Yes, in this last shot he won’t let anyone get near him for fear they’ll take away the ball he stole from me! In fact, he even tried to out run his shadow!

We didn’t play too long at the tennis courts because it was such a beautiful day and Gretchen really wanted to go for a walk, so she leashed us up and we headed toward the gardens on the hill and down through the pea patch by the lake!

Yes, it was a good thing the sun was out in full force today because I’m not sure I could have pulled myself out of bed so early in the morning if I’d known there would be rain.

Rain is apparently on the docket for tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we can get all of our walking done and I can curl back up in my bed before the clouds open up, but I’m still trying to figure out what I can do about that dang alarm clock going off at 5:45 in the morning!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin