Body Work, Wind, and Mud-faces

There are many ways to exhaust yourself. I’ve pretty much tried them all. This week exhaustion swept in on me like the amazing rain storm that struck us Wednesday. If you live around these parts, you are well aware of the torrential rainstorms and gale-forced windstorms that pounded us. But if you don’t live around here, let me try to explain in both words and pictures.

Okay, I’m kind of at a loss for words. Monday and Tuesday were okay. I went out with Rosie and Tyson on Monday and for some reason, we all decided we wanted to be really close. It wasn’t cold or anything, but each of us felt compelled to snuggle up to the body next to us and in the end, we look kind of cute, don’t we?

Of course, Tyson wasn’t feeling so well because he had an “incident” over the weekend (no fault of his own) so he’s on bed rest and limited exercise for awhile.

Poor guy. Maybe that’s why Rosie and I decided to make a Tyson sandwich.

On Tuesday, the sky looked mighty threatening and while it rained some, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Rosie thought the little Chihuahua in the over-sized sweater looked interesting and therefore found it hard to look at the camera (as well as distracting me), but mostly we just looked at those clouds above us and hoped we wouldn’t get wet.

We didn’t…until Wednesday. Actually, Rosie didn’t get very wet, but Monty and I sure did on our morning walk together. Gretchen finally posed us under this little evergreen tree, but only snapped a few photos before she bundled back up and slogged us back home where we were dried off, fed a snack, and then spent the rest of the morning watching the amazing rainstorm sweep over our house. Frankly, I’m surprised it didn’t wash us away! Holy Moly!

Usually rainstorms last about 10 minutes at the most, but this one went on and on. We needed to walk Rosie and Gretchen kept saying to us, “Let’s just wait a few more minutes, okay guys?”

And we did. What do you know? It kind of cleared up. Not super clear, but not the buckets of rain that were coming down earlier. Still it was a quick photo shoot and a wet walk although looking at the photos it doesn’t look that wet.

Of course, by the time we got home the rain stopped and while Gretchen studied for her massage test, Monty and I lounged.

There are a lot of downsides to the rain, but I have to admit, there is something I really like about lots of rain — it turns the backyard into this soft, squishy mud that I find particularly wonderful to roll around in.

When I came in, I half expected Gretchen to scold me, but you know what she did? She laughed.  That got me worried. “Why are you laughing?” I asked.

“You must have known it was bath day, eh Rubin?”

BATH DAY? Oy vey! So into the tub I went and got myself all cleaned up only to find out that I was GOING SWIMMING!!! Gretchen arranged for me to have a swim date with her boss while Gretchen and Monty took Paige out for a walk. I love hanging with my friends, but I gotta say, it was really nice to get some body work done at Wellsprings K9!!! And the swimming? There’s nothing I like more than swimming at the pool (okay, maybe swimming in the lake or skiing in the mountains or going on a hike…but you get it…I LOVE to swim and if I had to endure a bath, I was happy to do so for a chance to hang with Auntie Sheila at the pool!)

Monty was equally thrilled to spend time with his girl, Paige. He is very smitten with Ms. Paige and even though she wasn’t feeling 100% (upset tummy) she walked by Monty almost the whole way. Monty was very happy about that!

And then came Thursday, which in terms of the weather really started Wednesday night. I listened to the rain fall all night long and my dreams were soggy conglomerations of the week’s memories (Tyson sandwich, Rosie’s tongue, Monty’s google eyes for Paige, Paige jumping on me, splashing in the pool). When I woke and heard that the rain had not stopped, I worried a bit.

“We’re walking Woobie today, right?” I asked Gretchen.

“Actually,” Gretchen responded, “Woobie is going to hang out with us for a few days.”

“Oh boy,” I said, but not with so much excitement as normal. Gretchen picked up on my hesitation.

“Aren’t you excited to hang with Woobie?” she asked.

“Well yes, but with this rain, she might swell and not make it through the front door!”

Gretchen laughed, but after our Thursday we all got the last laugh. We kept waiting for the big winds and the big rains and while we got a little spattered and blown around, the big rains and wind didn’t come until we were all done with the day. Whew! Still, I thought about rolling around in the backyard one more time, but decided against it because I knew I’d get thrown in the bath again and this time, not taken for a swim at the pool.

Woobie and I got to walk at Lincoln Park, which turned out to be kind of magical as the breeze that was present, blew away the clouds and made way for a rainbow over the. Things were looking up indeed!

We walked around the park and checked out the trees looking for squirrels (well, I did)…

…but we kept coming back to the rainbow!

Then, to my surprise, Gretchen set out to walk Rosie AND Tyson. Apparently Tyson’s normal Thursday was not so normal as he’s still a bit gimpy and therefore can’t go with the other dog walker to play at the dog park. What a treat for Gretchen, though the real treat is Rosie’s since she really, really loves hanging out with her bro!

But Friday dried out some and frankly, we were all happy to see lighter skies on the horizon. Monty, Woobie, and I took a walk to the gardens looking for signs of spring (they’re coming and we’ll cover that next week!).

Gretchen walked with Rosie and Tyson again and while Tyson is slightly sore, he’s healing up nicely and was happy to get out for a nice long walk.

The rain started up and we got a bit wary, but when Monty, Woobie and I found ourselves at the little field ready to play fetch, no rain could dissuade us!

Still, I worried about Gretchen who’d spent the week in the rain and was, Friday afternoon, headed off to the pool to stand in more water.

“Are you feeling soggy?” I asked her before she headed out to work.

“A bit, yes, I am, buddy, but at least the water at the pool is warm and there’s no wind,” she explained.

“Good point,” I agreed.

When she left, I looked longingly at the muddy backyard, sorry that the back door was locked. “Too bad,” I thought to myself. “It would be fun to roll around in that mud one more time!”

Have a great weekend!

Rubin