6/26 - 7/2

It was another train wreck, in more ways than one. I know you think I'm a whiner. But I am. The training went south, I injured myself again, and I feel like I am in Hades trying to keep Bear, our sweetie pie dog, in the back yard and away from Animal Control. Let's start with Bear.

I have a PhD and two masters degrees and this dog is smarter than I am. Really. He can take a pad lock and a bungie cord off a chain link fence gate, open the gate and walk out like King Bear. He is indefatigable in digging under the fence. I have hauled in 16 X 10 X 4 inch concrete pads, four by fours, bailing wire, and fence staples and worked long days dig proofing the fence. Or trying to. I even purchased one of those fenceless fences, you know, the electric kind. He defeated that in a matter of mere seconds.

And to make it all more difficult, he doesn't ramble or want to run away. When he gets out, he comes to the front porch and takes a nap. He wants to be there because he knows that is where we come and go and he wants to go with us. I drive up after work, open my truck door and hear the familiar, thump, thump, thump of Bear's tail on our wood porch. I'm home and he is happy. Besides being happy, he is incorrigible. No amount of scolding or walking him back to the back changes his behavior. 

On top of all that, I find it impossible to stay mad at the mutt. He has the most beautiful eyes and he sits in front of you and looks up at you with those big brown eyes that say, "Love me, love me," and you do, you can't help it. But no matter how much I love on him, I can't get him loved up. He is insatiable wanting petting constantly. Poor baby.

Monday, I was moving blocks trying to fix the fence. Then my right shoulder, the good one, popped. It hurt. It hurt bad. It hurt really bad. Then I tried to move a block, and I can't even tell you what happened then. Day over, shoulder damaged, Bear the victor.

I didn't swim Monday because I was full on the fence. Tuesday I could not swim. Wednesday I could not swim. Thursday, I walked 1.39 miles. Friday I walked 1.61 miles on the yard and 1.03 miles in the yard. Saturday I ambulated 1.68 miles. I rested on the Sabbath.

So it was a week of Bear, despair and disrepair of this ageing body. It will get better. I hope. I pray.