another lovely dog from the desert trip.

noch ein schöner Hund bei der Reise in die Wüste

@thuy -
i am afraid my internal operating system needs an upgrade, although it may only get an update…
koala will be patched, just figuring out how… Now that dogie has ‘accepted’ him, i would hate to take him away. Besides, some of his other ‘friends’ are in much worse shape

@Daphne & thuy-
yes, a bit stressful overall. i didn’t really like his coming over, unannounced, so late and then staying for 2 hours, but i feel for him. I am hoping that talking it over will eventually make him realize he needs to fix some stuff, but i kind of doubt it at the same time. He’s a good guy, but he needs to lay off the alchohol a bit and start looking at how he wants things to be, what is realistic, and how to get there.

chewing!

ankauen!

last weekend a friend dropped by (at 10 p.m., as i was starting to get ready for bed) who is going through some ’stuff’ and exudes ’stuff’. This makes dogie nervous. Dogie does not like people with a lot of ’stuff’. At one point in the evening, Dogie came over and nosed our friend, “hey buddy, take your stuff and get out of here!” But he did not get the picture. So, koala got the brunt of dogie’s discomfort…

Am wochenende kam ein Bekannter vorbei (gegen 2200 Uhr, als ich anfinge mich bereit fürs schlafen machen wollte). Dieser Bekannte geht zur Zeit durch einige harte ‘Sachen’, und trägt seine ‘Sachen’ um sich, wenn Du verstehst was ich meine. ‘Sachen’ gefallen dogie nicht. Irgendwann kam er an den bekannten und hat ihn mit seiner Nase geschubst, “He, Du, pack Deine Sachen und hau ab!”, aber der Bekannte hat es nicht gerafft. Also musste Koala die Hauptlast Dogies Unbehagen tragen.

The good news is, of course, that dogie took to Koala about a month ago and Koala is hi ‘main’ friend at the moment.

Die gute Nachrichten sind, dass Dogie Koala seit einem Monat als Hauptfreund behaltet.

i am not an open person; i hold a lot inside. perhaps that is the reason that people take what i do say as if i mean it from the core of my being and that no one else should think otherwise - which is not the case. When i state that i do not shop at walmart, it does not mean that i will hate you for doing so. I have my reasons, and there you have it. Do what you will with that information.

But that is actually not what i want to talk about. Last night, while walking Dogie, i ran into a woman from texas and we ended up walking our dogs together. She is an open person. I know people’s dogs in our neighborhood, she knows the people. She laughs at how people do not know their neighbors in Dallas, where she is from, and i stand amazed at how well she knows the people in ours. “Do you know his story? How he lost his wife and then his dog a couple years ago? Then he got Roxy. He is so nice.” … And, “She is a construction worker, very unusual. Very nice” … And, “My neighbor calls me if my car hasn’t moved in a while, to see if i am ill or need anything”. I love people like that, the simple openness which is just about our shared attribute of humanity. It was a walk that inspired me and uplifted me … and made me want to be a little more human.

less than two weeks until the marathon and i am, of course, nervous. i fear that it will not go as well as last year. why? because i am so very lazy. i joined a running group this year and they run quite a bit slower than my normal pace, enough that i had a hard time running at my normal pace on my own and this sapped a lot of the fun out of running for me. i should have realized it sooner and done more about it, but i didn’t, so i have been spending the last two weeks trying to ‘find’ my old pace, the pace where running is a joy. i just hope i find it in time.

weniger als zwei wochen bis zum marathonlauf und ich bin, natürlich, nervös. warum? weil ich extrem faul bin. ich habe mich einer laufgruppe beigetreten und ihr lauftempo ist einigermassen langsamer als meine. Langsamer genug, daß ich schwierigkeiten gehabt habe meine normales tempo zu halten, selbst wenn ich allein liefe. Diese situation hat den Spass des laufens von mir genommen. Ich hätte es früher bemerken sollen und etwas dagegen getan, aber das ist nicht passiert und ich habe die letzten zwei wochen bei dem versuch mein altes tempo zu ‘finden’ verbracht - Das tempo wo laufen spass macht. Hoffentlich finde ich es rechtzeitig.