Tag Archives: dogs

In My Defense, It’s Monday

Posted on July 15, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

My existential writing crisis continues (I don’t really know what an existential crisis is, I just thought it sounded cool) (and if anybody tries to enlighten me and uses any form of the word “exist,” I will probably make a sarcastic remark). I began writing a post before work today, but it wasn’t working out. I thought it would be OK, though, because I intended to go running after work. I could do a Running Commentary.

Why do I even think I’m going to run on a Monday? I almost never do, and I did not today. But I had a letter to mail to my sister (yes, I handwrite letters and mail them with stamps, do you have a problem with that? I thought not), so I suggested Steven and I walk to the post office with our schnoodle Tabby. Now I can write a Pedestrian Post.

We went after supper, but the temperature had not cooled down much. It was cloudy, dull and humid. The air was almost completely still. It did not take long to have that overall coating of sweat one’s body often gets this time of year. Tabby did not seem to mind. She pranced along, stopping often to explore interesting smells.

As we went through Meyers Park, I admired a stone bench recently donated by a class from Herkimer High School. I stupidly do not remember the year, but it was somewhere in the 1960s. After the post office, Steven suggested we walk up Main Street and go by the Historic Four Corners.

“Tabby does love the Historic Four Corners,” I said.

We walked up Main Street to German.

“This is where the DARE 5K starts,” I said. I’m looking forward to the DARE 5K. I guess I’d better start running in the evening in addition to walking.

As we continued down German the breeze picked up. That felt good. I’m afraid it was an uneventful walk, but I have great hopes that my crisis will be over by tomorrow and better posts will be forthcoming.

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The Mud Didn’t Stop Me

Posted on June 15, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh, that feeling, that wonderful feeling, when you ran anyways after almost talking yourself out of it, and you are walking your cooldown with your sweet little schnoodle. The frisson of virtue, the warm looseness of your leg muscles, the relief of deep breaths and cool water, AND the knowledge that you have SOMETHING to write a blog post about.

And then the feeling hours later, when you realize you did not write your blog post yet and you had better get on with it. It feels a little panicky, till you put your fingers on the keyboard and start typing. That is when you realize, like on the run, I can rock this.

So it seems Saturday Running Commentary is back. I was late to bed last night, because we went to the play, so I was disinclined for major effort. Still, it wasn’t raining, the temperature was a run-friendly 50some degrees. I put on running clothes and set out.

I decided to turn right down German Street. I would run up Main to Weber and go down the path over the hydraulic canal. This had been my plan during a run earlier in the week, but traffic was too intense for me to want to cross German. It looked better prior to seven in the morning. I thought I would even cross German right at the end of my street and not wait for the four-way stop at Main.

Then I saw what looked like a guy digging a ditch. Better stay on my side of German. Then I saw he was not digging a ditch but trying to clean out mud. We had torrential rain last night and some streets I guess got a little flooded. There was mud all over the sidewalk as well. Yikes. I did NOT want to fall on my ass in the nasty flood mud. I ran on the grass where I could and did a slow, shuffly step where I had to go in the mud. Rats! My best sneakers were becoming a mess! I need new running shoes anyways, but was hoping to put it off for a week or two anyways.

I soon ran into my friend Nicky, a shaggy little white dog, and his person. I stopped to pet Nicky and said, “I guess German got a little flooded last night.”

“Yes, every time it rains, it comes down Renwick,” she said. We told each other to be careful of the mud, and I ran on.

It was no problem crossing German at Main. I negotiated the mud and made it to the path. It is a lovely path. The only problem is that to continue following it, you must cross German again and there is no crosswalk just there. Still, that is no problem in the early morning hours. I encountered another dog to pet on the path, a lovely golden retriever (at least, that was what it looked like; I’m no expert).

“Can I pet your dog?” I always ask first, unless it is a dog I’ve petted before, like Nicky.

The run was not at all bad. I don’t remember consciously thinking, “I can rock this,” but I believe I was, in fact, rocking it. It was no problem to keep going. Shortly before I stopped, I flashed ahead, to when I really get my run time built back up. I thought of when 20some minutes in will be halfway or less, and I will think, “Oh, yeah, this is just what I needed. This is awesome.”

I sure didn’t feel this good about my runs earlier in the week. However, without those runs I’m sure I would not have felt so good today. Rock on, everyone!

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I Liked Philo’s Dog

Posted on June 10, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

This week I offer Mystery Movie Monday. I would prefer Monster Movie Monday, but I didn’t have a monster movie to hand. Instead, I asked Steven to make a selection from his DVD set of 50 Mystery Classics. He chose The Kennel Murders (1933), a Philo Vance mystery.

Spoiler Alert! I probably won’t give away the solution, because I didn’t properly understand it, but I will certainly give away some major plot points.

I was a little concerned to see the word “kennel” in the title, knowing Hollywood’s history of NOT being kind to animals (perhaps you read my blog post about it). I did not want to watch a movie where dogs die.

Sure enough, a dog gets murdered. Philo does not seem too exercised about that murder, although the dog’s owner threatens to kill whoever did it. I was not clear on who did do it, and I couldn’t figure out how it fit in with the rest of the plot. Then again, as regular readers know, I don’t always pay a whole lot of attention to these things. Another dog gets hit on the head with a poker, which does figure in, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The movie opens on a dog show. There is Philo Vance with an extremely cute Scotty dog. His dog does not win, but Philo loves him. So there’s one reason to like Philo Vance, at any rate.

Next we meet a beautiful heiress (is there another kind?) who can’t seem to get any of her own money from her unpleasant trustee or guardian or whatever he is to her besides unpleasant. It’s pretty clear who the victim is going to be and there will be no shortage of suspects.

It is a bit of a surprise later on when one of the suspects who was starting to look really good (as a suspect, I mean) ends up dead. I guess I should have seen that coming. After all, it’s “murders” plural in the tile, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t count the dog.

The dog that gets hit on the head seems to make a full recovery and I guess helps solve the mystery. Or helps Philo prove he has correctly solved the mystery. Like I said, the solution kind of mystified me. As is often the case, the “proof” would never hold up in a court of law. For that matter, the medical evidence was pretty spurious, too. But these are mere quibbles. One must take movie mysteries at their own estimation or not at all.

Philo’s dog has a pretty good scene where he shows Philo something important. I just love a cute little dog.

In retrospect, I’m thinking it might have been a good idea if I had paid more attention to the movie, maybe made a few notes, before I tried to write about it. Then again, it’s Monday.

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The Dog Ate my Blog Post

Posted on May 24, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Subtitle: Lame Excuses (which I may have used as a title previously) (too lazy to check, sorry). Did anybody seriously think I was going to forgo Lame Post Friday? Say it ain’t so!

My question of half-baked philosophy for today is: why do I get more Likes on these ridiculous posts than I do on my so-called (by me) real posts? Oh dear, have I just asked for nobody to Like this post? Oh well, I guess people will Like or not what they please. I have no control over other people.

So much for half-baked philosophy. What about random observations (on the off chance that there are readers just tuning in: Lame Post Friday is the day for random observations and half-baked philosophy). Steven and I both observed an adorably happy retriever-looking dog sticking his or her head out of a car. Steven at first was not sure if it was a dog, since it pulled its head back in for a moment (he was driving so was not observing as attentively as was I). Then he or she stuck his or her head back out again. Very cute.

Should I mention we were on our way to Happy Hour at the Belly Up Pub at the time? Or will people think I am a lush? Or judge me for drinking and typing? Well, I didn’t have that much to drink. We were only there an hour. We ate some munchies and enjoyed the mellow sounds of Phillip Arcuri. I intend to write a blog post about it.

For now, well, I’m afraid that’s it. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my Friday night. I hope you will do the same.

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Sometimes Ya Gotta Clean

Posted on May 11, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes that little writing voice in your head says, “I don’t want to write this now.” Then you have a choice to make. You listen or you don’t. Today I decided to listen.

Actually I decided to listen the third or fourth time the voice said it. That is why there are two more paragraphs on an unpublished draft I started to write earlier this week. Are they any good? I can’t tell that till later. So anybody who was about to start huffing about how you just have to Not Give In to Writer’s Block, just go huff at somebody else. This is my story and I’m sticking to it.

I truly did not want to have a Wrist to Forehead Saturday. I didn’t even want to do a post about Why I Can’t Write a Post (as usual, the irony is not lost on me). I considered doing a post about cleaning my house, which is mostly what I did today. I was going to include the line, “Step one: Invite people over.” I got a little bogged down in subsequent steps, and that was when I was still writing in my head.

This morning I took a walk to the post office with my schnoodle, Tabby. I tried to pay close attention to things, so I could write about that. Running commentary was out of the question, because I needed my energy to clean. Well, unless these walks are really noteworthy, I need to write about them right away for the post to be any good. I was certainly willing to do that, but… dirty living room called.

I’m sensing a pattern here. As with my diet, so with my writing: there is always an excuse not to do the right thing. Oh, with my running, too. Damn. So today I call myself out on my excuses. But I don’t feel too bad about myself. Because you know what, I didn’t run, but I walked. I haven’t eaten anything too fattening yet, because I was too busy cleaning. And earlier, when I needed a break from cleaning, I did a little work on my novel.

So what I’m saying is, I don’t suck.

And who’s to say that cleaning my house was not the right thing to do?

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Not Wrist, Walk

Posted on April 20, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I feel it would be wrong to have Wrist to Forehead Sunday on Easter. And in any case it is unnecessary. My wrists are in their accustomed place, just beyond the edge of my keyboard, as I type. I shall offer instead a Pedestrian Post, utilizing a very nice walk I took with my schnoodle Tabby this morning.

I had to take my husband Steven to work at nine, in order to pick him up at one and go to Rome to my parents’ house for dinner. I have a list of things to accomplish in the meantime (I was taking my chances in doing this as such lists often send my wrist right to my forehead — “I’ll NEVER get these things done!”). I did the worst thing first, a sensible action I rarely take. I did the dishes. Then I did what promised to be one of the most pleasant: taking my dog for a walk.

It is as fine as an Easter morning ought to be: bright and sunny. Not awfully warm yet, but it’s early. At least I didn’t feel I needed my toque and insulated sweatshirt. Regular sweatshirt and crazy old lady hat. Prescription sunglasses and a couple of poop bags. I was ready.

Tabby was very happy to go. And stop. Of course dogs like to stop and sniff a lot, that is what they do. Today she seemed to find even more interesting spots than usual. I tried to indulge her as much as possible, although I do try to keep her from sticking her face into other dogs’ poo (WHY do these dog owners not pick it up like the rest of us do?).

We went by our favorite Historic Four Corners and down Main Street. We met a lady walking a very cute little white dog. The dog was quite interested in meeting Tabby. The lady and I petted each others’ dogs and chatted a little. It’s nice to meet another dog owner.

Heading up another street, we walked by a young man on a cell phone. He was too intent on his conversation to notice us. Tabby gave him an interested look but let him by. I saw a young lady further down the street on a cell phone, alternately talking into it and hollering at her kids not to come outside. I thought it would be funny if she was talking to the young man.

It was funny. I heard her say, “NOW do you know where you’re going?” and head back into the house. Then he headed towards that house. What did we do without cell phones? Got better directions and read house numbers, I suppose.

When we were almost home I saw a lady and little girl walking towards us. Tabby definitely wanted to meet them, because she walked right by our house towards them.

“My dog loves to meet people,” I told them.

The lady said her little girl was sometimes afraid of dogs, but I assured her Tabby was a good dog. They both petted her. The little girl seemed pretty OK with it. Really, Tabby is a most unthreatening pooch.

We enjoyed our Easter walk. Now I must see about crossing a few more things off that list before it’s time to pick up Steve (I guess I can at least cross off “Make blog post.”)

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Maybe the Sun will Thaw Out my Brain

Posted on April 20, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

In my defense, it’s a a holiday weekend. How productive am I expected to be? The sad thing is, I have a whole list of potential blog topics involving recent Mohawk Valley adventures. I even know where the list is.

And yet. And yet.

I took two walks with my schnoodle Tabby today. The first was less than a thrill for me, because of the chilly breeze. I felt so ill-used that this is the latter half of April and I still had on my toque and insulated sweatshirt and only wished I had also worn a scarf.

Before the second walk, I had been to Hannaford, to pick up a few last minute supper things (I MAY manage a cooking post for Wrist to Forehead Sunday). It had been cold walking from my vehicle to the store. And I wasn’t wearing my toque (I should have been; I’m having a bad hair day).

The reason we even went on the second walk was that I couldn’t come up with a damn other useful thing to do. I had done dishes, worked on my novel, put away laundry (NEVER MIND how long ago I actually did said laundry), and still felt as if all I had been doing had been to sit around thinking of silly statuses to post on Facebook (I came up with one).

Tabby was, of course, into it, so I put on my insulated sweatshirt and toque and we set out.

To find that the sun was AT LAST having an effect! I took off the insulated sweatshirt and tied it around my waist. This was awesome! I could have even worn my crazy old lady hat, but I did not repine. I enjoyed the warmth. I felt blessed and happy.

But still not the least bit inclined to write a real blog post. Still, I like to post every day. So I hope this silliness will do.

And I will TRY not to have a Wrist to Forehead Sunday on Easter.

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I Keep Walking

Posted on April 10, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I don’t want to say this too loudly, but I think spring has come to the Mohawk Valley. Shhh! Don’t talk too much about it; we don’t want to scare it away.

OK, that was a little silly (what a surprise). It is by way of an introduction to a pedestrian post on a walk taken today. Tomorrow is supposed to be the heat wave of 60 degrees. Today was supposed to be in the 40s, with a cold front bringing rain, so I thought. I must have misheard the weather report this morning, because it was sunny. I even considered wearing my crazy old lady hat. However, the wind dissuaded me. I made do with sunglasses, only one (not insulated) sweatshirt and no toque. Tabby just about managed to stand still so I could get the harness on her, and we were off.

I had poop bags in both cargo pockets of my BDU pants (I hadn’t changed out of them after work) as well as a bag for any cans or bottles I might find. My regular glasses were also in one pocket, in case it suddenly got cloudy. After half a block of listening to them rattle, I took them out and carried them. Then decided I had been silly to bring them at all, because there was not a cloud in the sky.

The wind, however, was quite fierce. Maybe I could have used my toque. Instead I put up the hood of my sweatshirt and tied it. Wind like that always worries me, though. I think somebody might come along and drop a house on me.

We walked down German Street and through the path over what used to be a hydraulic canal. We met a nice lady with a toddler. Tabby was more interested in sniffing the empty stroller, which surprised me a little. In general, Tabby is anxious to meet the people. The lady tried to get the toddler to pet Tabby. As we walked away, he became more interested in her. I could hear him making a noise that I think was supposed to be “woof! woof!” We met a few other people as we walked. Some said hello or remarked on my cute little dog, but nobody petted Tabby (don’t worry; I petted her later).

We went down Main Street, across Albany Street and up Prospect. It was not until Prospect that I spotted a plastic bottle. Score! Then the bag blew out of my hand. I gave chase, dragging Tabby along with me. Got it! When I turned back around, the wind took the bottle and sent it rolling across the street. I was not about to drag my dog twice in one day (oh stop shaking your finger at me, I didn’t really DRAG her, I pulled the leash and she came along, you don’t have to call PETA). So I didn’t make a nickel out of our walk, but I did have a laugh at myself.

I didn’t think it was such a long walk, but my legs started to get tired several blocks from home. This is swell, I thought. I was going to start running again and train for a 5K in May. That might be a problem.

As I turned my tired legs toward home, the wind got even more fierce. It didn’t seem to bother Tabby. I guess she’s smaller and offers less wind resistance. So there’s another good reason for me to lose weight. Keep walking, Cindy!

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Unwelcoming Weather

Posted on April 7, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I did mention this would be Wrist to Forehead Sunday. In fact, I don’t feel particularly wrist-to-foreheady (yes, computer, I know that’s not a word, but it should be). I feel happy to be home.

I traveled from the Mohawk Valley into Liverpool, NY and thence to the Finger Lakes (have you ever used the word “thence” in a sentence? I have not) (till now). It was a lovely if tiring weekend. I drove by myself, to and from Liverpool. This was a big deal. I rarely go anywhere by myself. But once in a while I try to be an independent, take charge kind of woman.

When I got home and Steven had returned home from work, we took our schnoodle, Tabby for a walk. She was so happy to have both her peeps home. It was a beautifully sunny day. Who could resist going for a walk on a Sunday in springtime?

Well, the Mohawk Valley weather was not exactly welcoming me or springtime back, it seems. That wind was mean! It was cold! I was happy I had the foresight to wear a windbreaker and my toque. Still, I felt a little ill-used. What a ridiculous difference between the way the day looked and the way the day felt.

Still, it was a nice walk and I was happy to be with Steven and Tabby. And I guess we’re all getting tired of hearing complaints about the weather (although few of us are going so far as to actually shut up about it) (that’s a whole other blog post: we’re rarely tired of complaining, just of hearing others do so). Well, I’ll stop complaining now, and go back to enjoying my Sunday. I hope you all are doing the same.

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The Tabby Dog Blues

Posted on April 6, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Saturday Running Commentary is right out the window. However, I have taken a few lovely walks with my schnoodle, Tabby. I think I can manage a paragraph or two about that.

Full disclosure: I’m typing this into the computer Thursday evening, having made Thursday’s and Friday’s posts, both of which I wrote while I was at work today (yes, boss, while on break). Saturday I will be wine tasting with the family (I have written a few blog posts about my stress getting ready for that).

Mohawk Valley weather was finally good to us this week, with 50 degree weather. Oh what a joy to walk when it’s not so damn cold! The puddles are mostly evaporated. Mud is not too bad. I can avoid it. Tabby chooses not to. I say she is the famous blues singer Muddy Paws. I’ve written a few lyrics for her.

Well I’m a dirty dog
And they call me Muddy Paws.
What do you want from me?
Do I look like Santa Claus?

My name is really Tabby
I got the Tabby dog blues.

I like to take a walk
with Cindy and with Steve.
When they get the leash out
I just can’t wait to leave.

My name is really Tabby
I got the Tabby dog blues.

I suppose she will have some Tabby dog blues when I am not home Friday and Saturday. We can look forward to a joyous reunion on Sunday. When I will make my usual Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.

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