Miscellany

I'm sitting here at home today, well into the autumn/winter season where I am off probably more than I'm at work. The amount of vacation time I get is one of the major perquisites of my job. Perquisites - I like that word because at first glance, it appears I've botched the spelling of prerequisites. My job has those, too.

I was off work yesterday but dawdled around so much that I blew my chance at doing any sort of longer-duration bike ride. I had to pick up BeanSS at work just about at sunset, so I put the bike in the pickup, left early, and did fast laps on the fire roads at the Pima College west campus until it was time to head over to her office.

The Pima trails certainly do not constitute an epic no matter how many laps I do, but I enjoy the occasional ride there. It's also a bit of a sentimental place, as we used to walk Kona and Barnaby on those trails. We even did a family trail run together there once or twice, well into Kona's chemotherapy and before we learned that young Barnaby had hip dysplasia. There's one little connector trail where I always imagine our departed dogs running madly along next to me, off-leash, panting heavily, tongues hanging, Kona with the strange downward kink in her tail that she showed only when running, and Barns with his short, weirdly-proportioned legs galloping along. It's a happy memory.

But as so often happens, I've found my thoughts interrupted by the silence coming from the other room. Dora and Clayton spend much of the morning playing and so I'm accustomed to hearing playful growling, toenails skittering across tile, the bouncing sounds of tennis balls, etc. But when it gets quiet, it usually means they're working as a team to remove the stuffing from their dog beds.

Back now. The beds are intact, and the dogs have relocated to the area around my feet, so at least I can monitor their playtime. Damn, I am crazy about these two.

What is else? I need to lift weights today but I'd like to ride again, too. The latter will have to wait at least until the effects of this morning's coffee bender wear off, unless I want to stop at every third tree to caffeinate the desert soil. Also, after Sunday night's brief but torrential rains, a whole new crop of detached cholla joints and prickly pear pads were washed onto the trails. As such, I fully expect to have at least one flat tire on my mountain bike. If that's the case, I'll probably bag the bicycling entirely because I'm just not feeling a road ride.