Stir Crazy
I've decided that dogs are easy. It's all the other stuff that's hard: neighbors, inflation (I just bought a new bag of food yesterday and noticed it's up to almost $54 a bag), remembering to do things, like renew their licenses and give them their pills, and finding time to exercise them adequately after a 16 hour work day. And then there's the mud...
I feel like this is becoming a weather blog, but the weather has been a predominant factor in our lives for a few weeks. First bitter cold, then unbelievably warm temperatures, followed by bitter cold again. I just came from downtown Pittsburgh, where the ramp I take to get to my usual parking spot was closed because the roadway was completely encased in ice. I think I saw that movie: it was a disaster movie. So the dogs are finding life to be horribly restrictive recently, so I've been trying to play ball and tug when I can to keep them occupied, but most of what I've been doing is cleaning.
Life with a toddler who can't quite decide between walking and crawling yet (because, let's just face it, crawling is faster) is an interesting challenge because you want to keep surfaces clean at all times. But this is what I was dealing with a large part of the week:
As the temperatures hit past 50 degrees, the snow melted quickly, then the rain came. The basement leaked, water stood in puddles, and the dogs couldn't help but track in copious amounts of mud. While I hate that it's not environmental very friendly, I have to take my hat off to my Swiffer Wet Jet, without which I would be like an old, worn out Cinderella spending her days scrubbing floors.
I had wanted to give them all a bath when it warmed up, but the mud made it pointless. So, as bitter cold as it was, I think we were all pretty happy - dogs especially - to get Old Man Winter back this weekend. Because they got to do this:
I feel like this is becoming a weather blog, but the weather has been a predominant factor in our lives for a few weeks. First bitter cold, then unbelievably warm temperatures, followed by bitter cold again. I just came from downtown Pittsburgh, where the ramp I take to get to my usual parking spot was closed because the roadway was completely encased in ice. I think I saw that movie: it was a disaster movie. So the dogs are finding life to be horribly restrictive recently, so I've been trying to play ball and tug when I can to keep them occupied, but most of what I've been doing is cleaning.
Life with a toddler who can't quite decide between walking and crawling yet (because, let's just face it, crawling is faster) is an interesting challenge because you want to keep surfaces clean at all times. But this is what I was dealing with a large part of the week:
As the temperatures hit past 50 degrees, the snow melted quickly, then the rain came. The basement leaked, water stood in puddles, and the dogs couldn't help but track in copious amounts of mud. While I hate that it's not environmental very friendly, I have to take my hat off to my Swiffer Wet Jet, without which I would be like an old, worn out Cinderella spending her days scrubbing floors.I had wanted to give them all a bath when it warmed up, but the mud made it pointless. So, as bitter cold as it was, I think we were all pretty happy - dogs especially - to get Old Man Winter back this weekend. Because they got to do this:
So as these cold days stretch on however, I have to convince my Texas born and bred family to rejoin the dogs and I for our daily walks, cold as it may be, to help give the dogs exercise they need plus keep them out of the mud when it does warm back up because walking three young dogs is easier with two. I am open to suggestions on that front. In the meantime, I'll keep on playing fetch and tug. But first I'm about to order some more Swiffer pads. I wonder if I can get them by the case...
Sorry we didn't have better adventures to relay this week. Sadly, like my Steelers, we came up a little bit short. But, we're hoping to have some better tails - we mean tales - soon! In the meantime, stay warm, stay dry, and remember that a little mud never hurt anyone (oh wait, I'm the one who needs to remember that!)
Comments
Post a Comment