Still walking, still positive

It was another beautiful December day. I took an hour or so out of the early afternoon and took Bailey for a walk at Pleasant Grove. We covered the field trails today, and one stretch in the woods, before coming back on the gravel road passing the ever-growing Christmas displays. It looked to me to be pretty much complete so I'm thinking it must be opening either tonight or tomorrow. The displays are along a loop road so it's a drive-by Christmas light event. I wasn't sure how Bailey would react to them after being scared of the inflatable moving spiders at Halloween, but I guess Christmas is less scary (little does she know) and she didn't seem to mind them much at all.

I took another Covid test today, hoping for a negative result, but I was still positive. I'll probably try it again on Saturday or Sunday. I don't have any place I have to go or do around people for the next several days anyway. I don't know if that's good or a bit sad, make of it what you will. I'm making chicken soup tomorrow.

The Clydesdales and fox are my favorite. 

Bailey didn't really express a preference.

I made a point of stopping to make sure she saw them.

None of these were moving, that probably helped.

They got some more ropes on this thing so it's standing upright today.

Bailey was much more interested in another dog that we had just passed.

The unicorn did cause a bit of concern, 

but I had no trouble to get her to sit for

a treat when we were standing near it.

"Up" is her favorite command and the one she does most consistently

if I ask for it in front of something she can jump up onto.

I need to get her a black gentle leader.

3.35 miles

Delvis Christmas walk

It was another beautiful day so I took a break in the middle of the day and went out for a walk with Delvis, the team of Della and Elvis. He knew what I was up to and he obviously wanted to go along because he refused to come back in with the others when Della was still outside. That's fine, they are an easy pair to walk. I did the same easy two mile route on the gravel road through the park, working on re-building my stamina while giving the wooded trails a chance to dry off from the rain we had on Sunday. 

There were several new inflatable Christmas decorations up today. Della was still unconcerned, as was Elvis, but we all noticed that many of them need some better tie-downs installed to keep them upright, and if we get any kind of wind I think they will be scattered all over the park. I'm not sure when this display is supposed to "open," probably this weekend I would guess, so they have a few more days to make some improvements.

We had a good walk once again. Both dogs were happy to get out there again.

This particular tree is a "must sniff" every time we pass it. Della stopped as we were approaching it and told me, in no uncertain terms, that we were going to be stopping here and having a good long sniff.

And we did, and the tree next to it, but I said "no" when she wanted to keep moving on down to inspect the entire tree line.

These things need better guy lines.

When we got home I let all the other dogs out of the house and opened the date to the pasture. Several of them ran out there initially, but only Elvis, Maya, and Bailey took up the hunt. It was a nice day so I left them to it and the rest of the dogs came back in with me and I went back to work. I went downstairs about an hour later to see if any of them had come back from the pasture and found Bailey on the back porch, proudly displaying a dead rat she had apparently stalked and killed out in the pasture. I scooped it up and disposed of it after congratulating her properly. 

Bailey immediately goes into hunting mode but she doesn't seem to realize that you have to first locate the prey by sight, sound, or smell, before pouncing on it. She wants to skip directly to the fun part. I'm pretty sure that Elvis and Maya do all of the locating.

Maya is nearly as dedicated to the hunt as is Elvis.

Back to normal

I'm feeling good again. Seemingly asymptomatic, I took nothing except the antiviral pills today. There's still a couple days of them to go, but I didn't need the Tylenol or Sudafed, I felt good. I'll wait a few more days before taking another Covid test but I plan on isolating for a while yet anyway. 

I went back to work today because there was no reason not to, but it was another beautiful sunny day so I took Della out for a walk in the afternoon. We just did the easy, mostly flat, two mile walk at Pleasant Grove but she was very happy to do that again. There are setting up displays of inflatable Christmas things. Della was curious, but not impressed and certainly not intimidated by them. I'm curious about how Bailey will react to them. She didn't care for the Halloween things at all. 

Della with Scooby-Doo

She was not interested in the Clydesdales, but the unicorn caught her eye.

But they didn't bother her and she didn't bother them.

I think I've overcome my addiction to Christmas movies. The more of them I watch, the worse they get. They were like a dependency on Afrin nasal spray, good for when I needed them, but dangerous and counterproductive after three days. I saw this little gem on TikTok today. It's a parody of all Christmas movies and it convinced me that it was time to go back to watching something else, anything else. 

I've been Facetiming with Clay every day. He's having a great time, of course. The official tour started today, in Bruges, which is a beautiful old city with a lot of great beer. I told him he's going to have to negotiate with Bailey for his spot in the bed when he gets home. She's moved right in since he's been gone.

How it's going

I'm feeling enough better now to be annoyed at missing my vacation and bored with being home alone with nothing to do. I would have gone for a drive on Sunday but it was raining and ugly. I've made another soup and tomorrow will make a cabbage/sausage stir fry. Food is not a problem and my appetite is gradually returning. 

I've been doing something weird, out of character, and borderline embarrassing if not shameful. I've been watching Christmas movies. I've probably seen at least eight of them now. That brings my lifetime total to eight. It's not a movie genre I've ever ventured into. I can't say that I've enjoyed them really, but I have continued to watch them. I attributed it to my fever initially, but that's been back to normal for the past 24 hours, so that doesn't explain the last two or three I've watched. We'll consider it part of this dark December episode and never speak of it again. 

Today I felt the need to get back to doing some productive things. I started by unpacking my luggage. Unpacking from a trip is always kind of a bummer because it means that vacation is over and you're back to the grind, but unpacking from a trip that you never took really sucks. All the thought, planning, and shopping that went into it (I bought a new coat, and even new socks!), all with the expectation of walking through the beautiful and historic town squares and Christmas markets of Brussels, Bruges, Gent, and Antwerp all decorated and lit up for Christmas. This may explain the Christmas movies. Anyway, it left me with a sense of loss. But to put things in perspective, it was insignificant compared to what so many other people have lost due to Covid. 

Today the sun was shining, that always brightens my mood, and I was very tempted to take a dog out for a hike. I wasn't sure what my stamina level would be, however, so instead of taking one dog to hike at Pleasant Grove, I took all the dogs out to the pasture, our own dog park. I walked the trails, enough to prove to myself that I could, and they either followed along or went off to do their own thing. Some of both in most cases. It stretched my legs and gave me some pictures to share from today anyway. 

Maya looks like a fox in the tall grass.

Apparently the rain turned to snow or ice at some point overnight. 

It looked like a very heavy frost on the ground this morning.

I fed the dogs and didn't go back out to look at it again until it was gone.

Everyone except Candace made it into this picture.

Left to right: Maya, Dodger, Paisley, Della, Elvis, and Bailey

Della has been bored, she was more active out there today than usual.

Bailey, kicking up her heels

Paisley, Bailey (ears up!), and Della

Della and her protege 

Candace did a lot of running out there today.

Dodger plays with Bailey indoors and in the yard, 

but out in the pasture she goes hunting and he's on his own.

Candace, off the trails in the tall grass

Dodger, with Bailey and Maya in the background

Paisley

I'm so happy that Candace is happy here now.

Della and Paisley