Turkey party

The feast was indeed scrumptious. We were late, as Grumpy insisted we didn't need the GPS, hence my Prius (he likes to show off his shiny Allante). Of course the house was in one of those labyrinthine developments and Google maps on my iPhone didn't even know the street. (Or maybe I misspelled it.) I was so mad I wouldn't speak to him until we got there. We asked an old guy in a driveway, and not only did he get us on the right track, he even admired the Allante (by name). Rare to find someone who recognizes it and knows it's special.

Others had mostly finished eating (it was a very casual drop-in feast), but the counters were covered with an abundance of excellent food.  The turkey had only had its breast meat cut, so Grumpy dived right in with a huge knife and fist and removed an entire leg-thigh quarter onto his plate.  I couldn't believe he did that, and said so. He didn't see the problem. (Reminder: This was the home of people we didn't know, had never even met.) I had brought a bottle of my favorite pinot noir, but nobody there wanted wine and there wasn't any corkscrew. So some guy shoved the cork in, and I drank as much of it as I could. Turned out to be a good thing I wasn't driving!

Another bike ride today, farther and less tired. My fancy gel-filled bike shorts seem to do the job. There was one kink: Every time I had to stop to cross a busy street, saw a gap, mounted and aimed for it, the jelly-roll part in back would get hung up on the front of my bike seat. I nearly got killed the first time that happened. Eventually I learned to do a little scoop forward before raising my ass, thus missing stealth hook and making it up into the seat. Clever me.

Diggedy-dog has a persistent cough (or throat clear) but isn't sick. He's been doing it for months. Vets keep shrugging and telling me he's just old. Finally this week, in for another mitaban dip for demodex, I insisted we talk about it. One suggestion was that I walk him with a harness instead of the collar. 

Okay, I got him a harness, spent what felt like hours moving the multitude of adjustment points back and forth, hooked up the extensible leash and headed for the door. I looked back to find him unmoved, giving me a look as if to say: "If you think I'm going anywhere looking like this..."  I persuaded him out the door, but he kept looking back at the house longingly. A directional tug from the middle of his body obviously made no sense at all to him. I kept making adjustments to no avail. We tried to cross a busy street, but by the time he got going I was turning back. Another close call. We went back to the house and tossed the harness.

Another suggestion was to lock him in the bathroom while Grumpy takes one of his looooong steamy showers so he can inhale the soothing steam. Grumpy's laugh at that idea was not encouraging.

Next vet appointment, we'll do an x-ray, just to be sure there's not a tumor or something lodged in there. Finally!