Zoomies...

I am going to talk about letting blue off his leash to run in a somewhat enclosed area, thought I would put that out there right now, so don't get mad at me!

Met my new neighbor Rachel and her dog Hank. Hank was found in a dumpster, no bigger than the palm of your hand. Hank was very close to death, but he was nursed back to health and is now quite the little guy! Hank is a mutt, definitely has some beagle and some chow in him, not sure what else... Size wise, he is about the size of a beagle. Anyways, we were out one morning, Hank is very good off the leash and he was jumping at Blue and running away, well Blue went after him and came to the end of the leash. He turned to me and looked back at Hank running away. I thought, you know, Blue can barely stand it when I leave the room, I know he isn't going to run away. So I let him off the leash and the games began. Blue did a damn fine job of coursing Hank. Now, Hank is used to playing with big dogs but not ones who can turn on a dime like he can. Blue was always on his heels and Hank could not get away. It was quite a sight and I knew Blue was having a good time, Hank really wasn't too sure what to think... Needless to say, I think I am going to use these times to get Blue ready for some real coursing on the field this fall.

Now a little story about how this dog forgets nothing! I walk Blue on the same field where we let them run, one morning, about a week ago, Blue came across a chicken bone. He picked it up in his mouth, I yelled at him and he dropped it immediately. Tonight, I let him off the leash and he headed away from me, got a bit further than I would like so I followed him. The entire time, his head was about an inch from the ground. I said to Rachel, "There was a chicken bone over there about a week ago, he is going to find it." She said, "Yeah right..." It wasn't a minute later and he had the bone in his mouth, he looked straight at me after he got it. I jogged towards him, he dropped it and I tossed it into the bushes. The dog never ceases to amaze me!

Ok, now you can yell at me for having him off leash... :)

Gasoline...

So, I take Blue out for a walk today and see that I am a little below a quarter of a tank and know that I am driving to Dahlonega and probably Calhoun, so we are off on our venture for gas. There are about 4 stations within a .5 mile radius of my place, they have all been out for about 2 weeks. Make it all the way to 285, traveling south on Roswell Rd, nothing. Jump on 285 west get off on Riverside Dr. There is a Shell station at this exit and I hope for the best. Evidently, shortly before I arrived, a gas tanker dumped its load there and the lines started, I became a part of it. Well, low fuel light comes on after sitting in line for about 5 minutes, I turn the engine off and sit there for about 25 minutes. I finally get to my gas pump, probably 45 minutes into this ordeal. $50 limit, this gets me about 3/4 of a tank of gas unfortunately, but hey, better than running out of gas! Days like this when I hate having my gas guzzling Jeep...
I had a nice conversation with a guy from New York, saw Blue and spoke about the Afgan Hound his buddy had growing up, the guy next to me had a French Mastiff (rather large fellow who I thought was going to strangle the gas station attendant, he wanted $60 in gas and the guy jokingly questioned his ability to read... I thought it was funny). In all, from the beginning of our wak to when we finally got home to eat, 2.5 hours. I bought a bananna at the gas station for a snack for Blue and I, I broke off a piece of this, put it in front of his face and he gave me this, are you kidding me look. Blue does not like banannas I guess...
Ran in the Corporate Challenge yesterday, 5K through what I guess is a little bit of downtown ATL. The starting line was there by the Olympic rings, ran north of that past GSU and made a block. I think I did pretty good, the times have not yet been posted, but I think I made it in under 30 minutes. As I was running away from the starting line, knowing that is also the finish line, most of the run was down hill. I wasn't a mile into the race and I was thinking about the run UP the hill, that is always the killer! Needless to say, I think I will be good and ready for the hound 5K, I am excited for it!
Well, I am going to finish up this episode of Family Guy, it is the one where Brian violates Sea Breeze, Mr Pewterschmidt's prize winning greyhound... good stuff I tell you, good stuff

Joke

Ran across this this morning, had to share...

Bathtub Test

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director how do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

'Well,' said the Director, 'we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.'

'Oh, I understand,' said the visitor. 'A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.'

'No.' said the Director, 'A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?'

Updates...

I am due for a post updating the conditions with my family and friends down south. Start with my best friend in Houston. They are doing just fine, still without power but they are fine. It sounds like it was quite the experience for them. They had a couple of near accidents with branches breaking and falling into a window, but each branch that fell hit the house. The entire neighborhood was pretty fortunate with regard to structural damage. They are, however, missing a piece of fence. The neighbor across the street no longer has a fence, well it is there, but not serving the purpose of a fence... He and his wife are still without power, we were actually playing some trivia via text messaging there for awhile just to let you know how bored he was. So, yeah, no damage.

Now, down the bayou, it is a very different story. This is a picture of my grand mothers home in Houma, LA. No, she does not live in a house boat. Keep in mind, her house is 6 feet in the air just to give you an idea of how much water is there. Across the bayou, is my uncles house, he can't see any of his toilets... Needless to say, his house is not 6 feet in the air. Off to the right, out of picture, there is a camp that is about 14 feet in the air, kind of wish this was part of the picture to put more perspective to this, but I am sure you all get the picture. She did not stay in her home to wait out the storm, she went into town and is with another one of my uncles. So, everyone is fine, but lots of clean-up to do!

Blue is doing well, I think I may have found some food to mix in with Evo Innova to give us some good stool! I swear, I have tried so many foods over the past year, I have about 6 different bags of food I have not finished still in my closet. So, the magical food is Hund-N-Flocken Solid Gold. He has been on this for about a week now and we are seeing very healthy stools, I guess the only down side of the food is that there is quite a bit of stool. I am just glad is has some consistency. It is lamb based and made in the US, but I could have sworn the guy at the store said it was a German company. They have other foods with different ingredients, but we are going to try this one out for a while. They have something called Wolf King the main ingredient is Bison. Anyways here's hoping, he stays healthy and damn good looking! haha

Anyone out there running in the corporate run on September 25th? I am using this as a warm up for the greyhound run. I think this run will be more hilly than the greyhound run, so should be a good warm-up for me. I am done now, eveyone have a good week!

Ohhh Ike...

So, there is a 250 mile diameter hurricane ready to bear down on Houston. As some of you know, i was there not too long ago helping my best friend move into his new home in Sugar Land. Sugar Land is South West of Houston. In a phone call to him, he told me that he has viewed 9 predicted routes of where this storm is headed and there was only 1 that did not include it going his way. Part of our phone call:
Me: "hey man, you guys leaving the city?"
Brian: "nope"
Me: "you going to board up your windows?"
Brian: "nope"
Me: "you guys have enough supplies?"
Brian: "we have some tuna, big jar of peanut butter, loaf a bread some other things and a bunch of water. we are going to fill up the bath tubs with water, we filled a bunch of tupperware with water to make ice, we will be fine."
Something you have to understand about my best friend, we are very similar. Very laid back, pretty much an open book and not one to really plan ahead for things. His wife is very much his opposite and she is about in tears from this whole thing. Brian's rationale, this house has been here since 1982, I am sure it will be here after this storm. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my great grandmothers home in Houma, LA was just ripped in 3 pieces by Gustav and it has been there since the 1800's.

Anyways, the family in Houma was given the optional order of evacuation with this hurricane, mandatory for Gustav, nothing major happened and it took them a week to get back to their homes. So, pretty sure they are not leaving this time and I am sure this is the storm that will bring the water. I will be sure to pray for them crazy coonasses! ha-ha.

I wasn't paying attention this morning on the morning walk with Blue (I hate mornings! I love my bed...), well, he found a cat in the bushes where he was about to pee. Never have I seen a cat so scared for his life, Blue gave him a little nudge with his snout and he was off! Blue started to give chase, but decided against it cominced to his morning routine of watering every bush he comes across (had this been a rabbit, Blue would have torn my arm off and it would have been breakfast). It would have been like that time, when we were out west and Blue caught that jackalope... the antlers didn't digest well...

Walk your dog...

I use this picture for more than one reason. 1. It is probably my favorite picture of Blue. It is the first picture taken of him and it was the picture that was posted on the site when I adopted his silly butt. 2. Notice how the leash it taut and the collar is up near his neck, he is doing a fine statue impression. Blue has been mocking this pose on each one of our walks in the afternoon. We start going and suddenly there is dead weight on the other end of the collar. I was hoping, so badly, that this was a little phase he was going through because of the staples (which are out by the way, hopefully the hair will cover the scar), but sadly, he continues to be a pain in the butt while walking. I tried the praising while walking thing today, seemed to work a little better than other things I have been doing this week...

In all honesty, it has been a bit aggrivating the last couple of days. I think the mistake I made was giving into him when he was all stapled up and cut our walks short. Now he tries this always. As I mentioned it is getting better, just need to get him back into the mindset that I am the boss, not him...

The getting ready for running isnt really going to swell, trip to Houston really ruined that one. Call me crazy, but I am not really up for running in 90+ degree weather with 90+ degree humidty. I will get back to it tomorrow, maybe...