An Adventure Every Day

 It began the same as any ordinary trip to Costco. Manned with our list, we managed not to go too crazy with items that were not listed and headed to the checkout. Actually, I arrived at the checkout a few minutes before Bruce as unbeknownst to me,  he'd stopped to look at some shoes. Leaving the store I said, "honey, if you think you need those shoes, go back in and get them and I'll take the stuff to the car." Although I am healing, as you know, the process has been slow and my hand and wrist remain weaker than I am accustomed to, thus I emptied the box on the ground, put the empty box in the back seat of the car and proceeded to re-load it. See, I'm learning to adapt. At the same time, a dog appeared, running around the car parked on the other side of the lane we were in. To tell you the truth, I thought it had jumped out of the car the woman was loading. Not so--it appeared from nowhere. Another woman noticed the dog as she was getting to her car, but it took Bruce to get ahold of it as he was coming to the car.

 Now what? 

Bruce retrieved a rope from our car, attaching it to the collar. By now I had the good sense to get my camera out of my purse.

At the same time, the second woman and her companion came over. We are all looking around for someone looking for their dog. No one in sight. The dog tag had a phone number connected to Animal Control, who when called gave Bruce the name of the owner along with his phone number. As he had a hold of the dog, Bruce called out to the other Good Samaritan who then called the number. Are you with me? I know it sounds crazy when I type it and believe me, it was crazy while it was happening. The "owner" told the man he'd given the dog back to the Pet Alliance a month ago. Our collective opinion was that it had escaped the facility which is only 1/2 mile away. Made sense to us, so with me driving and the sweet dog on Bruce's lap, we drove over there only to discover that the Pet Alliance was closed.

Thus we walked across the street to Animal Control where we waited for someone to come outside. The dog was beautifully behaved, never once barked or tried to get away, and as Bruce stood by the door, folks were coming up wanting to take the dog off his hands. 

Momentarily we were tempted, but seeing those paws, we were both pretty sure that she would get far larger, too large for us. Not to mention those nails would kill my hardwood floors! Anyway, it was a repeat of the phone conversation about the owner who'd returned the dog. It's too convoluted and frustrating to relate, but eventually we got back in the car,

and the dog laid quietly on the floor beside Bruce's feet. Sorry for his knee in the picture! We drove around back, a big garage door was opened and we found ourselves surrounded by workers and cages. It was absolutely surreal especially seeing the crematorium. Here we were, minding our own business, buying baby aspirin, orange juice and kleenex and now this? 

Driving home we were both pretty shaken by the experience, in part because of what seemed like incompetence by the staff.  Nevertheless, once home with everything put away, as I was making tuna fish sandwiches, I asked Bruce if he thought Costco had an overhead speaker and I wondered if we should have gone inside to ask? Of course hindsight is 20/20 and the consensus amongst us at the time was the escape story, but still. He immediately called Costco, learning that indeed a young woman had come looking.  How does a 40 pound dog that was so beautifully behaved end up running around a parking lot anyway? Passing along the location of the dog we thought that was the end of the story.

Imagine my surprise when Bruce called on his way to church this morning, to tell me he heard on the radio that the Pet Alliance burned last night!!! There is good and bad news in this report. Apparently all dogs are safe, but let's hope the second owner came and got that sweet dog before the fire. 

Quite the story, huh?

If that were not enough for yesterday, David called around two in the afternoon to tell me he had a low grade fever and a headache. You guessed it. Buying an at home test, wearing a mask of course, it took no time at all to show that he had Covid, not just the first test, but the second as well. A little later I learned that two folks he'd been around over the weekend had mild cases as well. He's been so darn careful for so long he was way disappointed. This morning he was already feeling more like himself and he credits being vaccinated for that. 

Today could not have been more different.  It began with a wonderful sunrise reflected in the high clouds over the lake which lasted for all of about a minute. Speaking of the sky, am I ever disappointed I missed the launch last night! I've seen loads of photos taken by friends and it looked spectacular.

Bruce took off early to head to his job. Oh wait, it's volunteer work he does! Anyway, that's why I was up as well. I went over to Demetree Park for a walk and saw the usual suspects. What did surprise me though is that the Cypress trees are beginning to change colors. Can Autumn be far behind?

Of course it can....this is Florida!!

As I was walking along a man passed me on his bicycle carrying a bag of bread. Apparently he must do this regularly as a huge flock of Ibis began following after him as if they had been waiting. Why people feed bread to birds, I don't know, as I'd always heard it was bad for them? Apparently, according to this article,  it is a controversial subject.

What I think we can all agree on is it is far better to visit a park with your shirt fully pulled down rather than with a big belly hanging out. I missed the shot of his front, but believe you me, it was not a pretty sight.

On my drive home, I decided to pop over to the peacock neighborhood and was not disappointed because there were a fair number of young peacocks roaming around, well actually staying close to their mothers.

Then, this afternoon, I thought I saw the otter swimming in the afternoon which is rare. Grabbing my camera, the otter had disappeared, but I did see this beautiful Green Heron along the shoreline.

Seeing a Green Heron out back is about as rare as finding a beautiful dog in a parking lot, so I was very happy indeed. Note the top of the head while in the water because as it turns out, as I creeped closer, it flew into the nearby tree and lo and behold the green crest came out.

Isn't it pretty?? 

Our friend Mary, wanting to move downstairs, bought a place a few buildings down from us on the lake. I told her how much I thought she'd love living on our little lake as she is also a nature enthusiast. I told her the sunsets can be wonderful as it was on Monday morning.

And, of course, when we get very lucky, the owls will make their presence known. 

I told her about egrets, kingfishers, red winged blackbirds, the annual cormorant and pelican invasion, all manner of herons, and of course ducks and ducklings. What, pray tell, is there not to like?

Monday morning I arrived for my therapy appointment on time as I've done for the last few months. Except, the fill-in receptionist said I did not have an appointment. Last week, Tammy, the regular receptionist was out of town and because she's the one who has made all of these appointments for me, probably would have noticed that she needed to add more. So, I left, promising to use my hand as much as possible. The old, "motion is lotion" idea. Bruce, being the good guy that he is, had already gone to Mary's new place to help her with some things and I joined them. While the outside of the buildings look the same, it is really amazing to see how creative people are on the inside. Having been in many units by now, I can safely say that the remodel done by the previous owner is very unique.

The place has been totally updated and between that and her fantastic view, Mary was sold.

We ended up spending most of the day helping her, Bruce organizing her outdoor closet on the porch while I was in the kitchen opening box after box of dishes. She and Ellen had mostly already decided where to put things allowing me to follow their plan. My goal was to have no boxes in the kitchen before leaving and I am happy to report, mission accomplished. Not only did Bruce do things at her new place, he fixed a few things at her upstairs unit she is selling. She is probably six or so years older than we are, not to mention in fantastic shape, but doing this kind of thing by yourself can be pretty overwhelming. We were happy to be of help and I was overjoyed that I had two working hands. albeit one weak, to participate. 

And how did my hand hold up? Not too bad. Plus, my shoulder is moving much better, allowing me to raise my hand above my head without pain AND put my hair in a ponytail by myself. Now that, my friends, is progress.

Oh, and guess what? After returning from the park, I accepted Bruce's invitation to go to the courts where we spent about an hour and a half hitting balls. Although it has taken me awhile to figure this out, I decided to wear my old shoes to play, leaving the nearly new shoes I wore when I fell in the closet. After how well things went this morning, I'm convinced that this step will help me regain my confidence. Or so I hope!

How about you? Adventure stories welcome!

your friend,

Gail