Birthday Week-End

Life gets busy after 65!   This week-end was my birthday and it was packed full of fun for me and the dogs.  Gracie, not so much.

DeeAnn & I and all the girls went to the cabin for some good summer lake time.  Holly, Rainie and Keltie swam, ran, played, visited neighbors and slept.  Helen mostly swam and slept.  Helen has morphed into a dolphin and simply wants to be in the water – all of the time!  She is not reliable in returning to shore and has learned how to position herself away from extended arms coming from the dock.  So Helen is on a long lead now whether she is in the water (so we can reel her back in to shore) or out of the water (so she doesn’t get back in the water).

The weather was nice enough to get the pontoon out for a stroll around the lake.  After a bit, Rainie and Holly get lulled into a taking a nice nap on the pontoon floor. Keltie roams from front, back, side to side looking out over the rail.  Helen sits on the bench motionless looking straight ahead, perhaps dreaming about swimming.   We have not tried fishing from the pontoon knowing that would likely rock the boat, literally!

DeeAnn fished from the dock in the evening.  Fishing is one of Rainie’s passions, actually bobbers are.  It was Holly’s first time fishing and the retriever genes went  full throttle.  She was swimming after the bobbers, ignoring all recall commands in the prime form that she does.  Holly never seemed to figure out that DeeAnn had full control of the bobber.  Despite it all, DeeAnn caught a nice size bluegill.  None of the dogs were too impressed though I sure was!

On Sunday, DeeAnn & I met Lanny & Mary at Target Field for a Twins game, always a good time!  (Thank you Lanny & Mary for the wonderful birthday present!) We enjoyed watching the Twins play to a 3-0 deficit through the 8th inning, then in the car we listened to the radio announcers go absolutely ballastic after the Twins walk-off win in the 12th.   We came home to dogs (and a cat) that were equally as happy as all the Twins fans on Sunday.  Holly, Helen and Gracie had it good.  Karen & Scarlett came by midday to visit and feed them.  Holly had an unexected playdate with Roy and Helen had some great snuggle time with Scarlett.  It makes my outing all the more special for me when I know everyone back home is also having joyful moments and enjoying out of the ordinary experiences.

For my birthday DeeAnn got me an awesome red folding rocking chair.  It sits perfectly on the shaker porch and I relax in it periodically when the weather and timing is right.  Helen has gotten some granny rocking time in also, usually when she tires of Holly bugging her.  Holly likes the shaker porch in short spurts, perhaps because everything looks so different from that view,  she feels she has to quickly go check it out.  She also gets a birds eye view of the kids if they are outside so that’s an immediate ‘see ya later’ scenario followed by some barks asking me to hurry, open the door.  She’s figured out I can see her from my rocking chair but also that I’m easy to ignore when sitting there.

66 has started out in memorable fashion.   Holly, Helen, Gracie, Rainie, Keltie along with DeeAnn – along with me on the upcoming Route 66.  Life is interesting in itself but adding any/all of them guarantees it will be another great ride.