Our third year in San Francisco
and counting …Archive for dawgs
The Heat Wave Is Over
So, last Thursday it got up to 97 in the city of San Francisco, and we walked around at night in light jackets and were comfortable. Today we’ll be lucky hit 65. Last night I had to put on a wool hat when I took Tex out for his evening walk.
I’m still learning about the weather here, but the differentiating factor seems to be the fog. On Sunday, the day the warmth really ended, we took a catamaran trip around the Bay, and I shot the picture above, where you can see the fog blanketing the city. The radio tower you see there sticking up above the fog is the one we can usually see from our back windows, but today I can’t see the tower, or Mount Sutro, where it lives, at all.
For those looking for an update, Haylee is still mostly sleeping off her surgery, not so interested in kibble, but quite motivated to eat cold cuts. Free range organic turkey or 99 cent bologna, she doesn’t seem to care. Just as long as it’s not her regular food.
Weddings, exploring, and carpet
In Haylee’s absence, Tex mans the grill
It’s been pretty busy since we got back from Hawaii. For example, J&C got married in New York the first weekend in May, so we went to City Island for the big event. On the weekends we haven’t been traveling, we’ve been making it a point to explore the city like tourists. We utilized our San Francisco “stairway walk” guidebook and had an exhausting climb through Eureka Valley the last weekend in April, and last Saturday we walked along the edge of the bay from Chrissy Field down to Fort Point, which is directly underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. On Sunday, we decided on the spur of the moment to head to the Napa Valley and do a little wine tasting.
Sometime in the middle of all that Haylee unravelled a piece of carpet and swallowed a bunch of yarn. The result was a big fat scary expensive mess. Long story short, Haylee spent a couple of nights in an animal hospital having surgery and spending my 401K contribution. Tex got the run of the house for a while, as you can see from the picture above. Haylee is back at home today, although not tremendously perky. Keep your fingers crossed.
On another note, today is Matthew Wood’s birthday, so I’ve been thinking about him a lot. I wish, for example, that I could tell him we finally bought some good knives, and that he was right, they really do make a huge difference.
Bringing home the kibble
Yesterday I got my for-real M1 motorcycle endorsement, making me a 100-percent-legal scooter driver. I’m now allowed to carry passengers, and I haven’t done that yet, but I did try carrying home a 36-pound bag of dog food yesterday. That’s kind of like carrying a passenger, albeit a very small one with no muscle control. I used bungees to strap it to the bag hook under my seat and set it where my feet would usually go. I had to put my feet on the little passenger foot spots. This seems to work fine, as long as I don’t try to park and dismount on a hill; I also only really have to go about half a mile like this.
I’m also legal to drive at night now, so I did, meeting K. out at We Be Sushi for dinner.
Today K. got her license too, and is talking to insurance folks about getting her scooter all 100 percent legal. I expect she’ll be commuting to work on it by the end of the week.
Another good thing that happened yesterday is that Haylee’s tests came back, and the growth on her toe is nothing serious. Whew.
Haylee’s foot
Haylee’s $800 foot
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I see. I’ve noticed that I’m less likely to post here when I’m worried about something, and I have been worried about Haylee’s foot. She’s been limping around for several weeks, and I thought maybe she’d stepped on something and it had gotten infected, but it was really hard for even a vet to tell what was wrong.
Turns out there was actually a little growth of some sort on the bottom her foot. On Wednesday she had part of the growth removed, and there are some tests being done to determine what exactly it is. Most likely, it’s a wart. We have high hopes that soon she’ll be back to her old annoying self. The bandage makes her more comfortable, but she’s still not back up to long walks up Bernal Hill yet.
UPDATE 09/11/07: The biopsy came back and the growth isn’t anything terrible, it’s just a big, expensive wart. Yay!
The pups get press
So, I’m a San Francisco Chronicle subscriber — yeah, really. And today, I grabbed the Thursday edition to read on the plane. Between Oakland and Phoenix I read an article about how great it was to watch fireworks on the Fourth from the top of Bernal Hill in our ‘hood; something we’d considered but then wimped out on, since I had to pack and we were tired and not ready to be cold. Then, toward the end of the story, I saw that even if we didn’t make it, our dogs did, with Michelle, who comes by and walks them on Wednesdays and Fridays:
Michelle Shields was walking three dogs, who answered to Tex, Haylee and Xochi when they chose to answer, which wasn’t often. She said dogs are wonderful — better than presidents, even.
“I think dogs ought to run the country,” she said. “This country is in a real mess and I don’t think things are going to change until men learn to love and embrace each other. Dogs can help. They understand love.”
At the moment, what Tex seemed to understand best was a hot dog a passer-by was eating. He waited with big eyes, hoping for the best.
LOL; I can tell they were well behaved as always. You can find the whole story here.
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Our third year in San Francisco 