A Dog's Life

***Bernie taking a break from work and play in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains. Sad irony that the pigment cells within her that created the funky-cool purple spots in her oral cavity spurned her trip to Puppy Heaven. Nonetheless, I loved watching that silly, spotted, oversized tongue dangle from her mouth when she was exerted. I always tried to touch it before she could retract it! She most always won. Lake Tahoe, 1999***

Bernie loved it here. Tons of water, warm sunshine, me. We drove down here about five years ago, maybe longer--I'll have to check Bernie's diary. We drove from St. Paul to Lamar, Missouri, then cut diagonally across Arkansas and into Mississippi, then we followed the Mississippi/Louisiana border to the coast, then swung along the coast, caught the Galveston, Texas ferry and ended up here in Rockport, Texas.

This is a really good place to start yourself a little business, get yourself a couple of dogs, and hunker down and swim and sail through life.

I've done a whole lot of nothin' the past few days, aside from reading two books, a couple jogs, swimming, kayaking, eating, and sleeping. I did one-half hour of work for my full-time gig yesterday upon request--the whole experience was disturbing. I've done some work for my side projects, and that was voluntary and A-okay.

Bernie and I had a good few days down here back then. The pool area of the house is fenced in the traditional way on the sides, by the house on another side, and by the ocean on the fourth side, so it's enclosed for Bernie. She did gnaw on the exit doors a little one of the times we stepped out. That's her M.O. for displaying her displeasure and anxiety at me being gone. We also swam out in the canal here, saltwater, which through her off some since she likes to drink water while she swims. That practice was temporarily adjusted for our stay down here, and thankfully she didn't take interest in the jellyfish (and vice versa) that swam nearby on the surface.

We also went over to the public beach to swim in Aransas Bay, which sits here on the Gulf of Mexico. The waters are warm and calm in the bay. Bernie had swam in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Northern California way back when, and it was a super-rough surf and much cooler, but great! She wasn't unfamiliar with waves, as Lake Tahoe is known for a few at times. However, the Pacific Coast really challenged her and her efforts to keep her head and ears above water (it didn't work). I will look for pictures from that event, they are in a vault with all my pictures from our drive/move from California to Minnesota, in 2001.

I honestly have a dream about Bernie virtually every night, say at least five nights. I'm cool with that, they're pleasant for sure, yet it kind of amazes me. By the way, if you have trouble sleeping, particularly in the sense of waking up in the middle of the night, try slapping a Breathe Right across your nose before you start popping pills. As Bernie used to say, "The dog has a good nose, they'll make you breathe like a dog." What more could you ask?

So there ya have it, partly cloudy (they'll burn off) and 70+ degrees here at 10am. I'll catch ya on the flipside, upon return to latitude 44.9330/longitude 93.1629.